Great Yarmouth

[BaldBrown]

Hello there

I hope I'm posting this in the correct forum; if not, I apologise.

My family and I currently live in London, well we've just sold our home and are now looking at moving to Great Yarmouth. The house prices are ideal for a large property but I wanted to ask of anyone new any reason why moving near to the center of town would be a bad idea.

Moving slightly further our would take us into a bracket we can't afford and elsewhere in the England seem just as bad.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm not sure how relevant this is- we are a black. Are. We likely to have any issues?

Hi @BaldBrown is there a particular reason you're moving to Great Yarmouth?
While it is popular as a holiday resort it is very deprived, educational outcomes in particular are poor, if you have children this might be worth thinking about.
It's not a diverse place by any stretch of the imagination, so I'd think very carefully about that, personally.
What are your requirements for your new home town?

Lived on the outskirts of GY for 28 years and the last 10 of those the town centre itself had become a bit of a hole.
I’d avoid the centre like the plague personally, but look between GY and Caister, so a little further out but only by a mile or two. My parents have literally just moved and their house and area is lovely, compared to even a 10 minute walk towards the town centre. Didn’t fluctuate the price of property too much either.

What PP said. Very deprived. Maybe look at some surrounding villages further north along the coast.

Look very very carefully at the location of the houses you're considering and schools.

Gt Yarmouth does not have a good reputation...its not the lovely seaside, bustling town it once was. The town centre is dead.

It might be worth looking at Gorleston on the outskirts, nearer the hospital?

Thank you all so much.

I had read as much but wanted to get some information from folks who may have lived there.

Affordability is the main reason at the moment. We homeschool our children. I am looking at 7 bedroom houses for less than 250k. When I looked firth out the prices increase dramatically and we can't afford it, sadly. Hembsy, Golston Caister...

Can you anywhere else in the country we could look at?

Houses are generally cheaper where there are fewer jobs, poorer schools,poor transport links or social problems...any where houses are cheaper there is likely to be a reason

The centre of gt yarmouth is not particularly great for all the reasons above.
I imagine the property you have seen is an old guest house, if it's that number of bedroom and for that cheap. There will probably be work to do on that if so, and the neighbours are likely to be guest house owners or hostels, rather than other families.
But it depends really what you want from it. I know people who live v close to the town centre and they are all v happy and have raised children happily there. The deprivation and drug problem is probably similar to many places.

It's cheap for a reason. I worked there for 4 years (with an hour's commute). The place is vile. And I don't use that word lightly.

It's a beautiful family home. We'd like to buy cash rather go for another mortgage so it's appealing to us on that front too.

We lived in a place where the news would have you believe you'd be killed as soon as you set out foot outside your door. We were very happy there for many years but having to pay a heft mortgage was no fun. We actually wanted relocate overseas for while but really want to come back to the UK.

Thanks again everyone.

I was really hoping it was just a "special find". Ha! It's been on the market for a while and I didn't think that might be the reason.

Great Yarmouth has some of the most deprived wards of the country. However so does London depending on area. It's a different kind of deprivation though - based on generations of lack of aspiration along with poor employment opportunities and infrastructure.

It is not very diverse but then nor is the rest of Norfolk. There are non white residents along with Eastern European and Portuguese.

As others have said a 7 bed is likely to be a guest house or care home, you may find your neighbours are HMOs.

GY does have a rich heritage, beautiful beach, and money is being spent to regenerate areas such as the market and the seafront. I love a walk along the beach on a blowy winter's day and would happily retire to Gorleston or the North Beach area. But would I bring my kids up in the city centre - not a chance.

How many bedrooms do you need and what is max budget?

Max budget is 250k.

6 bedrooms ideally and we are happy to buy in any safe, affordable, and diverse area. Although diversity isn't too much of a draw as long as the folks are friendly.

I think it would be a bit of a shock to move from London to Yarmouth.

I quite like Yarmouth on a sunny day and it does have a certain charm about it for me, but I wouldn’t live there, it is very deprived, definitely not embracing diversity from what I have seen. There is some development going on there in the town centre, redeveloping the market etc, that is causing some issues with the traders, who aren’t happy from what I have read in the local press. But for shopping you would need to go to Norwich, for big stores, Yarmouth hasn’t got an M&S, primark etc

Property is very cheap and you get a lot for your money, but you need to factor in the prices won’t rise much either in Yarmouth.

North Town is more favourable than South Town.

Have you visited Yarmouth out of season? Have you considered Norwich, yes properties are more expensive but you have so many more options.

Good luck with your search & move, we relocated from Sussex to Norwich, it has worked out really well for us, pleased we made the move.

There’s a 7 bed for £250k in Lowestoft. It too has some areas of high deprivation but less so than Yarmouth - it’s had more investment over recent years.

(It’s on Rightmove)

I moved from a very rough part of south London to south Norfolk about 15 years ago. I love it here and we go on holiday to Great Yarmouth in the summer but there’s no way I’d live there. Look at the villages around south Norfolk instead - Harleston, Beccles, Diss, Eye (Suffolk) etc. The closer you get to Southwold the more expensive it is.

Also - noticed you home Ed. The closer you are to Norwich the more things there are to do and transport from the villages / Yarmouth etc is awful.

Realistically with your budget your options are going to be extremely limited anywhere in the country. Six bed houses are not the norm anywhere in the UK let alone at the bottom end of the market.

You would get more options by looking at four bedrooms where DC could share or you could possibly extend.

If you are looking at this one then its on the main street down to the beach, surrounded by B&Bs double yellows both sides and next to no parking.

You should also know that if you buy on the island of Great Yarmouth, South Town, or Cobholm then you are at risk of flooding. Even though the beach seems large and the sea far away when we have very high Tides those areas can be flooded.

Tourist season, getting in and out of Yarmouth takes a VERY long time, a journey that takes me less than 10 minutes out of season often takes more than an hour.

Shopping, the main shopping area in Gt Yarmouth town is largely just pounds hops and looking very derelict. Most locals will shop at Gapton Hall for Tkmaxx, Next, Etc, there are all of your main supermarkets though Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco, Iceland, Farm foods in or close to GY, Gorleston has a Morrisons.

If you can move further out towards Gorleston then that would be better even if you needed to get a small mortgage, it's nicer, less touristy, more green spaces for children.

Public transport, the public transport is good, buses run regularly it just takes a while to get anywhere. Yarmouth has a train station that connects to Norwich that then links to National routes, Yarmouth is also served by National express.

Crime, Yarmouth has a big drugs problem and county lines problem and there are lots of homeless in and around the main town. Crime is largely domestic there have been a couple of stabbings recently but they are between groups of people known to each other. If you aren't involved in those things then the worse things that seem to happen are bike thefts.

My parents moved from London when I was a preteen, we live just outside of Great Yarmouth. I have never felt particularly unsafe walking around and the crime is nothing compared to where we used to live. Big crimes hit the newspapers when they happen as they are a rare occurance. I'm glad my parents decided to move here. Summers were spent on the beach. As a teen/student I never struggled for work, working on the seafront in the March-Oct allowing me to focus on my studies the rest of the year and I always had a job when I came back from uni each summer.

You can get properties of the type/ price you are thinking of in Weymouth. They do tend to be ex-guest houses. Like many seaside towns, Weymouth is not salubrious but I would happily live there.

I'd suggest going to see any property you're interested in at all different times so you can see what the neighbours/neighbourhood are like. Yarmouth does have a reputation for being pretty deprived and having lots of issues with drugs etc.

Norfolk as a whole is really lovely although not very diverse as a county. Norwich is great and has areas of diversity due to the university and a big hospital but I don't know about Yarmouth being particularly diverse. Again probably best to spend time where you're planning to move to and see what it's like.

@decemberrainydays

I'd suggest going to see any property you're interested in at all different times so you can see what the neighbours/neighbourhood are like. Yarmouth does have a reputation for being pretty deprived and having lots of issues with drugs etc.

Norfolk as a whole is really lovely although not very diverse as a county. Norwich is great and has areas of diversity due to the university and a big hospital but I don't know about Yarmouth being particularly diverse. Again probably best to spend time where you're planning to move to and see what it's like.

Yes definitely this. There’s a huge issue with teenagers not having anything to do in the evenings (all over Norfolk) and as such racing their modified cars up and down Yarmouth main parade at nighttime. It can be very noisy at night!

Thank you all very much. I really do appreciate it.