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?

@nogreenfinger
Zone 1 here, very central beginning of this year we finally got fibre optic.
Many energy providers still haven't introduced smart meters here yet either haha.

I would consider other cities though eg Bristol.

I think lots of people are forgetting that many people on good salaries are renting a room & have no hope of getting on the London ladder or accessing social housing so it's a no brainer if they can remote work.

@cani still waiting for it 😭

I used to live in a village and I'm so glad we've moved into a small city with all the amenities we need without having to rely on car or public transport, particularly in the early days of lockdown, when there were no supermarket delivery slots to be had. The walks weren't all that, either, as the rural roads weren't the safest places to walk with the kids, so we were stuck with variations on about 3 routes. Here, we're surrounded by nature reserves, woodland and interesting architecture.

Plus, even with fibre broadband, our Internet wouldn't have coped with 4 of use using it heavily, as it was too unstable at high speeds.

Dodgy wi-fi connection

Surely, a dodgy wifi connection could happen anywhere and it's nobody else's fault except your own. Sort your equipment out.

Hmmm. I live in a large town. From my house I can walk to M&S and the town centre, a vibrate area full of independent coffee shops, restaurants, pubs and bars, a train to get me to London in just over an hour.
I can also walk from my house to 2 large parks and a large area of country park.

It’s the best of both worlds. Don’t think that city or rural are the only two options.

During lockdown all we have done is spend time in the house, garden and go for walks locally and in the countryside.
It has made me realise how much I miss a busy, vibrant city life. I have independent cafes, restaurants, shops and pubs 5 mins walk away, buses every 5 mins, universities and the city centre close by. I miss it all so much and although I love visiting the countryside, I really couldn't cope with living rurally.

Nope I’d hate it. Happy to visit for the weekend but that’s about it.

I live in a rural village in Suffolk

Me too

EasternDailyStress

I worked for them for several years. And I absolutely agree with your post. I am utterly Northern and was brought up in the middle of a big Northern city with my bedroom window overlooking a busy road and bus route. However, I've lived in this village for over 30 years and I'm the second longest resident. There are Scottish people, folks from Brum are our nearest neighbours, the most recent folks to move in came from Milton Keynes and the ones before that from Bedford.

Of course there are several loosely local people who live here, moved from the central town here to retire etc, but none who have lived here half as long as I have. So basically, once the longest serving resident shuffles off this mortal coil, it's my village. If it's all down to staying power, I own it. But of course, it's really not like that at all.

Four houses down the road lives my dentist who has moved here from South Africa. Been here 5 years or so. So all in all, we village people are not insular or shielded or inexperienced at all. We DO like people who are different to us in the 'country' I'm a foreigner myself, even if I do have to wait for somebody to die before I get top spot as the village's most long serving resident.

I can also get to that London in an hour and 5 mins which we often do to meet up with relatives, have a cultural day out, or visit the theatre. But I'm glad to get home, and I'd hate to live there. I love to get back to my large leafy garden and my vegetable plot, and peace and quiet.
Best of both worlds.

I suppose all of that verbosity was in response to the 'small minded' comment from an earlier poster. I am not leaning over the back gate, chewing a straw. Nor are any of my neighbours.

I’m rural, lakes.
Without tourists it would be deliciously pretty and wild, but deprived.
It would be difficult if I couldn’t wfh.
Low income buyers would be priced out.
Local children would be priced out.
But then it’s already happened here, in our chocolate box paradise!
I always say Grasmere is stunning, but historically and culturally it has had a root canal.....

I’d probably relocate to burbs, semi rural if I had kids and a car, if I was the hypothetical home buyer.

Property prices are fucking this country up the arse and have been since time immemorial. It’s distorted our bloody world view, our sanity and our reason.
It’s a mess.

Rural folk tend to be the core Tory vote (i.e. traditionally well off)

Not always. We bought our house 35 years ago and it didn't even have a bathroom. We got loans to do it up. It's not made me vote Tory yet.

You’d also lose a close connection to culture, arts, etc in more rural places. As would your children.

I deeply miss the ease of popping into a city, and don’t mention Carlisle!
I miss theatre, orchestras, the general buzz of urban living.
And I absolutely loathe How rural areas have hardly any pedestrian space whatsoever.
When I walk around manchester or even greater manchester there’s just so much s-are to move!
Ironic really.
And there’s just as much diesel and car fumes in the Lake District.

I could understand a mass desire to relocate if the lockdown had been 3 years instead of 2 months, so I’m amazed at the hysteria surrounding it all.

Where I am they’re all remainders, Lib Dem.
Tory’s up north though.

Ideally yes I'd love to live by the sea and countryside
But
Kids settled in good schools
Commute to my job
My job cannot be done at home
Benefits of city living

Most of my extended family live rurally all in various locations in the West Country, there is no way whatsoever you would get me ever living there.
The youngsters all leave to get work, you can't function without a car. Taxis do exist but they limit how far they will take you and what time at night they stop.
My cousins son used to work in the Hertfordshire town I live in but decided as he could work remotely that he would move back "home"

After a few months he and his wife moved to Taunton for "civilisation" as he put it.
And don't get me started on the narrow attitudes that many in the rural villages.
I live within easy striking distance of London, and my garden backs onto woods then fields. I can walk to my nearest shopping centre in 30 mins, best of all worlds.

Ironically, we had a great post office in our village but our nearest one here is in the city centre, half an hour walk away. Not that I've needed it much. I've made more use of the various courier hubs in our local shops.

Not for us. We tried living in the countryside and found it boring and insular. We’re definitely city people. Weekends in the country are nice but that’s my limit.

I live in a lovely corner of London close to lots of greenbelt land with easy access to the centre. Everyone who I’ve spoken to who lives around here (it’s a very sociable neighbourhood) is very glad they live here with easy access to everything. The only person I know who’s leaving is doing so because lockdown made her realise how much she despises her neighbours.

If you live in a decent sized house and have a garden, all’s well. I sometimes get the impression many people outside of London think all Londoners hate where they live and are only here because of work when in actual fact many of us love living here. Not everyone’s obsessed with country walks everyday.

If anything Coronavirus lockdown has made me realise even more how much of a social animal I am, how much I miss the buzz of other people and how much I love having amenities close by. I have easy access to quieter more rural areas and get my fill of those whenever I feel like but I don’t want to live there plus this situation won’t last forever. I don’t think most companies will support WFH for more than 2 days a week in the long term so it would be a ridiculous gamble to move far away from work now believing every company in your industry will allow you to WFH for most of the week forever.

Beatrixpotterspencil you sound like you don't enjoy the Lakes that much! As I said upthread I think you need to appreciate what you've got wherever you live. The kids and teens I know do activities they might not do if they lived in Manchester - climbing, biking, fell running, sailing etc.

There's local culture and its not too difficult to make the effort to get to cities for it either; London in a day is easy enough and my last trip to the theatre, shortly before lockdown, was to Manchester. Drove down after work. Not something I'd do every week but tbh I doubt most city dwellers are constantly at the theatre any more than I'm walking up mountains all the time

You clearly don't understand what "rural" means

Oh dear. I think that 'you' clearly don't understand what rural means.

I don't live on a remote hillside. But I have no bus service through the village and we have not one single shop within 4 miles. The co-op and the chemist and the newsagent are 4 miles away. I'm not halfway up a mountain for fuck's sake. It's just not worth anybody opening up a shop hereabouts or sending a bus through for the couple of us who might want to go into town. Given a spare hour, I could walk into town, and then another hour to walk back again. We can't get takeaway deliveries here,

Your experience is different. You don't live where we live. That's all.

@lakeswimmer that must have translated badly!
It is my heart and soul.
For me, personally, It is ideal.
I just wanted to list the downsides as I see them.😁

I am actually up mountains all the time 😁. But I doubt everyone would want that.

Yet in this district, developers are building new houses on every available piece of land they can get hold of - tens of thousands of them. The villages are getting larger and larger, and the countryside between them is getting smaller and smaller. It is fast becoming a suburban sprawl

And the floodwater ditches are overflowing. I hear you.

You’d also lose a close connection to culture, arts, etc in more rural places
It depends on what you value, though doesn't it? I love being able to see the stars, and to sometimes see deer or hares when driving at night, and if I want a serious concert there is an excellent venue 45 mins away. I could get to a cathedral for evensong in a similar amount of time. There are some bloody good art galleries and small museums in rural areas and in various towns you can get to easily (from here, by car or bus).

And I absolutely loathe How rural areas have hardly any pedestrian space whatsoever.
??? What? I can walk from home, and within 5-10 minutes be on footpaths between fields in three directions and on a footpath along a riverbank in the other. If I'm bored of the fields and the river I can drive 10-15 minutes to two or three woods, a nature reserve and various other stretches of river bank/fields etc.

The countryside is very varied. If you can drive to, say, Cambridge in 25 minutes, you will have a different rural experience from someone who lives in the Welsh Marches or in a remote part of Northumberland.

It is fast becoming a suburban sprawl
We have this problem too. Hate it. Will be moving to somewhere more isolated in due course.