Move down south - would you do it?

IF you are young and motivated id move in a heartbeat. What have you got to lose except a year or 2 of your life in exchange for experiences.
Manchester is hardly rural is it ?

London is also a big place, you kind of get into a living area/suburb and that will dominate most of your time between work. Its not like you will be going for drinks on the south bank and in the West end every night to see a show.

Greenwich is fairly nice, like most of London is has its council estates blended in with its multi million apartments. I consider it pretty posh overall. VEry expensive area to live i wouldn't go there personally, id be looking either very central NW1 or suburban commuter areas.

Seriously if you have nothing to lose try it. You could always move to Swedish Lapland.... ?

I lived there 25+ years. Its one of the best cities on earth so take advantage of the opportunity you have been given.
 
rIcK said:
It would cost me an extra £1000 per month to simply rent, that in itself would be covered by the wage increase. I cannot imagine what else would cost that much more?

Food - I can't imagine this being much different than where I live right now
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Eating out in 'proper' restaurants likely more expensive, but I agree that the cost of living in London, aside from accommodation, is not vastly out of proportion with other areas of the country.

One thing to bear in mind is that your rent is likely to increase and probably a bunch of hidden service charges and the like on the plethora of new builds springing up all over the place.

Personally I'd weigh up how much extra you'll have in your pocket after bills; Manchester is likely to be a boom area for jobs so I wouldn't rule out staying where you are.
 
Six6siX said:
OP has said he doesn't go out drinking enough for it to make a difference and the trains in most major commuter towns run late enough to make this a non-issue. Some even go all the way through the night.

Oh, and just because a town is within commuting distance doesn't automatically make it boring :)
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Name an interesting one then... :p

Yeah, some lines do, pretty much only the one to reading and the one to Cambridge. Even then it can be a pain getting back. Yes, it may only be once or twice a year (I was t out every weekend either) but it dictates a night out. I had a friend who had to be gone by 10 as he had to catch a train from Waterloo all the time, as an example.

Live in London if you are young, commute in if you have kids.
 
rIcK said:
I have no desire for kids, however commuting distance needs to be small I have done with that and there is nothing which makes you more depressed. I would be looking for < 8 miles around St Pauls Cathedral.

It would cost me an extra £1000 per month to simply rent, that in itself would be covered by the wage increase. I cannot imagine what else would cost that much more?

Food - I can't imagine this being much different than where I live right now
Drink - I don't go out drinking often enough for this to make a difference, even then places vary in price ( Spinningfields / NQ in Manchester for example )
Transport - I cycle everywhere this is going to cost me nothing more than now
Bills - Internet and Electric are again the same...

So assuming I am content with renting in the short term and I have not made a massive mistake on the part of bills. How do people find the culture shift / City shift from moving to London? Manchester is not a terrible place, it has a bad homeless problem however everything is relatively walkable and there is lots going on.
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Other living expenses may not be that much more but unless you are a recluse you are presumably going to be going out no? Restaurants, high street shopping, and recreational activities.
 
If you want restaurants, theatre, nightlife, etc, then yes, go. If you prefer a more relaxed, friendly, atmosphere, then think twice.

I've moved all over the world and at the time, thoroughly enjoyed most of it. But now nothing would induce me to live in London or any big city. My tastes, and values, have changed. My point is that only you can know if you should do it.
 
Amp34 said:
Name an interesting one then... :p

Yeah, some lines do, pretty much only the one to reading and the one to Cambridge. Even then it can be a pain getting back. Yes, it may only be once or twice a year (I was t out every weekend either) but it dictates a night out. I had a friend who had to be gone by 10 as he had to catch a train from Waterloo all the time, as an example.

Live in London if you are young, commute in if you have kids.
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Depends what you mean by interesting!

For example, I've been in St. Albans for about 6 years and whilst it's not a busy city life like London would be, there are plenty of restaurants, bars, a few clubs so a reasonable nightlife and it's got a lot of history (old Roman town, first martyr etc) - quite interesting if that's your thing. Not to mention the architecture and location wise it's close to open countryside - it's not a 'typical' commuter town. There are weekly markets, Christmas markets, it's the home of CAMRA, there's beer/cider festivals.

Thameslink runs 24hrs to and from London in 20mins and goes through the city (except for Saturdays when the last train is around 2.30am or something). So you've got quick access to the city for more entertainment and it's not exactly a 10pm finish which is inconvenient!

See also somewhere like Welwyn Garden City (similar commute times but not quite as much to do as StA - it's not quite as mature and a different style town altogether).
 
rIcK said:
I currently live in Central Manchester and own an apartment here, I work around 4 miles from where I live and cycle each day.

I will potentially have the opportunity to move to the centre of London, this both comes with a reasonable pay rise and a better job opportunity. I would be considering renting in the Greenwich area.

So this is a question, is it worth considering the move I would like to hear peoples thoughts on this?
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I did exactly this two years ago from the Norf. Me and my wife moved down, I wanted something different and the money increase I got was a considerable amount more than what I was on. The wife also settled into a well paid job.

We rent in Greenwich also and to give you an idea a 2 bedroom flat is £1950 a month which is redic upload hence the reason you require a considerable pay rise to make it worth while.

We will move back up North eventually though and buy a rather nice house for much less than down here.
 
I moved the opposite way this year - from London to Manchester (got married and wife's family live up here).

I love it up here compared to London. I don't think London has massively more to do unless you have very specific interests. I really like having the Peaks, Dales and Lake District on the doorstep.

Clearly, there is a huge cost of living difference. I managed to keep the same job and work mostly from home, so I'm kind of living the dream of living up North on a London salary. I'm also renting out my flat in London as my wife already had a house up here. Financially it was a great move for us. If I was you I'd not make the move to London unless there was a huge increase on the table.

I think in my early 20s, I would have preferred London. But now (31) I definitely prefer life up North.
 
MattHep said:
I did exactly this two years ago from the Norf. Me and my wife moved down, I wanted something different and the money increase I got was a considerable amount more than what I was on. The wife also settled into a well paid job.

We rent in Greenwich also and to give you an idea a 2 bedroom flat is £1950 a month which is redic upload hence the reason you require a considerable pay rise to make it worth while.

We will move back up North eventually though and buy a rather nice house for much less than down here.
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I moved out of a 2 bedroomed flat in North Greenwich (brand new we were the 1st tenants in December) and that was £1600 a month, this was just a 5 minute walk from the O2 at the side of the Pilot Inn.

I lived there for 6 months and it was great, the money more than covered my rent and also my morgage back up North
 
Having lived in Greater Manchester in various areas over the years not in a month of Sundays could you convince me to go and live in London.

Well, you could, but i would need to be at least triple pay and with a commute of less than 30 mins door to door.

Manchester for me is by far a much nicer city to be and live in. Its more compact, there's still everything you could possibly need/want to do, the people are actually friendlier, the city is just as vibrant and diverse as London and its not full of cockneys. 100% would stay in Manchester if you were content with your job. Its by far and away the best city in the UK imo and will only get bigger as jobs in the city grow and more and more developments pop up in the city centre.
 
I moved to London for 12 years after I graduated, and then moved back to Cheshire to start a family once my career was established.

Worked out ok.
 
London life just isn't for everyone, myself included.

I would only consider living in London if I could afford to dump a ridiculous amount of money in a property. My house here would probably fetch a nice studio above a kebab shop in London at the rate things are going =\.

I do, however go to London frequently as part of my work. I live in Cambridgeshire with a train into kings cross that takes < 60mins.

To me, it's a good balance. I live in a comparatively more affordable property that suites me better, in a nicer area but I still have access to London for work.

Although most of the time I'm working from home so it's win-win for me.
 
I moved away from London to Manchester for work and have never, ever looked back.

London is a vile place to live if you're not earning at last £100k a year per adult per household.
 
Oh dear. I'm graduating from uni and them moving straight to London to start a fairly well paid grad job - sounds like I'm going to have an awful time :p
 
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Chives said:
Oh dear. I'm graduating from uni and them moving straight to London to start a fairly well paid grad job - sounds like I'm going to have an awful time :p
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Graduates tend to get a roughly 5k uplift on their salaries from what I've see (say 25k elsewhere to 30k in London). This does not reflect the increase in cost of living, however I can see the appeal for young (single) graduates.

I prefer living outside London and if required (infrequently) for work commuting in (I'm currently 1.5hrs away in the West Midlands), I appreciate not everyone has the choice though!
 
South yes, London no way. I would have a pad down there if money were no object though. But realistically, that's never going to happen.

Devon/Cornwall/Peak District are all on my retirement radar.
 
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