Would we be mad to up sticks and move to Edinburgh

[JamInMyWellies]

I am Scots but lived down Sth since I was a teenager. DH and I love Edinburgh and are really thinking about moving North.

Please give me your good and bad points about uprooting and moving from East Anglia to Edinburgh.

Price of properties in Edinburgh is very high...

It's a lovely city. I have lived here for nearly 30 years (help!)
Property very expensive.
Good airport and train connections (my daughter lives in London so I go up and down)
Easy to get out of london to the countryside
Colder up here but east Anglia can be cold too.

We can live in the city and get a similar size property minus the garage for the same price or be 7mikes or so outside the city and have our dream house.

This new stamp duty 10% thing though has given us a bit if pause for thought.

But it's the lifestyle thing. At the mo DH has an 2hr commute to work he could cut that by half and easy for him to work in London if needs be.

If you can take the weather, do it. Airport, train, connections in general are brilliant from Edinburgh and just outside it. It is an amazing city and I love that it isn't as stratified into wealth groups as much as London and areas of the South. Everything is easy to navigate and if you like the beach/countryside/city centre it is all so quick to get to.

But the weather is not great.

(Oh, and I used to live in East Anglia! Great weather. )

Ds recently moved to edinburgh and I love visiting him there. Why not move?

Hmmm I can't remember the weather really being that bad. I lived in NY so can totally handle the cold winter. Actually would prefer a proper cold winter better than the weird insipid warm winters we have had here for the last couple of yrs.

I have lived in Edinburgh or just outside for 50 years. It can get cold, but more in a damp raw way rather than cold or crispy.

It is a much darker place than New York, ( 55 degrees North rather than NY 40 degrees) winter days are much longer.

Edinburgh is a very vibrant cosmopolitan city- almost no racial tension, lots of tourists, and lots of great arts, restaurants and activities. Big academic life middle class eco types- which makes for great activities and acceptance of children. The city is compact, you can easily drive the width of it in half an hour. Unspoilt countryside is all around- hills, beaches, big artificial ski slope. Trams take you from the city to the airport- althouigh it is only a few miles.

Living in the city is expensive. Morningside/stockbridge/Bruntsfield are all great for families but costly.
Move just a few miles outside the city and prices drop dramatically. Public transport is good from all directions into the city- the East coast is well served by a good rail link having you to unspoiled costal towns within minutes of the city centre- but prices along this rail link are high.

A good buy may be somewhere on the new Galashiels to Edinburgh rail link which is being opened in 2015, with many planned stations just a few minutes to Edinburgh.
Property prices along this link are still very low you could snap up a bargain as when the rail link opens prices will soar.
I have just bought a 5 bedroomed house for £200K with a garden close to ameneties in a quiet leafy suberb which is a 2 minute walk to one of the new stations. The proposed journey time is 14 minutes from here to Waverley station in Princes Street, right in the heart of the city.
I love it here but then I am biased!

The city is compact, you can easily drive the width of it in half an hour - are you serious? I find Edinburgh very congested. Half an hour seems optimistic. If you might need to use buses check the Lothian buses website journey planner.

We've been trying to buy in Edinburgh for some months. Edinburgh estate agents are not the most responsive. Expect to do a lot of chasing, even just to arrange a viewing.

Lovely city with a lot going for it though!

Edinburgh is beautiful, historic and very cosmopolitan.
Good public transport - but the "30 mins across the city" would be in relation to the bypass.
Yes, the winter months are dark and cold but that's true for a ot of the country.
Go for it!

Maby I just know all the ratruns!!

Having grown up in Dunfermline and spending huge amounts of time in Edinburgh I know the city v well.

We are pretty sure we want just out of the city We have 3ds 2 are in primary school. So that will really lead our search as we have a excellent school at the moment and would want a similar ly good school.

What suburb of the city in a 10 mile radius would you choose ?

Jam, I live in Edinburgh & work in Dunfermline. I live in the Cramond/Barnton areas.

Would your kids be going to private or state school?? A lot of the good schools are over-subscribed & can be difficult to join as all the years are already full.

East Lothian is lovely (train station at Drem). The high school at Balerno has a good name & there is a train service nearby.many people commute in from Dalgety Bay or Aberdour on the train. Morningside has good schools too.

Do you need to be near the airport?

Airport would be handy as DH would likely need to travel to London frequently. He is not so keen on moving over the forth as much as I love Burntisland etc as he is worried about getting over the bridge and traffic. When we were up Last wk it took me an hr to get from Dunfermline to Stockbridge.

We have seen an amazing looking new property ready to build in Loanhead any idea what that area is like. Obviously we are fully in the grip of rightmove porn!

The boys would be at state primary.

We live in this part of town due to proximity to the airport too. The primary school is Cramond Primary & it's Royal High for secondary.

The procedure for finding out about school places at primary is to contact the school directly (for p2 onwards) & there is a registration process run by the council for p1.

South Queensferry if you are looking to stay this side of the bridge but out of the city kind of thing. Schools are good, high school is about to be rebuilt (which it badly needs) and there is a lot of new housing planned. It still feels 'villagey' and there's great transport links.

I'm in Kirkliston which I love,or how about looking at the Winchburgh development? 4 new schools going there ... it's going to be next new town with significant infrastructure development in next few years...

Aberdour is lovely and your DH could get a train over? Cramond lovely, what about Linlithgow? V good schools there I believe?

I'd watch out for big new developments such as those at Winchburgh, regarding the infrastructure as opposed to the houses. I'm in the eastern expansion in Dunfermline and they well and truly f-ed up the schools provision here so the new primary schools are all jam packed because they underestimated the number of children that would arise from the huge development of 3&4 bed family homes . they also have to keep moving the catchments to cope with the continued new building, meaning no-one quite knows what's happening year to year. Perhaps w Lothian council might have more of a clue though!

Thanks. Not a fan of big developments so hopefully that won't be too much of an issue. We quite like Burntisland and also Cramond. Think it's going to be a few trips to just drive around and figure out our fave locations.

Loanhead is great for commuting as right on the circular Edinburgh bypass and handy for the airport, good shops locally too- near the Straiton shopping park- M&S, ASDA, Sainsury's etc.
But area is a little grim tbh.

Could you/would you rent initially to get a real feel for an area before committing to buy?

I've spent the past 10 days having to travel back n forth (by car) to Edin Sick Kids Hospital and can honestly say that living in the city centre would be an absolute no for me...traffic, congestion, parking-nightmare.

mum4fergus- I spent the first 20 years of my adult life living right in the city centre of Edinburgh- yes there are traffic problems- like any city, but Edinburgh is a lovely place to live. Many residents don't even have cars, the public transport system is good and Edinburgh is a small city so walking is a practical option. There are brilliant schools- state and private, lots of wide open places relax and play and lots top do for families.
The city is built on an extinct volcano and the park ( open to the public) forms part of the Queen's official Scottish residence at Holyrood.

Great city info here:

silver-fish.hubpages.com/hub/Cheap-Edinburgh-how-to-have-a-budget-Vacation-in-Scotland

silver-fish.hubpages.com/hub/Edinburgh-In-Winter

silver-fish.hubpages.com/hub/Edinburgh-In-Winter

silver-fish.hubpages.com/hub/Hunting-for-Ghosts-in-Edinburgh

I've never lived in Edinburgh (great city though!) but have relocated a couple of times. I'd say check out the employment opportunities carefully before you commit. It won't be such a great lifestyle option if your dh ends up commuting back to London ime. With our previous location we moved as dh had a great job offer but in hindsight I wish we'd thought more about what he would do if that job ended for any reason.

Of course if you have one of those great jobs that are needed everywhere wish we did then please totally disregard my comments

Burntisland has a brand new primary school.