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.

I was thinking today how glad I am we stayed put as It felt like there a bit of a mad rush to move out in 2020 and we did consider it. I love the part of London we live in it has lots of green space and a great community atmosphere. We do have a very small house but we are so close to various parks that it really doesn't matter. London is a wonderful city full of great work opportunity and interesting people, we won't be going anywhere for a while.

No. I'm moving back in to zone 3 and houses are flying off! Multiple offers etc. Anything decent in the three boroughs I've looked in do not hang around. Some people may be leaving, as they fo anyway, but there are plenty buying those houses! We are moving for a school and the ones (private) we applied to, all said they were surprised to have near record amounts of applicants.
I think you want to be near where the action is, especially if your kids are almost teens.

I live on the end of a tube line in the suburbs, and there area lot of people selling up. From what I've heard from those who are leaving priorities have changed, they want to live closer to aging parents or be nearer coast/countryside (although we are pretty countryside based anyway). All the people I know worked from home at least some of the time pre-Covid anyway. Some have had trouble selling. Generally our area is sought after by families moving out of Central London for more space but still needing to be able to commute easily. I suppose now more of those people are thinking they may not need to commute as regularly so they may as well move further out.

We just sold in zone 5 but had moved 2 years before to the countryside. Our estate agent said he was seeing a lot of people looking to move from central to outer London from flats to houses with gardens due to lockdown and more wfh but still needed to get into London. Demand was high there and only a few not selling for houses, generally those with no garden or very unrealistic pricing. Gardens seemed to have risen in value. Think flats were more of a challenge especially if no garden.

Where we are here in the countryside we are out of London commuting territory but houses have been selling fast and values rising.

I do think some people may get a shock when they are expected back in the office 5 days a week or discover some things are quite noisy out of lockdown when they are open or that public transport in London can often be rammed in rush hours. Some places are so different in lockdown. We much prefer it here, kids included, but we could see it when it was normal times and got somewhere where you could walk to lots of things / school.

@lavenderlou where about are you?

@Midlifephoenix

No. I'm moving back in to zone 3 and houses are flying off! Multiple offers etc. Anything decent in the three boroughs I've looked in do not hang around. Some people may be leaving, as they fo anyway, but there are plenty buying those houses! We are moving for a school and the ones (private) we applied to, all said they were surprised to have near record amounts of applicants. I think you want to be near where the action is, especially if your kids are almost teens.

Not what we see in north London, things are hanging if anything although what is priced competitively does sell fairly swiftly up to Christmas. 2021 has been wait and see so far.

On PropCast it says both where we used to live (Zone 5) and here (rural) are very hot in favour of sellers but here is heating up and Zone 5 one is cooling.

Not in my neck of the woods. Everyone seems to be staying put. We're on the edge of Zone 2/3.

We are staying put, we work in consulting and those who think that this wfh is going to stick dreaming, especially when our company had recently bought land, built a fancy new 13 floor building in zone 1. Going to see how our bosses play the Comms. London is the financial hub for a reason (I am speaking from an FS perspective) and we as humans build relationships when in person, if your success=make money through relationships then you'll be competing with individuals who are willing to be f2f 5 days a week.