Relocation back to the UK? What to do.

[whatevernext1976]

We are from the UK, but live in Africa and were supposed to be relocating back to the UK in the summer. The driving force was schooling and opportunities for my two children in the future, Uni's etc. They are 12 and 8. I've been homeschooling my eldest since September so that we could follow the UK curriculum.

We had flights booked for the first week in July (cancelled) and plans in place. Now what? We had enough to support ourselves for around 9 months to one year while we were finding work as we've put aside money specifically for this. Realistically, schools in the UK may be opening and locking down periodically for the next year until a vaccine is found. It is ironic, therefore, that schools are the driving force for the move. Also we wanted to be near my parents but they are in the vulnerable category so we wouldn't be able to see them anyway.

We have a smallholding here and an Air BNB which obviously is dead for the foreseeable. We are safe where we are and we can continue homeschooling, we own our home outright here so the cost of living is low. We still very much want to relocate to the UK but do you think we should hold tight and completely scrap our plans for the next year to 18 months.

I would wait for at least 6 months, 1 year if you can manage where you are. We were due to relocate back to the UK this summer but have put it on hold for 6 months. We will probably realistically push it back by a whole year now - hoping the world will have settled on its new normal by then.

We were possibly emigrating from the UK! We are hold for now.
Do you have a property in UK to return to, or were you planning on buying something? Are you needing to sell your African home too? This could be an even larger factor because the whole industry here is on hold (as far as I know). No viewings, inspections, surveyors etc. Might be different if the property is empty, but I'm fairly sure there are only minimal things going on and people are being advised not to move at all where possible.

Could you plan the move for the new year instead? Is your eldest going into highschool in Sept?

We have a small property in the UK that we rent out, it's too small for our needs so we will continue letting it. We're keeping our African house, no plans to ever sell it. We have the equivalent of a year's rent put aside so we were hoping to rent and give us time to sort ourselves out and then buy in the future or continue renting.

My son would be going into Year 8 in September. I'm quite confident on the homeschooling front and I can continue this, no problem, for the time being. We're making good progress through the curriculum so I think I can get him where he should be, ready for when he starts school in England.

Thanks to both of you for replying. It sometimes feels like we're the only ones in this situation. My main concern is schooling for my eldest, as we wanted to get him settled prior to options and GCSEs. However, I'm thinking that schools in the UK might have quite a bit of disruption anyway. They may have to move to part time schooling, reduced timetables or further lockdown. I know that this is very much up in the air but I need to stop thinking that it will be business as usual in schools soon and that he is missing out. Also, he has asthma so this is another thing to take into consideration with COVID-19.