London to Devon

[Danniwoo2]

I need some advice please!
We are currently living in Bromley, London and looking to relocate to Devon (we think!)

We have around £550k to play with, and hoping to get something detached with land (1-3 acres). Near a nice country town/village and good schools close by. Preferably on the outskirts of a larger town so our children will have somewhere to go when they're older.

We've looked at Exeter & Okehampton.
I would like somewhere very pretty but also not too remote or too quiet.

Any advice or recommendations would be great.
We are looking to sell and be mortgage free so our budget is £550/£560 max.

Could you please answer my pole too? I love a bit of research!

Reason to wanting to move- want to be mortgage free, want land, want less crime and want a new start!
We are self employed with jobs that work in any area.

Thank you😁

I suspect your budget might rule out Herefordshire, Kent and Surrey if you want land. Properties with land on the edge of towns are also quite rare and tend to be more expensive. Possibly Cornwall too?

I think Exeter and Okehampton seem like nice places though, if you can find something on your budget. Never lived there but I have friends there and seems nice.

Don’t rule out Somerset! Lots of pretty rural places!

I'd want to be near transport especially with children. Devon isn't as cheap as it used to be and some towns have been heavily developed. Exmouth, Sidmouth, might be worth looking at.

Somerset and Wiltshire would be other areas to consider.

I moved to Cornwall. I've got an acre of land and a much bigger house, 5 minutes walk to the beach. Its a bugger to get anywhere though. So I guess North Devon would be better in that respect.

Exeter is expensive now.

The villages around Ashburton may be cheaper - and Ashburton is the sort of new, less annoying Totnes.

Worth looking at Tavistock

We relocated from Bromley.

Another suggesting considering Somerset too.
Maybe look along the main train lines - Penzance to London Paddington/Bristol & close to M5 to allow you to get around easier.
Consider what amenities you want close by, how far you want to be away from places like the coast/cities/moors etc.
Bear in mind public transport is very limited or even nonexistent in many places, especially rurally.
For what it’s worth I live on the edge of a small town on the Devon/Somerset border & we have a lovely life here.

Climbinghigher

What's annoying about Totnes? We were thinking of going to Devon in the summer and I've heard Totnes is one of the nicest bits? We go to Cornwall every year which I absolutely love but dh wants a change. Where would you suggest if we love St. Ives, Padstow etc?

Our plan is to move to Cornwall when the dc's are grown up.

@AzureshoresTotnes is known as quite alternative, hippy, new age vibe (bit like Glastonbury). So probably a bit of a marmite place but fine if just for a holiday. A good base to get around though not right on the coast.
North Devon (Saunton, Croyde) would be like St Ives in terms of coastal location but not many shops etc. Braunton is nice but further inland.
Some nice coastal towns on the east or south coasts - Salcombe, Teignmough, Beer.

Exeter is probably out of your budget for what you want unless you go for a doer upper. Okehampton, Crediton, Honiton more feasible.

Thanks APurpleSquirrel 🙏

I am in Cornwall. You can get a nice house for your budget but I don't think you'd get the land too unless it's got other issues (riddled with tin mines, for example)

Totnes is funky!! Just visit... you'll have a lovely day out and know immediately if its your vibe or not.

I'd start with the schools as given distances most children go to the local comprehensives. If you go Plymouth way there are 3 11 plus grammars (2 girls 1 boys). Ivybridge might have a property on outskirts? The school used to be well liked but I don't know what grade it was and my kids are nearly 30 now so times have moved on.

I considered Ashburton! Too far from the sea for me, but near Dartmoor, pleasant vibes, and affordable.

(FWIW I lived in Bromley once. Does it still have the Habitat?)

okehampton college is not great and the town is known as soakhampton which gives you an idea what the weather’s like.
Exeter would be my choice, but not sure house and land would be in your budget. Exmouth area? Town centre is not great, but beach is fabulous and easy to get train or bus to Exeter. I like Budleigh Salterton, but my dad used to describe it as god’s waiting room.

I don't think anywhere coastal in east Devon is going to be in budget for detached + land

Honiton? Axminster? Crediton? Those might be doable.

I think Exeter area will be out of budget. I wouldn't live in Okehampton.

WHAT, WHAT, WHAT!!!! Ashburton compared to Totnes! My God, build a wall and throw out the newcomers! My wonderful home town (ancestors there since the 1600s) gone all hippy-dippy!!
We are real people! I have a newspaper cutting from the 1950s reporting the vandalisation of the public toilets a week after they were refurbished - proper community interaction 😁
If you are considering moving there join the local Facebook page to get a flavour of it.
And never, ever call it a village. It was declared a stannary town by King John nearly 1000 years ago.

I loved Totnes tbh. But it’s become unaffordable to the original Totnes types & has lost some of what it was as it’s become a bit of a parody of itself. Annoying was probably the wrong word. I still like visiting Totnes for the day but probably wouldn’t want to live there.

Ashburton is more real, but has the same green vibe - just less overdone.

It’s a small town. The villages outside it will be cheaper (I think?) than the villages around Totnes - especially as you head towards the sea when prices become large.

Tavistock larger, & the villages between there and Okehampton cheaper than anywhere around the South Hams (Tavistock and surrounds my favourite bit of Devon tbh but I love Dartmoor & it’s easy access for walking). Check WiFi speeds though if you need decent connection for work. You could also look at villages along the A38 or A30 - South Brent is cheaper & easy connection to Ivybridge and Plymouth for teen kids. Easyish to get to the coast for any keen teen surfers and heaven for any horse riders.

The south Devon coast is lovely if you want a surf vibe. Kingsbridge/Modbury really lovely but pricey. You probably won’t get much land at your price range there.

North Devon can be cheaper but is isolated

what activities do you do? What do you enjoy? What sort of schools will you be looking for? State or private could be important in your decision making.

I love Exeter. I'd move there if I ever left London. When I got divorced and was all over the place I thought about moving to Dawlish and almost bought a flat there on the sea front. But Exeter would have been better, there's more going on. Maybe one day.

Have a think about Somerset

We relocated from the South East to Cornwall almost 40 years ago. Best thing we ever did. More affordable housing, better work life balance and great place to bring up kids. If you are set on Devon, Exeter is nice but expensive. I don’t really know Okehampton. We chose to live close to Plymouth so only just into Cornwall. It is a pain to get to anywhere else though and the roads are very busy in holiday time so if going out we leave early before holidaymakers get up. We don’t tend to travel weekends.

We often go back to Surrey where our family lives and couldn’t live there now.

There are plenty of properties in Devon with half an acre but precious few meeting your criteria for 1-3 acres.

Where do you compromise? Do you want Devon and accept less space, or choose Caithness to get the space but live further from "civilisation". (or somewhere in between!)

Looking to the future and your kids specifically, there’s not much going on in Okehampton for teens and the public transport to places where there’s more going on is sporadic and the journey long. It’s a nice town (family live there), particularly if you want a quiet life. Walkable for shops, there’s a cinema and a couple of pubs, three supermarkets all clustered together. Access to Dartmoor is amazing, and further to the lovely beaches on the Devon coast. We’ve looked at moving down to be nearer family and Exeter would win out over the smaller towns. There’s just more life there for kids.

Agree with one of the previous posters about some of the seaside places being ‘god’s waiting room’. Lovely with kids in the summer months, but absolutely dead in the winter. I also have family on the coast that retired down there. The demographic is skewed towards the older/retired. Few jobs for the younger ones outside of peak season, and the houses are too expensive for them and they end up moving out.

I grew up in Devon and have returned with teenage sons, DH and I both working remotely, me in a biggish corporate role. Having seen the world and come home there's nowhere else I'd want to be than Devon. But I knew what to expect, and that there are compromises involved.
Bromley to Devon sounds like a pretty hard core relocation, and whilst you can absolutely tick off all your boxes there will be some others you might not want to tick.
Firstly, I think you should be able to get a house and a bit of land for that budget, albeit probably not in the South Hams, Totnes, Ashburton, Chagford areas. You will get more for your money north and west of the Moor, but there are trade offs in terms of accessibility, amenities and schools. A high % of houses near villages with a few acres are also ancient and in need of major refurbishment so factor that in to your budget.
Okehampton is in a stunning setting but the town is a bit down at heel. That should improve in the coming few years as the impact if the new transport hub is felt. But there won't be a Gail's any time soon! Okehampton is also not well served in terms of secondary education- just one RI school. Of course that can change too over time.
If you are seriously about the Exeter to Okehampton area I would look at Crediton- it's a better town and has good links in to Exeter. It also has better schools- in that area I believe QE and Chumleigh are much better than Okehampton College.
Other areas worth exploring might be Honiton (less remote) and Tiverton (ditto), both are surrounded by glorious countryside- might be a bit pricier than NW Devon though. Tavistock is a terrific town also.

My DC are happy here but some distance from school friends and it's more of an effort to get around so they have to make their own entertainment- fishing and cricket mainly. It's harder to be spontaneous because everything requires transport. And it rains quite a bit so winters can be depressing.

That said, Devon is generally safe, relaxed and ridiculously beautiful so long as you don't need a clean car or ready access to cappuccino.

Tavistock is lovely, my mum used to live in a nearby village and DH and I got married there. Not sure if your budget would stretch to land but worth having a look.

Two things to bear in mind - the south west is a LOT damper than the SE (I’ve lived in both). Devon in particular is mizzily 90% of the year.

And you still get crime and anti-social behaviour in smaller, more rural places. Quite a lot of it in fact, as the young people are often bored and without much else to do.

I’m often tempted by such a move myself, but I know in reality I’d miss the convenience of city life. Good luck!

I worked with a a normal seeming guy who had to relocate back to Devon because he missed it so much. It was the bit on the moor. I think it was Dartmoor. So check it out it clearly has something special!
I quite like Bromley and the schools are very good. Mind you he told me they have otters in Devon so for me that would outweigh schools as a consideration.