Can’t make my mind up about move

[jjW29]

I’ve already posted about this a few months ago under London topic but still need some points of view from people that may understand my dilemma a bit more or may have been in same situation as me…sorry but I just need more opinions.
Im 59 and relocated to Norwich around 17 years ago with then partner(from London and has since married)and our 2 young children.
Fast forward to now I’m an almost empty nester in a large mortgage free house and have been single apart from bit of online dating etc for 12 years.I just can’t see me living out the rest of my life here,I miss London so much.I have a handful of friends in both Norwich and London but no family so friends and family wouldn’t really be a factor.
My house is worth around £350k and I’m on a low income £25k or so and have savings of around £50k.I feel I need at least 2 beds so that my 20 DD at uni and DD 18 can still have a home.
I know I should just make the move but people keep saying why would you want to move there,the crowds,the crime,the cost,you’ll be lonely there on your own in your old age!! I’m finding the logistics hard to imagine also,having moved house many times I know what it’s like but seems a mammoth task now…I suppose I’ll have to prepare to be out of work for at least a few weeks as need to hand notice in a month before move and then no guarantee of finding job within a month.
Would welcome any advice or thoughts please on relocating to London alone age 60ish xxx

Where will you afford to live in London?

Wherever I can afford,lots of flats,maisonettes and even houses for £400-450 in various parts of London and outskirts.
I obviously don’t mean central London 🤣

I understand but I think it sounds really tight. Stamp duty alone would be at least £12k. How big a mortgage would you expect to take on and what's your pension like?

I’m not really looking for advice on the financial aspect but more the fitting back into London life at an older age.Like I said I’ve already had opinions from people I know about the cost of living there etc but we actually experienced higher costs when we moved to Norwich,granted we were mortgage free but our water charges and council tax were more and our earnings went down by around £10k per year.
I will still work hopefully into my late 60’s but am interested in the social aspect ie opportunities for volunteering,making friends,meetup groups etc I can’t be specific about a particular area but just interested to know how others have got on?

If you're in an affordable part of London you're likely to be quite deep into the suburbs. Will the opportunities for volunteering, making friends and meetup groups there actually be better than Norwich?

You'd probably be on a higher salary (assuming you can get a job) but if you're having to travel into the centre daily for work or for the social things that will eat up a lot of your time, leaving you with money (although maybe not if you're paying a mortgage) but perhaps not the energy for socialising.

Is there somewhere else that might be a compromise option - a different city entirely that's bigger than Norwich but cheaper than London?

House of £350k and savings of £50k (plus survey, stamp duty, fees) won't get you a £400-450k without taking on a mortgage. Do you want to do that at 60, without a definite job?

If that is where your heart lies, make the move. The only way, I can see you regreting it is if the cost of living in retirement is so high there, that you would prefer to be elsewhere, but you will get free transport and more free things to do and easy access to healthcare which also makes a huge difference.

If its where your heart is and you know the situation I'd do it. Can you let your house for 6 months and rent in London first as a trial? I'm taking early retirement due to massive stress and have been put off by all my colleagues getting me to rethink. I've realised in the end they are scared by what I'm doing, and thats ok, they aren't me, it is still the right decision for me with all I have going on, and I'm happy to live with it however it turns out.

I think you'd have to choose your area and research it well...maybe join local Facebook pages to see what's on, go to local library to look for volunteering info etc. Most areas of london have a good community. I can relate to your post in some ways...I'm a londoner who moved to suffolk 11 years ago and am now also an empty tester. I can definitely see the attraction of moving back to London for things to do, culture etc, but I'm considering a move to a northern city in a few years rather than go back to London. I would really miss the nature and coast of East anglia though!

You want to move to one of the unfriendliest places in the UK to retire in hope of what? Retiring in a more built up area? I’m confused but I’m from Yorkshire so 🤷‍♀️

I don’t think it makes any sense at all. You’ll most likely be living in a grotty area on a limited income. It’s very expensive to do things in London and travel costs are involved . Your job opportunities will surely be limited too in your late fifties and moving without a job to go to is madness.

I would look at moving somewhere else entirely. Another city with lower living costs perhaps or somewhere with a good community. I think you’re trying to recapture the past. Seventeen years is a long time. You are much older now and life is different.

I would be up for a move as you havent
enough connection to Norwich but not to London . I lived there for work for 10 years and arrived knowing no one and left knowing no-one . It’s the loneliest place and the hardest to make real friends . Yes I had colleagues and friends to hang out with but none meaningful and who I’m in touch with now . I also don’t think you have enough money to live there successfully eg a safe area and living costs budget . Yes move by all means but not to London .

If you were moving to central London then I'd say absolutely go for it, but agree with a PP who said that moving to a London suburb seems unlikely to give you what you want. Norwich was recently named one of the best places in the country to live - could you try investing more in your life there before making this potentially irreversible move?

More broadly, could it be that your feelings about an empty nest are driving you to the idea of tempting 'new start' that might not deliver anything better?

OP, you’re 59 and thinking of leaving a large house to relocate to the suburbs of London, and leaving a large house in favour of a small flat. You will miss the space, and you will also find it hard to get a job, unless you’re a nurse or similar, because ageism is rife. Norwich has a great deal going for it - university city, theatre, cathedral, museums etc. It’s nothing to do with the crowds and crime, and everything to do with the fact that I think you are making this mythical London life into something in your head that it isn’t. Most people in London will be at work all day, and the opportunities for meet-up groups etc will be no greater in outer London than they would be in Norwich. My London children always tell me that it takes at least an hour to get anywhere to visit friends etc in other parts of London - you might as well stay in a nice house and go down to the big smoke to visit friends as go and live there. My Dd has recently been looking to buy a flat - yes, they are available at around the £450,000 mark, but they may well seem a bit grotty and cramped after your Norwich house. Maybe go and stay in an area you’re interested in for a couple of weeks to see just what opportunities there are - London can be just as lonely as anywhere else, and often has a more transitory population.

At 60 you get a free travel pass. Not the Freedom Pass but Boris’s London pass. Choose a suburb carefully. I live near a royal park. There are free daily walks with a retired group who invite anyone to tag along and go for coffee afterwards. There are some very active churches, both RC and Anglican plus Methodists, Baptists etc. There are a number stately home type places with keen, friendly groups of volunteers. Our local Library has its own Book Group. I have a divorced friend who moved her family to be near to her mother twenty odd years ago. None of them settled. Her children chose London unis and now work abroad. Her mother has died and although she grew up in the area her mother lived, she felt like an outsider. She moved back to our London suburb and she is so much happier. She loves walking to shops and the library. She volunteers at a charity shop. She attends a local church. She knew what she was doing and downsized her large house for a two bedroom ground floor flat with a garden. Choose a friendly suburb with lots going on and you will hopefully settle right in.