People who moved out of London/ SE during 2020/21

[escapethecountry]

AIBU to think that there are quite a lot of people who are now regretting their decision to move out of London/ SE in the last couple of years? There seem to have been lots of office workers who were able to WFH who took the decision to move away, either to enjoy a larger house/ better quality of life or because they thought WFH would be permanent. I know a couple of families who moved away and are now considering moving back already. Have others moved/ know others who have moved and are now considering going back?

@weansu

Well you’re being a tad ridiculous

Tbf it does annoy me when people say my journey is 15mins or whatever. I would never count my journey as just the train or tube time.

I don’t count my work journey as 20mins, I said to get from my area to uptown is 20mins by train/ that’s correct! Do most people live and work directly next to a station?!

[quote weansu]I'm going to sound utterly spoilt but a 3 bed terrace is not my idea of a fabulous house.

These are fabulous houses

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/112905722#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118877435#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110181332#/?channel=RES_BUY[/quote]
You don’t sound spoilt you sound deluded - I think those houses came in at 700k in 1993….
I just want to break the delusion that everyone in London earns shit loads and has a million pound house. My three bed terrace is worth c. £475k-I’m a middle income earner- my children have a bedroom each and a garden, we can go into central London over half term just as easily as we could go fruit picking in the countryside. I have no complaints but I’m not clearing 6figures!

@Shutupandcry

I know a few people who have moved recently- I don’t think due to covid/wfh but more than we are in our thirties and settling down and wanting kids so a cramped 1 bed flat above a chip shop in Clapham wasn’t cutting it! Moved to ‘home’ wherever that is (Devon, Bristol and Hertfordshire) or to a more affordable city (Manchester and Leeds). All loving life and happier where they are but that’s largely due to much more space and disposable income than london not being a great place. I’d live in london if I was very wealthy. Otherwise no.

How do people have more disposable income out of London? Just on their mortgage? Council tax is quite a lot higher outside of London, food isn’t cheaper, gas and electric isn’t cheaper, transport doesn’t tend to be cheaper- how does this work?!

@OnlyFoolsnMothers I think mortgage/cheaper rent mainly. Then things like hairdressers charging less etc perhaps? We moved from london and spent a lot less month to month despite doing virtually the same things so I think eating out, childcare etc is a bit cheaper and it all adds up.

That's Totteridge and Whetstone on Northern Line - turn right out of tube station - swimming pools - turn left - my house!

@kathmacc

That's Totteridge and Whetstone on Northern Line - turn right out of tube station - swimming pools - turn left - my house!

Sorry, what is?

Or is that directions for us to come for drinks?

Some gorgeous houses in T&W.

I know 6 families that moved out of SE London/London. Only 2 people have been asked to return to office 3 days a week. Both of them work in consulting. They are actively looking for new jobs.
None of the people i know are moving back. !!

I actually moved all the way to Lisbon. I knew it was a risk, but so glad that we did in the end. I’d never lived outside of London before and it was a now or never moment to try it. I work in technology so it would be fairly easy for me to find another remote based job if my workplace stopped allowing it. Thankfully they haven’t and some form of remote work will most likely be a permanent feature.

@kathmacc hey Neighbour😂 We’re part of the turn left brigade too. Love all the green walks here.

[quote supermoonrising]@OnlyFoolsnMothers
With all due respect you are clueless about london- south east London, zone 4, 20mins into central, 20mins into gorgeous kent countryside- 700k would buy you a fabulous house!

Could you suggest an area that could get a fabulous house (min 3 bedrooms) + 20 minutes to central London? Not possible from my research….[/quote]
Yes, south Norwood and Crystal Palace and the area in between. The fast train is 12 minutes to London Bridge. There was a 5 bed detached house for sale recently on Maberley Road.

no regrets here.
I loved living in London, then a satellite commutor town .. but moving to the SW was best decision I've made in a long time. If it hadn't been for lockdown I never would have thought WFH was a possibility for me.

You don’t sound spoilt you sound deluded - I think those houses came in at 700k in 1993….

How can having an opinion on what is a fabulous house or not mean I'm deluded?! 😆

I just want to break the delusion that everyone in London earns shit loads and has a million pound house.

As a 2nd gen immigrant I'm fully aware however this doesn't impact my opinion on what's is a fabulous house.

Do most people live and work directly next to a station?!

Apparently they live & work on the platform judging by all the "I can be in london in 15 mins" comments you see on MNs

@DiddyHeck

Londoner here, I have no idea where you lived in London. I dont think its a shithole at all. I live in a beautiful leafy green part of London. Lovely people, polite and nice. Lovely little village, nice big park, I am surrounded by fantastic places to eat and drink. Id never be bored of living here

It's pure ignorance mostly. Some people really don't get out and about much so they think the world is as it's portrayed in the tabloids or on the TV.

Is that a bit like how anyone from south of the Watford Gap thinks that anywhere "up north" must be a squalid ex-mining town?

YABU.

We moved out but still commutable - so far it’s worked v well for us.

If people moved to Cornwall or Scotland and their jobs are based in London, then that is foolish if they didn’t have a permanent agreement to WFH- but that’s on them.

It’s not straightforward though we moved from a nice rented house in Bath out to Copenhagen— we are now probably coming back not because it’s not nice but because of Brexit it means mugshots and fingerprints every year for 5 years, and it’s pricey and problems getting post/parcels- post covid no flights to regional airports etc, etc— certainly it may be different if you are buying but on the rental market it’s the same price for a nice house in Kingston On Thames as it is in Bath or Brighton or Winchester as an example , plus expensive train costs or fuel costs — it isn’t always a straightforward thing and competition for nice places is even more insane in some of the lovelier regional places (and to be honest there aren’t that many places I would rush to- I like greenery —but I like plenty of life too )

personally my experience has been that outside of London, especially in small towns, people are more narrow minded, eager to fit in and live dull lives according to societal expectations, there’s less to do, less cultural diversity, less people who enjoy having deep chats and debates about life and question the status quo.

I've no idea about where you were from but I've just been reading Brian Blessed's memoir. Talking about his upbringing in a South Yorkshire mining town and how his father and uncles (who were miners) were often reciting Shakespeare, one of them rose to management and could sing German operas fluently. These were men from very humble backgrounds working in dangerous manual jobs in 1930s Yorkshire.

In the slate quarries of North Wales, the men minuted their lunchtime discussions. These included debates on subjects such as Church disestablishment and tariff reform. Poetry and music also featured. Ignorant provincials, these were not.

When I've been on public transport in and around London, never mind "deep chats and debates", everyone is trying their utmost not even to catch the eye of another passenger. Up here on the other hand, the regular passengers and the staff get to know each other very well.

@WonderfulYou

Exeter is around two hours from Paddington.

Exeter is about 3-4 hours away from London.

@WonderfulYou it is not, I've just checked the train times and journeys typically take 2:30. Some as little as 2:10. When some used to skip Reading and Taunton there were trains which did it in two hours dead.

But I see that you've seen a previous reply so er - cancel the cheque!

*buddylicious
I'm a Londoner. I moved away years ago to where my husband was born. I still miss London and wish I'd stayed there!

@EmmaH2022
Have you visited recently?*

Yes I visit a lot. My family are there!

@buddylicious

*buddylicious I'm a Londoner. I moved away years ago to where my husband was born. I still miss London and wish I'd stayed there!

@EmmaH2022
Have you visited recently?*

Yes I visit a lot. My family are there!

Oh cool It's just changed a lot so I wondered.

Now, I wonder if OP will return?

Don't care how many trees are in Croydon, its an awful place to live! Spent many years in London and know it well. Wouldn't return no matter how much you paid me. Its definitely changed for the worst.

I moved to London a few years ago and recently moved back up north and couldn't be happier, my earning potential is equal to what I would have earned in London except, houses are cheaper, cost of living more affordable, better quality of life, relaxed pace of life, a larger chunk in savings/ spending money at the end of each month. And more importantly my new role has a flexi work policy where I am in the office around 1/2 times a week, out at meetings for a morning and then at home the rest of the week it's great.

Yep 3 friends, 1 went to Birmingham, 1 Scotland, 1 Brighton. Birmingham and Scotland both hate it, they just don't feel like they fit in and want to come back but now can't afford to. It's been over a year so I'd be expecting them to have a good idea by now. Brighton doesn't hate it, says she can have a similar life style to London however the costs are roughly the same so she isn't saving much so she'd rather be back in London, she's moving back at the end of her rental agreement. I'm lucky enough to live in a beautiful leafy part of London, love it and unless we could no longer afford it will never move from London. I do think lots of the "awful place to live" and "have you been there recently" comments scream of jealousy. I'm very grateful for the fact that I can afford to live where I do, that doesn't mean I need to be disrespectful of other places. Putting another person down doesn't raise yourself up.

This thread is funny - as if you can only be in one of two polarised camps. It is possible to love London and to live somewhere else. I’m a Londoner by birth but left around a decade ago, and have lived both super-central and more recently in one of the leafy ‘villages’ named upthread. I’ve both loved and hated living there (I absolutely loathed it as a child, then we moved away in my early teens, then I moved back and loved it in my 20s and early 30s, and then got increasingly ground down by it).

I’m hysterical at the idea that London is the only hotbed of deep conversation - we’re not all out the back drinking cider and discussing butter, you know. We can also visit London (and even other cities!) quite easily and affordably, even from outside the south East, what with having no mortgage, and not being too exhausted to enjoy it because of all the commuting.

Why is it your business OP? To gloat?

The thing that saddens me the most is that people seem to want to go back to the drudgery of sitting in an office five days a week.
We were asked to make sacrifices and give up a lot during lockdown, but it’s made out as if it was some sort of holiday. I have to say, I wasn’t furloughed and had to home school while working a stressful job. If anything I need time to reset as it’s exhausting and still is.