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.

My dad lives near Kilgetty and plays folk music. I could introduce you

If you would like a project, this would let you be loud and it's been on sale a while now so probably take an offer

Needs work, handy if you fancy having a boat. I went and looked at the outside of it, it's quirky, you would have to love the location and the housing above it is social housing.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107087099#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/112887500 What about this in herne bay. Near your friends, up and coming, not on the sea front but you won’t get that for your budget.

Nothing in Frome or Warminster, but thanks anyway

Thanks, but it's via HomeWise (in Herne Bay). I have spoken with Homewise on two occasions, and the scheme they run is not financially viable or in my humble opinion is not decent or ethical. Thought appreciated. Nice house BTW :-)

Thanks Snowspider, it's not for me, but thanks for the thought :-)

Snowspider, that project has got my interest and thank you. I have a variety of questions and will take a closer look once I have spoken with the estate agents.

That's got so much potential hasn't it, and it will possibly be too much work and take too long are the aspects I am unsure about? But hey, nothing ventured - nothing gained :-)

Thanks Abigail, I checked out Epworth and another cheaper house is also on the market that seems to tick more boxes. I could not have been made aware if it wasn't for this one. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I have two mates in different parts of Goole - which is not far, so I'm checking the details of the house I saw in Epworth thanks to you and others speaking favourably about Epworth on here. Nice one :-)

Yeah, it's responses like this that I have been hoping to see. I have added more content to the other person who mentioned Epworth originally. Epworth and another property is now on my radar. Thanks you for the input, it really helps :-)

Interesting that you know Shepperton and live nearby - which town or village are you in out of curiosity?

Manningtree detached house is viable, but the 4 x cottages aren't :-)

I would not have thought about Eseex, and now it has me thinking about it.

Thanks ever so much

I’ve never been to Ely, Cambridgeshire but I do know that it is a beautiful medieval city in the Fens (River Ouse) with a famous Cathedral. It’s one of the smallest cities in Britain.

The www.trainline.com website (see Ely Station information) says that it is 1hr 18 mins from King’s Cross, London to Ely so it would be do-able for your daughter to visit for the weekend and if your son relocates to Germany it is 53 minutes from Stansted airport to Ely.

It also takes only 19 minutes by train between Ely and Cambridge (approx 15 miles) and there are a whopping 85 trains a day between the cities!

Rightmove had a couple of 3 bedroomed bungalows in your budget when I used the filter “within 5 miles” of Ely and I daresay if you expand your search you may come up with more results.

It's further north than you've mentioned but what about one of the villages near Newcastle? You get more bang for your buck which is why we are moving up north. We did a lot of research on places like Ryton. You can get 3/4 bedroom detached houses with garages for your budget on there. Just had a quick look for you on Rightmove and there's currently a 3 bed detached cottage house with a garage for £265k if you like older houses with character. If you like new-build style houses there's some around the same price which fit your requirements. It might be worth putting in cities like Durham and Newcastle into Rightmove with a wide search and see what you can get for your money up north

Maybe have a look at Long Eaton / Nottinghamshire. Close to Nottingham and Derby for live music. Good transport links for train, M1 motorway and plane and near Peak District and Sherwood Forest.

Good old Shepperton! I went to school in Twickenham and a lot of girls came from there.

I moved north with my late husband twenty years ago, and had to sell our very large listed home as I couldn't afford the maintenance. I had a similar budget to you and made a large list of 'must haves, nice to haves, and definitely nots'.

I wanted my kids to be able to get to me easily, so a nearby railway station with good connections was part of my 'must haves'. My budget narrowed it down to Broadstairs in Kent, and Exmouth in Devon. My budget was too small for either and I ended up looking at some very grotty flats, falling down bungalows, and terraces in areas of very high flood risk. It was a great disappointment.

I've ended up staying in Northumberland. Alnwick has everything you'd need, a bus station, hospital, supermarkets, second largest bookshop in Europe - and of course Alnwick Castle and Gardens. Alnmouth beach is a five minute drive away, and has a railway station which gets you to London in three and a half hours. People here are lovely and the community is very welcoming.

There isn’t much on the market in these areas currently, but looking at properties under offer and sold STC it seems it would be worth exploring a number of market towns in North Yorkshire - stokesley, thirsk, Northallerton, malton. All except stokesley have good train links to London for visiting friends and family.

Darlington similarly has good train links. Further up north, somewhere like Yarm could also be an option.

Thanks Bookmarker, I have lived in detached houses since 1992, so I'm used to them. I know what space I require to compensate me for what I am walking away from. It's never about status. I'm not that type of person.

Regarding a halls adjoining semi detached house - I would need to soundproof the structure of not only adjoining walls, but also floors and ceiling voids if considering a semi detached property (you haven't seen my Hi-Fi system and I know what it can produce, or my daughters guitar playing and singing when she visits) ....I have looked into it and I have taken advice. The costs and work involved don't make it financially viable you see.

I have been a long time searching and understanding what my needs are, and I appreciate your input much the same as I appreciate the input from everyone else, it has made a fantastic difference. I am humbled and grateful for the support from everyone.

Thanks Kilgetty, by sheer coincidence I had already previously looked and discounted this actual house and when when I looked on Streetview, it's by a crossing with Zig Zags on a busy main road and doesn't seem to have a garage.

I appreciate your input, same as everyone else's valuable input and I don't have the time to thank everyone :-)

This is right on spec but importantly looks reasonably distanced from neighbours which might be good with the music. Bedrooms aren’t huge but ok for visitors

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/113514404#/?channel=RES_BUY

Amusingly the house is on ‘Nowhere Lane’. Love the idea of telling folk I’m going to live Nowhere……

@Embracelife

You don't need a guest bedroom unless it s for a lodger You caN sleep on sofa bed when daughter comes

Thanks, I wish I knew my own circumstances and what my needs were like you do?

Silly me

[quote MMAMPWGHAP]How about this one on Margate outskirts. Nearer your friends, good access to channel ports for driving to Germany. Use a bit of spare budget to make better use of the outbuildings - eg create a new office. Sideway access to get Motorbike into the back.
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/102263891#/?channel=RES_BUY[/quote]
Thanks, it's not what I would describe as a target, and thankfully for the seller it's sold ✅

[quote Abigail12345654321]Kings Lynn is worth considering too

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/81604107#/?channel=RES_BUY[/quote]
I have long been considering KL but keep reading mixed reports about what it's like to live there and the bad seems to outweigh the good leaving me with too many doubts? 🤔

@CatAndHisKit

Hae you considered a 2-ned house where you can buid an office space in the garden or with a double garage, half convertible to office?

Or how about working from tour living room - there are clever ways of partitioning if you don't wat to see the 'office mess'.

3 beds sounds nice but not strictly necessary for one person IMHO.

Absolutely yes I have, but taking the cost per square foot into the equation, it's usually poor value and doesn't quite stack up. Thanks for the thoughts anyway 👍

[quote ShingleBeach]Sutton on sea, 3 beds, garage, detached, in budget www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/112493078#/?channel=RES_BUY

Ditto: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111698720#/?channel=RES_BUY

Holland on sea, detached, 3 bed, space to put garage / motorbike shed, under budget, better rail access than those above www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110117939#/media?id=media0&ref=photoCollage&channel=RES_BUY[/quote]
Sutton in sea is a yes

The other one is a TBNT

THANKS for your help 🙏👍

[quote peachycream31]Dargets Road, Walderslade, Chatham, Kent
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110550002[/quote]
Property removed by agent it says 🤔

Thanks anyway 👍