Elgin

[PalsofKretek]

My other half has been offered a job in Elgin. Our first choice was Inverness but it didn’t quite work out. Looks like we’ll been moving at the end of August which has sent me into panic to be honest. We have four boys so need to look at schools and nursery for the youngest one. They all play instruments and do swimming.
We’ve only stopped briefly in Elgin before, seen the cathedral, been to Findhorn and love the idea of being close to both the sea and mountains.
But we need to find a house first. Ideally we would like to be within 5 miles from Elgin.
Any tips on which areas to look at or any advice really would be great.

@Anotherhill probably too far but then it would take my children days to find me in that house and that might not be a bad thing 🤣

@PalsofKretek my parents are on the market at present locally, lower price bracket though - they are receiving offers 5-10% over HR, but I think it’s quite property-dependent, hopefully someone comes along who knows the market better locally.

I'm from and live in Forres. If you're used to island life, you'll find Elgin very busy! Forres is quieter, just how I like it!
Lossie is lovely, not a fan of new elgin though. Just really busy.
Saw the house in reidhaven street, wow!
Ewan McGregor brother lives next door I believe. Good views!
I see some one suggested findhorn. Honestly you can't even get into the village just now for tourists and campervans. It's also very cliquey and 'alternative'. My friend had a beautiful cottage there but moved.
Some beautiful properties in kinloss/alves area.

Forres is beautiful - lovely parks and walks and nice high street.

Elgin is a soulless place I don't like it at all!

I'd imagine house prices be cheaper in Forres too and they have a nice pool.

I'd start looking there if it were me!

That property in Keith used to be the department of education many moons ago.
Apart from the bus and train links there isn't much to recommend about Keith.

Hi

We are up here in Lossiemouth on holiday for two weeks and have rented a two bed semi detached house similar to ours back in Shropshire.
We are very interested in moving to this area, but cannot find much information with regard to schools. Our son is just going into year 4, so we would be looking to move next summer. So need info on primary and secondary schools. We like the look of Forres and Fochabers and the house prices there are in our price range. We have looked in the Moray Council website and their are either no inspection reports or they are very old.
We want somewhere for our son to go where the teaching is of a high standard. In our town in Shropshire the school is very good, but Telford is getting bigger by the minute and we are getting increasing numbers of people coming to live here from big cities and unfortunately serious crime rates are in the rise. A big housing development, all affordable rent, is about to be built right behind our house as well and several residents are concerned about it. That sounds snobby but ...everywhere is being developed for housing with little extra infrastructure being put in, eg schools, doctors etc. Any information gratefully received!!

Nobody bothers about inspection reports or getting their child into the "best school" as they seem to do in England - most parents just put their children to the local school. I teach in a different area of Moray and it's very rare to have pupils from out of zone. Reports can be found on the HMIE website, but they may not be very recent as inspections are only every 7+ years in my expe
Every spare bit of land is being built on atm. In my town there are houses going up non-stop (supposedly to cope with the masses who are moving up here after Covid) - even though there are no plans to extend existing or build another school which will lead to massive classes. The plus side is that classes cannot be more than 33 if they are all the same age or 25 if mixed age.

Thanks for that RaraRachael, very useful xx whereabouts are you?
We have 88 houses going on site by us where you should only be able to fit 50, it's right behind another very lovely established area, so people there are not to happy. On our walk to school there are 360 houses being built and all the fields of horses are gone!! Again right on the edge of a part of town that's like s little village.