Winchester, Surrey or Bournemouth... Need your advise !

[Esten]

Hi there ! I'm very confusing to select a right place to move in UK. Need your valuable advise, please. Talking some background for ourselves. We're come from HK. Not sure you know this tiny city and Anti-Extradition bill movement here in last year. We're deeply depressed and disheartened. we don't know how to express such painful or losses of freedom here. Sorry to say that..

Ok, go back to my questions. My hubby and I with daughter (aged 10) are considering move either Winchester, Surrey or Bournemouth. Those places that we consider have good school and suburban to raise our daughter. Since we are outsider, we need yr advise !
-->which location is good for child (good neighourhood) and also consider any school discrimination there.... u know, people may not define Mainland or HKers. That's why we are looking a location to stay is more open-minded.
(Our budget to rent 2 bedrooms around $1000 PCM)

Thx all ! Stay well !

Winchester is a lovely town and has good transport links. You can get to London in around an hour and 15 mins on the train, and it's easy to get to the M3 and A34/M4 from there.

Kings School is considered very good and has been ofsted rated outstanding for many years. There is also a very good sixth form college and university.

I’ve lived in both Bournemouth and Winchester. As a young family, I’d opt for Winchester every time. Good schools, lots to do, easy commute to London if needed and definitely liberal. However, it’s bloody expensive!

Badger Farm is probably an area of Winchester which would be in your budget and catchment for Kings School

Bournemouth can be a nightmare to get in and out of if you're planning to commute.

What jobs will you be seeking? Those are v different locations with respect to job options.

Is the budget 1000 British pounds?
Of the three I’d say maybe Winchester. It does have good schools. 2 bed flat would be possible for £1000. A really nice city.
You would get more for your money in terms of accommodation in Bournemouth. It has grammar schools though with no catchment area so demand is high. If your daughter doesn’t get a grammar place you may not be happy with the other schools available.
Surrey is huge and has good and bad areas. Your budget may be stretched a bit in the nicer areas.

Your budget sounds low for housing in Surrey.

Coz many voices said Surrey / Manchester or Brighton is good options. thank all ! Glad to hear Winchester is nice place to live. (similar to my thoughts)

Yes, around 1000-1200 pounds max to rent an apartment.
For jobs, not planning yet. Husband might back to work as driver (or train ticket officer) is these locations have this kind of jobs? If Winchester, most of the job have go down to Southampton, right?

If have Winchester property agent could refer to me, kindly pm. Thx so much !

Winchester i

I don’t live in any of these areas, but I do love Bournemouth for the beach !

Hi OP. Is there any particular reason you’re looking at those places? I notice you said the HK is tiny - in comparison to most UK cities it is quite large.

In general, British people will not be able to tell a HKer or mainlander apart. Lots of people are aware of the situation in HK. Most people won’t be able to tell the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese, for example (lots of people don’t actually know there is more than 1 Chinese language).

If you will want access to Chinese ingredients etc, look for somewhere with an established Chinese community as there’s not much in supermarkets beyond a bit of soy sauce.

There are jobs in Winchester but it is an easy commute to Southampton, Basingstoke or Salisbury. There is a train station in Winchester and also easy road links to lots of big places. Even London is quite easy to get to from Winchester (just over an hour on the train, straight through to Waterloo).

In general, British people will not be able to tell a HKer or mainlander apart
I would agree with this. Winchester is not one of the most culturally diverse cities in the UK.

Bournemouth is great if you like the beach and like the outdoors - New Forest and Purbecks near by. Bournemouth is more modern compared to neighbouring Poole and Christchurch is quite nice too. If you want somewhere with a bit of culture another city might be better.

£1k would get you a decent flat near the beach and maybe a small 2 bed house in a less desirable area. Poole and Christchurch might offer some decent options to.

The negative sides are the fact it is a connurbation and very touristy in the summer. Traffic prior to when we were in some form of COVID restrictions was awful and if you want to get to the beach in the summer, you may as well give up after 9:30am. The pay is bad compared to the cost of living and the schools are a bit of a mixed bag. I think you would both need to work to make ends meet.

I don't think being a HKer will make any difference. Some districts have a diverse community, so this won't be an issue.

There are some areas you should definitely avoid if moving to Bournemouth and Poole. Private message me if you want more information.

Surrey is huge and ranges from very rural to next to London so you need to narrow it down. However for £1000 you won’t get more than a one bed flat in most suburban Surrey towns if anything at all so you are probably wiser to concentrate on those other areas you mention. I would also add however that the jobs situation here is not good due to Covid and not likely to improve any time soon so coming here with no employment set up might be very risky. Do you have funds to support yourselves while looking for work? What would your immigration status be (this will impact housing and work)

getting a job as a train driver could be difficult - has he applied from jobs from HK...?
If you have not been before they are all very different from HK - it is highly unlikely many will be able to differentuuate btween mainland and HK
I would suggest trying to get work first then housing/schools ...
of the 3 places Surrey is a big area with lots of different towns/villages-it is expensive though I;m not sure you will find a 2 bed for your budget in most areas

Winchester is a nice - but expensive and not sure about jobs there..

Bournemouth -is bigger so a wider range of jobs but the school system has mixed reviews -

For all of them you will need to work out what school year your daughter is in - as applications for Sep21 are open now.
Check on the council website in all the areas you are looking at..

Is there a reason why you have picked those places?

Hi OP I'm very glad for you that you're considering a move to the UK from Hong Kong, the situation there makes me very sad and it seemed obvious when we handed it over in 1997 that eventually there would be trouble. I do think you need to consider moving to an area that's thriving in multi-culturalism, as the smaller rural areas can - not necessarily do, but can - suffer from small mindedness that will make it harder for you to settle.

I'm not hugely familiar with either Bournmouth or Winchester but they are very small towns compared to HK, very different culturally. Surrey, you need to understand, is not a twon but a county, which means it's a much larger area containing towns, villages, and rural areas. It's a region, not a single place.
I think if I was in your postion I'd be looking at moderate sized towns, bigger than Winchester. Can I suggest Bristol, which is a lovely largish town in the west, easily accesible from London (two and a half hour's drive) and very much a muti-cultural community? A bit further afield and therefore a bit cheaper is Cardiff, which is in south Wales and about half an hour's drive from Bristol. Consider these two.

How old is your daughter? How good is her English?

twon = town

you'll probably have a wider range of jobs and housing in Manchester as well... and its more of a city so maybe a less of culture shock from HK

How about Eastleigh which is near Winchester, but is a bit cheaper?

OP, here is a link to the largest online estate agent website www.rightmove.co.uk/
It will at least give you an idea of the relative prices. I looked up the Winchester area and as I suspected the cheapest places are in Southampton rather than Winchester. (I live in Southampton, it's perfectly ok but not as pretty as Winchester and there are some rough areas).

You are looking at quite an expensive part of the country so you might want to think about that in terms of your potential earnings.

When you say you could afford 10k is that based on a job you have already secured in the UK? I think you mentioned your husband has not yet got a job.

Sadly the job situation is not good at the moment, so you might need a buffer before he can find something. This might also be a reason not to go for the most expensive range of accommodation you can afford.

If you're keen on finding a good school for your daughter, this should also feature in your calculations. If your income is not secure, private education might be risky. I would take some time looking up the state schools in the relevant areas, you can get online information about their exam performance etc.

Note that state schools have quite clearly defined catchment areas: if you do not live in the catchment area of a popular school, your daughter is unlikely to be admitted. This on the other hand drives up the cost of accommodation near good schools.

And yes, like other posters I would suggest also looking further afield: the north and Wales are often quite a bit cheaper.

Manchester makes better sense. Way more multicultural and affordable. Any reason why you discounted it?

A lot of people who live in winchester commute to London. Most people who work in winchester commute in from elsewhere. Southampton has a train depot place so he might get a job there if you lived in winchester. Not enough is cheaper then winchester, the traffic is terrible though if you need to drive it can be hideous.
Surrey is lovely but has a wide range of options - you’d be pushed on your budget to find a decent place to live.

The big train depot place is in Eastleigh between Southampton and Winchester, which is also cheaper than Winchester and has a good Sixth Form college. Not sure how multi-cultural it is though, probably not very.