sile

Hello,

I have posted here before asking for opinions on this, but it's been awhile and I would like to see if there are any new perspectives and ideas. I really need some thoughtful responses and will be ever so grateful for them.

I am a single, self employed woman in my fifties. I need to make a decision regarding relocating very soon. I am just about to get my Irish citizenship by descent..very exciting..and I can then move anywhere in the EU and live and work. I initially thought I would go to Ireland, but frankly I think the UK has much more to offer in terms of things to do, opportunities to meet people, and the NHS is a huge reason I think the UK would be better for me.

I have never been there and I don't have money to be flying for a visit, boarding my dog and all that. I want to just make an educated decision about where to land and rent and figure out where I would like to settle after that.

I am an independent contractor in business development, but previously I was a professional photographer for over 25 years. I really want to go back to that in some way and feel the need for a new place to inspire me.
I also just need to start a new chapter in my life. My house has been sold, my immediate family all passed away in the last few years, friends have moved away and I am at a crossroads and alone.

I want to be near a big city like London or perhaps near a big university so I can find lots to do close by. I'd like to rent a house, a bungalow if possible, with an enclosed garden for my dog. I want to be able to walk to what I need, as I don't know how soon I will get a car. Near a hospital, vet, grocery and other shopping would be ideal.

My budget presently would allow about $1,000 to 1,200 per month for rent.
It's most important to be able to meet people so although I love the idea of a small village, I need to be near a bigger pool of people and things to do. I truly want to settle in, find new friends and start dating.

I have looked into Norwich, Cambridge, Oxford, York, Scottish Borders, Brighton, but naturally I have no idea what the good, safe, affordable neighborhoods are in any of these places. Suburban London might be good, but where?

I can hardly express how stressful this decision making process is. I am really full of trepidation, but I have thought this out as much as possible. The reasons I think I would love it there are the mild weather, the love of dogs, no guns everywhere, the culture, the compact nature of the country, countryside...all the things I know all of you who are from there so appreciate.

So, I anxiously await your ideas and thank you I advance.

Almo

Hi Sile,

What was wrong with the cities you've mentioned? I think it would be hard to give much advice without knowing why you've (presumably) discounted them. They're very varied in terms of location etc, so we would all be flying blind and just naming random cities. Pretty much every city and large town would have an area that meets the requirements in terms of hospital/vet/shopping etc.

I understand that it's tough mentally to go without knowing too much but I really think, having seen previous threads, you need to pick somewhere and just go. You can move cities once you get there, if you don't like it. That's pretty much what we did, although we had been to this city once (for a day) together before, and I had visited a handful of times as a child. When we left the UK for Australia my partner had never visited Oz and I had never visited Melbourne, we just went for it so I say that as someone who's broadly done that twice!

I don't say any of that unsympathetically, I recognise what a big deal it is, but there is only so much planning you can do and you, like us, have few things to tie you down or prevent you from moving again once you get there (we have two cats, no kids etc).

Our thought process was this:

We like big cities but don't necessarily want to live in one, as long as one (or more) is close by.
We don't want to live in or around London (been there, done that, too expensive and in our industries we would not attract a significant London premium).
University town/city would be preferable for my work.
Hmm, seems like the North would be a good idea. So, we looked at the band running from Liverpool up to Manchester, across to Leeds, York then Newcastle. All decent cities, multiple unis/higher education institutions.
Discounted Newcastle because we didn't find much in the way of jobs after a brief search.
Partner works in finance, so Manchester or Liverpool would be OK, but Leeds has the best combo of unis/finance companies. Settled on Leeds.

Sod's law, partner gets offered a job in Chester (which we had considered but discounted because we didn't think we'd find work).

ldollard

My first question is do you mean 1200 dollars or 1200 pounds. For 1200 dollars you wont be able to live anywhere in a bungalow in any of the locations you've mentioned and if you do it'll be a dive. Talking in terms of dollars you need to be thinking of $1600 a month. Here is a link to some flats in Oxford for example though, thats a good site to look around. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...Type=bungalows

If you're after say a quaint English existence, Surrey county is very nice.

Norwich (boring), Cambridge (safe, nice small), Oxford (safe, nice small), York (safe enough, nice, small, vibrant night life), Scottish Borders (safe, very quiet, not much of a large population, this is an area not a town), Brighton, (fun 60 mins to London by train, not many jobs, fairly cheap, but can be rowdy on weekend).

I find it strange you didn't mention London or any of the bigger cities at all considering they seem to fit your criteria.

robin1234

I would leave London and Cambridge off your list; both are very expensive. Here's an idea; Aberystwyth. Medium sized town with a very lively and vibrant university, so good pubs, restaurants, arts scene etc. beautiful coast and countryside. Reasonably priced property.. 39% of people are Welsh speaking, but being a cosmopolitan town, being an anglophone is fine too.

ldollard

If it cant be pronounced, it shouldn't be lived in... j/k

sile

Hi Almo,

Thanks for your response.
There's nothing wrong with the places I mentioned at all...I was just saying I was considering them but I don't know what neighborhoods within them are safe and nice, and I only know what I read in various places.

It's good advice to make a list of what I want and need and then narrow it down that way. I hope the info and opinions here can help with that. I have been reading lots of other threads to read what people think of places they have moved to or considered.

kimilseung

What are you having trouble with? Its not cam-bridge, but more like came-bridge

sile

Thanks for your comments. I didn't mention London because I assume I can't afford to live somewhere nice within London.

ldollard

You could possibly look at croydon, its in the outer boroughs and gives you easy access to all of London and other places.

Was referring to Aberystwyth.

Almo

Hi Sile

So your budget is 750 quid a month for rent, is that right (roughly)? Are you going to be looking for business opportunities here or will you be working for existing US clients?

If your income is going to be the same regardless of where you live I would steer clear of the South East, simply because your money would go further elsewhere (generally speaking).

I don't know enough about any of the cities that you've listed to give you any real input on them but we considered Cambridge and Oxford briefly and then discounted on cost. Can you start doing that? Whilst there are pockets of affordability pretty much everywhere in the country you need to start wielding the knife and crossing things off the list, it's not feasible to analyse every potential city minutely and only then start discounting places.

I think you really need to think about what you want/need before we can tell you much. Consider, for starters:

Do you need to be near an airport for trips back to the US?
Do you have any particular hobbies (walking, snow sports, theatre etc)?
What do you like and dislike about where you currently live?
If you will be looking for work, what industry are you in?

We booked a holiday cottage (pet friendly) roughly half way between Leeds and Manchester for a month so we could have a look on the ground. Could you do the same?

J.JsOH

Hi, I think most everywhere will have safe desirable neighborhoods as well as the less desirable. Towns vary greatly within relatively short distances so there is always another side of the tracks in pretty much any town.

Perhaps narrow your list by city facts that suit you.
Or go straight to rightmove.co.uk where you will find search by area and town. There is facility to email estate agents in each town and send them your list of needs and interests.

When you have picked one or two towns then search this forum or ask again for opinions.

Alternatively web search for jobs / opportunities in the (photography) employment you seek and then look for housing in towns with opportunity.

Do you have a need to be near other US persons? There are areas where there are military bases and hence US persons - but rents may be higher in those areas since many live off base.

Regards,

sile

I popped my answers into your post below, and then added more under that...
I know that having a house, even if it is smaller, with a garden for the dog, is pretty important to me. I don't care for apartment living at all. So it will have to be somewhere that I can afford to rent a house in, which I assume will be further away from a city, but maybe I'm wrong.

I have used rightmove a lot, and it had been very helpful, however, again, I have no idea when I am looking at something if it is in a good, safe area. They don't say that in the ads

So, I guess it's down to looking for areas just outside of bigger cities like Manchester, Leeds, York. I did see some nice places in Oxfordshire, but again, I don't really know how far removed they are from Oxford itself, literally and otherwise.

sile

Thanks very much for your reply. I will look onto emailing estate agents when I narrow things down a bit. And yes, I would like to be able to meet up with other "US persons" , at least in the beginning as I get adjusted to my new locations, so thanks for the ideas.

ldollard

I really believe at this stage you need to just come over for 2 weeks and go traveling around a list of places you are interested in to get a feel for them. You have a very American attitude to places regarding safety. There's not many places in the UK you would feel in danger of living in, we have no Chicago's or Detroit's in the UK, every area as said before is mixed.

For instance I grew up in Putney in London, pretty nice area, except a mile away there was social housing with nefarious people .

So what you are really looking for is affordability and desirability of the area to your own personal needs; especially important as it sounds like you want to retire to said area.

Another example is Altrincham, just outside of Manchester, you can get to London in 2 1/2 hours from there, Manchester in 20 mins, Liverpool in an hour all by Train, its a lovely little town and would be affordable but close to the country, towns and cities.

ldollard

RAF Brize Norton outside of Oxford is one such base.