Moving to Wales to be better financially?

[DAISYBELLAxx]

Hello!

My partner and I are currently selling his flat in Surrey and our house budget is around £500,000.

I am a teacher and he is an electric gate engineer. I am currently training to become a self-employed dog groomer, as I struggle with the stress and workload of teaching.

We have been looking at houses around our way, and the prices are so expensive for what you get! We have decided that we need a driveway (so that he can park his work van), a large garden (for my dog grooming business eventually and for our own dogs) and a minimum of 3 bedrooms (we would like to start a family within the next couple of years).

A work colleague of his mentioned about the good house prices in Wales, with wages being the same rate as the UK. We have done some researching, and have seen that for £350-400K, we could have everything we wish for and more. This would mean a cheaper mortgage for us (we have an 100K deposit) and it would allow us more flexibility money wise with starting a family and becoming self employed.

We are looking around Cardiff, which is around 3 hours away from Surrey. I am very close to my family and will miss them if we went. We both do not have a big circle of friends anyway. I do worry about being lonely and know that we will both need to step out of our comfort zones in order to build a new circle of people around us. On the plus side, meeting with family will probably mean more living further away, as the time will probably be more valued and of good quality.

It all makes sense but equally seems so daunting. Has anybody moved from England to Wales and would be happy to share their advice or experience with me please?

Thank you. 😊

Not sure how you are going to operate a dog grooming business from home unless you are very isolated. Without neighbours. You'd need change of use permission also from lical council. Have you really thought this through properly?

Dog grooming is a luxury. I live in the outskirts of London and many dog grooming businesses don't make it. There is a COL crisis and I would be very concerned setting up a new business in a less affluent area where you don't know anyone, and expecting it will fund a significant mortgage.

These are very good points. I honestly can't see this idea working, sorry OP.

Have a look at the Wales Index of Multiple Deprivation. Property is cheaper here for a reason (although not in Cardiff where prices have risen a lot).

Your DH wouldn't get much work locally around Cardiff anyway, he'd probably need to travel to wealthier places over the border - in which case living in Newport would make more sense. Newport wouldn't be my choice though, big parts of it, especially the city centre, are very rundown.

I certainly wouldn't leave your career in teaching - have you scoped out jobs in your field in South Wales?

I live in an area where housing is very expensive and see this kind of thing a lot.

The reason that houses are cheaper in some areas is because the wages aren't as high in those areas, so the net result is the same!

I agree.

Net-net is probably the same unless you work in a civil service-type job that pays roughly the same throughout the country.

Hence, OP should still continue to teach or find a civil service job.

A work colleague of his mentioned about the good house prices in Wales, with wages being the same rate as the UK.

If you move to Wales, my first tip would be to discover that 'England' and 'the UK' are not in fact interchangeable terms, and that - shock horror - Wales is actually part of the UK!