Andrew Cross

I love Glasgow, was up there in November and wished I had more than just a long weekend stay.....Edinburgh is very nice too.

Exile

Hi Chance,

We also have Bury St Edmunds on our shortlist, if we decide to move back. I've only ever visited, but liked the feel of the place, and it seems to get good reviews. May need to tap into your local knowledge at a later date!

Other areas on our list include Dorset (possibly too close to my family for my wife), west Hampshire (New Forest, or possibly somewhere going up towards Salisbury), or perhaps the Somerset/Gloucestershire area. Has anybody ever lived in Cirencester? Or Bath? I'm thinking outskirts or surrounding villages. Like a lot of people, I'm looking for decent schools, low crime rates, and a bit of character, even if that means getting less house for your money.

Too many decisions. Best of luck.

Herman

I agree with people who say its down to personal preferences. When I was a single twenty something male I enjoyed living in Bristol for years but eventually felt I was stuck in a rut (which was full of beer and kebabs) and moved to London to start a proper career. I then loved living in London as a single professional with serious money for socialising, for a few years at least. Then I met my wife and we grew weary of London and took opportunities to spend time on secondment in Prague, Zurich, then Sydney before returning to London. We had fun for different reasons in each place and enjoyed moving around. Now we are settling down and we have moved to where we want to be now - a village in Gloucestershire, which is near parents/old friends, in a low crime pretty area, 15 minute drive to work for both of us, about 25 minutes to Bristol for nights out/weekend shopping trips and 35 minutes to Bristol airport. I'm sure there are plenty of other lovely places to live but for us none that better combine work/leisure access with proximity to parents and friends. We have often dreamt about living by the sea in Devon or Wales, but the trade off in terms of employment opportunities, commuting and distance from friends/family make this unworkable.

Kurtons

Im afraid you missed the point the thread was extolling the virtues of the cotswolds with cheltenham described as RELATIVELY unspoilt
If you dont mind me asking how long ago was it since you were last in the town ? Im afraid youve over exagerrated the crime ridden estates theres a huge regeneration of some parts currently ongoing and a new shopping and entertainment mall which will further enhance its reputation of being a premier Spa town of the south west

YoSemite

have lived/around edinburgh for my whole entire life.... so feel somewhat qualified to spew about how wonderful it is!!!

mackinnon

On Glasgow?

Pros: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5050186.html

Cons: Expensive council tax, culture a wee bit TOO booze-focussed, but then, where isn't in the U.K.?

Mummy

I'm from Plymouth in Devon, have lived in Bradford, Manchester, Cambridge, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Derby. Only place I would go back to live in (apart from Plymouth which is hopeless because there are no jobs there for me or hubby) is Cambridge. Cambridge was nice because it was not too big, you can cycle everywhere, crime was relatively low, lots of common land, schools good etc. Downsides are that it is overrun by students and tourists, and sometimes in the summer months it is impossible to go into the centre for people. Also, now very very expensive.

We are thinking of going back to the Bristol/Bath area - never lived there, but it is a good location between our two families, and there are jobs for us both. Bath seems expensive, and don't know enough about suburbs of Bristol to comment - I know some areas are very rough.

TruBrit

hiya, my hubs worked for a time in bristol and we bought a house in cheddar, not in the gorge too touristy, and really enjoyed our 3 yrs there...clifton was a nice area but like you said some rough old areas around about....

Herman

If you want to live close to the centre then Clifton/Redland/Westbury Park/Westbury-on-Trym/Henleaze and Stoke Bishop are best. However, house prices in these suburbs are high - for a 3/4 bed house £500k+ in Clifton/Redland and in the rest £330k+.

You then get a ring of poorer suburbs around the city edge, eg Southmead, Filton, Patchway, where houses are cheaper but schools are very very poor and crime rates much higher.

Keep going out and you start getting to nicer areas again, although with longer commutes to the centre - my experience is that transport links are better from the North of the city. One very popular area is the villages from around Almondsbury out to Thornbury. Same problem as Clifton etc though - very good schools and therefore house prices are steep, like £250k to £300k for 3 beds in an estate, up to £300k for 4 beds in an estate and £350k+ for a non estate 4 bed village house.

BadgeIsBack

Good to get hard figures Herman. How much would a house, in a village, be, on an acre? I had a quick look at houses in the South of England on an acre plus and could hardly find any listed - but that was on the internet. I often wonder how easy it is to pick up a 3 bed cottage on an acre but I reckon the opportunity would not present itself much, and I would in theory avoid anything in Country Gardens = or whatever it is called - because of the expense.

cheers

Hutch

I lived in Bath for a decade and worked in both Bath and Bristol during that time. Bath's a great place but the cost of property there is simply insane - on a par with the nicer bits (if there is such a thing!) of London. You're looking at £500k for a detached house, £400k for a terraced and £230k for a flat!!

The other thing with Bath is that it's a huge tourist trap and whilst it's great when you need to buy an ethnic African mask or some other knick-knack, buying a loaf of bread isn't nearly as easy. Crime levels are pretty much the same as any other large town/small city and there are the usual grim old council estates (Whiteway, Southdown and Twerton to a lesser extent).

There are some nice areas outside of Bath, like Corsham, Box and Bathford, but you're not going to get anywhere near the national average house price until you hit places like Peasdown St. John and Trowbridge (neither of which are anything to write home about). That said, if you have the funds to live in the nicer bits of either Bath or Bristol I'd still recommend them - very good schools, nice people and a beautiful part of the UK to live in.

Hutch

That'd be Country Life, Badge.

Herman

There's a house in my village on a couple of acres for £750k! But its a big/luxury place, 6 bedrooms, own lake etc etc. Friends of mine are renovating an old farm building on just over an acre in the area I mentioned north of Bristol. They paid £200k for the ruin/land about 18 months ago and £120k renovating so far and counting. The finished article should be worth nearly £400k, despite being on a pretty busy road.

Also as a benchmark, we looked at a 3 bed barn conversion nearby, in a village about 11 miles from Bristol, which needed a lot of cosmetic work and was not that large (although it did have an ensuite bathroom). Location was what a lot of people dream about though - on the edge of a farm up a deserted country lane on the edge of a pretty village and the barn came with a 1.5 acre field instead of a back garden. This was on the market for £375k. We were put off partly by the work required on the property (no money for it), by not actually wanting to own a field for a back garden and by not wanting to live that rural.

I doubt you would find many traditional cottages on an acre in that North Bristol area and if you do expect to pay for it. Best place to look is an agency that specialises in rural property like Dreweatt Neate.

Mummy

Looking at the UK now, having left for 2 years, the house prices are high everywhere. I am so gutted that we sold our 2 bed flat in Cambridge. Bought it for £65000, sold it for £95000 after 2 years. We had thought about renting it out, but would have only got about £350pm for it, which didn't quite cover the mortgage. But then the prices started to rise, and I see now that a flat in the same block as ours was, but with only 1 bed instead of 2 is now renting for £650pm!!!! And to buy it would be approx £180,000. Bummer! I am really worried about how to get back in the property market when we go back to the UK. Not that the house prices here in Sydney are any different - still out of our reach.

isgraham

Worsley just outside of Manchester, where I am from originally, its a fantastic place to live, Avoid London at all costs it's a hole.