To be irritated by the Londoner exodus to my town?

[thesecondnamegame]

I've been priced out of my Greater Manchester town by the London diaspora. Anybody who knows the area will know which town I mean. My tatty council town centre terrace is worth 300k. A load of Londoners came up after the BBC moved to Manchester. Half the kids in my kid's school's parents are from London and they love to make sure you know that. House prices have become ridiculous and are in a different world to the rest of Greater Manchester. It's ridiculous as it used to be a very unremarkable market town (albiet with not much to it) and now it's gone all 'naice' and I'm having to move 10 miles away because it's reaching the surrounding towns and I simply cannot afford to live here and I want to buy a property. It annoys me, I keep imagining somebody who had a London salary and bought a house in London, sold it, and came up here and bought a house 3 times bigger for the same price as their smaller London home. It just seems like they cheated. There are no school places either, because a lot of the Londoner's chose this particular town for the schools. The catchments are bloody tiny, I know somebody who lives in a village about 4 miles away. The schools in this town are the closest schools. No school would take her child and she ended up having to home educate for months.

All my relatives who bought properties or private rented have had to leave, even those who went to uni and got great jobs.

I’ve only been to Manchester once (from London😂) but to call it a small parochial city is very wrong and rude. I bloody loved it. Great place. People as friendly as Londoners too😜) ditto Liverpool. (Other cities Ramon on my “must do” list!

lot of people ‘from London’ aren’t actually from there though! People from all over the country move there for work and after university. People from (as in grew up in) Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Northumberland, Wales, Cornwall, etc all priced ‘born and bred’ Londoners out for rental flats and first time buyer places. I was born and grew up in East London and I cannot afford to live there. You cannot complain when they move back out later on!

Oh they know. But complain they will because they like to. Puffed up with spite and ignorant insularity, with more than a whiff of racism too. Londoners are 60% non white British, and I strongly suspect some of the hostility about Londoners moving to 'local' areas is about that.

They complain about the 'investment' London gets, then have a tantrum when they get a taste of that 'investment'.

They want to have their cake and eat it.

No one owns the village or town or city they're from. You also cannot expect to have one way only traffic.

@thesecondnamegame

The fact that several people on this thread have correctly pinpointed which GM town I am in pretty much proves that the northern investment isn't well distributed and has just inflated certain areas.

But not necessarily the fault of born and bred Londoners.

The North South divide is strong with this one.

South Manchester (I'm guessing Altrincham or Timperley or Hale) has ALWAYS been expensive. And half the people there like to pretend they live in Cheshire when it suits them.
This is very much like how everyone is getting priced out of North Manchester by people who would previously have wanted to buy in Chorlton/Didsbury etc. And similar to bits of Salford. It's circular. I'd rather live next to a bunch of people from outside the area than local who resent my presence.

And I'm eyerolling at somewhere like Altrincham being described as a plain market town. It's always had delusions of grandeur.

Remain on.*

@thesecondnamegame

The fact that several people on this thread have correctly pinpointed which GM town I am in pretty much proves that the northern investment isn't well distributed and has just inflated certain areas.

It was quite easy to guess. Sadly it is not even one of the nicer parts of Greater Manchester, it is pretty grubby in parts!

So so many nicer parts of Greater Manchester but can see why people choose Didsbury.

@korawick12345

You’re as bad as the OP!
They are making sweeping statements about London and you about Manchester.
Funny wherever I go in the world and get asked where I’m from everyone knows where Manchester is- I’d probably say it’s second only to London in terms of international notoriety- yes because of the football teams but still!

I live in a small NW town, we have had a fair amount of families from Hong Kong move in (to the posher houses). They have been made very welcome and have obviously brought their wealth with them.
Don't know of any Londoners, except for DH who moved up 40 years ago for uni and never returned.

@ForgotAboutThis

South Manchester (I'm guessing Altrincham or Timperley or Hale) has ALWAYS been expensive. And half the people there like to pretend they live in Cheshire when it suits them. This is very much like how everyone is getting priced out of North Manchester by people who would previously have wanted to buy in Chorlton/Didsbury etc. And similar to bits of Salford. It's circular. I'd rather live next to a bunch of people from outside the area than local who resent my presence.

And I'm eyerolling at somewhere like Altrincham being described as a plain market town. It's always had delusions of grandeur.

Monton 'Village' Prestwich 'Village' Neither of which are villages. Some very lovely houses but my god which part of Manchester will get a 'Village' label next!?

@thesecondnamegame

I honestly really wouldn't have a problem if it was more equally spread out over Greater Manchester and the north as a whole. But it isn't. People are coming to very, very specific areas and creating London-lites. I admit my area doesn't help itself because it kept grammar schools, which I believe it what got it the attention.

This is what the so called Northern Powerhouse 'levelling up' is about.

I agree with other posters. It's mainly people from all over the country moving to Manchester. The people who used to move to London or have but already want to leave. The Londoners who are leaving (and the majority aren't) go to the leafy shires, if they're wealthy, or much cheaper places than Manchester if they're poor.

@thesecondnamegame

The fact that several people on this thread have correctly pinpointed which GM town I am in pretty much proves that the northern investment isn't well distributed and has just inflated certain areas.

But that means nothing, people have moved to Manchester for a reason as people have moved to other places in the UK historically. You wouldn't move to Hartlepool, Doncaster, Selby or Sunderland if you wanted to work for the BBC or in the financial sector. There isn't a blossoming seaside trade in Huddersfield or Walsall.

I wonder whether the grammar schools in Urmston and Stretford have seen the same effect?

Or is it Altricham Grammar and south Manchester/Cheshire private schools if they don't get in?

Did any of you complaining have any sympathy for Londoners well into their 30s who wanted to buy in London but couldn't because prices are ridiculously expensive? I'm betting you didn't give them a second thought. Because they chose to live there (or because they put grew up there and all their family and friends are there...).

Meanwhile you read about people elsewhere in the country buying a three bedroom semi as a single person in a normal job as a first time buyer in their twenties. But people elsewhere in the country wanted to keep their collective bargaining for NHS and teaching jobs. It's ridiculous when someone who"d have to pay £400k for a flat where they grew up in London is being paid almost the same as someone doing the same job that can actually buy a four bedroom house for the same money.

I don't have any more sympathy for you than you did for young Londoners (who don't all have second homes btw).

Try living in York Op. Londoners are driving out the locals then complain it’s boring and not multicultural. At least be nice about my town if you’re going to make it too expensive to live here.

[quote JaJaDD]@korawick12345

You’re as bad as the OP!
They are making sweeping statements about London and you about Manchester.
Funny wherever I go in the world and get asked where I’m from everyone knows where Manchester is- I’d probably say it’s second only to London in terms of international notoriety- yes because of the football teams but still![/quote]
My tongue may well be in my cheek! However the OP is carrying on as if South Manchester is Causeway Bay in HK or Beverly Hills - it just strikes me as rather ridiculous!

Lots of people can't afford to live where they grew up. Lots have to move to keep their job. And a huge city of people are not all privileged. Your generalisms are bizarre. The majority of "Londoners" didn't grow up there. They came from other places because their job was there. So some of those people you're referring to will be Mancunians moving back. Are they allowed back? Or are they "Londoners" now and therefore not allowed over your imaginary threshold? How entitled you are.

Pinkpapaya - and who's selling those cornish cottages at over inflated prices?

@thesecondnamegame

Somebody born and raised in London who was able to go to uni and go into a job on a London salary is incredibly privileged. They had the opportunity buy a shoebox in London, stay there while it builds equity for a year or 2, then sod off up to Manchester and buy a 4 bed semi-detached without batting an eyelid because it's "Oh so cheap compared to London!" When lots of people are doing that it then unnaturally inflates the local house economy and so they all benefit even more. The issue is, it doesn't work the other way round. All that happens is house prices sky rocket and the locals have to leave so the town just becomes London away from London with the ridiculous house prices and pathetic school catchments to go with it.

This is a really nasty post. My friends still lives up the road from where I used to flatshare & has been burgled twice, it's a shoebox, he has to work crazy hours to pay the bills, he's still got a massive mortgage, he was exceptionally lucky to get his son into the local school virtually on the same road (lucky as some of our other friends close by didn't and now have a crappy commute), & there's a load of crime. But his job and his kids school are there and he feels he can't move. It's almost impossible to save a penny living in London as it's so ridiculously expensive. He was raised in London and went to uni there. How dare you mock him and others like him in your post. It really upsets me.

I'm sorry you're struggling where you are but the solution is not to talk about other people's situations in generalities that are incorrect and designed to mock and belittle. It's really not nice.

I guess you could say 'well why doesn't he just move' but you seem to think all Londoners who do that are nasty pieces of work who set out to ruin your life.

People from Greater Manchester don't pronounce the word 'nice' as 'naice', Merseysiders do that.

You say the town is better now than it was, why are you moaning? There's nothing to stop anyone moving to a different part of the country. Or you could stay put. If you can buy a tatty terraced house for £300k I'd say it was worth hanging around just for that.

I'm staying put, I like living in the London area. If I did want to move to the country I would hardly choose Greater Manchester though I have to say any house costing only £300k sounds like a bargain.

I think you have problems other than those you have outlined; you seem resentful.

Honestly @Honeycombskl it's not the incomers who are to blame, it really is the greedy local sellers inflating their prices and seeing pound signs when they see Londoners.

I absolutely agree with that when it comes to services such as restaurants and bars charging far more, however when it comes to properties the Scottish system means that property doesn't usually go on at a set price, it goes on as 'offers over' and people put in their offers. Those moving here having sold expensive homes in wealthier areas are able to offer far more than what the homes are actually worth (you can only get a mortgage up to the valuation price) so those on lower wages, which those living here mainly are, can't get a look in.

Anyway, I feel like I'm moving more and more away from the point of the thread and my original post which was that I understand the OP's frustration based on my experiences up here.

I get the frustration. I didn’t want to go to London after university because I thought the housing situation was absolute madness. Precisely because of the fact London pulls in so many people who come from elsewhere, but just HAVE to be there for their career (they say - not convinced in many cases). I went for the quality of life balance - and now it feels like people who contributed to the craziness in London are now moving out and spreading it to those of us who never wanted to be part of it.

To those saying ‘now you know what Londoners have been facing’ I say I knew all along. That’s why i don’t live there, despite loving the place.

I agree with posters that you can’t stop people moving where they like and I’d never be unwelcoming to a new neighbour, but I also think it’s unreasonable to expect others to be happy about the phenomenon.

Also as an aside, how much were Alderley Edge prices increased by Manchester United being the top team for a decade? Other than Becks and Sheringham I don't think they had too many Londoners in their ranks.

@ForgotAboutThis

South Manchester (I'm guessing Altrincham or Timperley or Hale) has ALWAYS been expensive. And half the people there like to pretend they live in Cheshire when it suits them. This is very much like how everyone is getting priced out of North Manchester by people who would previously have wanted to buy in Chorlton/Didsbury etc. And similar to bits of Salford. It's circular. I'd rather live next to a bunch of people from outside the area than local who resent my presence.

And I'm eyerolling at somewhere like Altrincham being described as a plain market town. It's always had delusions of grandeur.

Agree! My husband and I have been following this thread with interest as we both grew up in Urmston- Altrincham has always been ‘posh’! No surprise that it would be where people with money would go Londoners or not!

I am one of the ones who would bought in south Manchester but have now driven up the house prices in north Manchester 😬

The whole ‘you can drive up the motorway and buy a house which is £80k’ is ridiculous - of course you can but living in Bolton would be absolutely nothing like living in Altrincham!

It's mainly driven by the schools I think. I know someone who bought a flat in Altrincham and their family all moved in so their endest could pass the 11+ and get in to school there. They didn't pass, so they all moved back to their house in Wilmslow. I can't imagine the stress, pressure and feelings of failure that poor child went through. Now they go to some private school, but have to pay obviously.

@JaJaDD that depends where in Bolton. Don't be rude.