Retirement - where's a good UK base

[Dubaiinception]

Hello

We're long term expats (I'll give you three guesses where based on the username), looking to retire in about 10 years. Realistically, we'd want to have a base somewhere in the UK (spending more and more time there as we get older) but aren't tied to any particular location. I'm really struggling on how to make the decision of where. There is no clear 'home' in the UK for either me or DH - there are places that we spent considerable amounts of time as children, and places we visit regularly because parents are based there, but nowhere that we'd have an established network of friends/family in place (family are disbursed around the UK/world).

Assuming not London/South East because looking to keep house prices and cost of living low(er), does anyone have any suggestions of areas to start thinking about? Or even good sources for information rather than me going into Rightmove flights of fancy?

Criteria are:
(1) 3 bed (but ideally three double, two bath) house for under GBP500k, ideally more like GBP400 (assuming prices will increase over the next few years). Some form of garden, off street parking, but doesn't have to be detached. I like older houses (but might not actually want this if I'm thinking of old age an maintenance!). Some form of view. I'd love to be rural but given the other criteria anticipating that's probably not going to happen.
(2) Good transport links including public transport easy access to a decent sized town/city that has options for restaurants, theatre, cinema etc.
(3) Access to (NHS) healthcare i.e. not an hour from the nearest decent hospital.
(4) A community that is likely to be welcoming to outsiders and ideally multicultural/otherwise open minded.

I grew up in the Yorkshire golden triangle, and actually that would be ideal but not sure how I feel about going back to my childhood 'home' area. Plus possibly too little Britain?

What do mean by Little Britain? Too many comedians in drag?

I would say Yorkshire is your best bet, maybe somewhere around Leeds or York. Don't know about the Little Britain aspect, but it would match other criteria. Your budget is a bit tight, but you could get a nice smaller house.

I know you said you don't want to go back, but you've pretty much just described Otley and Ilkley. Not strictly "rural" but both very close to the Dales.

North East coastal places like Cullercoats or Whitley Bay would meet those criteria.

Lytham St Anne’s / Southport thought not sure how multicultural. Easy to get to Manchester/ Liverpool. Not sure what you mean by “Little Britain “

I think I mean Little England not Little Britain.😃

Thanks everyone. Not sure we can afford Ilkley but it used to be very pretentious/keeping up with the Joneses which meant it wasn't somewhere I was considering. Appreciate that I didn't put not pretentious as one of my criteria but am I being unfair based on a stereotype from the 90s?

Otley is a good shout. Will look at the NE places as I don't know them at all.

Question on around Leeds/York is where! I love the idea of York but the traffic is a nightmare, and I have heard horror stories about the city being overtaken by hen/stag parties. But it's hard to know how bad it really is.

And also will look up Lytham St Anne’s / Southport. Thanks!

I live in a lovely place just outside York, but I think the prices are a little high for your budget. The city is still quite nice, though, and you'd get more for your money.
I think you'll find things have changed since the 90s. In many ways.

I'm in Ilkley op been here 30 years and I don't think it's as much keeping up with the joneseys as it used to be! Just get yourself a membership of the Bowling Club and you'll be fine!
Loads going on, plenty of places to eat and drink. Literature festival is in full swing at the moment.
Transports pretty good out of Ilkley.
Skipton, North Yorkshire may be good to look at as well though.

Malton is lovely - 22 mins on train into York

Malton is nice, and you could find a good house for under £500k.

Thanks. More to think of.

@ranoutofquinoaandprosecco I saw 'bowling club' and instantly thought 'surely that's for old people' and then realized I would be 'old people's 😂

Settle
If you like Ilkley but was somewhere quieter but still easy access to shops/services then look at the villages around Skipton. Outside of the national park boundary prices are more reasonable.
South Lake District (again outside the NP) Silver dale, Grange over Sands (popular retirement area)

My tip would be to focus on the tangibles. Little England, keeping up with the Joneses, not pretentious, only for old people - these are not real things. These are all in your mind, based on out of date information.

I agree my information is outdated, which is I'm asking, but these are actually really material factors because they speak to how easy it is to integrate. We're talking about starting afresh and knowing noone. I have close friends who struggled because they picked the wrong place to retire and they were far more sociable than me. There is nowhere that everyone's the same and you can find your 'tribe' anywhere, but I'm looking to avoid making it too hard a search.

If you tell me that these type of issues are definitively not a problem in certain areas, then I'll listen but I would not want to relocate to an area where I will struggle to find a friendship group that shares similar values to me.

To take the Little England point - I have good friends who vote all ways, but I wouldn't want to live in an area where voting labour was something I would feel a need to actively hide and I would be regularly biting my tongue during conversations about current affairs. My dad actually struggled with this in the place I grew up - half the village social life was structured around fundraising for the local Tory MP. [Note I'm aware that rural often tends to trend Tory and that is often for very considered reasons. The area having voted Tory isn't an issue in itself, I'm just looking for an area where people won't take offense that I don't!]

On keeping up with the Joneses - again it's about making sure that there is a reasonable likelihood we'll be able to make friends. In most areas there's a mix of people - some who care what car people drive, and some who don't. But there certainly are areas that lean one way or the other. There are certain parts of my own city I'd avoid because of this. It is outdated but Ilkley absolutely used to have the reputation of being the type of place where a woman would be expected to wear a full face of makeup and diamond earrings to the gym. I actually lived in Ilkley briefly in the 90s and hated it. Of course not everyone was or is like that, but if it was I wouldn't move there. It is otherwise perfect for what we're looking for though (well might need to increase the house budget!). Areas change over time but they don't all become more diverse - some actually become more insular/focused on a particular type.

Settle has also been on my radar, although I do remember a divorce lawyer telling me that they had a very high divorce rate because of all the couples who would retire there and then realize that the weather is rubbish and it's very different to being on holiday!

I should also say, I have been back to most of these places since the 90s. It's only really Ilkley I had built up in my head as a no (and even then I was conscious things had probably moved on!).

But what do you like doing? Are you outdoorsy? Or looking for culture? Or both? That way you’ll find your tribe through shared interests.

If you ARE an outdoorsy kind of couple, I would totally recommend Keswick. It think it has a particular niche for active retirees who like to get involved with local life, and welcoming to outsiders. There's a popular U3A association there, you could volunteer for the theatre or the museum or various other schemes. Very much not the place where you'd be expected to wear make-up at the gym :-).

Both! In my experience what I like doing now won't necessarily be what I will like doing in 10, 20, 30 years. What I seem to like doing in my limited spare time now is mainly lying on the sofa binge watching the Rookie, but I suspect doing that 24/7 in retirement might be a bit much even for me for me.

In reality, what I really doing is being able to hang out with small groups of the people I most care about, and use whatever the activity of the day as background for a chat putting the world to rights.

Settle has also been on my radar, although I do remember a divorce lawyer telling me that they had a very high divorce rate because of all the couples who would retire there and then realize that the weather is rubbish and it's very different to being on holiday
That's funny. My DH hankers a bit for Settle - we don't live that far away from there though and probably live somewhere deeper in the Pennine rain shadow 😄

We are currently living in The Uk (North) but plan to leave in around 5 years time, DH has an EU passport so we will mostly travel BUT we do plan on buying a 2 bed flat or similar in York.
We met at Uni there and I visit often for work so we know it pretty well. There are decent transport links to airports etc and if we plan it right we may not need a car, which is a bit of future proofing
Worth considering OP?

Also look at Otley

Skipton, Ilkley, Otley, Harrogate?

Thinking on

Buxton
Bakewell
Ashbourne
Cirencester
Frome
Hebden Bridge

If i were in your situation, I think i would look at cities, because I think they are more likely to be diverse and have access to decent hospitals / theatres and so on. London, Bristol etc too expensive. Sheffield/ Nottingham/Newcastle/ Leeds maybe?

Although, i personally love Bridport/ West Bay in Dorset.