is everyone leaving London?

[ellie1984]

There seem to be lots of zoopla alerts popping up in my inbox at the moment. We were looking around for a new place and were wondering if lots of families are leaving their areas? In particular, I guess we were looking at zones 2-3 but are now feeling like we're missing a trick. Is everyone around you really leaving? Both DH and I will still have to be working on-site so can't just get up and leave.

There seem to be. But it looks short sighted to me. After Covid perhaps full time office presence may not be needed but 40-50% office presence will likely be needed. Wonder how the 'cotswold' and 'Cornwall' folks are going to get back to zone 1 for that.

I don’t know anyone doing so purposefully - I have a couple of friends who were made redundant and are therefore moving back in with parents or selling up to find somewhere cheaper, but nobody who sees this as the move they’ve always wanted to make. All of my friends are very definitely people here for the vibrancy and the culture and the nightlife and the opportunities though, which will return soon enough, and I only know about two people with DC, so that will influence what I see happening.

Anecdotally, mine and virtually all of my friends say their employers have been clear that the operational model going forward will remain for people to be primarily office-based rather than home-working so they couldn’t leave without changing jobs anyway. I don’t think the shift to home working will be as big as we think it will be once all this blows over. Additionally I have friends who are estate agents and they report the rental market (outside of short term and luxury) being very flat - there hasn’t been the big exodus of ordinary people giving up rented flats to buy or rent somewhere cheaper and the market therefore being saturated with empty rentals, which is what you’d expect to see if a significant proportion of people were using this as a welcome opportunity to escape from London.

More central areas have always been pretty transient. There might have been a higher number of people moving out this year but I’m sure there are lots of people not even contemplating it.

interesting. just wondering what will happen to lots of areas of London if people really do leave. We were looking at North London but also parts of South London and they appeal because of their vibe but if everyone leaves then it just won't feel the same. Seeing as we have kids - it would be nice if we could stay in the same place for a bit

We're moving from the zone 2/3 borders to the zone 3/4 borders. We have no plans to to leave London permanently yet.

I also have no desire to wfh permanently once covid is over - I will want to be within striking distance of London.

I live in a very family orientated part of zone 2/3 and don't know anyone who is moving out

Not from what I’ve seen in our corner of London, lots of quick sales seem to be happening judging by for sale signs changing to sale agreed/sold

We are! We're moving from London to Winchester. DH already worked from home and I don't need to be in the office more than 2 or 3 days a week. I'll commute in on those days.

I can't wait. We can afford a much nicer house and will be near the countryside, the coast and our families. It also means our kids (both pre school age at the moment) will be able to settle into a school system they can stick with the whole way through.

We would have done this anyway, we're just doing it 10 years earlier than we'd planned

Like you say, you like the buzz of zones 2/3. So do many other people. The won’t just all move out. If they want to sell their family home, someone else needs to buy it. So either a new family will move in or they won’t be able to sell and stay put.

interesting to see people's different perspectives. all our family is here so thats definitely another reason for us to stay put. it'll just be sad if everyone else goes. am clearly being melodramatic but a lot of our friends are also decided to move though mostly abroad

We sold our south London flat and have moved to a small town in Surrey. This was always in our plans, we just happened to do it sooner because of the stamp duty holiday - if we did it next year like we’d always planned we’d be spending £15k more and it just didn’t make sense not to jump at the opportunity. That said, we’re making sure we’re commuting distance to London as I suspect we’ll both be required in the office more days than not. I’m currently on mat leave, DH has negotiated a permanent change to doing 2 days a week working from home. I’ll be asking work if I can do 2 days in, 2 days at home and one day off a week - I’m pretty sure work will agree to a four day week for me but I’m really not sure whether they’ll let me wfh half of my working week. We shall see...

Yes tons, three families in our social circle, DH colleague and seemingly the entirety of the school PTA.

It seems centrally to do with house prices. Being in the city is no longer worth putting up with teeny tiny extortionately expensive boxes. Especially with the insane price rises of the last decade.

More power to them! A city that's too expensive cant stay fun for long, as nobody can afford to go out, or take risky jobs that make new things happen. Rooms are over £700pm here in a reasonably shitty area albeit near to fab amenities.

In a nutshell yes.
Particularly 30-45yr old couples with established careers & children, who don't really get much out of the London 'buzz' like they did in their 20's, & are essentially still there, compromising their life living in an overpriced terrace without a garden in Z3/4, because of employment.

It's always been common for those in that position to move to the outer zones or commuter towns in search of a better compromise; more space etc.

Covid/WFH has rapidly tipped the balance severely in favour of such a move for a large number of people, & also removed much of the incentive of that 'first step' expensive house in the nice areas of Z3/4.

A big commute sucks when you have to do it 5 days a week to a regimented 9-5.
When you only do it 1-2 times per week on flexi hours, it doesn't.

Yes, some will be returning to the office full time, but lots won't be.

Areas most likely to be impacted? The fashionable/expensive family friendly enclaves of the ordinary professional - nappy valley etc, IMO.

yes, wondering whether we are sort of missing a trick and how best to future proof any purchase because we are exactly a couple in our mid-30s with kids.

it will be interesting to see if flexi rail tickets ever materialise

Yes, we are. Moving from S London to the south coast. It will be the same journey for DH (he'll just be driving in the opposite direction!) and I will only need to be in the office 1-2 days per week. DS is off to uni next year (fingers crossed) so it's a good time to make a move.

I can't wait tbh. I have spent almost my entire life living in London and I'm excited for a change. In fact I'd happily move much, much further away (Scotland) and we probably will in a few years more.

I loved being a Londoner in my teens/twenties/early 30s but its lost some gloss for me now. It will still be there for long weekends in nice hotels, though.

We left in September but it wasn’t a big WE’RE LEAVING LONDON thing. DH started working as a freelancer for a company in February who work remotely (not COVID related, they have worked like that for years) and in August he interviewed for a really good position within the company so we ended up with more money and the guarantee we would be able to live pretty much anywhere - they stipulate no more than 3 hours time difference.

We are actually moving to DH’s home country next year but, in the meanwhile, we moved up north to my hometown.

I do know of three other couples who have left London. One couple are friends of ours, second was the couple opposite us in London who sold their house, and third was a couple here in the north east who happened to buy some furniture from us and mentioned they’d just left London.

I think people are just making the most of opportunities available to them and the couple who bought our furniture were saying they wanted to move back to family to help with childcare etc. It’s an exciting time for us but appreciate it isn’t really due to or because of Coronavirus, it just worked out that way!

No one I know has left. I know a guy who went home to stay with family but he is very clear he is going to move back to london when we return to the office (and our company is very clear that it is going to be a return to pre pandemic work trends). Even the ones who are renting are still renting in z1/z2 when really they don't need to. dh and I own a flat in z3 north london and we are staying, but DH is a native londoner.

Well we are trying to move back!
That's the tricky thing if you leave it's hard to go back as prices are so high and you can help but compare with what you get for your money out of London.
We did the whole moving out, do up a country wreck thing, moved 8 years ago, but we have now sold and are looking for a flat back in North London.
Our main friends all stayed in London and now are children are older (uni age) we'd rather live in London again, in fact I doubt I'll ever live in a village again.

Good sorry for my Sp. In that last post!

@BigGreen

Yes tons, three families in our social circle, DH colleague and seemingly the entirety of the school PTA.

It seems centrally to do with house prices. Being in the city is no longer worth putting up with teeny tiny extortionately expensive boxes. Especially with the insane price rises of the last decade.

More power to them! A city that's too expensive cant stay fun for long, as nobody can afford to go out, or take risky jobs that make new things happen. Rooms are over £700pm here in a reasonably shitty area albeit near to fab amenities.

I wonder who is buying the expensive boxes that your friends are selling?

I know a few people leaving London, but these are people who have been talking about it for a while and their plans have been brought forward by a year or two due to the current situation. I don't know of anyone who has made the sudden decision to leave though.

Yes a lot of our friends are moving out to Surrey,Kent etc. Buying lovely houses with huge gardens! Don’t really blame them. Many have switched to permanent wfh.

@Itscoldouthere, in retrospect do you think your kids were better off growing out in the countryside, or in London or do you feel either can be ok? I’m raising my kids in London ( teenagers now) and don’t have plans to leave. I did think of it about 6 up years ago but an increasingly poorly parent meant I couldn’t move away and by the time it was over the kids were in secondary. Curious to know if rural is better.

Zone 2 here and no one we know is moving out. We have heard of a few but they had always intended to move to the suburbs anyway so Covid accelerated it.

oh a lovely big house does sound great. sadly we've done the maths and small house+train outside London = small place+tube in London - so we'll be stuck here then. Just hoping to pick the right area so it doesnt get completely deserted in a year or two

Nope not in my social circle in North London but we all were born and raised here.