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?

We have had enough of London, we have wanted to move out for a while but the pandemic helped us decide to bring our plans forward. We are moving in two weeks, we bought a house in Hertfordshire near my family, we are sick of living in a tiny over-prices rented house, we want more space and a nicer lifestyle. We are not buying a posh mansion though! A nice three bed detached house with a big garden. An equivalent property in London would cost almost £1 million. We paid just under £400k. My sister is unwell with long covid and we want to be closer to her, also so her children and our daughter can play together (after the pandemic). The town we are moving to is also where my parents live and they are over 70 and vulnerable. We want to be there for them. Family comes first. I think a lot of people in London are moving out due to the prices but also because of personal reasons that the pandemic has heightened. I can’t wait!

Haslemere is 70% London refugees from ‘ progressive London and its problems. A recent documentary about the London Ambulance service gave the game away with its MASSIVE increase in knife and sex crime! 😡

Of course you can get a much bigger property in the countryside but its is harder to find your tribe - unless you are a banker.

@bellocchild

People get so much more for their money if they move out of the London area. A lovely big house with a garden and often a better standard of living. It's hard not to...

...notice all the racism and Brexit voters.

Like always, living in cities and living in the countryside suits different people. Whilst there's a lockdown and nothing to do, it's much better to be in a spacious, nice house, but once everything opens up again, I expect the people who enjoyed going out and doing a lot of things in London will miss it.

Also, a lot of people are wfh at the moment but it isn't necessary very productively and some companies are not going to want people doing it in the long term

It is very unfair to say people in the countryside are racist. They are no more racist than some people in towns. You get awful people everywhere. There is no saintly halo on Londoners.

@Xenia Yes but for BAME people, there is safety in numbers. I once got refused entry at a pub in amersham because I wasn't white, while they let some white people in. They can get away with this cos Amersham is not multicultural to say the least.

They would not get away with doing that in London, unless they want to reject more than half of their potential customers. And not just in London, they would not get away with doing that in places like Reading, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham or Brighton

I'm well aware of that, but I'm talking about overall patterns. And the voting statistics are clear.

No ones saying Londoners are saintly but they’re accustomed to a multi cultural environment they’re going to notice the striking lack of diversity in some places. I’ve had friends and family who have visited London comment about how shocked they were by the numbers of black people in London. ( yes I know!). Some people in rural areas of Lincolnshire haven’t even been to Peterborough let alone London.

I think that it's a small number prevalent on social media. And it wouldn't surprise me if they are keeping their London property and renting it out. I think a lot of the noise around it are people talking up their "close to London" properties to sell.

We shall see.

This is an interesting thread. We have mooted the idea of moving out of London as a theoretical possibility for a while but now considering pros and cons. Neither of us are from London but came
straight after uni into graduate jobs. That was 17/18 yrs ago now. We are lucky and have a big house in a nice green part of London. I stopped f/t work when I was pregnant with my fourth child who is of nursery age. My husband now also reckons the times of 5 days in the office is over and so reckons commuting only eg 3 times a week is doable.

I am not so sure. When the pandemic is over, I suspect we will see a swing back the other way though hopefully not all the way. Cities need people in offices economically, particularly London.

I see a situation where my husband is hating a 90 minute commute and I am in an enormous house totally bored, not knowing anyone.

I love London but never thought I would raise my children here, and I do yearn for the open space and fresh air I had as a child. But my inner Carrie Bradshaw keeps fighting to get out... everyone who moves to the country from SW London seems only to gush. I am not fully convinced.

What is the answer??

@riceuten my neighbour is keeping her 2 bed z3 flat and buying a house in potters bar. Mainly because its not a good time to sell a london flat and she likes the flat. She told me she is making a loss by renting it out but she doesn't want to sell it (she bought it 5 years ago for 370k and its now worth around 400k).

I think its a permanent move for her and she said the stamp duty holiday and the good price (its a doer upper) persuaded her to move. But Potters Bar isn't really far out at all, its completely doable to commute there 5 days a week.

A lot of people only moved to London for the decent jobs, especially graduates. We attended several Uni open days in the North of England and all said that their graduates and industrial placements were mostly in and around London. It's basically been sucking the graduates away from the regions. Anything to reverse that trend has to be a good thing. As WFH has shown, there's often no reason for firms to have workers in their expensive London offices - if they can get away with not having to pay London premiums, many firms may well decide to employ people in cheaper regional offices instead. Bring it on!

I wouldn’t leave London tbh! Well I will one day move back to Ireland - but I wouldn’t ever chose to live anywhere else in the country tbh! Have gotten a pretty good deal on a flat with a garden in London walking distance to work - so the people in a rush to leave are letting their properties go for cheaper than usual it seems - suits me 😂

My husband has had it written into his contract that he will no longer be needed in the office more than 4 times a month. So we are upping sticks and moving away from London for a more rural lifestyle.

That’s absolutely great for you both, truly. But what happens when he gets promoted or wants to change employer and those terms aren’t necessarily available?

Potters Bar isn't really far out at all, its completely doable to commute there 5 days a week

The buses are red and there are trains every 10 minutes to London, it's hardly the sticks !

I don’t really care as long as they don’t move here & become the usual ex city NIMBY’s complaining about tractors, church bells, muck, livestock, general village/rural life etc. AND even worse think they have the right to trample all over everyone’s land with their dogs & kids running free!

@Kazzyhoward totally agree with that. I think this SHOULD be a perfect opportunity to decentralise the HQs of companies / banks / law firms / the bloody civil service for that matter and move the focus from London (I am from the North). It is alas I fear not going to go that way. Every little helps though.

@newusernametonight

This is an interesting thread. We have mooted the idea of moving out of London as a theoretical possibility for a while but now considering pros and cons. Neither of us are from London but came straight after uni into graduate jobs. That was 17/18 yrs ago now. We are lucky and have a big house in a nice green part of London. I stopped f/t work when I was pregnant with my fourth child who is of nursery age. My husband now also reckons the times of 5 days in the office is over and so reckons commuting only eg 3 times a week is doable.

I am not so sure. When the pandemic is over, I suspect we will see a swing back the other way though hopefully not all the way. Cities need people in offices economically, particularly London.

I see a situation where my husband is hating a 90 minute commute and I am in an enormous house totally bored, not knowing anyone.

I love London but never thought I would raise my children here, and I do yearn for the open space and fresh air I had as a child. But my inner Carrie Bradshaw keeps fighting to get out... everyone who moves to the country from SW London seems only to gush. I am not fully convinced.

What is the answer??

The answer is dont move! It is wet and grey for six months of the year and you will be the only Carrie Bradshaw for miles around. You will find some others through the school your children go to but there wont be many. As soon as people move to the country they become evangelical about doing up their property, gardening and dogs. Also, the class system is still live and kicking. In London it matters what job you do; in the country it matters how big your house is. Its like Jane Austen. Still!

@Thepilotlightsgoneout

My husband has had it written into his contract that he will no longer be needed in the office more than 4 times a month. So we are upping sticks and moving away from London for a more rural lifestyle.

That’s absolutely great for you both, truly. But what happens when he gets promoted or wants to change employer and those terms aren’t necessarily available?

A very good point. Current employers may be happy for remote working, but the employee may well have problems finding equally accommodating employers if they wish to change employers or they get made redundant. They could find themselves in the same situation as millions of people already living in the regions, suffering very poor career opportunities.

@hopingforonlychild, surely your neighbour won’t benefit from the stamp duty holiday if she’s buying a second property? Potters Bar’s so close to London it seems pointless.

@newusernametonight if you have a bigger house in London stay put. I regret leaving. At least we got a 1-bed in Marylebone, just in case, we’d need to stay overnight (that was in 2012) and we spend pretty much every weekend there.
There’s not much you to do in a countryside unless you get in a car; walk around the same trees or watch same ol in a 2 screen multiplex with only a Costa and a pizza express nearby.
I’ve touched on the racism and conservatism in the previous page.
I miss all the different food joints, bars, coffees, art (when they open back up), the shopping, the sheer heart of the city. I wish we stayed out but we got swayed by an endless money pit of a Georgian home. “Omg! The walks! The staircase! The garden! Etc etc”
I can’t wait to wave kid of to uni and go back.

Ha ha - we once went through the "nicer house but cheaper" outside london thing. We went to view and once DH had had to back up a couple of times ( so this was proper rural road ) said - sod this for a game of soldiers - ended up with small house can walk everywhere.

Oh I would love a lovely big garden - of course i would , but our tiny house pretty much does us very nicely & my bit of london is nice - so of course some crime but I don't lie awake thinking of it.

& when DH retires- no need to think of WFH - won't change. Still like living ( reasonably ) centrally ( London) - taken us a while to think but happy with small but London. Not to say I do not covet some friends gardens / space / bigger houses etc. Of course I do - but - here we be

The people that have moved out of London that I know have all for a long time considered leaving London, and the pandemic and lockdown have been the catalyst to actually follow through on their plans, so to speak. Their London houses all sold in an instant, so the moves are not just out of London!

I am also slightly dubious to base such a big decision on a (hopefully) temporary problem like the pandemic! Wonder how people will cope in a years time when there is much more of a push to return to offices, even if it's not every day of the week. Even for two days a week it could be quite a hassle and expensive! Imagine you lose your nice cushy WFH job, and find yourself in the middle of nowhere where there are not many jobs?

Most people that I know in London are happy here and will stay.

@VinylDetective

metro.co.uk/2020/07/09/will-stamp-duty-holiday-apply-second-homes-12967581/

Actually if her house in potters bar is 500k, she would save 15k by moving now. In my area of east Finchley, a house is a million so I wouldn't say it's pointless. I am not a big fan of potters bar so I wouldn't do the same and I haven't really found any zone 4-6 locations that are right for me.