to ask how to relocate (to Belfast)?

[AdultierAdult]

My husband has been telecommuting and commuting to Belfast from a very expensive area in the South East and we are fed up of missing him during the week (obviously he is remote working now!). Both our parents live in ROI anyway so we feel like we are on the wrong island and paying a premium for London bubble living, without any real need.

We’ve decided to relocate to Belfast but feel completely out of our depth. We have a baby and a daughter who would be going into NI year 9 (she’s in y7 here), and husband needs to commute to city centre by bike or public transport. Schools and an area with a bustling community with access to the city are the priorities.

Feel so overwhelmed - how do I go about narrowing down schools to apply for, or areas to rent/buy, and how to find somewhere when the world has stopped!? Should we become accidental landlords and keep a place in the SE in case it doesn’t work out or sell up and go for it to avoid all that headache? How do we find somewhere to rent with two cats, or should we just go for it and buy (we dont need to sell here to do this)? I don’t feel like enough of a grownup to do this and I can’t sleep at the moment for stressing about it.

For anyone who knows Belfast and could suggest some postcodes - we’d prefer not to spend more than £1000 a month renting. Budget to buy would be max £300k if we keep our house here or probably about £650k if we sold up here completely.

I know this isn’t AIBU but other appropriate areas are dead! Any nuggets of wisdom greatly appreciated.

Also lots of kids here travel for secondary school. They dont need to go to nearest school to the house. Theres loads school bus routes

Area around forge integrated primary school bt7 is nice

Haven’t read all the posts. We moved back last year. Going to be blunt- if you are catholic I would be nervous of Castlereagh and East Belfast. Bloomfield is a great school (have it down as a choice for my own daughter) but there won’t be many catholic children and they have a cadet force.
I would stick to South Belfast or Hollywood. Parts of north near the Antrim Road are nice too. For schools I would sway more to Rathmore, St Dominic’s, Aquinas, Victoria, Hunter House, Methody.

I'm from North Belfast originally but the "naice" areas where I would be prepared to live were way out of our price range when we went to buy. Upper part of the Antrim Road (near Ben Madigan, Waterloo, Lismoyne, Strathmore, etc.) is lovely and you will get a lot of house for your money compared to East Belfast. Because we have good links to the motorway and Westlink the roads into town are comparatively less conjested at peak times which I only really noticed when I left the area. You're also on the doorstep of Cavehill Country Park which is great. Schools wise BRA (Belfast Royal Academy) would be an option for your older girl. Despite the name it has almost a 50:50 intake from each side of the community- or it did the last time I heard.

We also looked at East Belfast but the traffic situation really put me off- I used to go to a physio in Ballyhack straight after work and you'd be sitting half an hour, forty minutes to get three miles from the city centre if you left at 5pm. And that was before the Glider lanes went in. Admittedly if you're relying on the glider or are working outside of the city centre this might be less of an issue for you.

You could look at Hillsborough- this is a village south west of Belfast which is gorgeous and with a real community feel. Lovely pubs and restaurants, great primary school, surgery, local shops and delis, a forest park and Hillsborough Castle. My English DH loves it as it reminds him of home! It would be handy for you guys seeing family as it's right on the road to Dublin- my BIL commutes daily to Dublin from there. Well, he did before this all kicked off!

Yes Hillsborough is fab. Really nice. And could then look at Friends and Wallace for schools. Friends very hard to get in to but worth asking.
Belfast Telegraph publish league tables every year- google them.

I just did all the school open days in January (daughter did the transfer), if you have any questions about any of the schools feel free to message me

East Belfast (ballyhackamore etc) is generally Protestant. South Belfast is probably your best bet and without wanting to make assumptions etc, with your budget I think you'll find yourself in a middle class and fairly peaceful area. Generally it's a peaceful city anyway, it's the minority that cause the occasional issue!

I have no advice but Belfast is the best place in the UK I've ever visited!

I moved from south London 10 years ago, initially to East Belfast but now in Bangor. We have a big integrated primary school in the centre of the town, great boys and girls grammar schools and non grammars. All of the schools are religiously mixed (the local 'catholic' high is very good but there aren't enough kids to fill the places so it ends up pretty mixed, there is no religious element to selection for the grammars so they are mixed too). I occasionally cycle to work in Belfast along the coastal path but it is about 40 mins so I wldnt do it every day, there are also regular trains... Express takes about 20 mins). A lot of the school parents have made the same moves from all over the uk/Ireland or brought partners home from elsewhere in the world so it is a fairly diverse bunch. There are great local pubs and restaurants, nice parks, coastal walks an annual arts festival and we managed to retain a liberal non-aligned MP at the last election. I have lived in South and east Belfast but wouldn't live anywhere else but here now, particularly in lockdown having the beach on your doorstep has been fantastic. And finally great local housing stock in either of your budgets.

My second child is the same age/school year as your eldest daughter and goes to one of the schools MissMarks mentioned . We live slightly outside Belfast, my two at post primary (they both go to the same school) travel as previous posters mentioned to school. Most kids that I know at post primary travel by bus/train to school as opposed to going to the one nearest to home.
I know that a few friends that were starting to think about moving back to Belfast over the past few years and they were surprised at how difficult it was to get a post primary school place. Certainly in the schools they were mainly looking at (although they were maintained (Catholic) grammars) there was very little movement/ places. Your house budget is grand, you should get well sorted for that.

Thanks Atlanticpa, hadn’t considered Bangor. DH used to cycle 13 miles each way to work (very very hilly too) do a bit further out is worth thinking about. Sounds like renting is the way forward. We are going to get onto schools and letting agents this week and see if anyone will take us with the cat(!)

Would there be an issue being in a Protestant area as Brits? Mentioned the catholic bit because I don’t want DD getting any nonsense at school because of her name but we are English born atheists with RP accents so out and about would probably be more wary of catholic areas despite my blood!

Because I'm stuck feeding the baby and bored I had a look, and there's an incredible house for sale on one of my favourite streets in the city: great coffee shops and restaurants, park right on your doorstep, close to centre of town. This particular street has a group called Harper's yard that do tea parties down the alleyway and in other locations multiple times a year to raise money for charity, so all the neighbours know each other and are super community focussed.

The house might be a wee bit of a doer upper, but it's under budget!

propertypal.com/624401

I would love to be able to say sectarianism is no more but personally I wouldn’t risk it if she has an Irish name. I work in west Belfast and I am Protestant and have had no issues what so ever but within a couple of days everyone knew me as the ‘wee orangey’. It is amazing how quickly neighbours find stuff out and why give yourself the stress??

Wildflowers my husband sent that to me and I adore it. Exactly the kind of features I love! We have a similar aged house here but it’s a tiny cottage with bedrooms so small we can’t even have wardrobes in them!!

Going to be blunt- if you are catholic I would be nervous of Castlereagh and East Belfast.

I think this is getting thankfully less and less of a problem.

We live in a village already mentioned here, which is something like 97% Protestant. DH is from Dublin, and we have a ROI reg car in the drive.

Honestly, we’ve never had any trouble and DH has only ever been treated with respect and friendliness by our neighbours. He volunteered to help the elderly gent next door put up his Union Jack on the flag pole for VE Day last week, and was told that he hadn’t wanted to ask DH incase he was offended.

I wouldn’t be rushing to move to the Shankill or Ballysillan, but castlereagh and Hollywood will be grand.

When are you planning on moving OP? I'd start off by phoning schools to see what waiting lists are like. It's no use moving to Hillsborough to discover that the only school with a space is in East Belfast. If you're not planing on having a car Is look very closely at public transport too.

Thanks for the honestly MissMarks. Maybe if we get stuck we will consider sending her to school with DHs very nothing-y name. The funny thing is her dad is Scottish and not catholic the name has obviously come from a distant Irish ancestor!

Although with English accents you may well be ok in one of the more middle class areas. Careful in east Belfast as the flags quickly appear as you go further along the Newtonards road and also in to Castlereagh.

Methody, Victoria and Hunter House and Friends would be the schools I would look at first if you want integrated. And Lagan for non grammar.

Ballyhackamore is lovely...go for it!

Castlereagh has a museum dedicated to the Orange Order for context. Newtonards road has big issues with paramilitaries.

Definitely depends on the area. I'm in Bangor too which is broadly middle class Protestant. We're (atheist) Catholic, I have a Dublin accent, our DD has an Irish name and our surname is obviously Catholic but we've never had any trouble at all. If you're in a naice, middle class, educated area, no one cares IME.

I also love Bangor btw, we're here five years now and won't be moving. Being by the sea is important to me though so wouldn't consider many of the other lovely places mentioned on this thread.

As I said, I'm from Dublin and wouldn't want to move back there. Life is calmer, cheaper and slower here than there. We have a brilliant life (y'know, global pandemic aside).

We can be flexible belfasteast but ASAP really. This year would be ideal but we can wait until next year if that’s a no go. I think we will see where she can get a place and then find a rental accordingly, and then rent out our house. All feels very daunting!

Ah hadn’t thought of the ROI plates - both sets of parents will be visiting with those! There are some clear winners for areas being repeated which is encouraging.

I’m considering going to Queens for another degree so I’m hoping that will help me build some semblance of a life, DH already has plenty of NI friends from work. At least he doesn’t seem short of dinner/drinking buddies when he stays out there! In the short term I’m hoping baby/toddler groups will at least get me talking to people.

Go for a drive round in July if possible. The flags will be up and it will give you a feel for the areas that are likely to be be more neutral.

I agree with all the areas already mentioned, South Belfast (although a bit too busy for my liking now, despite growing up there), East Belfast, (Stormont, Belmont, Ballyhackamore, Cherryvalley, Sandown), and Holywood /Cultra.

I was just about to add Ormeau (not lower) / Rosetta / Ravenhill when I saw @wildflowersandweeds recommendation. This is perfect. Mixed area, cycling to City Centre, 2 parks very close by (Ormeau and Cherryvale), good schools (Aquinas, also Methody, Victoria & Lagan). I know the area really well, and it is very up and coming. Lovely coffee shops, restaurants etc. You also get quite a lot for your money. You just need to be fairly careful with choosing the right spot, as it is bounded by some less salubrious areas that might seem a bargain.