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?

@Growingboys

They don't like folk who are different to them in the country.

I prefer city life - people are more open-minded and interesting.

Oh, the irony.

Don’t tell everybody, they’ll all want to live there.

Not me. The beauty of living in a city in a pandemic is having anything you need delivered to your door within the hour. Oh and I have a garden. Yes it's more expensive but I personally like having a small easy to maintain property and really wouldn't thank you for a larger one. I do occasionally think it would be nice to live in the country but I value convenience too much, I can travel to most of my friends/family in under 20 minutes, likewise I can be in the countryside or at the beach in 10-20 minutes for nice walks.

Was thinking this earlier. I'd rather live in a quieter area.

City centre living was really on the increase.

@TakemetoGreeceplease

Not me. The beauty of living in a city in a pandemic is having anything you need delivered to your door within the hour. Oh and I have a garden. Yes it's more expensive but I personally like having a small easy to maintain property and really wouldn't thank you for a larger one. I do occasionally think it would be nice to live in the country but I value convenience too much, I can travel to most of my friends/family in under 20 minutes, likewise I can be in the countryside or at the beach in 10-20 minutes for nice walks.

Definitely this. I had a stroke 3 weeks ago. I'm recovering well, but being near a large decent hospital and all the convenience of the facilities and amenities of my suburban area has been invaluable to me. Public transport is excellent too.

I dream of living in the countryside! I am in a rural, market town in the commuter belt (to London), so not exactly the big smoke, but I would adore a big property, with loads of land in the countryside surrounding our town. The thing is, the rural dream in this area costs millions. Millions I do not have, sadly. If you mean properly rural, as in not commutable to London or another big city, then for me, I think, realistically, this would only ever be a pipe dream. We probably couldn't do it, as lovely as I'm sure it is.

Yanbu though, that fewer people will feel they HAVE to live near the city. I think areas which are ££££££ in London, but objectively aren't particularly nice places to live, might take a bit of a nose dive soon, as more people work from home longterm.

@corythatwas

Errrr… if we look at cities other than London, houses are npt necessarily cheaper than in the surrounding countryside. Dh and I couldn't possibly afford to move from our house half an hour's walk from the city centre to the countryside, because the countryside around here is where well-off people live. Our city otoh isn't a hub for particularly wealthy people so house prices are fairly low for the south of England.

That's the other aspect. Rural folk tend to be the core Tory vote (i.e. traditionally well off) and urban folk traditionally Labour (last year's election changed that a bit with the red wall but that was more Brexit related).

The big towns and inner cities are where the bulk of the poverty is.

there are many places between a 2 bed flat in zone 1 and a 4 bed house in a village of a 100 people, I have lived in a city and the countryside
Neither is as idyllic as people make out, not everyone in London is at the theatre opera and museums every week, or eating out from a 100 different world cuisines
Neither does everyone in the countryside live 5 miles from the nearest shop and primary school
I think lots of people will be looking for maybe a property that has an extra bedroom or reception room to use as home office, ( open plan doesn't work so well with 2 people working from home and /or a child or children playing); even with two adults working sometimes you need privacy for your work, meetings phonecalls etc, long term you need space for a proper desk and chair. some outside space, decent broadband connections
I doubt many people are seeking true isolation in the remote wildernesses of Caithness
Not all villages have just 1 shop and rubbish broadband
I think small market towns and large villages could become more popular, people may accept a 2 hour commute if only have to go to office once a week
I'm only speaking for myself but social distancin, working from home and home schooling are much easier in a house where everyone can be in a different room and there is a large garden our broadband did struggle occasionally but overall it was fine but the nearest supermarket is 8 miles away, and it is hard to walk from the house as country road with no footpaths,
Personally I would never buy open plan but that is more to do with the fact that I have hearing problems so when I am on the phone I need silence to hear so can't be in a room with any background noise, also even with hearing aids I need TV louder than most people like so it is good to be able to watch in another room, I don't want to live my life through headphones and subtitles, that is also the reason I would not choose to live in a house with shared walls, open plan works well for somethings but as lockdown as shown it has it's limitations amd working on or from your bed will not do your back any good long term
People can adapt to both if they have the right mindset
it doesn't work when people move to countryside and complain that animals make noises at dawn and at harvest time combine harvesters work 20 hour days or conversely move t city and complain that there is noisy traffic and fumes all day and night
diversity isn't just about different countries of origin and cuisines and languages, there is diversity rurally it is just not the same kind and doesn't change as often, your small town will not have 20 different languages in school but it might have 3 and you stand a better chance of getting to know them better most small towns have plenty of culturla opportunities choirs clubs etc, maybe not to standard of city but maybe more accomodating to different levels of talent, so your child less likely to be booted out of tennis / cricket club for not being good enough, on the other hand if really good there may not be much competition to spur them on, here hill walking and kayaking are quite easily accessible to children from quite ordinary backgrounds in central London this would require a far wealthy background however here there is no fencing club anywhere so less choice it's swings and roundabouts and so long as you understand you can make a success of living in most places

I think areas which are ££££££ in London, but objectively aren't particularly nice places to live, might take a bit of a nose dive soon, as more people work from home longterm.

A potential perfect storm brewing with London. The prevalence of violent crime and anti social behaviour is an increasing problem. The looming presence of Brexit will have a huge effect on the City in the financial markets. Covid will have a huge effect on the economy as well and has also accelerated the future of people working from home (added to increasing automation). Then there's HS2 being built which will open up the Midlands and the north to quick reach of central London.

Nice houses in London or any accommodation in nice areas in London will always cost a bomb, but standard flats and houses in not nice areas will lose their appeal.

EasternDailyStress, love the username. The ILs used to read the EDP.

I think anyone who is considering moving to the countryside needs to take a good hard look at the (lack of) facilities (what a PP said about councils spending the whole budget on the urban areas is all too true IME), the time it takes to get to supermarket/ GP/ school and the lack of public transport, and weigh that in the balance against access to the countryside, cleaner air and everybody knowing who you are.

This time will pass. I prefer the ease of mass urban transport and urban living to being remote. But yes I have a (small) garden which I am sure made it easier - and live a short cycle from great London open spaces. I don’t want to maintain a large house and garden!

No freaking way. Living in the sticks has proved that once something big like the virus goes down, the first thing to go is local groceries and deliveries. Relying on crap broadband meant that Zoom meetings are a no-go as everyone else was WFH.

Public transport has gone from bad to non-existent, so no way to get to work if the car breaks down, because all the local garages are shut.

Oh, and jobs in the countryside are the first to go...

This ridiculous rivalry between city & country dwellers. Grow up!

The big towns and inner cities are where the bulk of the poverty is
There is a fuck-ton of poverty in rural areas. It's just usually more diluted because housing is much more mixed up (the most expensive house where I live is about 150 yards from the council estate) and so is much less visible: you don't get huge areas of deprivation, so it's not as easy to see.

That being said what is (or was) the most deprived ward in England (Jaywick) has a population of less than 5000 people. Hardly a large town.

I do not want to live in the country but lockdown has highlighted lack of space, there is ALWAYS someone in the living areas at the moment, I go to our bedroom for 2 min peace and one of the kids is in there watching the TV, go into the garden and can hear the neighbours as they are at home. I just feel like we need a big house with 4 beds and 2 living rooms, problem is they are £££ in the town/city centre. You get a lot more space for your money in the country. It’s a trade off, more space v lack of facilities. If (4x) kids were back at school and everything was open I would never consider a village but lockdown has made me/us wish for more space.

The five bed house opposite us was on the market for months. It sold for asking price during lockdown. It was bought by someone who had money left over from the sale of a two bed London flat.

Now people know they can work from home and go into the office occasionally, I imagine places like this will become very popular. We’re in a small, very pretty riverside town an hour out of Kings Cross.

Short term people might have this romantic idea about living in a remote village miles from anywhere.

Then they move out, discover it's a 5 mile schlepp to the nearest shop which still closes at 4pm and doesn't open at all on a Sunday, they can't get a reasonable wi-fi speed, there is one bus into town and one back each day, they can't get Ubers, not takeaways will deliver and everything is just so FAR and a lot of people will reconsider.

I've lived in big cities, large towns, villages and a remote rural hamlet.

I preferred the Hamlet but DH felt the need for a bit more infrastructure.

Country living is isolated, slow, smells a lot even without muck spreading, has properly difficult driving all year round, for a wide variety of reasons. Your electricity can be hit and miss, mobile phone signal and internet too. You may not get gas, fuel oil tanks are not pretty and smell, septic tanks are an eye opener too. Log/ coal fires are great, until you run out of fuel, clearing the grate, the dust is a pain, lighting the bloody thing an art in itself. Cows, combines, tractors, the milk lorry, the fuel oil lorry, the shit lorry. Ramblers with upside down maps eyeing your garden, hunt sabs spitting at you just cos you live their, badger saviours too.

Noises! Fox or tortured baby? Screeching banshee or Randy hedgehog? Burgler with a smoker's cough or sheep? All can be terrifying.

And many things that are perfectly normal to the majority of people are rare occurrences, weird little things, foodstuff, deliveries, pavements, street lights, night life, most forms of entertainment... all rationed or non existent.

I've had a few city escapees as neighbours and most have enjoyed 4 or 5 years and then started to feel too isolated, retirement starts to look lonely, the house and garden like hard work.

They are as out of their element as many farmers transplanted to a city... and I know a few of those too!

It's not snobbery, nasty etc to advise, generally, that you won't like it out here in the boonies. It's just that many of us have watched a lot of houses modernised, gardens landscaped, 4x4s bought and wellies tried on only for the excited family to hate the weather, flies, smell, lack of just about everything they hadn't even thought of, the isolation, dirt - oh the dirt, remind me to tell you about the 2 GPs who were driven to hysteria by the dirt, literally!

It isn't just a house in the country with shops miles away. It is an utterly different way of life. I love it. There are as many friendly, beautiful things as there are bad. But it is ALL very different.

Rent for a year before you make the change permanently. But don't be affronted by posters who laugh, it's usually a wry laugh, based on observation and trying to help others understand what it is they are experiencing.

They'll be well advised to stay in the cities, it's dull, boring and expensive in the rural areas. There is nothing to do, the scenery gets boring and it's so noisy.

Yes!! Even the small town I live in now has no taxi and no takeaway delivery in non covid times.

Yeh i think you are right. I used to think i couldnt possibly move any further out of Dublin but if i only had to go in to the office 2 or 3 times a week then i could buy a much nicer and bigger house further out. I think a lot of people are thinking thecsame thing.

I don't think I'd be welcome in a rural place judging by some of these comments. Nor would I want to live there. I think of rural places as lovely to visit but awful to live (for me personally).

I think a lot of people like the idea of living in the country but don't adapt well to the reality. The house next door to us is a rental property. Its quite a big house and probably not cheap to rent, so quite often gets rented by professional families moving from urban areas for the "good life". People rarely stay more than 6 months (and not because we are awful neighbours I hope!) A few times it has been because they decide they love it and go onto buy somewhere of their own, but more often than not its because it isn't what they imagined and they decide its not for them. We've had a few neighbours who clearly haven't done any research. They're the ones who coming knocking on our door at 10pm saying that they can't find the local cashpoint or the takeaway. But there are plenty of others who have looked into things properly and thought that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages but find that when it comes down to it, they miss the conveniences of city life more than they thought they would.
I think particularly in holiday areas, people visit in the summer and fall in love with the place (and there is indeed a great deal to love about where I live). They manage to convince themselves that the downsides aren't that important, but as time goes on,the weather gets poorer and lots of things close outside of the holiday season then minor inconveniences can become major problems. Access to things like healthcare and other services is poor compared to urban communities and even things like getting a mobile signal, a good internet connection or mains sewage can't be taken for granted.
Rural life with children is very much a mixed bag. Some great plus points especially if they are interested in outdoor pursuits but social life and hobbies can be difficult to manage. Schools, and hence friends, can be a long way away and there are significant issues with drugs and alcohol in a lot of rural areas. If you have a child who has a talent in say, sports, the performing arts etc you will almost certainly spend a great deal of time and money travelling if you want them to have the same opportunities as children in urban areas. Its not all idyllic by any means.
For us, the pros outweigh the cons by a long way, but there still are some things I miss about city life and I don't really think that one is better or worse than the other, they're just different.
I think recent events probably will make some people consider moving but I suspect relatively few will actually do it. Most of our visitors say "Its a great place for a holiday but I could never live here."

@trappedsincesundaymorn

If people want to live rurally as in villages rather than commuter towns then they need to be prepared for

No public transport
No takeaway delivery services such as Uber Eats/Deliveroo
No secondary schools within walking distance
Expensive petrol stations
No nearby supermarkets and if there is a village shop it will be very pricey
Dodgy wi-fi connection
No Virgin and other cable services
No post Office
Unsalted roads during the winter (unless there is a bus route)
Noise. This time of year the countryside is very noisy. Hay-bailing and silage cutting means that the farmers are out late and tractors are still going past at 11-12midnight but be prepared to only get a few hours sleep as the dawn chorus starts at 4.30 am.
Smells. During muck spreading the stench of cow poop is overwhelming.

I wish I lived in a city.

You clearly don't understand what "rural" means. It doesn't mean a remote hillside cottage. There are large villages and small towns which fall within the "rural" classification. I live in a "rural" village of 6,000 inhabitants. We have virgin fibre, we have a bus service, we have takeaway deliveries, we have a post office, we have 2 small supermarkets and a Tesco, we have little farm noise. I think the word you should be using for your circumstances is "remote".