Moving to UK from Malta, need your help.

[belthazor]

Hi,

Nice to meet you all, I'm new here! - Basically I'm a 28yo mum, have two young kids (3yo daughter, and a 1yo son) and my husband works in software development in iGaming in Malta, we're both Maltese.

We're looking at moving to an area close or in London (20-40min commute, since my husband will work in central london). - We're looking for a safe (important) but yet not dead town to live in; we have shortlisted a few but we're not sure. - Schools are also very important.

Richmond
Walton-on-thames
Teddington
Sevenoaks/Tonbridge/Royal Tunbridge Wells - Area

We do like the idea of Kent, since its safer (seems safer anyway), but I prefer your opinions and personal experience!

Kindest Wishes,

[senua]

Has he actually got a job lined up or is this still at the planning stage. Have you looked at other areas for a better work/life/affordability balance eg enterprise areas near the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford or Warwick.

[belthazor]

The office is located next to Tower of London. - Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it.

[blibblibs]

Hi belth we've just returned from a year in Malta and just wanted to let you know about a few things that are very different from living there.
60k won't go nearly as far in the UK as it does in Malta. It's about the same salary my DH has and we've been back a few months and I start work soon but spent my days drinking cocktails at the beach in Malta!
There are far more outgoings here that just don't exist in Malta. There is council tax, which is a tax you pay the local council every month and the amount depends on the valve of the house you live in and is anything from £100 upwards. You also need a TV licence to watch TV which is over £100 per year. You will have your own account with utilities even if you rent and the majority of houses have gas & electric aswell as water bills. I have however found the utilities comparable to what we paid in Malta.
Fuel is more expensive although groceries are cheaper, except cigarette & alcohol.
State school is much cheaper as you don't have to pay for stationery here and most uniforms can be bought in a supermarket rather than the one shop in Malta!
If you have any other questions please feel free to pm me.
The UK is a great place to live but it is very different to Malta 😀

[heinztomatosoup]

I'm in Essex it's very reasonable try Chelmsford you could get nice 2 bed there.

[juneau]

A £60k salary will not very far in the southeast OP. In many areas of England it would give you a nice quality of life in a nice town, but around here (i.e. commuting distance to London), you'll find that once you've got rent on a 2-bed house, bills, possibly car, annual train fare, etc, to pay for you really don't have a lot over. And your short-list of possible towns includes some of the most expensive in the entire area.

Where will your DH be working? This is an essential piece of info and will have a bearing on what we suggest, because commuting times vary hugely, depending on where you live and work.

If you don't want to tell us where he'll be working, I suggest you pull up a map of the train lines in/out of London with commuting times and then you do a Zoopla (or other nationwide property search website), search for properties along the train lines you identify as being the best ones for you. You can search for properties to rent or buy and you'll see what sort of prices they go for.

[specialsubject]

No need to fuss about safety, the UK is fine with common sense. The most dangerous thing here is the driving.

Have a look on rightmive.co.UK to give you an idea of house prices, both buying and renting. Read the how to rent guide on gov.UK as i imagine you will be renting to start with .

Commuting costs will be very high.

[specialsubject]

Sorry - rightmove.co.UK

[BitOutOfPractice]

Sounds like Essex would be best. Straight into Liverpool Street or Fenchurch Street.

[belthazor]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it. :)

[belthazor]

Fenchurch Street.

[5amisnotmorning]

If he can work from home 2-3 days a week and you/ he doesn't mind not being around on those evenings, you will be better looking a good distance outside with a direct train to London. Does he jog at all? As he could fit in his daily exercise from train station to work.

That isn't a small salary for most of the UK but for London itself it isn't much. Also for good state schools you have to live virtually on their doorstep. However if you live further out you need to factor in train fares of £4-5k pa and there is no pro rata adjustment for part time.

[whataboutbob]

I was going to say look at Canterbury (Kent) there's a fast train service every hour, it's 1 hour only but it gets you to St Pancras station, he'd then have to get down to Tower Hill.
Canterbury is a pretty Catherdral city with good schools, quite small so not overwhelming. I went to school there. You can't ever guarantee safety but I would not describe it as rough. Should be able to rent a family home for £1000-£1200 pm.

[ferrier]

If your dh will be working in Fenchurch St you really don't want to be living in the south.
Definitely get a map and look at all the lines that go directly into Fenchurch St.

[belthazor]

@5amisnotmorning yes he does jog (5KM a day) - I agree 60K GBP is not a lot of money for London, for malta it's good comfortable money.

[juneau]

Okay, for Fenchurch Street there are direct trains from south Essex. And that area, although mixed in terms of towns (i.e. some are very nice, others less so), is not overly expensive, so it's definitely an area that you should be looking at carefully.

This map www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/timetables/nationalrailoperatorsmapZoom.pdf is great and you can zoom in close and see all the names of the towns.

You could also look at towns on the lines going into Liverpool Street station, which will widen your search considerably. Some of the trains going into LS are really fast and so won't necessarily add any time to your DH's commute. You could also look at towns on the east end of the Central line (these towns are also in Essex), which goes into Bank, an easy walk from Fenchurch Street.

[eurochick]

I realise the 60k is salary. I was toddler wrangling as well as typing! But the point stands that it won't go far. Maybe to a mortgage of 250k at a push, as someone else has mentioned.

I'd suggest looking at places from which you can commute into Fenchurch St or London Bridge, so Essex or SE London. Places around Bexleyheath on the London /Kent borders can be fairly cheap and the schools are good.

[belthazor]

May I ask what's the ideal salary for living in Richmond or Teddington?

[un1c0rn]

Honestly? £100k +

[JoJoSM2]

TBH, 60k to support a family of 4 in London is a very tight budget so it would be worth having a think of whether it makes any sense to move.

Even if your DH pays nothing into his pension, his take home pay will be 3.5k/month. You won't be able to afford places like Richmond or Teddington as you'll need a min 2.5k/month for a 3 bed flat. If you add to that council tax, utilities, a travel card into he city, you'd end up with no money to put food on the table. And frankly no one would rent to you with that income in the first place.

Living outside London in towns like Royal Tunbridge Wells or Sevenoaks might be equally impossible - the rent will be lower but it will cost your husband 4K or even over 5k (from Tunbridge Wells) to commute into London. That's £400 just for his train fares.

The areas that could be doable for you, are somewhere in the boroughs of Sutton or Bexley in South London. Both are super safe with fantastic schools but are considerably cheaper than the posh places on your list. You'd probably be able to rent a 3-bed flat or house for 1500-1800 and the commute would be 2k a year for your husband. That would leave you about £1500 to pay the bills, buy food and and non-essentials. It'd be doable but you'd really need to budget carefully. So not sure that moving to London is worth your while.

Another thing to bear in mind is that if you wanted to go to work, childcare is extremely expensive - starts from over 1k per child per month for full time nursery. So it can be quite difficult for some women to actually go to work and earn money unless you're a highly paid professional and can afford all the childcare costs.

[JoJoSM2]

Re income of families living in Richmond or Teddington, I'd be surprised if many have household income below 200k (at least those that are professionals with their own house).

[AwkwardPaws27]

For Fenchurch Street, Upminster on the London/Essex border is a nice area, good high street, country parks nearby, and quite safe. Might be a bit out of budget to buy a house, but you could rent or buy a nice 2 bedroom flat on that budget.

[BordersMumNow123]

Some of my family live in richmond, both good jobs and leaders in their field of science, their income is probably 150k a year. They bought a tiny excouncil house, extended it and they still have to budget. Richmond is a very expensive place to live!

[belthazor]

@senua or others, which areas would you recommend us visiting in Cambridge, Oxford or Warwick? We're also consider walton-on-thames if anyone can help with any suggestions there pleaseee.

[un1c0rn]

Walton on Thames still is around £600-800k for a decent house. Near weybridge is nice, the hersham side less so.

[pinkdelight]

Richmond and all those places out west don't make great sense for Fenchurch st. As pp says, Essex will suit you much better both logistically and price-wise.