Weazel

Hi All, After 5 years in Spain and 10 in France we want to come back to the UK. France has become incredibly expensive and where as living in the country seemed idyllic now crave a busier area. Biggest problem is finding an area to live in, in the UK, that we can afford. Our children leave on the outskirts of London so no way can be move to the South East. Would like to be somewhere within reasonable commuting distance by train so further north perhaps. We both lived in the SE all our lives before moving so have very little knowledge of other areas I'm ashamed to say. Anyone had a similar problem? Any advice out there? Would/do you rent rather than buy outright? Any experiences with Shared ownership? Many thanks.

Moses2013

I suppose it depends how you define cheap? Can't help with specific areas but you can easily filter on Zoopla by budget for whole of England as an example.
Under 100K
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/ho..._source=refine

christmasoompa

Rightmove has a useful tool too which filters areas by budget and other criteria - https://where.rightmove.co.uk

HTH.

Shard

Norfolk tends to be better value.

Benson55

Its so much easier to travel by rail or road why not live in Scunthorpe or Bradford where the prices are much cheaper.

scot47

Far away from your target area, on the island where we live, a town flat can be rented for less than £400 a month. Housing Association is around that rate. Private rentals a bit less. Housing Association rentals have security of tenure.

durham_lad

We both went to university in Bradford and that is where we fell in love with Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Moors and Dales. Probably still plenty of cheap housing on the outskirts of Bradford.

robin1234

I remember one time, I must have been bored, I decided to look for houses in Middlesbrough, maximum £25,000. I wasn’t expecting anything nice to be on offer, obviously, but one house had a really nice, big tree.

Problem was, it was actually growing through the roof of the house.

Novocastrian

Anyone looking for cheaper housing in England should think of Newcastle or Tyneside in general.

moi

Look up places in Yorkshire such as Hull, Bradford, Sheffield (along the coast possibly Bridlington and Scarborough) or Lincolnshire such as Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Scunthorpe.