Moving from London to South Wales

[reptyle]

DH and I are hoping to start a family soon. We’ve been living in London for the last 12 years and feel it’s time to move to a new place. We can’t afford to raise a family in London but we can work remotely and or change jobs.

Our budget is around £800k, we can get a mortgage for the right property but a big reason for moving is to be mortgage free. We need three bedrooms minimum. We are leaning towards the countryside but would consider living in a town. We need to be less than an hour drive to Cardiff Central station.

Any tips, areas, ideas?

Loving the idea of people in Bucks looking down on me though. And being kind. Snort.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/140254805#/?channel=RES_BUY

Perhaps something like this in catchment of previously referenced state primary

If you're going to be getting the train regularly to London then my advice would be to look for somewhere in south Monmouthshire and plan to get the train from Bristol Parkway. Much more accessible by car than Cardiff Central.

OP type your budget in to Rightmove and search for Monmouthshire. The whole county is lovely, close to some beautiful areas of the wye valley, near enough to Cardiff and Bristol. The houses in your budget are straight out of “escape to the country” 😍

@cardibach sorry my ignorant comment was obviously not meant for you!

"ignorant"

Cardiff is our shopping city other than Bristol and I'm frankly amazed that anyone gets in a car on the M4 around it. Never been where it isn't gridlocked and weekdays are hell on earth. Traffic starts at Newport and slowly makes its way through to Cardiff.

I really like the area between Abergavenny, Usk and Monmouth. Not far to Newport for the train and then onto Cardiff; and rural enough to be pretty. We're just over the border into Gloucestershire past Ross on Wye.

My parents moved us to Llanelli in 1978 with my Dad's job. The local people hated us. They would stop talking English and start em talking Welsh whenever we were nearby. The schools dismissed me and I was told to just read a book in a corner.
I do hope that the South Wales attitude to English people has changed in the last 45 years!

Somewhere around Bristol? That’s about an hour from Cardiff by train isn’t it?

Bingo!

No worries - I hadn’t read it as though it was anyway! I think we are in agreement about some posters view of Wales… At least it probably means they’ll never come here!

I moved from zone 1 London to Bristol. After 9 years I moved to Swansea because I could only afford a rough area of Bristol that was deteriorating.

There is life outside London, and culture and so on! It is a fantastic quality of life - we live in a large family home in a lovely part of Swansea, near the Gower and with excellent schools.

Although we do enjoy weekend theatre trips to London, it is not the be all and end all. I know loads of people that have moved to the area from London and Bristol and all love it.

Swansea is probably too far from Cardiff for your needs tho. As pp said, I would look at the nice suburbs - Llandaff hasn't been mentioned and is lovely. Plus penarth, the Vale and Abergavenny. IMO, shopping is better in Cardiff than in Briz. And there are loads of concerts, theatres, comedy etc.

Good luck.

Depends where you start. Easy enough from the Vale side. Newport traffic is a shit show though.

And here it is! The ‘they switched to Welsh’ bollocks. Why would anyone who had Welsh as their first language be speaking English amongst themselves anyway? It’s utter paranoid nonsense brought about by not understanding that other people might have a first language other than English and still have the audacity to live in the U.K.

Exactly cardibach. It makes no sense.

Did your parents bother learning any Welsh before you moved to a Welsh speaking area @baileybrosbuildingandloan ?

Cardiff is a wonderful city, moved from abroad here. Absolutely love it. If you choose your areas, excellent primary schools and you don't need to pay school fees.
Cynvoed, penarth , pontanna, Lisvane are all good areas to live. Whitchurch is good but reasonably high proportion of Welsh speakers as there is a good Welsh school.
If you don't mind your kids learning Welsh medium, look at Welsh medium schools- a lot of non Welsh speakers send their children as the Welsh schools are very good.
Marsh field is between Cardiff and Newport and has good school. If you want to live rural but have easy access to city - look at Rudry.
Usk, Monmouth, Abergavenny.
Good luck OP..

If you can be mortgage free in a £800,000 property of course you can afford to bring up children in London.

London to South Wales seems a really drastic move. Do you have any links to the area via friends or family?

I don't think people are being snobbish or London-centric to question this. Mumsnet is literally crammed with threads from people who have regretted moving away from London / other cities or to a place where they know no-one.

I don't think people are being snobbish or London-centric to question this.

You didn't read the comments then? It's possible to question without being patronising or ignorant.

Mumsnet is literally crammed with threads from people who have regretted moving away from London / other cities or to a place where they know no-one.

Many don’t have other options. Leave London and be a person of colour and you may as well say you’ve stepped into Jim crows Deep South. So not mad. Just can’t deal with the racism.

FFS.

No it's not Jim Crow's Deep South. Have you never been outside London?

I do hope that the South Wales attitude to English people has changed in the last 45 years!

God alive. I hope many things have changed in the last 45 years, everywhere.

Nothing like old news .

What sort of comment is this? I am brown and live in South Wales and have not had any problems.

Abergavenny for me xx

Why do you want to be within an hour of Cardiff central? Is it for trains to London? As others have said, Bristol parkway may suit better if so. Chepstow might work.

My husband and I are both persons of colour also. I would massively swerve the south wales valleys or any other areas of deprivation but affluent areas, really there are no significant issues.