Moving from London to Cardiff: are we crazy?

[boogiewps]

DP is from Swansea originally. He couldn't wait to escape and go across the border for university where we met. His parents now live in Cardiff.

I'm 38 and DP is 41 and are hoping to start a family in the next year or two. Very much aware that time is running out and if we can't conceive we'll adopt.

I love Wales but also love the buzz of London. DP and I both work 9am-8pm most days and sometimes longer, but we do earn very well because of it. We have decided we want to give up the high powered careers and go for something more relaxed.

If we sell up here, we'll have almost £1mil in equity, which will buy a lovely house in Cardiff. We'd consider taking out a mortgage of 200-300k for the right place.

Jobs wise we can move to a similar but much more relaxed role, but this would be a 70% pay cut. Yes I know. But that would still be a salary of c £170k which is very high for Cardiff (so says DH.)

We'd then have much more time for family life and can relax a bit (lot) more.

I'm failing to see why this would be crazy? Cardiff is a much nicer place to live than London.

im about to make a similar move, though to another city, and having similar doubts. I am reminding myself we can always move back if we find we don’t like it!

Do you want to move to Cardiff? If so, then go for it. As with most places, they'll be lovely and not so lovely parts.

Personally (and I'm from the South East) I'd choose Cardiff over London any day of the week, especially with a family. Raising a child in London must be extremely worrying when it comes to safety.

Working 9am-8pm isn't condusive to family life, so if having children is a priority, then I would imagine your jobs will need to change anyway.

If I had £1mil equity, I would move somewhere cheaper, spend £500k on a nice house, quit work and choose a job a genuinely loved, even if it's minimum wage. Life is short and spending £1mil on a house to then have to take out another mortgage is usually completely unnecessary. That's just me though!

Cardiff is great, I personally would hate to raise a child in London so it's a no brainer for me. Definitely not crazy.

You’ll be able to get a lovely house in a nice area of Cardiff, or the surrounding area for less than £1,000,000.

Do you definitely want to be in the city? If just being close is good enough have a look at the Vale of Glamorgan.

Remember that Wales has a devolved government which does mean that some things (health and education are the biggies) are different but ime, different isn’t worse.

London is a wonderful place to raise a family. 8 million people and counting wouldn't choose to live here if not.

I'm sure Cardiff is great too.

Honestly I would rent first to see how you find it. Horses for courses but I've spent a lot of time in Cardiff and in my opinion it is not lovely at all.

The right bits of London are leafy and vibrant with a fantastic food / cafe scene.

Cardiff is not so green/ well served and I don't think the culture remotely compares (if that's your thing).

It also rains a lot.

It's Cardiff not the outback.

You could wait and see if kids come along. Plenty of time to move before they'd start big school.
If you enjoy your life there and have friends and contacts then why move?
Do you need to work those hours to pay your current mortgage?

Cardiff is our closest big city (we're going on Sunday) and I personally think it's really declined in the last 10 years especially the city centre. I would rent before committing to buy.

Nothing crazy and seems like a very sensible plan.
Do what makes you both happy.

Good idea of PP to rent out your house in London and rent in Cardiff for a year or two before you make a final decision. Be try hard to get back into the London property market if you find you've changed your minds, as your house in Cardiff won't appreciate like your house in London

cardiff actually has more green spaces than London per population and is one of the greenest capitals in europe
https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/cardiff-one-europes-greenest-capitals-25565189
and of course it's much closer to proper large swathes of open countyside/mountains/the sea

The culture of pretty much any other UK city is never going to compare to London, surely that's obvious! But due to being the capital Cardiff punches above its weight in terms of culture to comparable sized english cities - bristol (which itself is a cool city and very close), doesn't have anywhere near the same big gigs/an opera based there etc.

It absolutely does rain a lot though!

Tbh you can get to London within 2hrs now the railway's been electrocuted so with the money you've saved you could still do multiple weekends to London and get your culture fix, while enjoying a more laid back lifestyle the rest of the time.

I live 25 mins outside of Cardiff. I don’t know if I would move there.

1. The public transport is poor and it feels like the council are deliberately making it hard to drive anywhere in Cardiff but the buses are objectively awful (1 every hour and none after 10pm)

2. It’s not a confident city and it’s quite divided.

I chose to live just outside of Cardiff because

1. I value green spaces
2. I value a strong community where people talk to each other
3. It’s easy to get to beaches, mountains and the city from where I live.

This!

OT but where in Swansea op?

I'm just being nosy but curious as to whether I'd agree there was a good reason to escape 😂

I'm in a London suburb and absolutely love raising kids here. Kids of all cultures in school, absolutely loads to do, parks everywhere, free museums, theatre, entertainment a train ride away. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else, my kids would be bored.

Hmm, I know Cardiff quite well and I’m not a fan really. It’s got a pretty depressing city centre. It may be a capital but I wouldn’t put it on a par with Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and it’s a million miles away from a Glasgow or Edinburgh. I’d rent first for sure.

Cardiff is full of students and as a result lots of young people post Uni. To quote my DS’s best friend who is at uni in Cardiff (DS will be going to uni there in Sept after a gap year) “ it’s full of English people”.
It really isn’t the back of beyond. One of my friends uses the airport regularly, rather than Birmingham or Bristol because she prefers it.
It’s by the sea and not far from some of the beautiful Welsh countryside. It’s 30mins from Bristol so close to the Southwest motorway network giving easy access to the places to be seen such as Salcombe or Rock in Cornwall.
And the M4 takes you straight back to London when required.

The North of the city is the best place to look Cyncoed or further out of the city.

You can always rent for 6mnths until you get your bearings and decide on the right location.

I wouldn't. But Cardiff has got a lot going for it, it depends on what you want. Before making up your minds, I'd suggest renting somewhere there for at least a couple of weeks in winter. Then don't fill your days with holiday stuff, try going about normal daily life and see how it grabs you.

I live near-ish to Cardiff and wouldn’t choose to live in the centre or near to it. However, I would absolutely choose to (and do!) live relatively nearby for a huge number of reasons.

I lived in London for many years and DH is from the SE and it’s absolutely the right decision for us, and our DC.

I’m guessing you’re in law, fintech or accountancy to be able to get a £170k salary and if so, there’s a really healthy professional community for all of these professions. I work in one!

Do you have friends in Cardiff? I'd rather be closer to London like surrey or bucks or Essex

If I had that sort of money I probably wouldn’t choose Cardiff.
is it the proximity to family that gives it the appeal?
bath, bristol, oxford - all nicer cities outside london to relocate to which you could afford a nice house in.

Cardiff is lovely and you can buy an amazing home and be mortgage free, helpful with little ones

And for cultural things Bristol is pretty close too