Where's nice to live in the UK?

[Olly]

Ok chaps, back from my German lesson.
Responses:
Welwyn, I'll pop it on the list and try and have a look though not sure what local job possibilities there are, I guess not much.
Winchester, lived there for a year and really liked it. If I can release some more cash I'll put it back on the list though it's still quite a trek to London town.
Golden Triangle, I guess I'm doing myself a big disservice by not looking further North like there, just concerned that local contracts might be hard to find and a daily London commute out of the question. Where should I focus? York?
Wilmslow, see above, but I think if I was around there it would have to be Chester.
Kent, that one cropped up already. I guess it can only be Canterbury or Ashcroft, every where else is too small no?
Random place where 4 beds are £200K, that's nice for you

Roots are Oxfordshire I guess, mates in B'mouth. That's another tick for B'stoke / Reading. But yes, mostly I have no friends and my family dislike me.

I reckon a motorbike trip of the North, is in order don't you. Will sort something out for May.

[Olly]

Right then...looks like I can definitely do 300K though I'll be taking a lodger or two which kind of means I now need an en-suite bedroom!

I want an offset mortgage and First Direct look like the daddies for that.
65% is the LTV ratio for their best rate.
2.09% over base rate (so 2.59% now) with £500 arrangement fee and £150 closing down fee

If I flog my Bulgarian pad I could go higher than that but I'm waiting to see what happens with the Euro on that one as I'm still exceedingly bitter I was too lazy to sell it 18 - 24 months ago when I was worth something like 30% more.

Hmmmmm.........another 50K and I could do Winchester....hmmmmm

[Francko]

It's interesting to see how cheap is housing in the UK nowadays from a foreign prospective.

250k Pounds - 400k francs - 275k euros; won't get you anything in my region.

[Olly]

It's interesting to see how cheap is housing in the UK nowadays from a foreign prospective.

250k Pounds - 400k francs - 275k euros; won't get you anything in my region.

Same in Munich mate, the city is largely blocks of flats.
The odd small house that does crop up is worth a fortune.
There isn't really an equivalent to Munich in the UK but I if there were I'm fairly sure at current Euro / GBP rates the UK equivalent would be a decent bit less.

If we get down to parity again that Bulgarian place is going to get shifted pronto.

Heard Spanish prices took a battering in some areas though so it's not all of Euro land that's fairing well with property prices. Oh yes and of course Ireland, but I've never seen anywhere so incredibly over-valued as that place was/is, not even Bulgaria!

[norrahe]

Towards Kent, some nice areas just outside of Gravesend with a fast (new) train service from Ebbsfleet to Kings Cross in 20 minutes. Or from Greenhithe (Blue Water) to Cannon St in 45 minutes.

Not sure about social life around there though, but what I have experienced is more 'local' pubbing and restaurants and not the glammed up poor quality London / outer London ones that I put up with regularly.

Cannon St line is very unreliable and even though you have the new fast line into St Pancras, you still have to trek across London to get anywhere.

[DiscoStu]

Ok chaps, back from my German lesson.
Responses:
Welwyn, I'll pop it on the list and try and have a look though not sure what local job possibilities there are, I guess not much.

It's only 30 mins into Kings Cross, so London's easily do-able.

[norrahe]

O
Random place where 4 beds are £200K, that's nice for you

Try east northants

Well connected by road to Cambridge (40 mins), Oxford (an hourish), Birmingham (90mins) and then you have London (45 mins by train), Nottingham (hour).

Steady gain on property and hasn't been impacted very much by the crash.

[bobhope]

Yes, Reading is the obvious choice. I did a contract in Basingstoke a few years ago and most of the locals all aspired to live in Reading. Even in terms of a night-out they'd rather travel to Reading than stay local in Basingstoke!

Aspire to Reading?

A few months ago, we were looking at moving back to the UK, but we had the same problem. Anywhere we liked was way too expensive.

[Xenophon]

My house is nice.

[Olly]

Reading some bad things about the Reading commute to Paddington. Whilst it's only 30 minutes it's a standing journey and the trains can actually be to full to get on!

Basingstoke is a 45 minute commute to Waterloo which is a bit more central. Don't know about the seating situation.

Both season tickets are about £4K a year......fooooooook me!

This is all really starting to annoy me

Surely I can't be the only one that's gone through this process of digging and reasoning? What did you decide?