Moving from Vancouver to Winchester

[Canadian1]

My wife and I are a very boring, somewhat typical, middle aged Canadian couple and wondered if it would be difficult fitting into a smaller village north of Winchester or surrounding area. My brother and his wife plus my two nephews live close to Guildford and we want to remain in their lives but not too close to drive his wife crazy. We are very flexible, any advice would be much appreciated.

I'd probably start with your visa rights; are you able to move here? It's a huge change going from a big, multicultural city like Vancouver to a sleepy English village! Are you selling in Vancouver? If so the world is probably your oyster!

Hard to say - what do you magine you'll be doing to socialise? Are you retired? Do you both drive? Why Winchester (its very expensive for that region, although it is lovely). Traffic is awful in the summer, so you may be further than Guilford than you think.

How about Chichester instead? Very similar to winchester but advantage of the south downs and the coast.

So difficult to say. What are your interests? What do you like / dislike about where you currently live? What would you like to get out of your move?

Although I'm familiar with Winchester I've only passed through Vancouver so I can't compare. General comments on Winchester: popular with those moving out of London, good transport links to London, reasonably close to the coast (nicer bits of coast are a bit further though). Housing expensive for the region. Good dining options.

If you are used to Vancouver, you'll find the villages very claustrophobic.
Winchester is LOVELY though - if you can afford St Cross area, go for it

I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to respond to my inquire. I apologize for not providing more information.

Firstly to 4yearsnosleep

My father and our grandparents are English so we have our right of abode already and I just need to apply to complete our citizenship. Yes we have sold subject to the usual torture. Oddly enough the main reason we wish to leave is because there is so little happening in the general area for a city the size of 2 million.

4yearsnosleep

My wife suffers from severe anxiety and sleeps very poorly so we have averaged 4-5 hours sleep over a 20+ year period. I feel your pain and another reason for our move. We have slept very well during our many visits to the English countryside.

I actually know a very nice estate agent owner in Winchester, genuine kind person (not usually associated with estate agency) if you’d like his details do PM me.

To Sunnyshores,

Thank you for your response, we're not retired but self employed and flexible. We want to be North of Winchester to avoid some of the traffic mind you I'm sure it's not half as bad as ours here. Within an hour or Guildford and Newbury and close to a direct train line to London. Also catching a ferry to the continent is useful to us. We have not considered Chichester but have looked at the Haslemere area. We attend church when possible, theatre, concerts, football, all of which are very difficult to do in Vancouver. Dining out after 8 even has its risks here.

Have a look along the A31 - lovely towns and not bad bus / train routes
Alresford, Alton, and my perennial top choice Petersfield

easy run to London for culture
some nice eateries
fab countryside

Yup I agree with TalkinPeace - Alresford, Alton, Farnham etc or Petersfield. These are all small towns rather than villages so a bit more going on.

Winchester is great. There's always things going on and it feels quite vibrant and young despite a high proportion of older people. But it's expensive.
Southampton is close too for various theatres (Mayflower and Nuffield) for different types of theatre and quite a lot of interesting stuff. If I could, I'd move a little closer to the coast but lots of lovely places to live in winchester within easy walking distance.

Hi InTheRoseGarden
Your spot on regarding rail links, I did forget to mention we require an edge of village location and a bit of a plot for our two border terriers. They are not your typical well behaved border there more of a larger Canadian hybrid, Ivy clears our yard of raccoons and the like every morning and could make a fair bit of noise if she catches one. My wife and I look forward to our long country walks which is sadly another activity which requires a two hour drive each way in Vancouver.

TalkInPeace

Thank you for your suggestion of the St. Cross area, we look forward to being part of a community again, we were both born in Vancouver but it feels like we're the strangers in our own city. It's just too big, actually just too much of almost everything that is not good really. I hope that makes sense. My good friend was born in Petersfield and he's hoping we move near so he doesn't have to stay with his sister anymore. I have not looked at Alton yet but Alresford is on our radar. Thank you for your votes of confidence.

GinorChoc

Thank you for your offer, I will definitely contact you prior to our recce trip in mid to late April. We appreciate your offer, we would give them a couple of weeks advance notice and make sure the house is sold before so we don't waste their time but we should be chain free.

I’m not in the southeast so can’t help in your property search, but I’m interested to hear why you are fleeing Vancouver. It’s the only city I’ve visited overseas that I’ve thought liveable.

Chocolategirl79

We will definitely fit into the OP 50+ group but thrive off the youthful with unbridled enthusiasm. Sadly the price but often good things are well worth paying for and by the sounds of everyone this feels like it's going to be a brilliant decision at almost any price.

Do you have enough of a budget to buy? From what I understand houses in the UK are generally smaller than in Canada, and cost a lot more (particularly Winchester). There’s nothing some mumsnetters like more than speculatively shopping so if you have a budget in mind we’ll start hunting for you :)

If train links are very important to you, have a look at the South West Trains route map. The Basingstoke to Salisbury line has villages such as Grateley and Whitchurch Christmas are easy driving to Winchester and with a direct London train line.

Also I know it’s south of Winchester (but not by much) but Romsey is a lovely little town, loads going on (arts festival, am dram theatre, loads of clubs and societies), has a self contained shopping area, train line (Southampton to Cardiff route, so you need to change for London) and surrounded by lovely countryside.

Ive not much advice as i live about 20 miles away on the coast

But ds1 is in Winchester university and from our visits it is a lovely place and as others have said not far from the city of Southampton

Hope you find somewhere..good luck with your search

And eventually welcome to the UK

Not much to add, but Winchester is a gorgeous place to live - good access to the coast and new forest. Lovely shops and market and plenty of history. I only really know about Winchester house prices not the outlying villages but it is one of the most expensive places you could choose outside London - which may be no problem at all but I was just wondering if you knew?

boatyardblues

Thank you for your question, I will try and be as brief as possible answering. There are many reasons but I will give you the most important.

My wife and I have spent our entire lives living here and lately caring for our elderly parents. My wife's mother past away last summer so we are now able to relocate without responsibility.

#1 Quality of life and lack of stimulation. Vancouver is not strategically located worldwide unless your doing business or have family located in Asia or the U.S. Three days is a perfect length of time to visit Vancouver unless you intend going skiing or on a boating holiday. (that is assuming you have moorage which is almost impossible to find.)

#2 Rising Crime.

British Columbia and greater Vancouver have the highest crime rates in Canada, we have shootings everyday and a body is found every third or fourth day in the suburbs. Toronto is three times our size but has half the reported crimes and not nearly as many violent crimes. Our law enforcement is hugely under funded and some communities are now gang controlled. We're in a very quiet suburb free of serious crime but I wouldn't think of going into Vancouver after dark especially after 8.

#3 Affordability or lack of;

Our governments at all levels are spending at record levels but have dwindling revenues so they are taxing anyone working or in business or those that own any assets, especially foreigners.

Many must work two or three jobs just to survive and sadly most of the income is going to multi level taxes. We pay 14%+ tax on everything we purchase, council/property taxes which are 40% higher than yours and I checked carefully. The taxes and user fees go on and on and this is destroying our middle class and paralyzing the lower class to the point of outright anger. This working of two or three part time jobs not only causes exhaustion but creates a very unhappy and stressed working poor population. What I found interesting reading was 9365 45-55 year old Vancouverites left in 2016 and that figure is apparently growing. Many would love to leave but only a few cities in Canada have good employment options. Most of our educated younger population must leave for employment and usual head abroad to U.K., Australia or New Zealand.

I could go on but I think you get my point. We have gone from a lovely town or city to a smaller version of Chicago. It reminds me of Kabul, your safer in the green zone but venture out and anything could happen.

Due to work I'm au fait with nearly every town in Hampshire sad but it pays the bills
The villages are generally lacking in

• transport - eateries - shops

so if moving from the West Coast, you'll get less of a shock in one of the towns

Winchesters is gorgeous - If I had a spare £1m I'd move there like a shot
£1/2m and I'd be in Romsey or Petersfield

Pick a town with a train station
Pick a town with a Sunday bus please do not think I'm joking about that
Pick a town that already has decent broadband that rules out Kings Somborne by the way-

PS
a friend from here moved to Vancouver after she won the Lottery twice
and she loves it
but friends who have visited her were pleased to come home

I have family in Kirkland / Seattle : I do not know Vancouver but I've been to the Sound

Thanks Canadian - that’s really interesting. We stayed in the West End of Vancouver a few years ago. It felt safe enough, but we weren’t out particularly late due to travelling with younger kids. One thing about Canada was how expensive groceries/food items were - you’ll finding eating a lot cheaper here.*

• At least until Brexit kicks off - then all bets are off...

Jenijena

Yes, fortunately my wife is not expecting Highgrove but could use a place larger than Dr. Martins cottage but nearer the size of the manse on Grantchester if that makes sense. Three bedrooms and a 1/4 to 1/2 acre would really help the hounds and our nearest neighbours ears. Is 900,000 to a million pounds realistic for a cottage? The train links are important, I do some work in London and try to organize a concert at the RAH and an overnight for my wife.