I will likely relocate in the next 6 months, from abroad back to UK. My property budget means my realistic options in the South-East/London are a studio/1 bed flat in central London, or 2 bedrooms in outer London, towards the M25.
I know there are plenty of much cheaper places outside the southeast, but I don't know anyone there whereas I still have some links that I would hope to build on, in the S-E.
I've seen somewhere very attractive, modern, with 2 bedrooms in a relatively well connected to get to central London outer area. The only thing is, iit is pretty ,much adjacent to a place I was very unhappy in growing up. One part of me thinks I now need to cut links with this place for good.
Central London means a much smaller place, no spare bedroom for visitors. but obviously you're close to all the amenities and jobs and so on. I'm kind of thinking on an estate with a sense of community and organisations and so on.
Essentially I'm caught between go for somewhere that looks nice in what people call a nice area (and one I know well), and risk having to work through loneliness by living my entire social life away from where I live. I know the area, and while it is attractive, realistically I have little common with the people living there. Maybe that's less of a problem than I think. The alternative would be go for somewhere that chimes more with my soul, where realistically again I'd know no-one at the start in the immediate vicinity, but the above mentioned social possibilities. I do have existing friends in the UK, but they are quite scatted in and around London, 1 or 2 outside.