Where To Move House To In The UK?

[SquirrelMadness]

Hi. Me and my mum are planning to move away from Hertfordshire. Reason being is that we own a totally rubbish house on an ex-council road and would like something better but can't afford a good house in Herts.


Budget is 250k.


So far we have checked:

Derby - Some good areas but some really bad areas too (Rose Hill).
Kettering - Seemed empty, small town, not sure if there's anything to do there? Cheap though.
Cambridge - Way too expensive and actually had some run-down areas.
Leicester - Dirty town center, lots of weird people, nice shopping mall that's about it.
Peterborough - Didn't see anything special there besides cathedral. Mum liked the demographics.
Norwich - Mum doesn't like cos it's too English (she's Eastern Euro). Going again next week.
Canterbury - Really liked town center, lots of tourists, expensive.

Is there any where else we should check? Haven't visited west/south UK yet.

Personally I wanna live somewhere which is touristy and has a university. I feel bad in areas that have an aging population and would like there to be lots of attractive women (gotta get married and all that right?). Low crime and clean houses (somewhere people actually maintain their homes rather than let them rot). Obviously needs to have good employment opportunities and no flooding areas. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[SquirrelMadness]

Those are big houses up north... but they are in the middle of nowhere? My neighbour has a house in Yorkshire and says he can't sell it... it's been there for over a year on sale!

Haven't tried Nottingham but am having bad luck with the Midlands so far after visiting many run down areas. What about Bath/Bristol? Heard it was cheap there too.

 

[SquirrelMadness]

I am in Norwich. There is a massive Eastern European community here, especially Polish. Loads of Eastern European foods and supermarkets too. So I think your mum wouldn't have a problem.

The thing about Norwich is that is pleasant, and easy, but that it. It also adds 2 hours onto every round trip you make. I'd argue it's is nicer than Cambridge though, and definitely warmer. Also has a slightly larger population a little less traffic chaos.

You say that it is pleasant and easy but that's it? Like there is a conclusion of negatives to that sentence?

We are going Norwich again tomorrow, are there any specific good places to visit? Is it busy and full of students on a week day? What about night life? Last time we went on Sunday. Are there lots of young people? Someone told me it's a place for old people. Can a good detached 3 bed house with garage be had for 250k?

 

[SquirrelMadness]

Glasgow, cheap, nice areas and good (!) ancient university

What do you do for work OP?

So Nottingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow to visit still.

I do electrical work but we want to rent the house we live in to a family (or students) which will give an income of around £1300-1600 on top of regular job.

The 250k is savings + mortgage, not include the value of our current property.

If we sell the house we can just about afford a nice place in Herts, but something tells me thats a stupid idea.

 

[SquirrelMadness]

Avoid Derby. I'm from there, it's an industrial dump. Instead, look more Notts area. The city of Nottingham is much better and the outlying villages/towns are generally nice and cheap for housing. Plus anywhere in the Midlands and you're always near the main arteries up and down the country if you want to go on a trip anywhere.

Our 3 bed detached with garage cost £125k

I was watching videos on Youtube of different UK locations yesterday and Derby was a joke.

My mum wanted to move there because she hears lots of celebs live there... and that it has the "best" community AKA foreign people that she can relate to. We went there twice and I didn't like either time.

I found out there is a guy there that walks backwards everywhere! He is like a celebrity now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrggYoXfL04

After watching a few vids I have to say Bath looked the best.

 

[SquirrelMadness]

Not strong at all. Moving to England and then deciding you dont want to live in a town that's too English is a complete joke. If an English person proclaimed they didn't want to live somewhere because it was too full of Polish people, they'd be vilified as racist on here in an instant.

So if an English person proclaimed they didn't want to live somewhere because it's too Polish would that be a joke too? From my experience most English people would be happy living around Poles - but their tone changes when you replace Poles with Africans/Asians. It's totally understandable though, and it would be considered strange if someone wanted to live away from their tribe as opposed within it.

Someone above in the comments said their girlfriend is Polish and prefers to live around English people... that is strange, as in, out-of-the-ordinary. If she was Polish and wanted to live around Poles then that is completely within the boundaries of typical human nature and shouldn't have to carry an explanation.

What you are pointing out is an inconsistency of political correctness which is an inconsistent idiology as it OKs one group's views whilst slamming another's despite the statements of both being the same!