dave66

Hi Folks,

We've been in Sydney for 4 years and we now want to return to the UK, Bristol, Swindon or somewhere close. Any ideas for nice areas around these parts ? Nice, as in villagey, good schools, low crime rate, cheap housing, etc. All the good stuff ....

Cheers,

Dave

jimtrish

hi dave,

we live in swindon, lots of lovely places to live. swindon is changing by the min, west swindon used to be the place to go but its awful and high crime now, park north is actually very popular now and nice and the housing is cheap and big, whereas in west swindon you are lucky to get a shoebox for £100,000!
purton is lovely, little bit pricey but lovely area and very villagey, wootton bassett is lovely and wroughton, wanborough and chiseldon.
if i can be of any further help just ask.

goodluck and btw, why are you coming back? were off to townsville next year north qld.

Trish

Jensen Healey

we'v elived just outside Bristol on the NE side for about 17 years. It fits all of your criteria... except the cheap housing bit. Depends what you call cheap though!

JAJ

The problem is that 'cheap housing' doesn't usually go with the other three factors, unless you're going to look somewhere in the North and even then it's a push.

Separately - have you got Australian citizenship? If not, you should consider sorting this out before you even think about coming back to the UK (assuming you have PR in Australia and meet the citizenship requirements).

Jeremy

dave66

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the replies.

Myself and my wife have decided to head back to the UK because we miss it.
We also miss our families + we have 2 kids and another one on the way. Not that the kids have anything to do with the decision as we would not be living close to either of our families. I personally miss the weather, would you believe ! We have got PR and will be eligible for citizenship in May next year. So we won't be going anywhere without that.


I hope you like hot, hot and sticky weather Trish. I worked in Cairns for 4 months about a year ago. I personally could not live up there. Far too hot and muggy. And its hot ALL of the time. I remember a taxi driver there telling me he had to have 5 showers a day just to cool himself down in summer. Youch ! I was there in the winter and at 8am it was 25 degrees. Depends what your into I suppose.

If you are coming here to work the tax is a killer. I live in Sydney at the moment and the chances of buying a house are nil. I earn a decent wage here, but can't save much money either. I could save a fair bit more when I was living in the UK. I have a much greater chance of buying a place in the UK than I do here.

Maybe I just need a holiday in the UK. I can't afford to go back there for a couple of months though and then after I return to Oz then decide that I want to be back in the UK. It's all or nothing for us. It would cost approx $12,000 for a return trip to the UK from Sydney.

Thanks again folks. I'm looking at houses in the region of 130 to 180K.

Cheers,
Dave

Jensen Healey

Will buy you a 3 bed semi NE of Bristol...

jimtrish

hi dave,

yep very aware of the climate there, but have been offered a nursing post doing the job i love (scbu) so were going for it. spent plenty of time in hong kong and israel before so hopefully we will be ok, will def hope to get a place with a pool tho'.
all the best with your search, let me know if i can help in any way.

Trish