To move from Cornwall to Manchester?

[totaketheplunge]

I live in Cornwall and always have. I'm 26 and have a shared ownership 2 bedroom flat. I feel that I don't want to stay down here forever and I quite like the idea of moving to a big city (I'm a teacher so I can work anywhere) and starting a fresh, especially after an abusive relationship.

I've never been to Manchester, but I've been in a relationship with a Mancunian and love the accent, how welcoming they are etc. also you can get SO much more house for your money! I could trade my shared ownership flat for a 3 bed semi-detached!

Pros? Cons? Anyone who lives in Manchester who can recommend any specific areas to consider and what might make it a good move for a 26yo female.

Thanks!

Doubt you'd get a 3 bed for £200k in Worsley.

Maybe in the surrounding areas.

With a 200K budget, I wouldn’t bother with a three bedder and therefore compromise on the area and travel links. Better to look for a two bedroom house in a OK area that’s fairly central with great travel links.

Yes this is good advice. I moved to Manchester 20 years ago from the south, regularly visit Cornwall as MIL lives there.
I think it would be a great move at your age, it’s a friendly (well compared to London) compact city, lots of opportunities and diversity.
But don’t go because you can get a 3 bed house for 200k because those are not particularly nice areas to live. My area is nice ish but still has a dodgy edge (south manchester) and my ex council house on an estate is 300k. Anywhere vaguely nice is expensive.
Theres good advice on this thread and I think you’d have a great time once you’ve researched/got a feel for a few areas.

The drive to Cornwall isn’t fun though! I find Cornwall just as rainy but windier. Manchester can have endless grey days however. It’s near lots of nice countryside so you can get to the Peak and Lake districts in 90 minutes. You might miss Cornish beaches though!

In case it needs to be said again - do not move to Gorton!

Some places I’d consider would be Monton, Bury, perhaps Swinton, Worsley and most of the area surrounding eg. Boothstown. Or even a little further up the East Lancs Road (connects Manchester to Liverpool) and you have some nice areas such as Astley Green, Lowton, Glazebury, Hollins Green but these are all suburbs.

I’d also perhaps look towards Hale, Didsbury etc and surrounding areas for a do-er upper but again would be unlikely on your budget for it to be a 3 bedroom!

£200k in some of those might be a bit of a stretch for a 3 bedroom but a really good investment for a do-er upper.

The drive is quite brutal though back to Cornwall so if there will be a reason you have to come back and forth I’d consider that aspect carefully.

Sorry to correct but that is Chorlton / Charlton Cum Hardy. You are not likely to get much for your money in those areas but they are worth looking at for an unexpected for a bargain. Also look areas along the tramline.

*Chorlton Cum Hardy

What's Chobo?

Hasn't Levenshulme been "up and coming" for over a decade?

Do it OP. I was going to suggest a nearer city like Bristol, but house prices there are also pricey.

Chorlton borders. Or, Stretford and Whalley Range, as normal people call them.

I lived in the Manchester area though not a city. We moved here 11 years ago. I would never ever go back but then I prefer a more rural home. It depends how much you get out of living in Kernow, I know people who have moved away and tried the busier life only to return here. People are very friendly in the north though ( I find people are lovely here too), it’s perhaps a more down to earth environment and yes you will get a much better house for your money. There’s nothing to stop you returning if you hate it. Good luck.

Ah, I get it. A bit like Stockport Suburbs and Cheshire 😂

Go to Liverpool/Wirral instead. You’ll stuill have tfe sea 😎Manchester rain ( every single day for the past 6 weeks) is the prime reason for my deciding to move away after 20 years living and working here. So depressing.

Here's an example of what you can get in Heswall (Wirral) and that genuinely is a really pleasant place and upmarket too (and on train and bus into Liverpool very regularly)

This is £239,000

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/138176078#/?channel=RES_BUY

I live in Levenshulme and work in West Gorton, and I probably wouldn't consider a move to Gorton to be honest. Most of the people are lovely, but it can be a bit rough in parts (I'm used to the area and still sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable walking home from work in the darker winter months).

I'd recommend Levenshulme as a good place to live though. We moved here from the city centre 10 years ago and love it. House prices have gone up (there's no way we could have afforded to live here if we were buying now), but you could probably still get a decent 2-bed terrace for your money. You'd be very lucky to get a garden for that kind of price (most of the more affordable houses have a yard like ours, and only the more expensive houses tend to have gardens/drives) but there are plenty of nice parks (Greenbank, Cringle, Chapel Street) so it's not hard to find some outside green space if you want it.

It's also really easy to get into the city for nights out. The 192 bus runs really frequently and really late, and even a taxi back from town isn't extortionate.

It definitely isn't for everyone though - it can be quite scruffy, the A6 runs straight through the middle and it can be quite noisy, so I'd recommend renting here before buying. You might not like the feel of the place.

Parts of Reddish and Denton are also nice, but Denton is much further out of town if that's important to you. Different parts of Manchester can feel really different to each other, and different people are going to feel at home in different places, so I think renting first would be your best bet, to find an area that fits you well.

Twenty. Estate agents round here went through a phase of describing it as "Levenshulme Village" as well. It's definitely no village and it's never going to be the next Didsbury, but it is a nice place to live on the whole.

Honestly, you'd think from Mumsnet that everyone on Manchester either lives in Didsbury or on the set of Shameless.

There are lots of other towns within the M60 that are perfectly pleasant places to live - not swish, but good communities of the type where lots of other teachers would live. For example - Prestwich, Chadderton (esp the NW bit), Royton, Urmston, Flixton, the Heatons, Reddish. I am from Manchester originally, and from the sort of massive family where I have a dozen cousins and 75% of them are teachers in their first 10 years of work, so I'm listing places that they live.

I'd suggest you could start by looking at TES ads and then working outwards from any school that you like the look of - not necessarily because that will be a role you apply for but to give you a sense of the whole city. And then I'd suggest you rent before you buy, in case the area or the school doesn't work for you - you could give yourself an academic year to find your feet that way.

Not a great area

Another vote for the Wirral. New Brighton is having money thrown at it and you can really see the difference. Train or bus to Liverpool regularly and reliably. Lovely clean beach and historical areas of interest.

We’ve been forgetting about Salford. I attended an art thing there last year, loved the regenerated areas along the river. Adjacent to Manchester City Centre. Obviously Salford still had dodgy areas but with the BBC there now a lot of regeneration is happening. The best stuff may be flats rather than houses, however. Also I think there are some okay older areas.

I love these threads.
OP I want to move to Manchester.
Posters.... we will recommend every city in the UK other than the one you specifically asked about 🙄

You're young, you're single. Now is the time to move about the country and explore different lifestyles, it's one of the reasons we encourage teenagers to go to University. Before DH and I had DC in our 30s I had lived in various places from the far north to the south of the country, I even lived abroad for a bit.

Manchester is a great city and having lived somewhere very rural (as I did as a child) you will find the energy of a city intoxicating - I certainly did. You may not want to live there forever but at the very worst it will be an adventure that will impact you forever. Go and do it and live life to the full.

That house would also be over 400k in a nice part of Manchester!! (Try looking at prices in Didsbury, Chorlton..) but Manchester is a great city, deffo visit first though!

Manchester is a great city. I say go for it.

It's in Gorton.

Moving to Gorton from Cornwall would be a shock and a half.

Seriously you need to visit the area after dark to decide if it's for you.

You are away with the fairies at this point in my honest opinion.

Do a bit more homework then reconsider.

As a rule I wouldn't consider this to be true:
also you can get SO much more house for your money! I could trade my shared ownership flat for a 3 bed semi-detached!
For so many parts of the city - certain the parts that are going to be less of a culture shock to someone from Cornwall.

You need to consider the WHY part to this. Why are some areas affordable, and others a comparible price to Cornwall.