To think more people will want to live rurally now?

[Butterfliesandbears]

Property in cities has generally been more expensive but since covid it seems like maybe rural/village living will have the edge?

• larger houses/gardens
• can work from home
• countryside nearby for walks

-more space/less crowded generally

Or am I overstating it do people think? Will city living continue to be popular?

I’m not moving anywhere rural - I grew up in a village and I’m never going back. I love living in a town (the high street is at the bottom of my road).

I actually commute to the countryside for work (or at least I did before WFH became a thing in March - I’m not expecting to see my office again until some point in 2021). Which means I drive 20-25 minutes each morning/evening going counter to all the traffic heading into town. Every time I drive through the villages I feel glad that I don’t live there.

Although I admit that I’m lucky to have plenty of space - we have a 3 storey Edwardian semi. The garden isn’t huge - but I don’t have the time to manage the upkeep of a large garden, so I don’t want/need anything bigger. The only drawback of living here is the lack of off-road parking (mind you, this is still a drawback for many rural properties).

Hell no!

DH and my step siblings grew up in villages surrounded by fields.

My DStepM couldn't have an evening drink because she was always having to drive someone somewhere. (No buses / expensive taxis / friends a good hour's walk away).

When we took DC to visit PIL in their village there was chuff all to do there either.

We live in suburbs similar to where I grew up. There are 4 parks / play areas within walking distance and DC could walk around to friends' houses when they got a bit older.

I could go clubbing and get the night bus home with friends.

Absolutely no comparison!

I live rurally (in France). I'm in the middle of a small village. I used to live in Paris. I can't wait to sell up and go back. It's all very pretty and safe, but the people are awful. Fuck me, they're awful. Country bumpkin, inbred, gossipy wankshafts. I hate it here. No restaurants, bars, theatres, shops, libraries, cinémas... Just hunting and knowing everyone's business. They treat their animals like shit. They can't hold a conversation. I made such a mistake coming here. If you're not from here, they let you know it.

@Davodia

Tell that to my new neighbour in her 5 bed detached house, bought with the proceeds of a two bed London flat with money left over. But ALL of the country houses will be expensive. Whereas in the city there’s a mix of housing - expensive flats like your friend’s but also cheap options. There are no cheap properties in the countryside.

No that's not true. "The countryside" is hardly homogeneous and some places are a lot more expensive than others. There is a wide range of property where I live, and quite a lot of houses are relatively inexpensive. We upgraded hugely for very little extra mortgage when we moved here from a major city. I don't think the price differential is as big as it was, but it is still definitely cheaper here. Rural areas that are within easy commute of a major city or town tend to be very pricey, as are prime tourist locations where prices are driven up by second home purchases and buy to holiday let properties but that doesn't apply to every rural area. And broadly speaking, the north is less expensive than the south of course. The big issue in many places is lack of employment opportunities. Even though property is relatively cheap here, that's not much good to people who can't work locally as we are too far to commute anywhere big and a lot of local jobs are poorly paid.

There are no cheap properties in the countryside.

🤔

Loads of rural properties have small gardens and lots of traffic noise compared to city properties.

In the rural village Where I grew up there were no nice walks and yet where I am now in town there are some fab off road circular walks. In my village there were no pavements or street lights in many places and only the odd crappy muddy footpath where you risk your life with herds of aggressive cows/ horses etc.

I would never move back to the rural village I grew up in. I'm sure a few rural places are idyllic but loads are really crap to live in for many people.

@Ariela

*- countryside nearby for walks -more space/less crowded generally*

I am not so sure the above applies if you're still in driving distance of a large conurbation. We used to like our rural home, but frankly we now HATE it with all the walkers (you can count 30 per minute on a sunny day passing our gate as we're on a well known circular route) , I'd say perhaps MORE crowded. 20 years ago you'd see the Ramblers once a month, and the odd elderly couple here and there, and about 5 or 6 people walking their dog daily . That was it. Now we get runners, cyclists (who do the footpath at speed), dog walkers (with about 8 yappies on leads), families with kids, families with pushchairs (who complain about the mud , families with dog on the lead, families with dog off the lead so it can crap on our lawn and they can pretend they don't notice so they don't pick up. And don't get me started about the doggie poo bags hanging from the bushes and the litter!

This in spades.

There are always Londoners on MN wanting to move to the SE countryside and asking for recommendations. Many of the previously uiet rural areas are just extensions of the nearest town now.

There are no cheap properties in the countryside

Aren’t there? Depends on your definition of cheap, I suppose.

I moved to a very rural location last year, I’m off grid I’m that remote and for anyone moaning about Internet look into mobile broadband, we stuck a small aerial outside and it’s the fastest we have ever had and unlimited. No problems with two different Netflix accounts watching tv and a FaceTime call going on at once.

The locals have been super friendly and have gone out of their way to welcome us.

There are downsides
No taxis
Only one local firm delivers takeaway pizza
Nearest supermarket and Good restaurants/takeaways are 25 to 40 minutes away
Lack of nearby jobs and good jobs, but I work from home and the house was picked to be in the middle of DHs offices as he varies day to day (or used to)
Snow would be a real issue if we had to go into work
Wildlife noise, we like it but lapwings, snipes and curlews make a racket as do cows and sheep
Gardens, for anyone who loves to garden it’s really hard to rabbit proof your garden and plants vanish overnight and if toy forget to close the gate you can come home to livestock in the garden. Sheep can jump really high and cows leave a real mess behind 🤣

However, this lockdown was lovely, we had no noisy neighbours playing music, having parties, smoking weed or having noisy hot tubs and that’s priceless to us

@PymChurchBeach

Ginfordinner

But you wouldn't have the same number of options, would you? Where I am, if I fancy a take away, I can have Indian, Sri Lankan, Chinese, sushi, Turkish, Lebanese, Italian (proper Italian), Jamaican, Mexican, Vietnamese, Thai, Greek, dessert, cake, cocktails delivered to me in half an hour.

It's the choice and variety I miss when I visit rural places, as beautiful as they are.

While I love eating around the world, being able to have all of these takeaways on my doorstep aren't a priority. I can get most of the ingredients I need to make most of the above anyway.

It's a moot point as both DH and my job won't go WFH long term/he works v long hours so can't travel far/need to be within a certain distance of DPs....
However if I could WFH forever I think of like to live 15 mins outside of central Brighton or Bournemouth (so not the countryside but moreso than Zone 2 hah)

I'm from the countryside and as a teen always wished I could live in Essex!

But you wouldn't have the same number of options, would you? Where I am, if I fancy a take away, I can have Indian, Sri Lankan, Chinese, sushi, Turkish, Lebanese, Italian (proper Italian), Jamaican, Mexican, Vietnamese, Thai, Greek, dessert, cake, cocktails delivered to me in half an hour.

There are plenty of places in zone 4 outwards that doesn't have the choice of the above.

There are plenty of places in zone 4 outwards that doesn't have the choice of the above.

I know, one of the prime reasons I live where I do.

While I love eating around the world, being able to have all of these takeaways on my doorstep aren't a priority. I can get most of the ingredients I need to make most of the above anyway.

So can I, and I'm an excellent cook. But I just love to eat out at different places every week, it's one of our favourite things to do as a family. So I wouldn't give that up for more space.

We’re on the edge of a city with a garden and green spaces around us but one of our great joys in lockdown has been delivery / collection of local very high quality restaurant food.
And you can’t wfh with shit broadband, which lots of rural areas have.

Yes @PymChurchBeach but my point was not all areas of London or other cities are equal.

Unfortunately, most of the huge choice of eating places in my nearest city are in an area that I would not like to live - high crime, dirty, noisy, no gardens, nowhere to leave a car safely etc.

Same here, depressing

There are plenty of places in zone 4 outwards that doesn't have the choice of the above.

Well that’s me staying in London then!

Personally I would rather move to another smaller city than London zone 5 or 6 as I like everything on my doorstep.

Probably a lot of people would think that where I live in SE London is dirty and "isn't safe". But I have lived here all my life and have never been so much as looked at the wrong way.