To move up north for a big but cheap house!

[dancingmonkey]

Just that really. I l live in Hertfordshire- south east and very expensive part of Uk. Budget is around £270,000 and around here that will get me a small 2 bed/ poss 3 bed. But have looked at properties in York which I know is lovely and the will get me a 4/5 bed with massive garden, playroom, utility etc!

Has anyone on here moved far from friends and family to get more value for money on a house? did you regret? I have a 2 year old so obviously it would be hard to not see grandparents and friends but other that that not sure what I would miss! I also work from home so wouldn't need to worry about that.

York is expensive. But £270k will get you a des res in my area. It will even have electric lights, and a bathtub for yourself rather than the coal

@NiceLegsShameAboutTheFace

YANBU but .... the north is an acquired taste. It's a big decision, in my opinion.

Good luck with whatever you decide

Acquired taste ?

We moved from Hertfordshire to Lincolnshire 16 years ago, you could not get me to go back.

My DH still commutes each day to London for work.

Part of our family still live down there, it takes up to 2 hrs to drive to them, we only go for the day each time.

Transport is certainly something you need to look into, I didn't drive until moving here - I didn't need to. But we only have a bus 5 times a day and none after 5.30pm and none on Sundays so it was necessary.

Beverley is a nice place if you're looking at East Yorkshire area

@NiceLegsShameAboutTheFace

You do know that “The North” is a massive area and hugely varied. What an ignorant comment.

Don't get your keks in a twist I'm perfectly well up on what the north is. I was merely trying to suggest that ..... well, it's a big decision.

How would I describe it? Fab.

Acquired taste does not mean a big decision .

You can get even a better house in Goole.
Or Harehills in Leeds
Or Chapeltown

You’d actually struggle buying a house for £270 in Chapeltown. Plenty of flats, but one of the Victorian terraces that hasn’t been converted would set you back nearer £350-400. Some are beautiful admittedly and the nearer to Chapel Allerton the higher the price.

Which is a shame as I saw an amazing 5 bed through terrace on Spencer Place for £29k circa 1996. Back then it was the red light area which was a bit of a downside though 😂

There are lovely areas within Yorkshire. York itself is stunning but expensive. Sadly Driffield is not one of the nicer areas. We have family there and find it quite rough.

As a Scot who has lived in the south (and loved it) we moved back to Scotland to be nearer family. In our sectors wages are similar so much more for our money in the affluent are we stay in now than the bog standard town in the south.

I’m not seeing what you are seeing OP. £270-£290k in York city typically gets you a 3 bed semi detached / terrace or a chic 2/3 bed city apartment. I think you’d have to drive some way out of town to obtain what you are describing.

Good friends of ours sold their small London terrace and purchased a home outright in the north west a few years ago. No family nearby to help with childcare but with no mortgage they have been able to afford help.

Two downsides have been that people don’t visit as much as they promise to and as parents have aged they haven’t been able to provide the support they would have wished to.

Moving away from (helpful, loving and supportive) family and friends is not easy. This would be one of my top considerations. However becoming mortgage free in your 40’s is something many of us can only dream of and it is a decision that has worked really well for our friends.

Beverley is a nice place if you're looking at East Yorkshire area

Or Howden, and it’s minutes from the M62

Neither place is cheap though

I’s look seriously at the location if its only £270k for a 5 bed house in York. That is very cheap. I live not far from York and my similar size house cost more than 3 times that. The ‘north’ isnt as cheap as everyone thinks it is.

Stoke on Trent offers amazing value. There are places in Liverpool for a pound ....as long as you’re prepared to roll your sleeves up and tart them up a bit. 😉

The only people I’ve ever encountered who are wound up about ‘The North’ and the n\s divide are from ‘The North’. London, is full of northerners, I married one and moved up there to somewhere lovely. Transport was an issue but have had similar in various parts of south I’ve lived in. Living rurally is same everywhere and most cities are the same except London.

It matters what kind of people you are. Do you spend much time with your local family? Do you stay in your area or are you going into a city/London often? I know people who live in places like Basildon/Southend, nice parts of Kent etc and work in the area and never venture into London. They could easily move to a small town anywhere and not experience change in day to day life other than family/friends. Other friends of mine live similar distances from London but do everything except sleep in zones 1-2, they would have a rude awakening probably even moving to the outskirts of York.

I moved to a very desirable part of a north eastern city and it was shocking for me. My child was racially abused, had to order lots of things online, far fewer free activities and locals wouldn’t stop telling me how pleased I must be to be out of London, how everything is better. I suppose could say people were friendly in that they would chat to you on the bus —which I hate— but they didn’t want to make solid friendships, they had tight knit existing groups and I was an outsider.

Not a northern thing, probably would have been the same moving to a south western city. You really need to know what you like and be realistic about expectations.

I live in rural Northumberland, a part that would be classed as 'desirable' and there's no way you'd get a 4/5 bed house for that.

I know York quite well and I'd be surprised if you could find something in a 'nice' area that's not at flood risk for your budget.

House prices are definitely more affordable in the north but as PP have said, 'the north' is a rather large area and you'd have to be careful where you chose to be.

There's a huge difference between Middlesbrough and Northumberland for example and within that, there's a huge difference between Ashington and Kielder.

Research is key.

Can you link to these houses in York with 5 bedrooms and a massive garden for £270,000?

Work out how often yodd realistically see grandparents if you moved up there. Then decide if its worth it. Some gparents are just for Bday and Christmas. Other love being a regular part of a child life.

We work from home and actually really like being near enough to see childs gparents two or three times a month. Would find it quite difficult to move further away. All about your priorities.

@FreakStar can you RTFT?

It’s so much more friendlier there

With your attitude you're more than welcome to join us superior ones. To the not so nice people, it’s definitely grim up north so best stay put down south eh :)

To echo the others; do your research. It's not just the house size but school catchments, amenities, the job market and transport links too.

We have done the opposite; both sets of parents live in rural, expensive areas (south west), so we went to the Midlands for a house with a good sized garden on the outskirts of a city. It has worked out well for us with the caveat that we knew we would be paying for childcare from the start.

I lived overseas for 6 years, met my partner there and we moved back together. We were able to choose anywhere in the UK to come back to so we decided to choose somewhere we could get ‘more for our money’ in terms of property, rather than being closer to family and friends. We’ve since had a baby and now really regret choosing to be away from our families, so we’re now looking to move and accept that our budget will buy us a lot less. The place we originally chose is super cheap for property (doesn’t get much cheaper!), gets a pretty much universally bad rap, but is actually fine for us in itself- we could stay here if our families were nearer. But unexpectedly our priorities aren’t what we thought they’d be so we’re off further south.

The North/South divide is ridiculous. I live in the SW and my Dad lives in Doncaster and whenever he visits he always takes one of those free estate agents newspapers back home to show people!

I pay £850 a month rent for a 2 bed flat (non central location) which would be £500 a month roughly for a similar (actually, more modern) flat in Donny.

We moved from just outside London to the Lincolnshire/ Nottinghamshire border 3 years ago. We moved from a 3 bed small end of terrace house with a postage stamp of a garden (£320,000) to a 3 bed semi with a 100 foot back garden. Our front garden is bigger than the back garden in our previous house. We paid £100,000.

House prices haven't really gone up where we are so plenty of bargains to be found.

We live in a village and have found the people to be friendly although no friendlier than when we lived in London.

Still haven't got used to people eating chips with gravy on though! YUK

N Wales 270K would get you this in my area.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E824&maxPrice=270000&minPrice=250000&radius=3.0&propertyTypes=detached%2Csemi-detached%2Cterraced&primaryDisplayPropertyType=houses&includeSSTC=false&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

4/5 bedroom house with massive garden in York for £270k? Are you sure? Only because I just had a nosey on rightmove (I love property porn) and found a grand total of 8 houses with that number of bedrooms not massive houses, some of them fixer uppers and all perfectly nice but there’s not an abundance of them.

Back to your original query. I like the north or England, the bits I’ve seen. It’s pretty big! I moved north from the south east about 10 years ago (not to York). Was a good idea, would recommend.

Has anyone on here moved far from friends and family to get more value for money on a house?

couldn't do it... home is where the heart is