To think the north of England offers a worse quality of life than the South or Midlands?

[DDRickyDD]

I was thinking of moving to Lancashire, but having done some research online, it seems a lot of people have negative opinion of it. I'm now set on Warwickshire or Leicestershire. Does the north in general offer a worse quality of life than the Midlands? I know its cheaper up north but is it much worse up there?

I’m not experiencing any culture of London at all. I’m just doing the garden.

Where did I say it was “a mass of pasty eaters” and why do you feel the need to tell me that. I only once had a pasty, but that was in Cornwall and a seagull took it.

hablar you’re missing the point. Which you would have probably understood had you read the thread...

It seems rather odd you’re so disinterested yet here you are

FYI if you click “active” or “trending now” or even “AIBU” you’ll be taken back to a veritable smorgasbord of topics which might interest you further.

rolls eyes until they fall out of skull

On that theme marie, someone on here once claimed paying a London level mortgage was an achievement. I found that equal parts hilarious and tragic. A number really has been done on this society when it comes to fetishisation of shelter as a commodity.

There's long been an element on here of posters who've invested a huge amount in an overheated London property market, and for that reason really don't want critical examination of whether the undoubted benefits of London make taking a huge mortgage for a small property in a city with often dangerously poor air quality an optimum choice when compared to just upping sticks altogether and doing something else. But it seems to have ramped up since the pandemic started.

Would you like me to read this whole thread then?
Can I just skim it?

Very wise post Blackberry

Please don't come to the NW. We want to keep it for ourselves.

@BlackBerry i some truly hideous comments in the comments section of an article talking about Londoners looking at selling up and moving out to the country due to the pandemic and being scared it might happen again and not wanting to be in London with kids if it does. It’s fair enough, their choice, not everyone will agree, and I’m sure people in all kinds of city center flats all over the country feel the same, it’s not just London specific

Just awful comments from people who obviously live in London, don’t have that an as option and felt defensive - saying these ‘leavers’ kids will be thick, underachieve if they leave london, they’re making their kids into ‘bumpkins’, everywhere in the countryside is racist, why would you leave just to have a garden, they’re a joke etc

These were very well off people being discussed in the article, talking about moving to million-pound properties in Dorset or Norfolk or Lincolnshire, it’s not like they were saying they were leaving London to send their kids down the pit in Lancs!

Boo - but when you read an “article”, don’t you just read it in context and realise there will probably be another article tomorrow claiming the exact opposite?

Nobody needs to justify their reasons for where they live. If you love it where you live, that’s great.

@hablar I read the comments because I pay for the subscription and I’m getting my money’s worth. I agree that there will probably be a contrasting article contradicting the other one, as newspapers say all sorts, but the comments were real and showed people’s true colours.

Here in Tunbridge Wells we're utterly disgusted at the generalisations on this thread 😏

Wow booboo. But I suspect they don't all think that really. For some of them it'll be a panic response, not actually justifying their reasons for loving where they live but trying to protect their investment.

Here in Tunbridge Wells we're utterly disgusted at the generalisations on this thread

I wonder what the man on the Clapham bus system thinks?

Or a Mrs.Trellis of North Wales?

To be honest, yes, I can tell you that there are some people in London who don’t really have much of an interest in going “out into England.” There are people who, if they leave London, it’s only really to go abroad. But for the most part, I don’t find anyone is neurotic about “protecting their investment” in the way you describe, BlackBerry. If they’ve made a lot of money on their property over the years, then that’s just good luck. They don’t really compare to what they could get in Yorkshire or wherever for the same price because this is totally irrelevant. If just living in your own house and being quite happy about it is panicking about “protecting your investment,” then I don’t know what to say really.

People are at liberty to up sticks and go anywhere at any time, in the UK or abroad. It’s just that some people feel more comfortable in cities, but others don’t. Nobody is panicking.

It's one thing to say you aren't personally aware of anyone panicking, quite another to then claim nobody is. How could you possibly know that?

Well why would they be panicking? What about?

Would you be telling someone who lives in Leeds that they must be panicking about selling up and moving to a cheaper area? I don’t know what you even mean.,

Obviously not hablar. People who have expensive housing and large mortgages in Leeds are likely to be living in something nice, rather than the sort of property that people only buy because it's all they can afford in their chosen area, and that hasn't been a very nice place to sit out the lockdown with kids in.

What I'm describing is a function of people having taken out high LTV mortgages on homes that aren't desirable as dwellings in themselves, that cost a lot because of where they are. This has occurred because of London's deliberately and artificially propped up property market, which doesn't exist in the same way elsewhere aside from perhaps the odd hotspot.

Property in London that is pleasant to live in, in particular that has access to outside space, those owners aren't likely to be fearing a fall in value. Because although the cultural benefits of living there look much more uncertain in the near future, access to the job market is still going to be really valuable. So this isn't about them. People who've built up a lot of equity, even in the less nice properties, are also probably fine. But if a person owns something non-premium and doesn't have enough of an equity cushion to protect them against drops in price, well, that's where their position starts to look vulnerable. If you think nobody in this cohort could possibly be panicking about what the pandemic and economic situation might do to the value of their home, that is of course your prerogative.

I just think people have different priorities BlackBerry.

People are aware there is a recession coming, yes. But, as a general rule, the property market does tend to bounce back in London more quickly than elsewhere, although some areas are obviously more resilient than others. So probably not the best time to exchange a one-bed flat for a house outside London where prices are potentially more volatile. Not to mention the stamp duty. A one-bed flat where I live can be £500k minimum, so that’s quite a lot of stamp for even a parallel move to an area where property is more likely to depreciate, at least in the medium to long-term. That’s assuming you even wanted to move.

The point is, I guess wherever you live, you can always look on Rightmove and think, “Ooh, look at the size of the house I could get in x.” But there’s obviously more to “quality of life” than how big your house is, otherwise we’d all be upping sticks to the cheapest, most remote parts of the country we could find. Not everybody wants to be surrounded by space and many people find it boring. People have all sorts of reasons for wanting to live where they live.

@chomalungma perfect!

A one-bed flat where I live can be £500k minimum

Wow....just wow....

I wanted to move up north for a better quality of life and to get on the property ladder - no chance in the south. Could have transferred and been on the same money, but the recent crap with Covid has yet again ensured I can't get ahead in life now we are crashing in to a recession (wondering why I fucking bother getting out of bed to be honest). I live in a gorgeous area, but it's only really good for 5 months of the year and is as bleak as anywhere else in the winter. Plus it's expensive, so ultimately can't really enjoy much if it anyway.

FWIW when I search online, many people describe my town as a good place to live and a crap one in equal measure. You have nice parts and bad parts in any town.

It is crazy choma, but there are areas more expensive than where I live and it’s all relative. It costs more to move around because of the stamp, so people tend to stay put and do extensions or basements if at all possible and make the extra space that way. I’ve lived all over London for the last 20 years. It’s a constant flux. The cheap areas we lived in when I first came are now the trendy, regenerated areas that appeal to a certain demographic. During Brexit, prices round here fell a bit, before bouncing back in the earlier part of the year, but the point is, nobody wants to move “upwards” and spend SD going into a recession, unless they really have to.

Some people certainly do hablar. But I'm talking about those with low percentages of equity in properties that simply aren't very appealing in themselves, that were only ever valued so highly because of an artificially inflated and maintained property bubble, and who are reliant on those properties holding value and ideally increasing to be able to move to a less grim rung on the ladder. Or just not get squeezed dry next time they have to remortgage because of the LTV. The sort of home and price the different strokes for different folks principle isn't really adequate to describe.

And none of these things imply that people in this situation are looking to move out of London either, you seem to have got a bit confused there.

If anything, I would say quality of life is better. I've lived in London and the North, and the amount of house I can afford in the North compared to London (and other areas of the South) is incredible.

A nice house with a garden is very important to my quality of life. I couldn't afford one at all in London, and in other areas of the south (from what I've seen on Rightmove/what I know from friends) I couldn't afford one half as nice as what I can afford up north.

I also do things like go to the theatre, go to the beach, out for dinner, to galleries and museums frequently. And though the train to London is long, it's only one train, no changes, so it's simple to get there when I want.

My quality of life is much better in the north. I would need a lot of money that I don't currently have to match it in the south.