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?

@Beatrixpotterspencil no worries! I'm not up and down mountains as often as I could be as I let other things get in the way but I certainly appreciate the beauty and the peace just as I'm sure urban dwellers appreciate deliveroo. (I don't even know what that is but I don't think my life is lacking without it )

Grew up in a large commuter village in the south Midlands. My parents bought there because they couldn't afford a house in their town in the West Midlands. Moved to London aged 19 for uni and stayed. Now in my early 40s. Parents and brother still live in the village. When I visit I last 2 days at most, and then I get bored. My teenager says Nana's village is boring. My husband likes to visit but says it smells of sheep poo. We don't have a car so we have to get a train to the nearest town and get a bus (flipping a King's ransom compared to London). If we miss one it's two hours till the next one orI have to ask my mum or brother to give us a lift.

We are getting tired of London too, though. It's so expensive to buy even a small house unless you want to live in a mugger's paradise, and we were lucky finding a school, and getting in, that was a good fit for our daughter. Just going for a day out to the zoo can cost £100 with a trip to the gift shop. We have never got a car because of the ULEZ, the congestion charge and the insurance (alongside the large threat of car theft). Public transport is expensive if you use the Tube and you have to allow at least an hour to get anywhere. Oh, and the pollution.

We are waiting for our daughter to finish school then we might relocate to a large town. We were thinking Sussex.

@GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman
I’m with you, that’s great for me - yoga, art, walking, Etc. I don’t feel drawn to nightlife or socialising. I listed what I often miss about urban life, which for me isn’t worth going back to - but would be for many.

I’m sure I translate badly this evening!

As for pavements, where I am theyre 2 ft max and many A-roads around me have none at all. I don’t drive so walking to many places, unless accessing walkers paths, is hard.
I’m near Ambleside, it is idyllic in one sense but extremely congested and the roads are quite difficult to cross.

When I get onto public paths I’m ok.

Nope. I like the countryside but I have always suspected I would ding those places closed minded and living there stifling and difficult.

And the first few posters with their comments about “vibrant cultural hubs” confirm my views.

I wanted to, for years. Somewhere where people don't complain about cockerels. But the children coming closer to secondary school age, I want them to have a bit more entertainment later than the local pub. Also driving on country lanes in the dark is completely terrifying. The older I get the more I want hospitals nearby.

Luckily I don’t find the lakes closed minded, it’s quite diverse, but that’s likely due to heavy tourism. Both locals and visitors are usually lovely I must admit.

I'm someone who's done both.
Grown up in a countryside village, it's lovely and idyllic and go back to visit the parents frequently.
Often think "it's lovely out here, wish I was nearer countryside!"
Lockdown though, you've just made me think - there's so many downsides.
Yes, I'd have a nice garden, plenty of countryside walks and cycle rides.
In reality though, I don't drive so I like having everything on my doorstep, but still being near enough to some country greenery without the use of public transport.
In other words I like the best of both worlds lol
Plus with the lack of transport, the fact all the shops shut by approx 5pm would be enough to have me saying nope - I like everything being there if I need them!

This thread is hilarious with all the sweeping generalisations and lazy stereotyping!

The property market in my village has gone nuts over the past fortnight. A house in the next street went for over the asking price the same weekend it went on the market. Houses that have been for sale for months are all now sporting ‘under offer’ signs. The local estate agent told me they have been deluged with enquiries from people in London wanting to move here.

This thread is hilarious with all the sweeping generalisations and lazy stereotyping!

Yep

I’m with you, that’s great for me
Yeah, Beartrix, I twigged that a bit later. I've been on the

The Guardian have an opinion piece recently where it has conflated that the middle class moving to the country side is abandoning poor, whilst ignoring the crys of gentrification of areas the said (mostly white) middle class move into.

If this does happen it will be fun to visit in a couple of years when what is being called for is effectively white flight, the hypocrisy is already being noticed and internet archived.

I grew up in London and now I live very rurally. Tiny village, only facility is a post box.
I still have loads of family in London and go back regularly but thank my lucky stars I no longer live there. The only thing I can’t do down here is go to football matches regularly which I do miss but have learnt to live without. Cinema etc is a bit of a drive but easily doable so don’t miss that. It’s not as though I spent every weekend at museums and shows when I lived in London. I probably go as much now to those sorts of things as I did then, only now it’s as part of a holiday. As a teenager I spent most of my time clothes I had no intention of buying on Oxford Street. My kids spend their weekends at the beach. I don’t mind being a taxi. I wouldn’t swap back and give them the weekends I had in exchange for theirs. Maybe they will feel differently but as they love the sea, and the eldest is heavily into surfing, maybe they won’t.
I have a fantastic view from my house which I have been grateful for every single day during lockdown.
There is no chance of me ever living in a city again. There are drawbacks, like not being able to pop to the shops, but I just plan a bit and make sure I get things I need when I am passing anyway.

I’ve found everyone in the village so friendly, and the community generally is brilliant.

But I’ve got friends that I grew up with who love to visit me but who think living here would be hell on earth. It’s totally horses for courses. People are people and no more or less friendly than in my parents street in London, and the rest of it is entirely down to whether it suits you. This life does suit me, far more than London. The things that matter to me are here, not there. The things I enjoy doing, with the exception of going to football games, are here, not there. I don’t like crowds, I like sea and space. I like dog walking, I like watching nature (wild flowers, bird watching). I don’t enjoy shopping at all.
I’m lucky to have a job in a school so don’t need to be near a city for work. But it just wouldn’t be for everyone and it’s not a competition.

In a year’s time, when there may be a vaccine for Covid, we will all drift back to the way we lived 6 months ago. Cities are brilliant fun.

babybythesea

Totally agree. I can get to London in just over an hour, sometimes have to due to specialised hospital visits for my daughter.

Sometimes go for a show, or for a Twickenham occasion.
Always bloody glad to get home though. No way I'd want to live there.
Unless I was uber rich and had servants and a driver and a whacking great property with a secluded garden.

I love where I live. Peaceful and quiet. There's actually quite a few very famous people live nearby me. Bigger, more secluded, and more expensive houses than mine, (goes without saying). The very, very richest people can afford to have a London house. But they prefer to actually 'live' hereabouts. I'm sure everyone can think of a few examples. Funny thing is, nobody really knows they live here.

the fact all the shops shut by approx 5pm would be enough to have me saying nope
Our local co-op closes at 10pm - even on Sundays. It is a mile and a half away though. Our nearest village shop opens at 6.30am.

@houselikeashed

the fact all the shops shut by approx 5pm would be enough to have me saying nope Our local co-op closes at 10pm - even on Sundays. It is a mile and a half away though. Our nearest village shop opens at 6.30am.

24 hour Tesco here. And the other supermarkets close at 8. We do live on the same planet!

Not at all sure. I think it will be true for some people, especially those who can drive and are happy about driving. But in my own case, I am very glad that I live close to shops and to the doctor's surgery (I haven't had to see the doctor, but it is a relief to know that it would be quite possible) and live somewhere where food, laundry, etc. deliveries are not too difficult to arrange. Self-sufficiency is not really for me! Also work would be very hard to arrange if I lived rurally: right at the moment, I can WFH, but that would be problematic long-term, and most rural areas have limited public transport and rely on people being either retired, or able to drive everywhere.

I don’t know why these “countryside versus city” threads pop up so often on here. It’s not a competition. Each to their own. Plus what “countryside” are we talking about anyway? Living in rural Wales or the Lake District is a very different experience to living in rural Surrey or Sussex. Different climate for a start. Also, living in Knightsbridge or Notting Hill is a very different experience to living in other parts of London. If you have the money to live well in London and to make the must if all it has to offer, you’re hardly likely to swap that for a village existence, are you? You’re more likely to move to another capital city, if anything. But if you’re struggling to get on the property ladder, you may be forced to reconsider your options.

I’m not sure what the pp means when she’s taking about “white flight” out of London. I know hundreds of families in our part of SW London and not one is thinking of moving out as far as Surrey, let alone “the countryside.” I do know a family who moved to Henley and, lovely though it is, they’re desperate to come back. A larger house and swimming pool etc mean nothing if the environment it’s in doesn’t suit you. They’ve been bored stiff - “dead inside” is how the woman described it. Since Brexit, I think people are less likely to consider options in other parts of the country, to be honest.

No way. Nothing could entice me to move to a rural area. I'm a city girl. I like not having to drive far to get necessities, strong & fast Wi-Fi and phone connection and I can't stand smell of farm & live stock. Plus I prefer a medium size flat over a large house. The maintainenxe and cleaning is cheaper and less work. And I don't like driving long hours to work.

I do wonder if the hundreds of luxury flat developments that have sprung up will still be desirable. Vauxhall/Battersea looks so different to 10 yrs ago.

They've never really been 'desirable' though - new build 'luxury' (cheap and shit materials, paper thin walls, ensuite in every 'luxury double bedroom' where you can't fit a wardrobe if you have a double bed) - these are always, have always been the first to lose value when the market dips, hardest to shift after the first wide-eyed sale.

I don't think COVID will change anything really with the housing market, I really don't. It will be another dip but it won't change the fundamentals about why people want to live where they do and how they want to live. COVID showed as many downsides to being more rural as there are to being in a city.

I agree but the sheer scale of development mean some people must by buying them.

The thing is if everyone moves out to the country then new houses are built, more roads, more shops, then it’s not the countryside anymore. I see the local countryside being eaten up by new housing estates, the local wild live running out of places for their habitats, very sad 😔

Exactly this

Sorry, I am just catching up

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

Yeah. When your connection is through telephone wires and they stretch for miles before they get to a box and the wind, eain, snow, trees, a bailer can take them out at any time!

That's an illustration of the lack of understanding some posters are trying to explain. You have to imagine a 1950s infrastructure and be able to live within it, minus the public transport!

And parts of Dorking and Guildford wouldn't move there either. Local shop a car ride away through those unlit roads, although do love the canopy the trees provide. Places where they laugh at preppers and call it every day life to be ready for shit happening. Power cuts, roads cut off because a tree has fallen or it's snowed. And not that poor excuse called snow in London. No public transport. Nearest primary 30 minutes at least. Although the house prices within the catchment for both help to keep them excellent, many parents made large donations because it's still cheaper than private looool.

Is this supposed to all describe Guildford and Dorking? Because I don't recognise it...

I've lived in cities (From London to Aberdeen). I grew up in a suburb and knew I didn't want to live in one again.
I live in a market town - but am seeling - hopefully some London type will choose to move out and buy.
And I'll probably be moving more rural, as I'll get more for my money.

Lockdown has changed my priorities a bit, I find I need: a study with a shutting door, decent broadband, somewhere to go for a walk close by, a local shop. And I know I also want: room for everyone, not to be too overlooked (I don't like modern developments where you can see 5 or 6 houses all looking into your postage stamp garden), and a public transport alternative available.