Where should I relocate to?...(I need your help) please read the post to understand better. TIA

[TheTallOne]

Hello Mumsnetters, I am new on here and I could do with your kind help regarding where should I relocate to? Yes I am a guy – I have seen so many threads about properties on the web from Mumsnet that made so much common sense and were honest, I felt I wanted to join and ask for help - I hope that you don’t mind? :-)

I’m a guy about to need to relocate away from my family home and I’m in an area that I have grown to love, it a village in Surrey named Shepperton. This is not something that I want to be doing and I am forced to due to the breakdown of my relationship and because as a cash buyer, I now cannot afford a reasonable detached house with a garage anywhere near my family home, family or friends. That’s life.

Here’s where I need your help: I would love to integrate into a new community where there’s a reasonable standard of living and I can walk to local shops, reasonable public transport and hopefully be near the sea or countryside and in an area that is welcoming and relatively safe. That’s what I have here in Shepperton. Sure, it’s not the best area, but it’s definitely not the worst area :-)

Starting a new life in my early 60’s is leaving me feeling a bit overwhelmed on my own, and while I have wanted to live near friends in Kent (Whitstable / Seasalter / Canterbury or Hastings. Or relatives in Arundel). Trouble is with Covid in this example, it kicked all those areas off my wish lists with DFL’s buying places as soon as they could realise they could get away with working from home and buying in those areas for less money that their London homes were worth.
Supply and demand went crazy quickly. I think I went a bit crazy when I saw what happened and was powerless to react.

Prices went through the roof rapidly! My budget was static. I saw increases of £75k - £125k per house in some instances. Offers well above asking prices, sometimes sealed bids were common. Gazumping reared its ugly head. My newer dreams gone.

Looking on Rightmove & On The Market I have saved 100’s of detached houses or detached bungalows with 3 bedrooms and a garage and garden for around £275k cash from months of refining my searches. It absolutely must have decent fast Fibre Optic connectivity and decent mobile phone signals for EE or Vodafone for work. Yeah, I know “he’s fussy isn’t he” :-)

So many areas. I don’t have the time to visit so many areas to take a look. I am really busy on so many fronts. Once I have narrowed it down with your help, I will visit for a few days per area. This is where I could really do with your input. What fits my requirements in your own experiences?

I have looked online in so many areas. I have no experience of any of them, and it’s daunting not knowing any of these areas to live in from - Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Pembrokeshire, Norfolk, Devon, Lancashire, Cornwall, East Anglia to Monmouthshire and others I probably omitted.

Can you please help?

Thank you so much for your kind help in advance.

Wells-Next-the-sea and Aldeburgh are beyond the OP’s budget.

Wells is not good for hospital access or rail access.

Thanks MrsPNut, It seems to be opposite a 24 hour Asda, and it's also selling 24 hour fuel additionally and the road looks busy. Thanks but no thanks for those reasons. Thanks for the thought and gesture :-)

You want Worcestershire. Specially Bewdley or
Parts of Worcester itself. Attractive towns, fabulous countryside, good transport, good broadband if not in proper countryside

Yep, and well spotted ShingleBeach. I have been to Sheringham years ago. They are beyond budget now, although they weren't a few years back :-)

Nothing going in Bewdley to suit me I'm afraid ....www.onthemarket.com/for-sale/3-bed-property/bewdley/?max-price=275000&radius=0.5&view=grid

I'm somewhat familiar with various parts of Lincolnshire. Property has usually been cheaper than other parts of the country, but has gone up in the last year or so, in the coastal areas especially.
The downside is the transport links can be really poor, especially northern Lincs and the coast. Some parts of the county are like going back in time a few decades...
Having said that, Lincoln and surrounding areas are nice.

I wonder if you could be more specific about where you had in mind with County Durham? TIA.

Which towns or villages in Lincolnshire would you recommend?

Remember that as a cash buyer you are in an excellent position. Could definitely look at pricier places wherever you decide on.

Agreed about being a cash buyer, but don't tell everyone :-)

But in general - try anywhere midlands and upwards.

I’m in the Midlands and my one-bed flat was valued at £187k this week… a three bed with a garage is about £450k, from Rightmove, detached adds a bit more.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/112914989#/?channel=RES_BUY

For example, here. Possibly slightly above budget. Popular area of Durham, close to the city and wherever you are in Durham you are close to lots of countryside and the coast.

Ah, as before I'm looking for recommendations of specific areas and then I can deal with the values, if you get my drift? Midlands is way too vague because it's too big to search in. It's a bit like saying, look in the south east to someone :-)

Could you compromise on being detached / three bed and get a properly sound proofed garden office instead, that would broadern the options.

Ok not Bewdley. But the next town is Stourport on Severn. Not quite as nice but lots of suitable housing and has lots of the same benefits.

You could get 4 beds and a garage on a newish development near Darlington & close to the A1.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-110666513.html

@TheTallOne I haven't looked at prices but Market Deeping is nice, has a great biking community at the iron horse who meet normally Thursday nights and they usually have live bands too. It's not too far from Peterborough and the transport into and out of Peterborough is good. Also good shops, food, hospitals.

Also if you go up into the Lincolnshire Wolds they're some great biking roads and Cadwell is great for watching amateur bike racing, etc.

Frome (characterful place to live in Somerset)
Warminster (hidden gem in terms of value close to an AONB)

I second Lincolnshire. Great motorbike life, live music available and affordable.

Would recommend Bourne, Sleaford, Heckington, Ruskington , metheringham and at a push parts of Grantham

South Wales or SW Wales
Carmarthenshire
Swansea

[quote NoSquirrels]Here you go - cash buyers only, absolute insanity but why not?

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111207437#/?channel=RES_BUY[/quote]
That is as mad as a bag of spanners! I love it!

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/69327666#/?channel=RES_BUY

An easy-ish drive to your friends from there. Nice place.

Kidderminster also nice and this is a bit more polished, with three bedroom and an office in one end of the garage. Third bedroom small though.
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/112917827#/?channel=RES_BUY

You haven’t specified how many reception rooms. Wouldn’t a 2 bed house with a good sized kitchen and lounge plus a second reception that could be the office do just as well?