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.

@1990s thats the thing. I have no doubt some jobs will move to wfh. But it is very hard to get trained up if you aren't in the same office as senior colleagues. Even if you could wfh full time, would you like a job when you never get training in new skills? Learning is lifelong, industries adapt and evolve, we all have to learn whether we are 25 or 65. Maybe if you are in your 40s-50s and feel comfortable staying in the same job with the same responsibilities and are quite independent in the first place then yes. However, I think most salaried employees want a job where they can grow, and unless a company can somehow train up new staff effectively post pandemic without offices, i would be skeptical.

Totally agree hoping. I really feel for younger less experienced employees, learning and development opportunities are definitely reduced, and of course for everyone else as well as you say.

This won’t help business develop and improve, or even maintain status quo well.

Nope, not leaving and don't know anyone at all who is.

I’m in a family centric area of sw London zone 2/3 and yes people are moving out, but only a handful per school year. Probably all people who were going to leave at some point but covid brought it forward. And the family houses they are selling are being bought pretty quickly. (I gather flats are struggling to sell though).

We were always planning to move a bit further out - currently in zone 2 flat and considering where to buy a family house for when we ttc. Neither DH nor I drink, so the nightlife in London doesn't appeal, it's more about the diversity and having nice parks, shops, restaurants etc nearby. It's a dilemma whether to move somewhere buzzy in zone 3 but have a semi-detached, or whether to go more suburban but have a detached house with bigger garden

From our experience which was obviously pre Covid, we just didn't really think about how different life would be, yes we had a lovely big house, we had great parties and lots could stay over, but gradually our friends came less and less, the house cost a fortune to heat and I was always struggling to keep on top of it.
My DH was working for himself, but things changed so after 4 years he started working back in London again. We were only 47 mins train north of London, but by the time you did the getting to the station and tube the other end it was 1 hour 20 so he spent nearly 3 hours a day commuting and it cost over £4000 + £900 station parking.
I loved bits of it but currently I have no desire for a big house anymore, I couldn't live without a garden but I don't need lots of empty bedrooms.
It took us leaving London to make us realise our hearts were still there, I have friends who have moved out and they love it, I think we didn't move to the right location but I don't think village life was for us, in my experience there were lots of young families, lots of older retired people and I never really found the bit in the middle I was hoping for.

I'm in Chiswick, West London and to be honest, I don't know anyone who is moving out. No one's selling on our road or the ones around us (that I know of). All the families we know around us and at school seem to be staying put.
DH and I have no extended family in the UK, so there's no pull to be anywhere but London, which I still adore.

@TheVanguardSix I was actually saying to a friend of mine the other day that if I could have a decent sized house in a nice bit of London we’d have stayed, so I’m guessing (sorry if assumption!) that that’s why if you’re in Chiswick and have a house. For us it was stay in South East London in a flat or move out to a nice house, if I could have had the nice house in a part of London that wasn’t mega dodgy I’d have stayed put - I suspect that’s where a lot of movement is coming from, people for whom leaving London would mean a big upgrade for their housing situation.

@Dollywilde we can only afford a flat in London, but with the travel costs, it's not like we can afford a large house outside of London either. Guess most people in flats are less enamoured with London at the moment

Oh we’re definitely not in big house territory, but £500k goes much further in north Surrey than south London sadly - the travel card is £75 more a month but I can do that for the benefit of space. I guess it scales depending on how far out you go - £500k would go further on parts of the South Coast but like you say the travel counters the benefit of that.

@ellie1984 I am in london in a flat and i can't imagine being outside london during Covid. I wouldn't have been comfortable hopping on rail or leaving my local town to visit family during the times when we could visit family. In london, i can walk to visit family. I think people with local connections would stay.

Ditto for getting stuff like chinese and korean groceries. in london, there are local options.

I don't know anyone who's leaving London. And looking at all the threads on here over the past few months from people moaning that there's nothing to do but go for walks, I'm even more thankful to be living in a city that will have plenty to do again as of December 2nd.

I don't know anyone moving

There's going to be millions unemployed and at least in London (and other big cities) if there are jobs they will be there

@FakeFlamingo

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.

100% agree with this.

We left 11 years ago having spent 8 years in zone 2 (15 years in DH's case).

I couldn't teach in London anymore, and we couldn't properly afford a flat, so we moved to Oxfordshire and DH commuted.

We live in a 4 bed detached house in a village north of Oxford. DS1 and 2 go to the local primary school, which is lovely. I teach at the local comp, which is also lovely.

There is loads of culture here, plus beautiful open countryside. We were going to have an international music/literary festival in the field by my house until Covid put paid to it! London was great in my 20s but I don't miss it.

I'm not surprised people want the more relaxed pace of life.

We are actually moving further into London!

We are currently in zone 6 and it feels neither here nor there. We moved out because it was affordable but we have always hankered after moving back and talked about retiring to zone 1, finances have changed and allow us now to afford a similar size house closer in.

Even though it is technically London the commute takes almost an hour (with 15 mins either side) - even though we have been wfh for the most part this year we have both been going into the office when necessary and there is no alternative but to get the train.

We will be moving to a family friendly bit of zone 3 with great schools. Commute will be 45 mins door to door and doable by uber for those late nights.

I grew up in central London though and my family is still there. I had a great teenage life and was able to do far more than friends who grew up in the countryside.

This isn't a pure work decision though, I think I would be wary of moving out on the basis that I could wfh the majority of the time. I think it would be limiting to finding a new job and not having that direct face to face contact could mean you are overlooked for promotion or development. I already see it - many of my colleagues live close to the office and have been going in for the odd day here and there, they definitely know more about what is going on and have been given more responsibility.

For every person selling their house to move out, someone is moving in.

In most residential areas of London (by which mean zone 2 and outwards) prices are slightly up on last year. There isn't some collapse where people are fleeing an area as it crumbles around them.

Someone is moving in.

If all goes to plan, I am moving further in (zone 2 to zone 1/2 borders)!

For all those selling someone is buying. I'm looking to move back to London next summer - I'll be trading my large detached double fronted house with in and out drive, large garden and pool, for a small three bed terrace. Can't wait (I'm not being sarcastic). Being in the best city in the world makes it worth it.

Ours has been very clear that an office presence for a couple of days a week is still required - no moving miles away for us!!

Gosh it would be lovely and quiet here if loads of people left

There appears to be a flurry of leavers, 4 kids in my children's class have left/are leaving. 3 neighbours have sold & moved out (scotland, home counties). 6 properties for sale, 2 families already gone into rented in their chosen area because they just wanted to leave & don't want to wait to sell.

Oh & the ones I know of are all either switching to full wfh or 1-2 days a week in the office.

In terms of prices they houses/flats selling near me are going for under asking & prices are pretty much in line with the last 4 years where they have pretty much stagnated once you factor in stamp duty.

My DC have found that the most insular young people in their age group are from the London region. (As a sweeping generalisation) they don't have a clue about life outside the M25 until they go away to University, they live in bubble.

I didn't have much knowledge outside London, I still don't really. But like lots of Londoners my parents were immigrants so that was the reason.

We're in a flat in zone 1 and we don't know anyone who is leaving. My DSis (also in zone 1) is considering a move further out to zone 2, but it's related more to her dcs starting secondary than Covid/wfh. Most people who live this centrally take full advantage of the amenities here and don't want to leave it. I grew up in London, and staying here has never been about the job opportunities, but more about the culture, diversity and activities on offer (and much of it was available between the lockdowns, and will reopen very quickly once this lockdown is finished).

We're planning to move from our zone 1 flat in the next year as we need an extra bedroom. I'm browsing Rightmove daily and there isn't much coming on the market. I'd prefer to stay living centrally but am tempted by a few specific schools, which are in zone 3. We'd be able to afford a bigger house then, but that doesn't make much difference to me - it would be the schools that would trigger the move out for us.