Our landlord has said he wants to raise our rent for our two bedroom flat in zone 6, SW London to “at least £1650”. We are barely getting by at £1400pm, so unless I can convince him otherwise, this is it.
As my other half has recently become pregnant, we’ve taken this as a sign that it’s time to move on and go to the next stage in our lives and move somewhere more affordable where we can raise kids.
We both work from home. I’m a freelance creative director for things like podcasts, animation, video production, graphic design. She works from home for a school catering company. Combined yearly income of about £50-60k depending on my freelance stuff.
I only went freelance in November last year, so I doubt we’d get a mortgage that is based on our proper combined incomes for at least another year. But the baby won’t wait for that. And renting just feels like pissing away money with all the agency and legal fees, and having your wealth harvested by some buy to let boomer somewhere.
My family all have extremely high paying jobs in London and own property and don’t want me to move away to somewhere “far away” like Portsmouth or Brighton. I’ve been encouraged to look into shared ownership but I’m completely against that. As much as I love my family and friends, I want to start my life somewhere where I can afford to live there.
I’ve heard Brighton is a great place for creatives and I enjoyed being there when I visited a couple years back. It looks like it would be too expensive to buy a house there though on our salary. Southsea, Portsmouth was also quite nice despite people slagging off Portsmouth, I quite liked it when I was there last year. There’s also the option of picking some orbital town outside of London, but it just feels pointless when I don’t need to be there anymore since I am a WFH freelancer.
This is a major turning point in my – our lives. London is throwing us out, and the cost of living is chewing us up. Where can we go that’s affordable but still a nice place to live, with culture, a nice vibe, nice restaurants, etc?
38 comments
>”Do not want me to move away”
Fantastic you have family who will pay your bills for you.
Yeah I’d rule out Brighton. It’s scarcely cheaper than London. Same applies these days to many of the classic post London destinations like Bristol and Oxford.
Family will be very important once you have a baby both emotionally but also in terms of child care, so it’s probably a good idea to not move too far. I’d look at commuter towns. There’s loads all around London. Of course, they’re nothing like London, but there’s plenty that have a buzz with pubs, cafes, restaurants etc
You could even stretch even further to places that aren’t really commuter towns. Places that are over an hour away. Which will be cheaper. Though I wouldn’t go too far away, as when the baby is here you’ll probably want to be able to get to your family easily.
It generally gets cheaper the further north you go. Places like northampton or bedford you will get a 3 bedroom home for £1400. Further north than that you could get a 4/5 bedroom house for £1000 per month. I dont understand how anyone affords to live in London.
As someone who lives and has grown up in Brighton, rent here and buying is not too dissimilar of that to London unfortunately.
Come to Wivenhoe, it’s fucking lovely. On the water, great large village/small town, and only 65 minutes into Liverpool Street with a direct train. Great primary school, loads of open space. Got a city ten minutes away, although I barely bother going there any more.
Maybe Milton Keynes? It gets shit on a lot but to me it seems a pretty good place to start a family. Even Birmingham and the West Midlands isn’t too far away, and when HS2 finally opens the Birmingham-London journey time will be quicker than some parts of Outer London to central London.
I’m not sure about MK but whilst Birmingham/the Black Country isn’t cheap cheap, it’s a lot cheaper than London (though this may soon change when HS2 opens). But then again, if you want to stay close to your family for childcare then MK/Brum are probably too far away right now. Maybe somewhere like Wycombe? Though as with MK I’m not too sure how expensive/cheap it is.
Not sure on how much rent it costs or how far away it is, but I always thought Bournemouth looked really nice compared to say.. Portsmouth.
To be honest, really depends what you’re looking for too. Do you want a city? Do you wanna stay relatively close to London? Is ‘large town’ vibe more what you’re looking for?
If you’re in a position to move to Scotland, I’d suggest that you give it a thought.
Scotland is better for a young family in terms of getting nursery places, free prescriptions, baby boxes and lots of other things like free school meals.
House prices are generally much better provided you don’t want to live in central Edinburgh.
I’m sure some parts of England have a more affordable cost of living but you won’t have the same benefits as you would living in Scotland and I’m not sure you’d be living in the same beautiful surroundings for the same price.
[Little Cottage in Aberdour](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139902032#/?channel=RES_BUY)
[Lovely wee place in Dunning](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139463021#/?channel=RES_BUY)
Move north if you can.
How about Folkestone? Looks like a nice creative vibe, has had a lot of money ploughed into its regeneration and there are fast and frequent trains that will get you into Kings Cross in under an hour.
You could rent a [house like this](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139304285#/?channel=RES_LET) for less than what you’re paying right now and be close to the sea.
Disclaimer: I don’t live there but I’ve been fascinated by it and planning a visit for awhile (so have been googling places of interest etc).
And congratulations on the pregnancy!
I know you said not far away but I’ve been considering Leeds recently. Decent town centre, trains back to London fairly frequently and I can rent a 2bed house for under £800 per month.
While you have young children and are earning relatively a lot you could move to a really cheap area, save like mad and then see what you can get back down south. Or you may love it up North!
The slightly complicated thing here is actually the baby. I say that because many people value having friends and family to lean on to look after their child when they have some other commitment.
That’s not to say you absolutely need to stay close to London, but it’s something to consider.
Other than that you say you both work from home so you could move pretty much anywhere. I also WFH and moved from London to Fife in Scotland. If I need to go to London for work, it’s a short drive to a Caledonian Sleeper served railway station, and I get an overnight train to London, typically coming back on an early afternoon service so it’s just one night away from home.
I’m close to the mountains, the sea, rivers, lochs, forests, it’s much more peaceful, crime is low, trains are cheaper, etc. But that’s me. Your mileage may vary.
I presume that you want to stay SW and not too far out, so how about Walton-on-Thames or Sunbury? Both of these have property at the £1250pm-ish mark and they are still in the M25. If you want to save more then you don’t get to £1000pm until Basingstoke, which is still absolutely fine as long as you can handle the extra travel back into London when necessary.
Have you ever been to Margate? I’d definitely recommend at least taking a trip down to check it out.
Lots of creatives have moved there and given it a nice (read: gentrified) vibe. Sounds pretentious maybe, but what it really means is that you have a nice small oldtown with lots of cool independent pubs, bars, and restaurants. Given your age and career, you would definitely find some likeminded people and a community there.
It’s rough around the edges still but that means you could get a 2-bed flat on the beach for like £1200pcm.
Outskirts of Manchester
My friends are moving from London due to a baby on the way to L1 or L6/L8 in Liverpool, very artsy areas now. And much cheaper to rent and they can eventually even afford to buy around there. Plus only 2 hours-ish direct train to London that is walkable from their new home.
Come up North to us. I live in North Lincolnshire and it’s gorgeous. Believe or not we do have the lekky and gas as well. House prices/rent are much cheaper and London is just a couple of hours away by train.
Milton Keynes or any of the surrounding towns with rail links, Northampton (though the center is a shit hole) or a surrounding village, Wellingborough, Daventry, Banbury, Brackly, Rugby at a pinch though the train gets pricey unless you are willing to travel at 5am. To be honest move where you want and sod their views, if they want you to stay local they can pay your rent/mortgage
We were in your exact position 10 years ago. We were renting in Sw18 and managed to buy a 3 bed in Dover with our mortgage being less than half our rent.
I’m well aware that most people really don’t like Dover but we’re really happy here! It has history with Dover Castle and various other stuff, good parks, good schools, a lovely pebble beach. You can get the high speed into St Pancras in just under an hr. You’re a bus/train ride to Canterbury, Folkestone, Ramsgate (beautiful sandy beach), Broadstairs (even better sandy beach) Margate (arty) etc.
But the best thing is just having a big house we could never have afforded anywhere else and still be able to get to London/our old friends easily.
If you were looking for somewhere more arty/up and coming Folkestone or Margate would be a good place to look.
Also https://www.commutefrom.com helped us make our choice – shows you travel times, house prices, crime rates etc from London stations to anywhere you’re considering
Good luck!
Surely your savings is the relevant bit of info when it comes to giving mortgage advice
So I see comments on commuter towns. Peterborough would be considered that. It has its shit parts like most places and the city centre isn’t the best but you could find a 3 bedroom house in a very nice area with a garage for approx 1k a month.
Are you priced out of London or not?
You say that you can’t afford it but your family want you to stay local and think Brighton is too far away.
You need to get realistic, you’re probably going to have to move away.
Come up North. I know that goes against everything you are taught down south, but it’s not the grim place people make it out to be.
Here in Newcastle you can have nice family home that you own for £1,000 mortgage, if not less. You can easily gain access to the city for the city life, you have the coast on your doorstep, and the countryside on you back doorstep. You literally have a mix of everything and you could be in a nice estate with a grassy area and/or play area for your children.
On top of that the overall cost of living is a lot less. Want to go out for a meal, it costs less, want a pint in the pub, it costs less, want to do an activity, it likely costs less, want a coffee in the morning, mate it costs less.
At some point your family will need more time with you then you or your partners family, and your evenings and weekends is spent spending time with them, and then if you are struggling to live near then, you start to wonder why.
That £400 a month that you are saving on rent alone can be saved, either for train tickets, or a staycation to see your family, or even a big family holiday away.
Get out of the rat race.
https://movingtonewcastle.co.uk/blog/ryder-architecture-andra
Suffolk, high employment, low crime decent weather must of the time.
Let’s look at this another way.
When you envisage your future as a family, what do you see?
Do you want outdoor green space? Do you want cities and theatres and art galleries?
Have a look at what works for you as a new family. Everyone else can swivel, it’s your life, it’s your future.
I reckon Essex. Check out Colchester and surrounding villages, and maybe Chelmsford.
It’s really easy to get into London from there, about as easy as it is from outskirts of Surrey, and way cheaper. Essex is underrated because people like to dunk on it.
The bad bits are really deprived though, avoid Jaywick and any of the run-down coastal bits.
Apart from that, the Rugby area, Hampshire, maybe Norfolk could be good.
As for the freelance mortgage, get a broker if you haven’t already. I thought the same as you and managed to get a mortgage through a broker with Halifax after they’d said no to me when I applied by myself.
Norwich ! – lovely city and a good place to raise a family, lots of seaside and nature within reach
Manchester costs very little to live in the surrounding towns and is nowhere near as bad as london to get into, you also have Liverpool not to far away. Both have pretty big creative industries.
THG is based in Manchester and that sounds like your sort of work for example.
Don’t do shared ownership it is a shitty investment.
If you can’t live in central london consider the money you will save by making family visits a trip.
4 bed house with good garden and a drive in a town outside Manchester is £250k.
You’ll be able to take the whole family to a hotel for the money you’ll save every month.
Come up north. About to put my 3 bed semi for rent at £950/mth. Nature reserve next door, great for walking with babies and kids to get out of the house.
Given your work I think Leeds or Manchester are a good shout here – both genuinely great creative cities with most of the good aspects of London (albeit with a lot less variety and not at the same peaks ofc). The BBC moving to Manchester in particular has helped massively kick on the creative industries up there and there’s similar stuff in Leeds – C4 isn’t fully committed yet but it’s happening slowly.
I moved to Wolverhampton a few years ago. I like it here, I have found people seem to genuinely care about each other.
Hastings?
I think heading north is the cheapest. Everything south is usually priced upwards from air bnb’s and staycation shit so it’s expensive as well
Fermanagh
Kents pretty cool. Margate is getting a decent rep
Hitchin is nice. Small town but with good restaurants in and nearby.
I moved here from Finsbury Park and one of the benefits is that I can get back there in around half an hour by train.
Stevenage is closer but Hitchin is nicer.
Hitchin is a great commuter town which kind of has the London vibe about it, with loads of coffee shops, amazing food options and more pubs than you need. It also has the vibe of being a small community market town at the same time and is on the thameslink line and 25 minutes from London!
OP, we moved a couple of hours away from all our family and friends when our daughter was under 1. This was up North – moved from a major city to the countryside, which also happened to be a lot cheaper, and we have never looked back.
The point being made about family is a reasonable one IF you have the kind of family that will come through. We did not. My parents are a hot mess, and my husband’s mum is really lovely, but the kind of boomer who doesn’t want grandkids to interfere with her retirement adventures. So I’d just caution to be realistic about how much help you’re actually going to get. It would be rubbish to move somewhere based on that hope and find yourselves doubly disappointed.
Whether you move 45 mins away or 45 miles away, you’re going to end up making new friends more locally. Personally, I’d consider making as big a leap as you feel able – stretching into the boundaries of what feels “too far”, even. It might save you having to do another big upheaval down the line for similar reasons, and -scary as it sounds- your little one will be starting school in 4ish years and then you feel really tied to your location!
We loved our move so much that we ended up taking another leap and buying a house in France! It’s only an hour on the plane. Used to take me longer than that to commute to my job when we lived in the city! 😂
That seems a mad increase in Zone 6. Surely you’d be able to find somewhere cheaper in Croydon?