Re: Best relocation areas in the UK?
 

I grew up in Dorset, granted that was 26 years ago, but I still have many friends who live there and they have had no issues regarding safety etc, we are actually moving back there well to start with anyway, see what it's like after being away for so long, but hoping it is some what familiar. Nice and close to the New Forest etc too, which is lovely for walks, picnics and so on, I remember the climate being pretty good too, but as I say it's been a long time, but from researching I can see it still comes up as a decent area. Parts of Bournemouth/Boscombe are a bit dodge, but you get that anywhere you live even where I am currently in Australia. ;)

We are heading there in January, so I shall come back and update once settled :)

Re: Best relocation areas in the UK?
 

I think that you were better leaving the comment that Bournemouth/Boscombe is a bit dodgy than copping out and saying that basically the world is one generic - i.e. crime is everywhere. When Aucklander said that Poole/Branksome Park were a search area that was fine, but Boscombe is known to have a drug problem, as has much of Dorset, as there are a significant number of areas of serious economic deprivation and drug dealers use what us called cuckooing and county lines to prey on those who have fallen on hard times to make them even worse. It's a typical dilemma for many of the English South Coast seaside towns, which have been in overall steady decline.

There are anti-drug action police task forces operating out of Bournemouth but who knows how seriously they actually take this whole 'war on drugs' thing - you know the deal! A 'revolving door' Magistrates Court system doesn't help to keep the police motivated.

It is for the above reason that areas to live in the county have to be carefully selected, as do they in much of the West Country for exactly that same reason.

We were in an area of Weymouth where neighbours would complain that it is as quiet as a morgue. That in actual fact might be ideal.

As was hinted at a few posts earlier, areas which function as gated communities or quasi gated communities with watch programmes have a lot going in favour of them.

Poking around on the Police.uk website looking at postal codes can show one how extraordinarily isolated high-density crime areas can sometimes be. So there is seemingly a way around it.

Re: Best relocation areas in the UK?
 

Thanks for pointing out the Service Fees that is something I need to look into.

Re: Best relocation areas in the UK?
 

I was simply giving my opinion and yes crime is everywhere. So no not a cop out at all and not sure how you came to that conclusion, but anyway have a good day.

Re: Best relocation areas in the UK?
 

Service fees, Ground rents and Retirement Properties have been getting some very bad press of late and this has put off prospective purchasers, particularly in new-build developments.

Developers have been greedy and built ultra-high ground rents with escalation clauses into lease agreements, so much so that they can severely damage the ability of the property owner (tenant on the lease) to sustain ongoing annual costs and it severely curtails the ability to sell a property on. Service fees, particularly on retirement properties, can be inordinately high, particularly where there is a lift and a near full-time warden present and there are extensive common areas to be maintained.

With retirement properties there is a further issue of age restriction and standard mortgage lenders do not participate in lending where there are significant restrictions as it undermines value. This will further damage value.

In our area of Weymouth, there was an endless 'procession' of leasehold apartments for sale where the typical reason for attempted disposal was due to high and therefore unsustainable service fees for those on fixed income.

IMHO, the best way to approach apartments is either to seek out one where there is a SHARE of freehold* on offer AND a demonstrated properly functioning management company (owned by the share of freeholders), or less favourably, there is simply a properly functioning internal management committee having some sort of oversight over ongoing costs and ongoing maintenance.

Note that just because service costs are low, doesn't mean everything is hunky dory. You can well have a situation where an intended seller asked the other share of freeholders to agree to a temporary CUT in service charges to make them look attractive to a prospective buyer when in actual fact they therefore covered next to nothing of the necessary on going costs to maintain an overall property in good order. It ain't easy!

Oh and it goes without saying that you NEVER ever go for a leasehold property which has an outstanding lease of less than say 90 years but then you should really be going for those shares of freeholds anyway. Note that estate agents are notoriously bad in detailing what the correct tenure is (freehold, leasehold, share of freehold) on rightmove.

I'm sure that there will be others on here who can vouch for the fact that buying off-plan can be a nightmare worthy of a horror non-fiction publication. As a participant in a development which was a perfect storm of developer dishonesty and fraud, legal incompetence and ineffectiveness, investor neglect, builder incompetence, architect dishonesty and freeholder greed bordering? illegality, I can say DON'T GO NEAR NEW-BUILD apartments BOUGHT OFF-PLAN.

*Share of freehold is not ideal where certain owners in a development did not choose to be participants in the purchase of the share because there is a duty of care to that minority and certain statutory requirements regarding giving notice for major works and getting competitive bids, and this can be a pain

Re: Best relocation areas in the UK?
 

Thanks again, I will take this advice on board. Still have to sell up but hope to arrive in UK next May.

Re: Best relocation areas in the UK?
 

What I say here might :unsure: lend itself to the Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch area as much as it did to Weymouth where we settled. They are both hospitality areas to a certain degree.

We arrived in Weymouth in mid-September and started out doing a winter let for six months - renting with a proper lease a fully-loaded property (incl TV licence, cutlery, you name it) (used for Summer Holiday Let) at a reduced rent. We then moved into a holiday let in a superb location for several months on a negotiated lower rent. We then went to another property in the locale for a few weeks, then checked out of the area and the UK for a few months before returning to do another winter let. Then we took a long let. We used a self storage facility for some of the time to ease the effort (there are such facilities in Weymouth and also close in to Gatwick Airport (Maidenbower), for example).

After all of this, done with the same overall estate agent throughout for the UK bit, which saved on fees, expectation of extensive up-front rent due and referencing effort (due the good working relationship then built) (note that estate agents should by law no longer charge fees to the tenant) we had a very good idea of the areas in Weymouth that we thought suited us for long term letting and/or ultimate property purchase when living without a car, because there was a time when we seriously thought that we might buy there because on balance, we thought it was a good as we could 'get' when in the UK.

Note that we did not bring our worldly goods to the UK, just about eleven suitcases worth, and always rented fully-furnished.

Re: Best relocation areas in the UK?
 

We did the same when we lived in Spain, Cyprus & Tenerife all 12 months rentals fully furnished. However after the joy of living in our present home for 16 years I realize I prefer to own my own place, that way I can furnish how I want & also make it to the level of comfort.At our age we just want a permanent lock up & leave for when we want to take trips away.
I am sure we will have to rent for awhile till we find a property to buy, although hubby wants me to go ahead research & buy so he just has to move in. We did this when we moved to New Zealand, fortunately I bought good location, so it proved a good investment. Hope I can do that again.