Once you leave London there's no going back?

[LovelyJubly111]

Just wondering how true that saying is. My family/friends seem to think so. I suppose it varies massively due to finances but was anyone who left and decided it wasn't for them, able to move back easily enough?

We've come to the point where we really have to think about what we're doing next, my partner says living in London is a pipe dream and we should start motions to be getting out. He thinks I'm nuts that I would live with my parents for the next five years to get a deposit together, but for me it would be worth it. But he doesn't have the same attachment I do. I was born here, he just came here after university to make money.

I know there are other nice places but as silly as it sounds I know I'm not going to fit in most places. I also suffer badly with social anxiety, so making new friends would be a monumental task. The idea of leaving and never being able to come back just fills me with dread.

I have never lived in London so can't give you a success story. However, if you dont already own a property in london that you would be selling then living (and owning) a property outside London won't disadvantage you in the London market, should you decide to return, any more than living in London in rented or with parents.
Everyone find DS moving to new places daunting at first but it's a good experience to have done it at least once and prove to yourself that you can cope. Also if your not moving too far then you will still see family and friends regularly anyway. I've moved around a lot, like most engineers I'm barely socially functional! Somehow I'm married with children and a house in a town that I arrived in by accident 9 years ago...not sure how that happened!

Can't speak about London as I'm not in the UK, but I have experience with Sydney which is somewhat similar in terms of expense (I think Sydney is the 2nd most expensive city in the world behind Singapore, but not 100% certain).

DH and I owned a flat there pre-kids. We sold it for around $350,000 7 years ago, and it just sold again last year for $780,000.

We wouldn't be able to afford to live in Sydney now, because the cost of housing has skyrocketed and because we now have four children to consider the cost of too. Private schooling in Sydney is more expensive than it is where we are now, housing is more expensive, the cost of living in general is more expensive, and ultimately we would be spending so much more of our time commuting and working than we do now.

Everyone I know who has done similar says the same thing: we've all been priced out of the Sydney market. It's happening in many places in Australia, but Sydney is the worst. Even a dip in the market won't make it affordable for us at this point. It would take a colossal crash bigger than what occurred with the GFC for it to be feasible.

Just as well we have no desire to move back. Much prefer our cleaner, less expensive, freer life in the country.

I live in London and have no desire to leave, but we do occasionally talk about how it would be hard to leave and come back. I think it would depend whether you could come back and negotiate a big enough salary/good enough job to carry on living in the way you might have been outside of London. Most friends who have left London have wanted to get bigger houses so probably wouldn't want to move back and get smaller ones.

Choose carefully where you want to move to - really take your time and think about moving elsewhere in the country, do you are not saddled with a massive commute. Then you may find it the most enormous relief. We decided to shift to another city rather than join the commuting throngs in Sussex, Kent, Essex etc. After years of deliberation, we pick Edinburgh and LOVE IT. I do miss friends and it does take time to make new ones, but it will come. On my return trips back to London I can see what a terrific city it is, but everything is such hard work. Just getting anywhere takes ages, costs a lot and can be a bit of a battle. Do you may find you would never want to go back!

We moved out a couple of years ago and are sort of considering going back (I would in a heartbeat but my husband likes more rural living and I can see advantages for our daughter out here). The usual reason cited for not being able to back - London prices increasing more quickly than elsewhere so you are priced out- hasn't happened yet. The other things that make it hard are giving up space (indoor and outdoor), things like off-street parking that make day to day life easier, being detached rather than joined to neighbours, schools, etc.

I lived in London for some years but was never happy there, the expense and the traffic.
i now have a lovely three bed house on the South Downs with a forest on my doorstep and the sea and no commute to speak of, the clinic I work at is 5 minutes from my house.
If I moved back to London I'd only be able to afford a studio flat in the area I'd like to live in and there would be a horrible sweaty commute on the tube every morning. No thanks.

We have moved from a trendy area in London to the very most northern bit of London (still an N postcode but frankly just Isn't 'London' to me) we got a gorgeous house and a garden instead of our poky flat. But. I'd swap and go back in a second if it wasn't for my little boy. He needs the space and we miss the place we lived in.
It's like everywhere though, to get what we wanted there's no way we could have done it without a million plus quid. Dreams are for free there

We are about to leave after many years. All the way to devon. I'm excited and petrified. We are keeping a flat in london so we have a toe on the ladder but I doubt we will ever afford a family home here again.

I adore London, adore my friends and my job. But I'm not seeing my kids enough and we need a slower pace of life where we can both afford to work less and be a family more. Plus we are moving to a dream house with three times the space.

Gosh I hope we don't regret it. I have wonderful friends in london and takes ages to make new ones.7

We had to move out of London when I was pregnant because DPs mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she sadly passed away but we have stayed in our hometown and plan to stay until DD is primary school age at which point we plan to buy a house and move back into London. London is home for me, it gives me a lovely feeling every time I came out of our old front door. I think most people who leave London have got sick of it and realise their money would go further outside of London in terms of housing, and then house price rises in the capital price them out of returning to a similar standard of living in London but obviously not everyone feels that way. I don't want to live there forever I don't think, but I would want to retain a small flat in London if we moved to the countryside as my parents have done so that weekend visits are easy and stress free with a home base to go back to.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, I think we really need to consider what we want in life it seems. He would be happy for the fresh air/bigger house, I don't really care about stuff like that. The benefits of London outweigh a big house. Though it is a bit reassuring to hear people have found happiness elsewhere.

engineersthumb you might find this hard to believe but I'm even too socially awkward for other tech nerds!

Hey Lovely, I hope it works out for you. If you ever fancy a gander at Edinburgh, sing out and I will give you a show around. It's a good option for ex Londoners - all the culture and restaurants you could possibly wave a stick at, but beautiful countryside in 10-15 mins. It's just polite not to make too much of the ex Londoner thing! Can be hard for folks here to see people with such big housing budgets moving in. But play it sensitively and you will find folks are very friendly.

I was born and brought up in very central London. Now on the outskirts. My dream is to move away completely. I still work in central London. Love the architecture and the history but hate everything else. Great place to grow up but just feels a bit shit now.