Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be irritated by the Londoner exodus to my town?

999 replies

thesecondnamegame · 13/06/2021 17:04

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.

OP posts:
Standrewsschool · 13/06/2021 17:27

If demand is higher, then has your house price value gone up?

Areas becoming popular and out-pricing the locals out of the houses is not a new phenomena.

OlympicProcrastinator · 13/06/2021 17:27

I’m a Londoner forced out by increasing prices and a ridiculous rise in crime in my local area. We needed to move house and simply couldn’t get anywhere for our money.

Not a single one of my childhood friends were able to stay in the area where we grew up and we’ve all had to leave because we could afford to rent or buy a home where we grew up.,

I certainly don’t ‘let everyone know’ I’m from London although it’s pretty obvious from my accent and I don’t ‘look local’ which was very difficult for me and my family when we arrived.

Don’t think for a minute we don’t face the same issues as other people and we also have to tolerate people thinking we ‘want everyone to know’ we are from London too apparently Hmm

YABU

icelollycraving · 13/06/2021 17:28

Loads of people can’t afford to live where they grew up, including Londoners. I think it’s fine for people to move to live but I do understand the second home owners leaving areas like ghost towns and locals getting frustrated.

ThePlantsitter · 13/06/2021 17:28

Blaming individuals for this phenomenon is pointless. Who's going to plan their lives based on your being able to buy a house?

SoupDragon · 13/06/2021 17:29

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.

London jobs aren't limited to those "born and raised in London".

HopeYourHighHorseBucks · 13/06/2021 17:29

I really don't understand this possessiveness people have over their "hometown" but maybe its because I'm a londoner Grin(your road is safe from me OP I'm not a mover) but I couldn't tell you where half my road are from, lots of different people.

Anyway, it happens in London too, prices in the trendy areas start going up, ordinary folk are priced out. Its shit really. I do know the type of Londoner you mean though, so if the school run is full of them, it can be very 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Original poster
thesecondnamegame · 13/06/2021 17:30

Talking from experience, I have met smug Londoner's who like to go on about how lovely and big their house is and how they are so glad they left London because they got it all nice and cheap.

OP posts:
Drunkenmonkey · 13/06/2021 17:31

I don't like the sneary attitude towards londonders. Most Londoners can't afford London either that's why they move out. It's happening more now because people can work from home so can leave their tiny overcramped houses and still keep their jobs.
But not all of them want to move away from their friends or family but they can't afford decent property there either. Not all Londoners are wealthy. I understand the anger towards second home owners, especially when it creates a ghost town in the winter and ruins the community, but people being annoyed because 'outsiders' move into their town is very unfriendly. I hope I'm not on the receiving end of that attitude if we decide to move out, but it is a worry of mine.

SoupDragon · 13/06/2021 17:32

I see you don't have enough belief in your opinion to post under your normal name.

Tealightsandd · 13/06/2021 17:33
Biscuit Like you haven't seen the other threads on this. Including the one currently ongoing.

People have been coming from Manchester and all over the UK to London to price out Londoners for years. Now those same people (at least half, if not more, leaving are NOT Londoners) are moving back out.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Welcome to the 'levelling up'.

Puffykins · 13/06/2021 17:33

I would love to be able to live where I grew up in London. And we did what you suggested and bought the shoebox - the DC are 10 and 8 now, and after a year of both DH and me working from home and homeschooling etc. We have decided to move out of London - because our incomes have not risen in line with housing so we can't swap the shoebox for anything more than a very slightly larger shoebox quite a lot further out... Londoners have been priced out of London. And I totally understand your finding it heartbreaking - I do too, I would LOVE to stay here - but it's just not possible.

korawick12345 · 13/06/2021 17:34

I see you are one of the 'friendly' northerners that people from the north love to bang on about!

Cazzamoomoo · 13/06/2021 17:34

You are right OP. The demand for housing causes the house prices to rise, but local wages don't increase at the same rate to allow others to be able to afford rising house prices.

beerdrinkinglass · 13/06/2021 17:34

@Nohomemadecandles

Why would you have to move.if you'd already bought? It's not an invasion!

I think you are being unreasonable. It's fab to have media city around here. It's bringing a lot to the area.

I'm assuming you're Altrincham?

This would be my thought too.

YABU OP. Social mobility and free movement works all ways.

bookish83 · 13/06/2021 17:34

Which town OP? Chorlton way? Or Ramsbottom?

I genuinely want to know!

bp300 · 13/06/2021 17:35

@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.

But moving 10 miles away will contribute to pricing out the people who live there. How is that any different?
ThePlantsitter · 13/06/2021 17:35

@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 not about London. It's about financial inequity everywhere. There are many many Londoners who can't afford to buy houses and don't have huge salaries and didn't have a nice fat deposit from mum and dad to buy the mythical equity increasing flat in the first place. Very lazy and irritating thinking. I get that financial inequity is irritating - I'm livid that having enough money for a particular private school basically guarantees your kid a seat in the cabinet- but I am really, really sick of the 'smug Londoner' trope.
TailFeatherz · 13/06/2021 17:36

@OpalBerry

A local town for local people
We'll have no trouble here
TatianaBis · 13/06/2021 17:36

I’m irritated by people assuming that house price rises across the country are Londoners’ fault.

Many of the BBC employees who were forced to move to Manchester really didn’t want to go. It was move or lose. The BBC decided it needed to become more regionally relevant.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 13/06/2021 17:37

It’s the same in London too. It’s the same all over and has been for ages.

Egeegogxmv · 13/06/2021 17:38

successive gvts have failed to deal with our dysfunction housing market....that's why:(

Divebar2021 · 13/06/2021 17:38

Well firstly thousands of people move from across the country to London for job opportunities so perhaps they should stay put. Secondly not every job in London carries a huge salary - I’m public sector and I get London weighting which is probably 6 - 8 grand more than someone doing to same job in Manchester. How far do you think that goes in the London property market? Lots of people have to compromise where they live to afford to live so sorry... sympathy is very thin on the ground.

KentuckyCriedFricken · 13/06/2021 17:38

The same is happening in London and other places. Cornwall, for example. People can’t afford to buy in the town they were born or grew up in. What can you do?

You don’t think they were happy a out the move, do you? They were told “move or be made redundant”. They had to leave their friends, children had to change schools, settle into new after-school groups such as brownies or scouts, make new friends…Good for them if they made a bit of money on the house sale into the bargain and could buy something bigger than they had before. At least they had one nice thing out of it.

And if you are complaining that they are buying houses “3 times the size” of what they had in London how does this affect you? Or are you also hoping to buy a huge house and they are now yoir competition?

UpTheJunktion · 13/06/2021 17:38

BBC employees are on salaries, not some mythical unicorn London Salary. The majority of people living and working in London are ordinary people on ordinary salaries finding London very hard to afford, as foreign investors push up the prices of housing.

And while everyone else is having the horrors considering buying any house that doesn’t have off street parking and a garage, Londoners are in 1 and 2 bed flats with no parking at all. So yes, they are pleased to be able to enjoy getting more for their money.

House prices rise in areas with jobs.

People wanted the North /South balance redressed…

Also, no Londoner I know was actually born and bred in London (though obviously there are lots), we / they came for the jobs.

TatianaBis · 13/06/2021 17:39

@thesecondnamegame

Talking from experience, I have met smug Londoner's who like to go on about how lovely and big their house is and how they are so glad they left London because they got it all nice and cheap.
It is cheap compared to London.

Sounds more like they’re trying to cheer themselves up.

Swipe left for the next trending thread