Cheap Houses

[DimPrawn]

The hinterlands near Cambridge are particularly bad for that sort of thing. Friends moved to a "delightful" village about 7 miles outside Cambridge 2 years ago: beaten up, graffiti on the house, smashed-up bus shelters, etc. And now can't afford to move. Oh Dear (TM).

You need to fit in.

I went Cambridge and a bloke introduced me to his wife and daughter.



Trouble was, there was only one woman stood next to him.

[Mich the Tester]

Yep, now here in the Netherlands there are beautiful places to live in the east of the country where you can have a nice big semi-detached house and a good sized garden for 250 to 300k euros in a friendly village. If you go to the deeply religious villages you can get the same thing for 50 to 100k less, but if you’re not the right denomination of heavily puritan protestant they won’t exactly make you feel welcome. I live in a mostly catholic village and have no problems, but the prices reflect the fact that the locals are fairly easy going.

People shouldn’t underestimate the conservatism of rural areas anywhere in Europe, and I don’t mean ‘Call me Dave’ conservatism; I mean religious conservatism and inbreeding.