Large house & independent schooling

[Yumyummyyum]

Hi,

If you are able to afford both these things comfortably could you tell me where you live? We are both high earning professionals but we currently live in cramped London housing and can’t see that we will be able to move up the properly ladder here. We would like to be able to afford a decent sized house 4/5 bed semi or detached and good (private) education for our children. Ideally somewhere that is diverse/cosmopolitan. Obviously lots of other factors to consider but I would love some pointers so I can look at whether we might have opportunities in other places that might offer these things. Thanks!

Just outside Sheffield. Between Sheffield & Derbyshire. Sheffield is very diverse, Derbyshire not so much.
4 good private school options in Sheffield & 1 a little further out.
We have 3 DC in private school ( 2 in school, 1 in their nursery but will be joining them next September)
5 bed detached.

Overseas or UK?

@BabyFour2023 Thanks! Maybe we do need to explore more U.K. cities rather than looking at international options. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been around the U.K. much

Also what professions? And how wedded are you to private education? We earn well and can afford the house but not private education in the Cambridge area (but you don't get change out of £20K per year for private schools in Cambridge) - the state schools are good though.

@newstart1234 I think we would probably prefer to be close to a major international city but maybe that’s just unrealistic and we would face all the same problems. We have family in Canada, USA, UAE, Germany, Scandinavia. Singapore is also somewhere my husband is interested in.

We are in the legal profession. DH is not willing to forego the private education part. He would rather stay in our terrace than give up on it. He realises it isn’t rational if you have good state options near you but he just can’t seem to get his head around not giving it to them.

Might be biased but West Yorkshire area is great value , lovely countryside Leeds is great city, good airport good train links and some great independent schools (I have experience of Bradford grammar which is brill) , if you want to pin down specific areas then ask advice on that subject

We live between Manchester and liverpool.

Helsinki!

You need to define ‘high earning’ because for some people that’s £50k, for others it’s £250k. It also depends on how much equity you have in your current property. To put 2 kids through private school (which is generally less outside London but varies up to several thousand a year between schools) is going to cost you a minimum of £40k at yr7 upwards. A 4 bedroom detached house anywhere very nice is going to be upwards of £500k. Very very nice areas and you aren’t going to get much change from £1m. If you could at least give an idea of house price that would help.

The thing that makes me a little nervous about other U.K. cities is job opportunities. At the moment our jobs are wfh so we could move but when it’s time to change jobs will we regret it if we aren’t in a major city? I may be completely wrong on this.

Leeds/Wakefield/west yorks.

friends live rurally between Leeds and Wakefield, lots of private school options (Wakefield has 3 or 4 I think?). Good state secondaries. Bradford/Huddersfield/Harrogate/sheffield easily reachable. There’s also several excellent 6th forms.

manchester is also fab. Diverse, good schools, city is probably one of the most interesting and of course big university town.

This might be a stupid question but if you work in UK a legal system
is that portable to other countries with different legal systems?

What budget do you have for a house?

Our combined household income is currently 260k. DH is looking to move jobs and get an increase. Our terrace house is probably worth somewhere between 550-600k with half off that being mortgage. A 4 bed is 1-1.5 million around here. We have two kids who are pre-school age so looking at prep schools for now.

Places like UAE, Singapore, Switzerland you cannot always buy freely if you are not a national?
Just stay in London and live somewhere like Dulwich which has 3 good private schools. Can you afford that? The cultural experiences available to children in London are fantastic.
Winchester, Cambridge etc all lovely places with good private and state schools but housing just as expensive as London.
If you don’t mind suburbia then move to somewhere like Sevenoaks which has loads of prep schools and easy commute to London and lots of great state grammar schools too, as well as a few well known private schools. However, again Sevenoaks is expensive.
There are parts of London which are cheaper surrounding places like Dulwich where you can get cheaper housing compared to eg. North London which is extortionate. If you are both lawyers won’t one of you eventually be a partner or QC and make big bucks anyway?

Are you qualified with English law qualifications? If so you'd need to convert or pass more exams to practice in another country. If you're earning that much between you surely you'd be aware of this already?

Anyway you could consider Birmingham or Manchester if you can only practice English law don't want to retrain. If you can practice Scots law then Glasgow has world class facilities and much cheaper cost of living as well as good private schools for less than £20k a year.

If you're happy to retrain internationally then I'd suggest Copenhagen or Melbourne for a small but well served cities with good standard of living. No idea on private education in either of these countries.

Loughton/Chigwell/Buckhurst Hill?

We don’t use the private schools but there’s plenty around so somebody must be. Central line into London is pretty easy, or you can drive in in under an hour. Plenty of 4 bed homes around for under a million too.

Our work is off quite an international nature so it’s not like we are specialised in UK. conveyancing law or anything like that which might not be transferable. I don’t practise as a lawyer but work in a legal department and DH is looking to move out of practicing law as well, so I don’t think the ‘qualified’ aspect would matter as much. If it did though I do know practising lawyers who have moved to the Middle East without re-qualifying and I imagine it’s not the only region where that’s possible but would need to look into this.

There are loads of places within an hour of central London by train. Maybe research train times & check schools and house prices within an hour & see what you can find.

For example the Bedford schools are always well thought of and run busses to lots of nice villages and small market towns around. Trains run on the Bedford line straight into central London. You will get something much nicer than a terrace for that sort of money in Bedfordshire.

what’s your house budget though?

on 260k 1-1.5 million for a bigger house should be doable. But it depends on your outgoings whether it’s actually affordable.

most major uk cities outside of london it’s easy to find somewhere commutable outside of the city. Manchester you can live in a Peak District village and still have under an hour commute. Leeds is the same, my friends are 10 mins train from Leeds but still completely outside the city.

Look at Chelmsford as an option. We moved from a 2 bed flat in London to a detached 4/5 bed house. Some very good options available between £700m-£1m price tag. Well connected to London, close to Stansted and a number of private schools accessible in the area (Belsted, New Hall, St Cedds, Felsted (a little north of Chelmsford though).

Melbourne. I don’t live there, but Australian private schooling isn’t as expensive as it is in London, and Melbourne house prices aren’t as high as Sydney (which is equivalent - if not more - than London).

In Singapore - a place you mentioned - your money wouldn’t stretch very far.

I think, if you like London life, another uk city won’t feel the same.

1-1.5 would buy you a detached 4-5 bed in a nice village outside Cambridge which is known for its excellent private schools.

Depending on which side of Cambridge you're in you'd get to London in circa 1hr, sometimes 40 mins.

It's multicultural and vibrant, not like London of course, but also not like middle England. I know many international families in Cambridge and it's a very welcoming place.

1-1.5 would buy you a decent Cambridge house too but obviously not as big as in a village. Advantage would be that you could cycle to school. Traffic can be bad, so try ti pick your house and school on the same side of town. Happy to give more advice if this sounds like an option for you, I'm very happy here

Lille. Good links to Paris, Brussels and London and a good bilingual school (private but secular).