Ballater/Braemer doable or too expensive?

[Treesandsheepeverywhere]

Hi, anyone know/live in or around Ballater or Braemer please help.

We are planning a move with a 300k budget for possibly a detached/semi 2 bed.

Is this realistic and which place is better?

Londoners all our lives with lots of country breaks, so love the countryside but have only ever done 2 weeks max.

Favourite places are Northumberland, Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
Love outdoorsy activities and are both big walkers and cyclists.

YABU - Boring villages with nothing for that budget.
YANBU - Go for it, you may find a gem and learn to love the different pace of life.

Have a look on the aspc (biggest property website for Aberdeenshire) and see if you
like any of the houses. That seems a reasonable budget for the area. Have you got family/friends there though? Aberdeenshire is beautiful but Aberdeen itself is very small and provincial for a city, and the city centre is awful with closing-down shopping centres, and you’d be over two hours’ drive from Edinburgh. It might feel extremely cut-off after London. It’s great for hillwalking, riding, outdoors sports generally though, so sounds like you’d love that.

Going from London to Braemar is an insane move, sorry. You say you love the countryside but you've only ever spent 2 weeks there at a time. Have you been in the depths of winter? In the autumn when it's not stopped raining for a month? When there's been power cuts for a week at a time?

If you're determined that Deeside is the place for you, why not Banchory or Aboyne? The mountains are on your doorstep but you're in easy travel distance to Aberdeen. Or even closer to Aberdeen - anywhere along the A93.

Don't get me wrong, I love Braemar but if you're used to London living, it'll be a hell of a culture shock.

Would agree with pp that deeside is very different from lakes/dales. Particularly in winter it can feel very remote and isolated. Both are lovely but I think it would be a huge culture shock, particularly if you have only visited in summer time.

Thank you for your replies. We visited Braemer last February when a snow storm hit. It was beautiful to us but appreciate it was a novelty as we weren't dealing with regular life as the locals.

Will look into Banchory and Aboyne too, that's helpful.

I picture us living in a country cottage with chickens, a vegetable garden and not too far from the village centre.

Definitely advise a visit in the depths of winter - there are high numbers of boomerang settlers that come north and to the Highlands seeking the good life county dream like you describe and head south again after experiencing the first horrible winter

Locals are kicking off in Braemar over the insane level of disruption being caused by the Fife Arms. I wouldn’t be picking there for a quiet life until that’s resolved.

If you are looking at Ballater, check out the insurance position for any house you look at. The River Dee flooded a lot of Ballater a few years ago (friends of ours were affected) so insurance might be very expensive for some houses.

This is not realistic. Life is so different there you can't imagine. I lived there as a child and even then I felt we were 30 years behind the rest of the country with all culture and nightlife far far away.. restaurants museums galleries cinemas theatres .. it's not known for those. Have you considered whether you'd miss them?You will never be accepted by the locals as belonging there. Jobs hard to come by. Where will the kids go out when they are older?

I don't think you've thought it through

It’s dark 3pm to 10am for months on end. It’s a beautiful place and there is plenty to do but you may as well flit to a new planet.

Rent for a year, and see if you can get to grips with basic Doric.

the toy shop is good, mind you.

I feel like YABU but not for the reason you gave.

Aberdeen is very isolated from other cities. Living in Ballatar is another extreme. I feel like going from London to that kind of environment will be a huge adjustment. You won't have friends or connections there, and will need to consider career prospects. Why not move to a village near Edinburgh or Durham for example? That way you'd have "rural" life but the convenience of being near other big cities when you want it.

I grew up there. Winters can be brutal, it’s all well and good saying you went in February but have you been for several months of endless snow and extreme cold?
Summer can be tedious due to the volume of tourists (driving at 23 mph on an A-road)
Flooding is a problem in Ballater.
The lack of proper supermarkets is a pain.

What you want I think would actually be better found in Fort William?

Along with the chickens and the vegetable garden, you also need to have a hard think about non mains drainage (a septic tank or a water treatment package, both of which need maintenance), oil deliveries if you're not on a gas network, foxes who see your chickens as a raw food KFC, and the public transport on offer in the area. Not that these factors should put you off, but it's really important to consider the daily practicalities of rural life before you make such a dramatic shift of gear.

(And I say that as a country girl who lived in London for many years, and now has a whole new appreciation for Bazalgette.)

People like you have been doing what you dream of for decades. You move from your big city to the back of beyond up north, paying a massively over the top price for a house with a few acres thinking you'll live The Good Life. You last one summer and one winter then leave and think because you repainted with F&B paint you have somehow increased the value of a property (ignoring your total dereliction of the land). The locals, who have seen many people like you come and go over the years, will not be interested in you.

If you can't afford London there are plenty of nicer cities or large towns in England where it'll be less of a culture shock to you because you'll still have access to theatres, museums, art galleries, cinemas and shops.

Agree with other posters Braemar/Ballater are super remote, snow is beautiful on a winter break but the reality when you’re trying to get anywhere / roads closed is not so easy. Everything needs planned in advance. It’s such a drastic change. It will take a while to get to know people. I think you can make it work if you’ve lived rurally before or you are super outdoorsy (better chance of making friends) but most don’t. If you want to live somewhere more rural, Lake District (can be Manchester in 1hr 30ish) Northumberland all have better connections. Otherwise somewhere in Perthshire where you have decent connections to Perth / Edinburgh / Glasgow. I moved to a commuter village 30 mins from Edinburgh and finding that really challenging compared to being in the city with public transport connections and places to go for a walk and a coffee.

Braemar / Ballater are quite remote from local services, something you’d need to think about if you are looking at this as a retirement venture.

Banchory would be less remote (30 minutes in to Aberdeen), and a £300k budget should get you a decent semi or small detached house.

But, it’s still a long way to anywhere else - Glasgow, Edinburgh etc.

Why not just rent there for a full year and see?

It's a big change.

This! You might find that you really can’t hack the short winter days.

Aw, fabulous!

Thank you all, this is helping me adjust my rose tinted glasses, especially about the flooding insurance.

We were going to buy in Dorking but decided to go proper country and embrace it fully.

No kids, so luckily, just DH and I to consider.

Will look into the other suggestions, so thanks for those.

Haha, love the toy shop. Couldn't understand a thing! 🤣.

I'm in Aberdeenshire and I agree with the suggestion to rent first to see if you like it.

There are other places closer to Aberdeen itself which would still let you have chickens etc. Have a good browse of the ASPC site.

Often what gets people isn't the weather, but the dark. There are days in Nov / Dec when you have to have the lights on indoors all the time, because if it's cloudy on a short day it just never gets properly light.

Loved the Fife Arms when we visited. Didn't realise there were issues.

Definitely agree with others Why those places?

Banchory Has been suggested and its still rural especially the surrounding areas but a lot more accessible to aberdeen as a city (im from aberdeenshire)

Winnae be lik at quine.

Seriously, I’m from Aberdeen originally and I would baulk at Braemar/Ballater/Aboyne a bit for fear of being seen as a bit of a toonser. Less so Banchory.

DH and have loved every visit to both so hold a special place in our hearts.

No other connections to it. They're just such beautiful places.