London exodus??

[Newdonewhugh]

Has anyone else noticed that their Town has a lot of people moving from London?
Are local Town and village FB pages literally have 2/3/4 people a day joining and posting with the likes of “I’m moving to ..... from London next week, can anyone help me with X,Y,Z”
My Sister and others said they’ve noticed it too.
We live in South Coast.
I just wonder what this New World will look like. What will happen to London?

@whatisthislifesofullofcare
Same here.

I know lots of foreigners who've moved back home or are planning to. Australia, the US, Netherlands, France, Italy, all headed home.

That said we just let a flat at an increase in days. But it had a nice sized garden which lots of people really wanted.

As some one who lives in the north. Where are the Londoners moving to where they are buying big 4 bed homes in country locations that arent that expensive?

@dingledongle

SE coast and huge exodus

Happy for people to move anywhere but prices are rocketing and ending up with '"local' people working in the small town being unable to afford housing as London exodus is inflating prices and people then will 'commute' to London and have much higher wage!

Also folk seem to love it here and yet still want it to be like London 🤔

Bit of a disconnect with 'local' folk too

That's the worst part isn't it? It's the same with all the gentrification taking place within London in the last 20 years, well off people move in, raise the price of everything and then erase all the really great stuff.

Christmas, it is hard to generalise. First many are moving from inner London flats to out here in outer London where you get a freehold house with garden for the price of an inner London flat (it is why we bought out here in 1984 wanted garden for children).

Second some have hastened a move they would have made anyway as children appear from inner London to places like Herts, Kent, Essex, Bucks where they can commute into the office when needed. Even in the 80s I worked with law firm partners who commute in from those places and one even came in from Brighton by train every day.

Then thirdly some are just moving very far away. I am from NE England and I suspect some will go as far as that or Wales or Cumbria where you get better value for money than places like Devon.

@Christmasfairy2020

As some one who lives in the north. Where are the Londoners moving to where they are buying big 4 bed homes in country locations that arent that expensive?

Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire

Yes they are moving here in droves and pushing up the house prices in the process. I doubt very much my children will be able to afford to live here if they wanted to when they grow up if things continue as they have been and I do feel a bit resentful about that. Also school places are in high demand. My eldest got into our first choice of primary school when she started school a few years ago but I am worried that our youngest won’t. Last year I heard that loads of children didn’t get into their first choice of school. We are lucky that we live in our own house but there is no way we would have been able to afford what it would likely go for now if we were to sell. An identical house down the road from us sold for £100k more than we paid for ours. Some of my friends that live here are from London and they are lovely lovely people but it’s the affordability and availability of the housing and infrastructure that I’m worried about. Overall our town has become a much nicer place to live in and I think it is the influences that people who have moved here that have helped drive this so it’s not all bad.

I’m sure you’re absolutely correct about pitches but that’s just one part of business. It’s not a reason to maintain hugely expensive offices.

How does that work in reality? You either need it or not. You can’t pitch somewhere pretending it’s your permanent space.

But if you are PriceWaterhouse say you still have offices including conference suites, just less of them. And small firms already hire places by the day/hour.

Even the Civil Service is discussing having "hubs" around the country where people can go to work, not tied to one department and possibly even shared withLocal Government.

I can quite easily see why.. I can't imagine why anyone with kids would not. When you get 2 beds and and lichen in the sitting room .. Wimborne Mansions, Glenloch Road, Belsize Park, NW3
www.rightmove.co.uk/

When just over an hour a way you get 4 beds, 2 receps, 3 baths . Outstanding schools and air safe enough to breathe . and £50 k change !

property-for-sale/property-74472678.html

@Trickyboy Cos in London, I have grandma and I think its quite hard for the Mandarin Chinese lessons and Cheder (both essential parts of my child's heritage) to move to a Home Counties town. Maybe the chinese lessons for 3 year olds might become more widely available but the jewish community is firmly enscounced in north london/borehamwood.

Only 40% of London is white, and while its very easy for white people to feel comfortable in the countryside, its not the same for BAME. I can see myself living in places like Reading or St Albans, but not much else really. And I am not sure if Manchester would be a big change.

I know some people find this mind-blowing, but not everyone wants a big house.

I know some people find this mind-blowing, but not everyone wants a big house.

Some people just want to own instead of rent or not pay more in rent that a mortgage would cost.

@Catmads

South London's Croydon Council has been declared bankrupt and must cease all non-essential spending, with debts of £1.5 Billion and a Section 114 notice being served.

There are going to be some pretty massive cuts to services there.

The already fortnightly bin collections are going to become once every three weeks.

I should imagine a lot of people will be looking to get out while they can.

That is not due to covid that is due to the crooks who were running the council (and have now jumped ship) - residents in Croydon have been worried about this for years. The ridiculous amount of building happening in the borough which was done by a company that were in the councils pockets and the whole thing was dodgy as hell. It's a one off situation. I'm sure lots of other councils will be struggling but not to the extent Croydon has.

Some people want outside space, some don't want a big house but want more than 1 bedroom.
It's as if people want different things...

London will definitely bounce back. It is the capital city and this is not forever.

I work in finance. Pre 2nd wave my company was pretty clear they wanted everyone to go back to normal asap (5 days in office) despite everyone wanting to WFH 2-4 days a week. Same for some large banks. They want people back in full force again (not sure why, since it's worked fine) but cant be seen to publicly say so.

As for an exodus, people are moving in to houses with gardens near me (zone 5 London) but the new build flats arent selling at all.

Personally I'd love to live in London - if the prices there come down it can't be a bad thing for a lot of people.

@TheKeatingFive

I know some people find this mind-blowing, but not everyone wants a big house.

Yes exactly! Perfectly happy to trade space for place here.

Also not everyone has a car and can drive.

@bumperdump I don't think most of the people who are moving are FTBers due to the current conditions. I think they are people who own a flat or a small house in London who are moving for more living space/change of scene. Also taking advantage of the stamp duty holiday. They are also likely to be older and have more equity in their homes which would allow them to move during a pandemic with stricter affordability criteria.

I was a FTB last year, i paid £6k in stamp duty? if i bougth this year, i would have saved that but its not lifechanging.The stamp duty holiday encourages home owners to move rather than helps people get on the housing ladder.

I'm in Z2 & love that my local high street has everything I need & the tube is super quick to take me into town. Personally I would rather move to somewhere like Bristol or St Albans as I feel you get the mini city vibe/buzz as opposed to the outer zones even if it meant my budget doesn't go as far.

@hopingforonlychild I think it's a mix. I definitely think there will be some people who were paying £600 rent for a house share who are now renting elsewhere or just moving back to parents.

@bumperdump i feel the same way, I live in Z3 though! However when i actually do the math, the St Albans move isn't smart at all, because i would have to pay commuter fares (which are increasing over inflation) and going in 3 X a week is equivalent to a full time season ticket (and the treasury has said that it wants an indefinite delay to the introduction of part time season tickets). So unless I have an ironclad guaranteee from my employer that i only need to go in 2 X a week (my boss said we would return to the office in march 2021 so thats not long now) which doesn't seem likely.

I wonder how many people who are moving now factor in the full cost of commuting if they have to do it at least 3 times a week and how that stacks up against living somewhere closer to the office.

We're in outer London and not planning on going anywhere, much like most of our friends - but we're all 2nd+ generation Londoners, so this is also where we grew up and near family. I am concerned about our local council having filed for bankruptcy but there's not much we can do about it now - and as mentioned upthread, this wasn't really Covid-19 related. It might have hastened the problem but it's been widely publicised that there have been intrinsic issues for a long time.

I work in property services and there is still a lot of movement in London flats - the stamp duty exemption has really kick started the market; we're seeing a lot of FTB sales going through. There are still a lot of people who need to be centrally based for their jobs that they can't do from home. My company however has given up its City office lease, so we've been told that there is no expectation for us to go back to an office, ever.

@hopingforonlychild

I don't think many would move without having agreements in place, even flexi hours can massively reduce travel costs.

We are unlikely to move as like being near family however if they downsize & move we realistically will follow. I wfh 80% of the time already & DHs company has no plans to return until Spring but he used to do a mix anyway.

@waterlego

Wow Proudboomer- very very close. I’m near the sailing club!

My parents used to live in beachside close just past the sailing club. I am not far from sea lane cafe so we are practically neighbors.

I fear for first time buyers especially. I think the issue is people from London coming down and not considering local prices before offering a ridiculous amount for a 3 bed semi with a tiny garden.

@LemonadeFromLemons
As a londoner I wish I could tell foreign investors to consider local salaries before they buy London property and to consider that we Londoners pay at least 20% tax, many pay 40% while many of those investors from the likes of Hong Kong and Singapore pay very little tax in comparison and hence can afford to invest the difference.