Thinking of moving back to edinburgh

[Marylou47a]

Hello!

My OH and I lived in Edinburgh together for 8 years while i was at uni and then stuck around for 5 years after. We did love it but I felt far from family and frustrated about the lack of jobs- I work in fundraising and was stuck in the same job for years. So we moved to London when an opportunity came up at my work. My OH was pretty reluctant but came with me anyway. Now 6 years later we have a little boy who is one and the thought of staying in London for too long makes me feel all kinds of stressed! To be honest I'm just generally stressed at the moment!

Anyway, we have been thinking of moving as we know we can't afford a bigger place in London and I can't bear the thought of living in a suburb. The other option is Birmingham where we are both from and is nearish my parents in Oxford. Went to look at houses and while you can get a lot for your money the thought was just quite depressing.

So we are back to considering Edinburgh. I love the city, we still have quite a lot of friends up there and i think in the long term it will be so much better for our little boy.

So questions for those that have done a similar move- do you feel far away from everything if you are originally from England? What's the jobs market like- is it frustrating coming from London with all of its opportunities? But more importantly do you feel like you have a better quality of life?

And for everyone it's really hard to tell how much property is going for up there as I know they can go way over the offers over mark. Where could we get a 3 bed tenement flat for £350k? Could stretch to £400k possibly if it meant somewhere perfect in bruntsfield or marchmont but that looks unlikely? Newington would be good or leith.

And what are nursery fees like?

Also, wierd one, how much monthly income do you reckon you need to have a nice time after mortgage etc has gone out? I remember feeling like I always had money in Edinburgh even though I earned about £20k less than I do now!! But don't know if that is an idealised memory of it all!
Any advice gratefully received. I feel like I'm just having a circular discussion in my head at the mo so hoefully this will help me clarify!

Ta!

To be honest coming from the London market I'm used to paying way over the odds 😬 So I was assuming everything would go for more anyway. Considering renting for a while if we do move just incase I change my mind 😂 I love the security of owning where we live but it's a very permanent decision once you've bought and with all my dithering I think it's best for everyone's nerves if we start off renting!!

We sold recently and got £20K over the home report valuation. 30K over offer overs ...

Ps if you want an unfurnished let, there's not much about tbh. Most are offered furnished. We had problems finding a suitable 3 bed rental.

I would prefer furnished if we do rent as we would rent out our flat down here so would leave majority of stuff in London at first. Goodness- lots to think about!

Just to say, my observations about Scottish education are based partly on my own experience with my kids (Sciennes/James Gillespies, so well thought of schools) and partly on teaching the products of both English and Scottish systems at uni over the past 16 years. Emphasis on testing and a kind of very narrow achievement is often not good for university work or, more importantly, for kids' mental health ime. But each to their own - I didn't want to start a debate either! Back to the subject - Edinburgh is fab!

Don't discount looking a little bit further out than marchmont, bruntsfield etc. We moved here 9 years ago into a very beautiful Meadows flat. Neighbour issues did for us in the end and, in desperately wanting a house, we looked further out but within the ring road. No regrets and our kids went to sciennes/Gillespies/Boroughmuir and had really good experiences there. So happy now and just 15 mins to princes st by bus. Also many of my work colleagues live out in East Lothian (having lived centrally pre-kids) and wouldn't now swop for the world - house prices and transport links are both very good. I know from experience that it's easy to fixate too much on the kind of Edinburgh life you think you want, and not be flexible enough to properly think about other options. Good luck.