Advice on relocating to the Channel Islands..

[ivebeenthinkingforawhile]

Hi all,

My partner and I are seriously considering relocating to either Jersey or Guernsey quite soon and I’d really appreciate honest views from people who actually live there.

We’ve been thinking about it on and off for a while, but I think it’s come up again recently because the UK increasingly feels like it’s going in the wrong direction.

We currently live in a small city and are getting increasingly fed up with the general decline, litter, antisocial behaviour, things not functioning properly, rising crime, lack of community pride etc.

My partner is a doctor, which I believe helps with access to the housing market. I work in professional services and also run a business.

We don’t have children yet but are planning to start trying in the next few months.

Our ideal would honestly be a detached house with a pool and sea view.. but we’d settle for a detached house. Ha.

We’d also probably want to keep a flat in the UK and spend a couple of months a year back here, either in London or somewhere on the south coast.

Any advice is greatly appreciated :)

Do you still need to rent for 10 years before you are allowed to buy? Do you have any family ties there?
Also teh Channel Islands really are quite isolated. Needing to fly to the UK, or ferry to France adds costs and time to things like seeing family. Young people leave so the channel islands has struggled with that.

My parents used to live there when they were younger, but that was a looong time ago.

I was thinking we could make regular trips back to the uk, the flights seem to be about £80 each way, not sure on the ferry.

France is also close.

I think we can buy without waiting 10 years.

There are two markets for housing, open and local. Property is expensive. Complex medicine is sent to Southampton or Oxford depending on the island. Lovely but very parochial and isolated. Groceries expensive. Limited for young people, most leave but often come back for bringing up own families. Limited also for some SEN given low population and some used to come to uk although may no long be the case

Probably the biggest concern is if we have children when they grow up.

I’m hoping we can make returning to the UK as frictionless as possible so we actually do it.

Are there any property portals you can recommend?

Also medicine career wise is limited if ambitious

Also Consider doctor’s pension as not nhs

I am just back from a break there and having the same thoughts. If I could make it work I would be there in a heartbeat. I am comfortable with the isolation and small community - I live in a tiny village and have spent years in remote isolated locations. And to me the upsides way outweigh the downsides. But that lifestyle is pretty marmite.

I think he’d be fine with that, hopefully a move would result in us scaling back work a little.

Some information on Jersey

Property to rent/buy - this is the best site, used by all the agents

Property For Sale In Jersey

Housing rights

Residential and employment statuses and what they mean

Jobs

Jobs in Jersey

@ivebeenthinkingforawhile I moved to Guernsey with my DH for his job and my DS was born there.

It’s beautiful but it can be very isolated in the winter when the weather traps you on the island. I found locals superficially friendly but in reality they tend to have their friends and family on the island so they weren’t as interested in making friends with me and they didn’t need a village like I did- they had their mum/MIL/siblings to help when they needed to go to a medical appt and I only had DH! I did make friends but they were other expats who tend to move/leave like we eventually did.

Have a good look at the education system- primary schools are great but secondary is in a state of flux and the private options are not the same standard you’d get in the UK.

We had a local licence from DH’s job but the local housing market is very expensive. Living room. Gg is a big estate agent on the island.

Wouldn’t you be looking at over several million for a detached house with sea view??

Have you actually been to Jersey/Guernsey?

There’s been another recent post re moving to Jersey-probably worth finding that. Housing costs are a major issue so have a look at the property websites to see what your budget might get

If I were to become a millionaire Jersey is where I would like to move to.
Not for tax reasons but I just loved it when I visited many years ago.
The weather would be slightly better than home.
i have not been to Guernsey but will visit some day hopefully.

Like a previous poster mentioned, there was recently another post about moving to Jersey.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/living_overseas/5523671-moving-to-jersey