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,

[PricillaQueenOfTheDesert]

I don’t think that on £60k salary you can afford to be anywhere even close to London.

You can check out property on Rightmove.com and you will be able to get an idea of rental costs.

My husband is on £80k pa plus a decent bonus and we left London because it’s just so expensive and that’s just the two of us.

[belthazor]

I think it depends on how you want to live too. We're not the type that go and eat at restuarants and stuff like that. - So it depends on your expenses too.

Thanks for your opinion.

[JoJoSM2]

Sounds like it isn’t what you wanted to hear.

Yes, some people live on less than others. But to even secure a rental property, you’ll need to demonstrate what your income is and even for a single person with no dependants you’d be expected to earn more than double the rent after tax.

Anyway, even if someone rented out a flat/house for £1750/month to you, you’d need to budget 1,000 on top of that for the basic bills and food for the family (no cable, fancy phones + cheap food). That would leave you with £750/month. Living in London, DH commute would be 200, from outside London could be even £450/month.
That would leave you with £300-550/month to cover clothes, children’s activities, family days out, haircuts, cosmetics, flights to visit your family etc As you see, you’d struggle to afford anything much - like a tv, laptop or a holiday. Not to mention a car, holiday or savings.

If you’re desperate to come to London but 60k is the max income you’ll able to have, you could maybe move somewhere cheap, perhaps a 2-bed flat, DH cycling to work etc to make ends meet.

The reality is that you’d have an average income for a family of 4 (for the UK,not London) but live in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

[pinkdelight]

I think it's totally doable to live in London on that income, just not in the fanciest areas like those she's shortlisted. But a two-bed flat in a decent suburb should be fine.

[belthazor]

@JoJoSM2 It is what I wanted to hear, opinions are very much important. - We're considering Walton-on-thames, Cambridge and other areas that might be more realistic and affordable. :)

[titchy]

Oxford, Cambridge etc would mean a 2 hour commute each way.

Walton, Richmond etc 1.5 hour commute and most of your income going on rent. Your dh's take home salary is likely to be £3,200 a month. Take off £1,500 rent, £400 a month commuting cost, £200 council tax, £300 utilities, £100 insurance and tv licence, £500 food leave you £200 a month for everything else. Haircuts will cost you £40 and your dh £10, a suit for your dh is £150, shirts £10, you have to find birthday money, Christmas money, flights to see your family, school uniform, kids parties, occasional trips out for your kids, school trips needs paying for. As others have said you need to look at much cheaper areas and be prepared for at least an hour commute each wya.

[LIZS]

Walton on Thames would take a while to commute across to the City. Also factor in the cost of rail travel and reliability of service. Tonbridge is relatively inexpensive of the areas you mention. Most of the UK would meet your lifestyle criteria but the suburbs might seem oppressive after Malta. Have you visited at all?

[belthazor]

@titchy my dh won't commute on a daily basis. - Maybe once or twice a week max; if needed, because there might be the chance that he works completely remotely. but I appreciate the overview, I do agree with what you said, Richmond is very expensive but I heard that Walton is not as much.

[belthazor]

@LIZS yes did visit, I try to visit UK 2-3 times a year. - Which areas would you recommend even outside of london as long as there is a good connection and its not oppressive or it seems oppressive anyway.

[belthazor]

We were also considering south area, such as wealden, hove etc. - Do you have any feedback regarding that area?

[HeadDreamer]

You need to see how often he needs to commute. I work in software and some places are completely work from home, with in office days maybe once or twice a week. FWIW I have ex colleagues who work in London but living in Southampton, St Neots (Bedfordshire?) and even Germany!

[HeadDreamer]

I mean once or twice a month, not a week. Once or twice a week is pretty normal and I won’t live that far.

[HeadDreamer]

And one just moved to NI. They fly in for meetings. The flight cost isn’t high on budget airlines.

[ariellarose]

It's not a place I'd think you would consider because it has a bad reputation but Croydon (south London / Surrey boarders) is cheaper and has very good transport links into central London. 20 minutes on fast train to Victoria.

I've lived here over 10 years absolutely no problems despite its reputation.

You could rent a 3 bedroom here for about £1350ish. However with the regeneration it's getting expensive fast.

[cocopops88]

We live in a small village near royston, Hertfordshire. My husband can get the train to kings cross in less than 40 minutes. We are a 7 Mon drive from the station. You can buy a 2/3 bed house for around 320k, with a garden. The village primary school s are very good and the secondary school is excellent.

[ariellarose]

If you were to consider Croydon I'd say south Croydon is best, obviously there are areas of the borough I wouldn't recommend.

[LIZS]

Hove will be expensive but areas along the coast towards Worthing or inland slightly cheaper. Have you looked at property prices on Rightmove? What did you like/dislike about areas you have visited? Will you drive over here?

[cocopops88]

Meant to add Cambridge is a 25 min drive from here, but cambs houses are much more expensive, the traffic in and outof Cambridge is also appalling at rush hour.

[belthazor]

@LIZS yes had a look at rightmove. - Some areas don't feel as safe as others, but I don't mind the weather per se or anything of that kind since I'm not a sun person. - Yes I will have to drive my car to UK.

@HeadDreamer he's a lead soft dev in python; he's currently trying to reach and agreement with the company he works with to work remotely (100%) that would cut the costs of commuting. - Plus, soft dev nowadays is turning into work from home. I agree with you 100%. :)

@ariellarose which place wouldn't you consider?

@cocopops88 awesome thanks! :)

[HeadDreamer]

If it's only once a month or so, you can look at places with commutes time around an hour or just over on the train, as long as you end up at the right train station for Tower of London. It will open up a lot more places that are much more affordable. For example, Southampton and surrounds are a lot cheaper. But the train goes to Waterloo station, which doesn't sound like the right one from what PP says.

[HeadDreamer]

Try the national rail south east map here
www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/maps.aspx

The trains end up in London at the station in bold in the middle, Fenchurch Street, Liverpool Street, Waterloo, Paddington, Victoria, etc. I think PP has already mentioned which one you'll want. (Is it Fenchurch Street)? Then try to enter some of the stations in the national rail web site www.nationalrail.co.uk/ and look at how often the train runs and how long it takes for week day rush hour.

Then you can go to right move to look at house prices. Once you find a few places that are more affordable then Richmond and Teddington, then you can ask for opinions of the places.

You can also try this website? I found it with a quick google so not sure how good it is
www.commutefrom.com/

[belthazor]

@HeadDreamer thanks so much, wasn't aware of commutefrom. - Will do.

[OVienna]

Bishops Stortford has excellent schools and would be commutable for your DH. It should be more affordable than Walton. My SIL lived there for a bit. I would venture that it is still QUITE pricey and I think you do need to consider state schools and target areas where you can get in to excellent ones that don't have entrance exams. Have a look at BS.

[OVienna]

I mean she lived in Walton for a bit, so I have some idea of relative prices.

[AdaColeman]

Ipswich or St. Albans might be worth you looking at.