Leaving London - is there a promised land?

[ilkleymoorbartat]

With the mass exodus from London at the moment, aibu to ask whether there is some promised land that people go when they have kids (whatever the location).

Ie, are those of us in London missing out on a life that is lovely and idyllic which if you're in the London bubble it's impossible to imagine?

Do we have Stockholm syndrome basically?!

@awaketoosoon but isnt that mad. I mean people who bought in the 90s are now in their 50s i.e. the same people who buy properties for their 25year. London is mad if ordinary folk are effectively screwed if under 50.

@awaketoosoon

Thank you - we love it too!

When I go and visit friends in their large detached houses in Guildford, Winchester etc, I think about how much I’m missing my little patch of London (emphasis on the little) and I can’t get wait to get back there.
I can’t describe what it is I love about London, but I couldn’t contemplate living anywhere else in the UK, although I love to visit other places. I’m not from the UK so maybe that’s why there is no great rush to “move out”

I can’t speak for anyone else but I love London too - I was born there, raised my children there and I love going back to see family there.

I just prefer living in Leeds!

Am I resentful about it. Yes and so are most of the other local people.

Oh well. Just do what London locals have had to do for years, after being priced out when people from where you are and the rest of the UK come to London. For years when Londoners have been priced out, they've been told to suck it up. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[quote 579qkghs]@awaketoosoon but isnt that mad. I mean people who bought in the 90s are now in their 50s i.e. the same people who buy properties for their 25year. London is mad if ordinary folk are effectively screwed if under 50.[/quote]
It's the reality of the 'investment' London's suffered over the last 30 years. The investment that some people elsewhere seem so jealous of.

London is the capital of homelessness - with plenty of over 50s suffering that fate. Two thirds of the UK's homeless families are in London.

Tony Blair made London into a playground for the young, healthy, and rich. His successors have continued his work.

Still, the jealous and resentful will soon get to share the joys through the planned 'levelling up'.

The ones who've suffered the most are the low income and disabled Londoners, who can't even afford to rent yet can't leave without help (not that it seems they'd be welcome anywhere else).

@LoudestCat14

LateAtTate So who's buying all houses then?

Quite a lot are bought as second homes, or by rich investors abroad - who leave them empty all year round.

Others are bought by people who already own in London - up or downsizers.

Also despite the severe homelessness crisis in London, Right to Buy is still allowed.

I think the fundamental flaw in this thread is the expectation to directly compare unique global cosmopolitan London to any other UK city, town, village or rural setting. It is difficult to compare as London’s nearest comparable is probably Paris, Berlin or New York. There are more people in Greater London than probably Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland together. London is not just more populated but it consists of immigrants from all corners of the globe hence the comparison to New York rather than say Edinburgh. However of course there is no need to only compare London to these other global cities but as one is considering moving from London to elsewhere in the UK you would need to compare the relative merits of London with for instance Edinburgh or Cardiff etc. But this will be a relative comparison as no other city is quite like London. This is not necessary to mean London is better or worst just different. If only London is cheaper for real estate and have even higher relative spending power salaries to offset this dilemma especially as maximum mortgage loans for first time buyers would still be four (possibly five) times salary. So unless you are comfortably into six digits income bracket (perhaps a senior city professional or business owner rather than average employee) you will struggle to buy in the parts of London you aspire to live as of course London is a global property investment market as well as for those who purchased decades ago at lower entry price points and built up much asset appreciation equity. Just a few thoughts so do feel free to discuss further. London has become a good and safe return on investment store of value for international buy to leave property investors in past decades! Hence the disparity between asking prices or rents and many local London peoples incomes.

London has become a good and safe return on investment store of value for international buy to leave property investors in past decades! Hence the disparity between asking prices or rents and many local London peoples incomes.

This. Which is why I doubt many of those so resentful of the 'investment' Blair and his successors brought to London will be happy if they experience a true 'levelling up'.

Glasgow, Edinburgh.

From personal experience & several friends who have done the same & are equally happy with their new lives...

Glasgow & nearby Larkhall
Edinburgh
Sterling
Reading
Teighmouth
Bristol
Torquay
York
Shoreham
Brighton
Peacehaven
Seaford
Alfriston
Hastings
Hexam
Newcastle

@13579db

Cornwall? Seems like the entire range of interior magazines have interviewed families who have moved from London to Cornwall. It's endless. Lazy research most likely but it gives a very poor impression that Cornwall is being swamped by city slickers. Can't they think outside the box and not follow the herd so much?

Lazy research indeed. A good proportion of those 'Londoners' will be people from other parts of the UK (including Cornwall) who moved to London, before moving on to Cornwall.

So if a Londoner (born and bred or not) moves to Cornwall, will locals consider them now to be Cornish? If the person then moves on from Cornwall to somewhere else, will the media then write that Cornish people are pricing out locals?

It's all very one sided isn't it. Londoners have been priced away from home for years. Told, tough shit. Cornish people (or those in Suffolk or Lincolnshire or wherever else) priced out by the priced out get mass sympathy.

Traffic has to be either one way only for everyone or two way for everyone.

It’s second homes that are the problem, bloody loads of them around here and people air B and B ing them for thousands a week because they can get more that way than renting out to tenants. Several friends been evicted recently so their landlords can ‘remarket’ the property.

10% of families at our primary are leaving London - all year groups

So 90% - a whopping majority - are staying.
Hardly an exodus.

I'd say most of those leaving are either the priced out, or people not originally from London moving to be nearer their families or where they're from.

I wonder if some who have left are already regretting it and keen to encourage the narrative of the 'exodus' - to feel they're not the only ones leaving?

I can’t imagine being in central London with small children.

Central London is a fantastic place for children. Lots of lovely (and large) parks, every facility you could possibly want for adult or child, museums, London Zoo, excellent public transport (which gives children a lot of freedom to travel around), and some good schools. If you can afford it or, like some friends of mine, have social housing there, central London is great for families. But obviously each to their own. It's all down to individual family preferences and priorities.

@SingingInTheShithouse lol of course they are. Nicest most desirable parts of the country. Not exactly flocking to bolton, barnsley or oldham (and I live in one of those places before anyone moans)

And fwiw I come from one of those places on your list, would love to move back but no b**y chance as I'm priced out !

@bookworm14

I don’t think people hate London at all and “everything it stands for” (whatever that means!). They just don’t want to live there, same as some people don’t want to live anywhere else.

A lot of people absolutely do hate it and have made it very clear on the thread. One poster said she was ‘sorry for anyone who lives here’. I don’t care what anyone thinks of London personally but I am sick of the constant sweeping generalisations on MN about what London life is like, and the failure to grasp that not everyone wants to live exactly the same lifestyle.

The generalisations are not just on MN. Politicians and the media do it too.

@Tealightsandd it feels like an exodus compared to normal years
Possibly because noone left in the last 18mths & they are all leaving now

@Xenia

Very interesting to hear from people about all this. There is never a right answer. My parents bought a house not to far from Newcastle centre which was good for work etc. I lived in Manchester and Chester (university and law school) and 3 of my children have been to Bristol U and others other towns. There are lots of towns in the UK and it ie certainly not London or rural Northumberland (my spiritual home).

For me outer London has been the right compromise. It is a minority white borough and has good private schools, several tube lines and yet our house when covid walkers are not tramping up and down our private road it is peaceful and quasi rural, horses go by etc (one man was in my garden this morning briefly with his 2 dogs which strayed in - may be I need to get my hose pipe out to fight invaders off)

I like Newcastle a lot.

I agree that outer London can be a good compromise. I have friends who are very happy in zone 5 and 6 boroughs. Both north and south London ones actually.

Personal preferences vary.

@DonGray

It's easy to get caught up in thinking that... particularly reading the papers. But actually it's still a small minority.

An acceleration mostly of those who were always going to leave/return home, but still just a minority.

It’s not as if London is ever going to be empty. For every family moving out to a smaller city or town or village there are people from those very same “idyllic” locations heading to the big smoke for a career opportunity or some excitement. Nothing needs to be forever. I like my current location on the Surrey /London borders. Quiet enough with access to lots of green spaces but close enough to be in Central London in 40 minutes. I’m sure it wouldn’t suit lots of people but that’s fine... it doesn’t need to.

The 2 houses close to me where a very old person has chosen to move out in the last few years including I think one next month have both not surprisingly as they are detached family houses been sold by those old people to a young family with children. The working from home of the covid legislation plus stmap duty holiday has just speeded things up a bit for some people.

I live in a leafy county. Lovely, but a bit boring. I don't completely understand why Londoners with enough money to enjoy it would leave, especially if they have a garden. Pluses for me would be subsidised public transport, huge parks, theatres and free museums. Where I live it can cost £5 to travel a few miles on a bus, which will be late, not turn up, or drive past you!