Should we move to Peterborough, Northampton, Leeds or Manchester?

[ThatLimeEagle]

Hi everyone,
I'm feeling quite confused, so I'd really appreciate any honest and sensible advice.
Currently, we live in London, but we're looking to purchase our own house (2-3 bed semi-detached) outside London due to the high prices here. We're cash buyers with a budget of £230k-£240k, and we don’t to take out a mortgage...
My husband needs to commute to his London office two days a week, while I work for NHS and can easily find a job wherever we decide to move. However, it would be challenging for my husband to find a job outside London, given that most companies are either based here or in London outskirts.
We don't plan to stay in the UK for more than five years, as we intend to move to UAE or Australia after that.
Our question is: Should we relocate to Peterborough/Northampton, as they are more affordable and commutable from London, or to a bigger city like Leeds/Manchester? If we choose Peterborough, the potential capital gain would be lower compared to the other two cities, and the rental yield would also be less when we leave the UK. Alternatively, we could purchase a property in Leeds/Manchester and rent it out from day one, while also renting in London or commuting from Leeds/Manchester.
Apologies for the lengthy question. I'd really appreciate any advice on what you would do if you were in our situation. Thanks.

Can you give examples of the properties that you are looking at in each town/city?
Location is key- some places within each that you would not probably not want to live

You won't get a 3 bed semi in Manchester for that budget, Stockport has a direct train to London and is generally cheaper, also close to the airport. As above, do you have specific areas or criteria in mind?

You'll not get what you want in a decent area of Manc for that money. Leeds maybe. They are both huge diverse cities thou - what are you looking for?

You will struggle in Leeds for that price and number of bedrooms unless it's an undesirable area. The big Northern cities are not particularly cheap as there's lots of finance/media/law and other professional work up here propping up the prices.

Have you looked at Norwich? I think it's a really lovely city and you can get good value there. A friend moved there and I just thought of Alan Partridge, but it's so pretty!

Peterborough’s just been voted the second worst town in England, and it’s come first in previous years, so probs not there.

I would avoid Northampton. In that area Milton Keynes is far nicer and better links to London for your commute.

You can definitely get a house in Peterborough for your budget. There are fast links to London but the train is expensive. As most cities there are good and bad bits. The city centre is a bit run down. Go to the suburbs and it can be quite nice. That's where I am.

Leeds and Manchester are completely different to Peterborough/Northampton. Why have you picked these places in particular? Is it just on the right train lines?

Peterborough is always voted the worst town on that silly pole. It’s fine really.

What does your DH do?

I live in Manchester, the 2 days commute would put me off. Notoriously unreliable and expensive trains journeys .... unless your DH isn't paying of course!

I second - avoid Northampton. And Peterborough. Unless you don't mind living in a run down chav/ conservative/ Brexit/ Rotary paradise (because all the nice parts of these towns and nearby cute villages will be expensive). All the towns in about an hour's train ride from London will not be cheap unless in a really crap area, and, without a mortgage, I doubt you will find anything reasonable for under 300k. Your option would be to live somewhere hard to get to, where you need to drive to the station and then commute - which, to me, is a nightmare. But if you don't mind that look at small towns away from the train stations, I think on the whole Northamptonshire is quite cheap and can be very pretty. But its very conservative and I hated living there. I would find it very depressing living there after London.

Yes - forgot to add - MK is nice but it also has very depressing run down parts. Also, visible drug and crime issues - news and police raids. (I used to work there).

Have you thought about Wakefield? Easily commutable to London with two train lines going there in under 2 hours. Short journey to Leeds but you could also work at the hospital or mental health trust there. This would work price wise.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144161816#/?channel=RES_BUY

What about Newark? I'm pretty sure it's a fast line to London, it's a bit nicer than all those places too, central, plenty of NHS surrounding as Nottingham, Mansfield, Lincoln, Grantham all close by too

Sorry, saw that was over budget. What about this? https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86147229#/?channel=RES_BUY

To get a house in manc/Leeds on that budget you’d need to live pretty far outside the city - so commuting into the city itself won’t be great, let alone adding London onto the journey.
Trains have been very unreliable and are VERY expensive - peak travel two days a week would be a nightmare. You really need to look into the travelling cost (time and money) before deciding on somewhere to live.

Trains from Manchester, particularly Stockport, are quick but either delayed or on strike most of the time. And very expensive. That budget would get you a very modest house in a decent area, basically a FTB property.

Yes, would also add re: commuting. Be prepared for delays, cancellations, trains so full you have to stand or sit on the floor... All this plus a VERY expensive ticket and having to be up and out of the house at around 6am. Really unpleasant.

Have you looked on Rightmove at the options in Manchester for a 3 bed semi at that price? You aren’t going to find anything in a particularly nice area. You might be able to get a 2 bed flat in a reasonable place.
check out Stockport as it’s on the Trainline to London.

while admittedly a lot cheaper than London, I think a lot of southerners think ‘Manchester UP NORTH must be cheap’ and get a surprise when they actually look at what’s available in the good areas. It’s not cheap anymore. I bought my smallish 3 bed semi in a ‘naice’ area 12 years ago and it was £240k then

Peterborough has good rail links to London and a reasonable commute time but is an absolute dive and has quite literally nothing going for it.

In your budget, an option would be Crewe. Crewe isn't particularly nice, but it's on a fast train line to Manchester and London. It shaves some time off the commute to London as well compared to Manchester or Stockport.

As previous posters have said, anywhere in Manchester (or probably Stockport) that you can afford either won't be much nicer than Crewe anyway or will involve a longer commute into Manchester before you can get the Manchester train. You definitely won't be able to afford anything with a decent "rental yield" for those future plans.

If you don't want to go for Crewe itself, there are a lot of small towns and villages a short drive from there which would have something in your budget.

I've not spent a lot of time in Peterborough but as had been mentioned it's been voted the worst city in the UK a few times...
Northampton itself is... ok but not ideal (I live close to it) however Northamptonshire house prices are pretty good and you could consider a Northamptonshire town or village, I think you could get a 3 bed semi for your budget.
Do you want city living? If so obviously ignore this but some of the Northamptonshire villages are gorge (I live in one, it's just lovely!)

Don't believe the negative hype about Peterborough. It is one of those places that can't seem to shake off negativity. We've lived here for a long time and although the city centre has declined, the environment on lots of areas is lovely, there is a range of well priced housing and schools are generally good. We're bringing up two children here and like all cities there are challenges but no worse than anywhere else, if you want 'naice' , inner city areas anywhere will be a challenge.

Excellent transport links, reasonably priced housing, good schools and great environment is what you'll get here.

I would avoid Peterborough, it’s ok for shopping lots of good retail parks but to live there is not good. There are loads of lovely villages round there (I live in one ), travel to London is good, you have Peterborough hospital which is huge Huntingdon / beford hospital are doable from the bottom side of Peterborough. Whittelsey is a lovely town with some good new builds in your budget but also has some older style buildings in budget, good train to London, as I say some of the villages round are very picturesque.

i didn’t like Northampton, have friends there and they don’t seem happy, it has more than its share of rough places.

Ipswich? Good commute, some areas are fairly cheap.