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?!

@X2boys. To be clear I loved living in London when I did, and I have also lived in Glasgow and Birmingham and loved both of these. My core point runs along the lines of it is easy to think that the grass is greener on the other side. Sometimes it genuinely is, but there will be pluses and minuses, so it requires careful thought.

Able to work from home forever? Go to Cornwall / Edinburgh (unless you have school age children; English accents get bullied in Scotland)

I'm English and I moved to Scotland (near Edinburgh) 18 years ago. I raised my children here. I have never come across any bullying of any kind, relating to accent. We have been welcomed with open arms and are totally integrated. I wouldn't move back to England if you paid me.

Personal preference, we are all different. I left over 20 years ago, all my childhood friends have also left. London is fun for a weekend, just been but it's horrible for everyday life eg my commute is 10 mins by car through fields of sheep,

They’re all in Essex. It’s now so busy there it’s like London has just got bigger.

Horrible for everyday life for you personally.

I left London 4 years ago and moved to Cheshire. I'm in a small town equidistant between Liverpool, Manchester and Chester. Could be in each in under an hour. I'm so SO much happier here. The town I'm in is quite mixed between more affluent areas and some real deprivation but house prices are v reasonable in comparison to the golden triangle areas of Cheshire and ludicrously cheap compared to London.

It's not a promised land but it's a bloody good one

Friend moved to coastal town in NE as got a job in Newcastle. Loves it. 30 mins on the metro. Never packed in like the tube

As a family we’re about to leave London. Been here 12 years- the best of my life. But now for a young family housing costs and nursery fees insane whilst they’re not unmanagable but they’re not comfortable either. We don’t exactly go to bars and the centre on a whim anymore. We can still get to London when we move in 30 mins. We’re FTB and have enough for a 3 bed house as opposed to a studio or 1 bed in our current location. We don’t want to have to worry about catchment areas and avoiding particularly secondary schools. On our road 5 families have left in the past 12 months to Hove, Somerset, Gloucestershire etc. Our neighbours child started primary during COVID and between sept and Dec 7 children had left from her class. We’re northern and would love to move back but we wouldn’t get the salary we currently have and would be a risk to give up secure jobs in current climate

@x2boys yes I don’t know why almost everyone in this thread is all ‘Londonnnn or countryside village’
Geez people there are other cities
You don’t have to sacrifice your pace of life If you move for example to Manchester or Glasgow

@LoudestCat14 most people don’t though and probably will never be able to afford it. Hence the reason for the migratory trend...

LateAtTate So who's buying all houses then?

I don’t live there but Sheffield is massively underrated in my opinion. It’s got a lovely feel to it, especially the villages and suburbs towards the Peak District. Good links to Manchester and Leeds, and London if you want to visit.

@LoudestCat14 international companies for investment reasons? The top 10% of London earners?
Because of the sheer population density even a small proportion would be a large enough number who can afford it, especially with the very large salary disparities. Also many people have help to buy from families , inheritance etc.

I spent my life in various capital cities. Had I been able to afford London I would have stayed. Of course there will definitely be people who can afford it but that says nothing about general affordability.

@UpSlyDown and @Liverbird77 I live there too and love it. I just had a thread asking for experiences of moving out further as most of my friends have moved due to the high house prices and not being able to afford a bigger house/garden/garage.

I love the parks too, they are great for kids.

@treetimes I think we might consider moving to somewhere in Trafford for secondary schools, but we aren't sure yet.
I love the way I usually bump I to people I know when out and about. It's a real community.

LateAtTate I can categorically state that none of the houses in our street have been snapped up by international investments companies and nor are people high earners, us included! I don't dispute that there is an affordability issue in the capital, but it's incorrect to say it's widespread otherwise all the houses would be empty!

@treetimes we recently moved from out terrace to a bigger house and considered briefly moving 'out' e.g stockport, cheshire etc but ended up staying close by. Can't imagine living anywhere else now! I love bumping into people in the park and cafes etc. A few of our friends have bought/are doing up 'forever homes' so I feel like theres lots of people sticking around :)

@LoudestCat14 so you’re basing your definition of not widespread to ‘nobody on your street’? Did you buy your property with only your own savings and nothing else? Do you earn more than 50K between you both?

Some statistics for you:

www.financialreporter.co.uk/mortgages/house-price-affordability-at-its-worst-in-a-decade.html

www.schroders.com/en/uk/private-investor/insights/markets/what-174-years-of-data-tell-us-about-house-price-affordability-in-the-uk/

Cardiff

LateAtTate No, I'm basing it on plenty of areas north, south, east and west, where we live and lots of our friends live. And yes we did buy with our own savings and no, our combined salary is often less than 50k because I'm self-employed and my earnings fluctuate. Therefore, as I previously stated, I'm not saying affordability isn't an issue, but my point stands that comments by a PP that "most" people can't afford to live in London isn't wholly accurate.

On "who is buying" London houses. It is a mixed picture. Clad flats in London are not selling and flat generally in inner London have dropped in value. Where my son bought (end of tube line) 2 bed terraced in Jan just beyond the M25 lots of people were fighting over every tiny £350k house with garden because they were moving out of flats including out of inner London, needed a room to work from home in and a garden

On my road suburban outer London on tube buyers are families wanting a bigger house.

[quote LateAtTate]@LoudestCat14 so you’re basing your definition of not widespread to ‘nobody on your street’? Did you buy your property with only your own savings and nothing else? Do you earn more than 50K between you both?

Some statistics for you:

www.financialreporter.co.uk/mortgages/house-price-affordability-at-its-worst-in-a-decade.html

www.schroders.com/en/uk/private-investor/insights/markets/what-174-years-of-data-tell-us-about-house-price-affordability-in-the-uk/[/quote]
You talk about top 10% of earners - but the average full time salary in London is around £38k (according to the ONS), so a combined income of £50k is still quite 'average', and not near the top 10%.

Yes, London is unaffordable for those who are in lower wage jobs and want a family but aren't lucky enough to land a council house or have family support. Doesn't mean that everyone but the rich are leaving either. Plenty of children on free school meals at our local (Outstanding) primary and a far more racially diverse pupil group than we'd find in many of the areas cited here as places to move to, which as a mixed race family has been a big part of the reason we've stayed put.

I think what people find hard to get their head round is if you move out and are near a mainline train station then it is so much quicker coming into London than to get from one bit of London to another.

I'm fully aware of that, I just wasn't aware of many areas in z6 that had such a short journey.

"Watford to Euston is 21 minutes even Rochester to Stratford is only 29 minutes
St Albans to Kings Cross is 22 minutes"

But that's the just the train/tube journey you still need to get to the transport & get to your destination on the other side. And you have to factor in times for fast trains us getting out of the actual station

@Warmduscher I love your garden!

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

But what are Londoners who are priced out meant to do?

All good cities, but all small/very small in international terms. So none compare directly to the London experience.

As a pp said London is like lots of villages, most people stick to same area.

They’d much rather live in Brixton or Tooting than leafy, dull Surrey.

Brixton isn't particularly exciting anymore as so many of the locals have been pushed out.

I mean the photo that was posted that shows Brixton seems to only show white people but I'm sure they love the diversity. 😆

So who's buying all houses then?

On my road it's people who are moving up the ladder but got on it in the 90s so have 500k or more of equity. The younger people are helped by their families. My neighbours a family of 4 sold to a msn who was buying the property for his 25 yr old daughter.