Pistolpete2

To bring this thing back on topic and to address Cost of Living (COL) concerns expressed on a new thread elsewhere today, I've drilled down on MetLife's stats for COL to the Office of National Statistics latest numbers by region in the UK, per household.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_297746.pdf

Clearly the average household is in some form of social housing since 400 a month for a typical household incl fuel and power in London looks very good going and this would need to be adjusted for individual realities.

Note that the average household is apparently currently 2.3 persons.

Quite how one extrapolates upwards to three persons and downwards to two or one is not entirely clear. However, it looks like 2 persons comes in around 320 pounds average for the UK (see from just below).

So, the average UK household spends 400 pounds per week while the lowest level of expenditure is about 310 pounds (cheapest region in each category). I'm guessing the North East comes in cheapest at approx 340 pounds per week and Wales must be close. London comes in around 493 pounds, I'm thinking.

Note these seem to be the latest numbers but we have two odd years of inflation since 2010-11.

Celticspirit

It means the listing paperwork is done and just waiting for photographer and have brochures printed.

Celticspirit

It means the listing paperwork is done and just waiting for photographer and have brochures printed.

Pistolpete2

Ref this post on the thread:

Re: Is the situation in the UK really that bad?

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...postcount=1113

I must apologize for offering the unhelpful comment of anything is better than what we have now - BTW I believe we got about four inches of rain here overnight - to justify settling in the indeed, as it turns out, rainy West Country. I guess there were enough positive attributes for me to tend to disregard rainfall.

Upon further inspection and looking at options, I have decided to at least consider the Essex / Suffolk border area for access, probably, to Colchester.

We already know the area - particularly a bit further north into country around Sudbury / Lavenham - pretty well and like it very much and property can be fairly reasonable in spite of its proximity to London for commuters.

What tipped it is the level of rainfall in the Exeter area in the winter months is more than twice that in Essex - the driest UK county I believe. Overall, while average annual temperatures are pretty much the same, average annual rainfall is 60% higher around the river Exe than around Colchester, whether inland or coastal near Clacton or Brightlingsea.

We have a friend who has just settled in Torquay who was up Exmouth way last week and who commented on how water-logged that area is right now. Honiton was also badly under water, again.

Essex tends to be strong strong on the academic front so there is not much likely being sacrificed there.

I'm frustrated at the situation but I did have angst that there will in due course be rental property supply problems in Devon, though we will likely now have the same issue when looking in Essex / Suffolk when it comes to truly desirable spots with the right easy access.

Other family members have now come forward and expressed their concern with the distance between Devon and London and nothing in the Colchester area is much more than an hour from Liverpool Street and there are several lines with direct service or good connections to choose from.

It can't all be about our kids, at this time of life, so my prerequisites, in addition to property value for money, still stand:

• decent choice of walks and other pursuits in lovely open country
• decent beer, pubs and restaurants
• some sense of community and older folk are not out of place, low crime
• good variety of public transport links incl airports to hand
• farmer's markets and variety of interesting local produce
• access to the sea/coast
• some 'olde worlde'

dunroving

I was in Colchester on business earlier this year and despite being relatively accessible to London, I was surprised at how rural it was. The taxi driver who took me back to Stansted said that if you went a similar distance from London in other directions, you would essentially be in one big suburb.

Property prices in Colchester also seemed pretty reasonable, considering.

Pistolpete2

Also handy is the fact that the mainline station (COL) is pretty clear on the north-side and not in Colchester per se, so if approaching from what seems to be the more desirable and definitely rural side - from spots such as Nayland, Stoke by Nayland, Chappel and Wakes* area or Dedham it is easy to avoid the traffic congestion of typical suburbia when already struggling to commute.

Am just not sure what it would be like close in to the Colchester Campus of University of Essex at Wivenhoe, in terms of property to rent though it looks worthy of further inspection. Wivenhoe has its own station (8 mins to central Colchester (CET) station) with direct service to Liverpool Street in, typically, 75 mins. Wivenhoe is on the estuary of the River Colne with a sailing club, hence our (kid's) particular interest.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2358363

*Chappel and Wakes has its own station on the branch line from Marks Tey to Sudbury and connects to Colchester in 18 minutes

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/42029

dunroving

I would not want to live close in to any university campus.

I stayed at the on-campus hotel (talk about luxurious!) which is on what used to be some sort of posh estate, it was very nice.

The person whose PhD student I was examining said there are lots of nice areas around Colchester, but we didn't get into it too much during our conversation so I can't offer anything more specific. However, he and the taxi driver (a very savvy Egyptian guy who had lived there for many years) both commented positively about the place.

Pistolpete2

Good! Thanks!

Wivenhoe seems to be two good miles from Wivenhoe Park where the campus is, so safe enough away, but probably still likely to be impacted by demand for rental accommodation, one would think.

Funnily enough had been looking at Exeter St Leonards area (Magdalen Road) which is very close to the St Lukes Campus of Exeter Uni and which was described as highly desirable - in general and not necessarily for students. I do, I think, see your point though, much like living next to the pub or the local main school in terms of 'traffic'.

Close by Glasgow University can be good, just off Byres Road - not the hospital area, if you are a student.

Perth

The approaching "hurricane" as yahoo news is calling it (always amusing to us Floridians) has us rethinking the SW, including SW Wales. Norfolk is back on the table! <sigh> It will be nice to finally make a decision - ANY decision John, if you still pop in from time to time - put a cuppa on for us

dunroving

Actually, I take back what I said about living close to a university campus.

The campus I used to work at, that closed summer 2012, was in one of the most desirable areas of Glasgow (Jordanhill). I suppose as long as a campus doesn't have too many students and there isn't student housing or on-campus dorms, it wouldn't be bad at all.

I lived in two lovely subdivisions in the US, within 5 minutes' walk of my office, but then US college towns aren't generally the same as UK universities.

Pistolpete2

Quite! Right now the late season hurricanes seem to brew-up as tropical waves right where we are but typically for us, the rainfall can be far more damaging in terms of landslides and resultant loss of life than the force of the winds.

Looks like 'hurricane' in this (S Wales) case means winds of 48 mph in the Cardiff area. Cardiff again!

It's all so hard isn't it and I'm growing tired when on the face of it, it should be easier for us mostly retirees without a need for access to work.

The move to St Lucia has been so UNsatisfactory for me that I want to be doubly sure my dotage years and those where I have more freedoms are actually worth something while also taking care of other family needs.

cheers

I don't have a good image of Essex so I will have to reacquaint myself with it. I did live in Westcliffe for a few months in 1961.

I was looking at prices in general and they seem to have taken a leap in the last few weeks so I have slowed my search. Having said that I see new homes are offering a help to buy incentives, so what gives?

Pistolpete2

I'm not sure Essex puts out a good image due to stereotypes these days cheers, but I would have to live with that bit if/when it comes down to it.

Originally the help to buy was ONLY for new homes but has just been extended to 'existings'.

I would say that the (very) recent positive economic news coming out of the UK, coupled with help to buy will have an impact on asking prices but I'm not sure there will be a leap in actual sale prices outside London where there are still wage constraints and there isn't, typically, the foreign buyer aspect, apart from for quality larger family houses/estates in prime areas with investment potential.

The attraction of new builds with help to buy is encouraging developers and major contractors to build something - for a change - so in the longer term there will be more supply to meet demand and this should temper price rises somewhat.

You've talked of housing bubbles in the UK and others have talked of bubbles in London and if foreign buyer interest wanes there for some reason, then there could be some pressure but London is the colour of a different horse as an international city, a global centre for financial services in particular. The new B of E Governor doesn't think that London and the rest fall anywhere near the same sentence when it comes to conversations on real estate prices and thinks the rest still needs attention in general.

Also, as we've said before, the stats pumped out by the BBC and the newspapers are averages and London has a lot of weighting in those averages to flatter the annual increases which have been far more moderate, when excluding London.

Perth

Exhausting! ::

So here is our list:
Near the coast
No car needed
Railway station
Good walking trails
Good internet access
Older community
The less rain the better

Perth

http://www.stylist.co.uk/in-this-wee...mage-rotator-1

I thought this was interesting. Apparently, it may be cheaper to live in Paris and commute to London every day instead of living in London itself. Paris real estate is tumbling at the moment.