Where to retire in the UK

[LetsTryAgain]

Shnozz said:

However, as I say, its not really an investment choice and sometimes there is value in a lifestyle. Yes, your 2 bed bungalow in the Dales might be a far better purchase for investment, but fook spending time in the wet, grey skies of the Dales. Would far rather have a bolthole in the UK that is a lock and leave and a nice place in the sun to spend the rest of the year.

The reason i raised the point was that for a lot of folk, they can’t afford to take that hit.
For some, “I’ve lost £100k on this 2nd house in Spain when I came to sell” wouldn’t be the end of the world.
For most in the real world, it could be catastrophic.

[monkfish1]

Johner said:

Esceptico said:

Any suggestions as to go towns/cities to move to if you are retired (so don’t have to worry about the job market)?

Somewhere big enough to have enough to do and facilities without being overwhelming. Preferably with access to decent countryside and importantly, reasonable house prices.
[quote]

Can highly recommend Bury St Edmunds.
Lots of history
Good looking
Lovely town centre
Lots of night life options
Cafes and resaurants in abundance
Long life expectancy

And of course it's in Suffolk

Nice, but too expensive

Along with all of suffolk. Missed that boat too........................

[SIMON67]

Our plan to move to south Devon will hopefully come to fruition this year when child number 2 hopefully flies the nest for university. Favourite at the moment is Teignmouth. Planning semi-early retirement if we can find a way to fund it.

[Riley Blue]

Johner said:

Esceptico said:

Any suggestions as to go towns/cities to move to if you are retired (so don’t have to worry about the job market)?

Somewhere big enough to have enough to do and facilities without being overwhelming. Preferably with access to decent countryside and importantly, reasonable house prices.

Can highly recommend Bury St Edmunds.
Lots of history
Good looking
Lovely town centre
Lots of night life options
Cafes and resaurants in abundance
Long life expectancy

And of course it's in Suffolk

Don't forget GP surgeries, denture repairers, hospitals, Werthers stockists and all the other suppliers and services you'll need in retirement, particularly the nearer you get to the end of it.

[Vasco]

grichard said:

Forget the UK!! You are going to be taxed off the planet after Brexit! Come to sunny Spain where the climate welcomes aching joints and offers very cheap homes, cheap pop, cheap food, what more do you want. And, if you buy on an urbanisation, you do not need to speak Spanish. No brainer!1

Sounds utterly ghastly and probably full of those I'm pleased to see the back of.

[covmutley]

Tyre Tread said:

Moved to Wales (posh bit of Cardiff) 6 years ago and can categorically state that there is a fairly strong anti English feeling. We are on the cusp of retiring but we will not be staying in Wales. Even the more cosmopolitan bits are relatively insular. The acceptance is hidden under a thin veil of acceptance but it exists.

What the Welsh can't accept is that from a language point of view Welsh is redundant. It may be good to keep it alive culturally but the majority of the rest of the western world are speaking English.

s/

Pontcanna by any chance? Aka BBC Wales media luvy land?

English man in South wales here, and I generally don't get any anti English feeling. Banter, yes.

I do think there are some strong pockets of very pro Welsh language cosompolitan types (pontcanna, Victoria Park, maybe som parts of North Cardiff but I don't know that we'll etc). But its more the Welsh speakers 'showing off' as my Welsh wife would say. She thinks they think they are more Welsh than her.

I'm nowhere near retirement but in vale of glamorgan. 20 mins to Cardiff, 20 mins to nice beaches, 35 mins to brecon beacons, 1 hour to amazing beaches. 2 hour train to London. Like it here!

[Tango13]

LetsTryAgain said:

Escort3500 said:

Lincolnshire’s a county of strong contrast, as you say. Until I had occasional work-related sites there I’d never been. The Wolds are lovely as you say - nice rolling landscapes and attractive villages, but I found the flat, open Fens to be monotonous and quite depressing

But the county ‘town’ (City) does have one of the most beautiful buildings in Europe.

There's one part of the A158 where you can see Lincolnshire Cathedral to the west and if you look over your shoulder to the south you can see the Boston Stump.

[Chris C2]

If you're in NZ, and having been there myself, I would stay there since here we haven't seen all the results of Covid and Brexit here yet, eg unemployment/budget cuts/recession/inflation. British universities aren't what they used to be either - frankly standards have fallen and they are cramming themselves with students paying very high tuition fees for very few hours of learning per week.

Having lived in Lincolnshire and the Midlands I retired to Shropshire - nice relaxing county but pubs and small town shops are dying on their feet, local hospitals are suffering from all sorts of scandals and the council is notorious for bad planning and wasting money. We considered mid Wales, eg Powys and Gwynedd, but decided it was too remote especially in bad weather, eg if you need to get to hospital along dark narrow windy snow filled roads, although I understand that elderly care is subsidised.

Being from NZ you're probably used to rain so it may be worth looking further north, eg Speyside in Scotland. It all depends on what you want and what your future needs will be.

[Chris C2]

Forgot to say I used to live near Lincoln. It's second to York as a tourist attraction and has good links, eg down to Newark (in itself a nice town) for the enormous autojumble or the Cadwell Park racing circuit if you are a petrolhead. However, for retiring have a look at Louth in the Wolds or Horncastle and Spilsby. Spalding in the South is picturesque but more expensive. Further east it can get very cold with winds coming across the North Sea from the Russian Urals and coastal resorts can be susceptible to flooding. The Fens in the south of the county have their own attraction if you don't mind mud, deep ditches and no hills....

[Tango13]

Chris C2 said:

Forgot to say I used to live near Lincoln. It's second to York as a tourist attraction and has good links, eg down to Newark (in itself a nice town) for the enormous autojumble or the Cadwell Park racing circuit if you are a petrolhead. However, for retiring have a look at Louth in the Wolds or Horncastle and Spilsby. Spalding in the South is picturesque but more expensive. Further east it can get very cold with winds coming across the North Sea from the Russian Urals and coastal resorts can be susceptible to flooding. The Fens in the south of the county have their own attraction if you don't mind mud, deep ditches and no hills....

I would agree with all of that apart from Spalding, when I was looking at moving up here I flicked through the county paper and in the crime and courts reporting section it seemed that every third crime happened in Spalding...

[anonymous-user]

I’ve got a place in the Isle of Man. Very beautiful place surrounded by sea, quiet pace of life and lots of proper motorcycle road racing. No stamp duty either

[Macron]

Presumably Darlington has had a 20% uplift post the Treasury campus announcement this week? Even though it'll be about 20 people!

Edited by Macron on Thursday 4th March 23:24

[bern]

cobra kid said:

Eastwood in Rotherham is a particular delight.

Made a Rotherham boy laugh there! If Eastwood is a little too cosmopolitan I would suggest Canklow

[dvs_dave]

Tango13 said:

LetsTryAgain said:

Escort3500 said:

Lincolnshire’s a county of strong contrast, as you say. Until I had occasional work-related sites there I’d never been. The Wolds are lovely as you say - nice rolling landscapes and attractive villages, but I found the flat, open Fens to be monotonous and quite depressing

But the county ‘town’ (City) does have one of the most beautiful buildings in Europe.

There's one part of the A158 where you can see Lincolnshire Cathedral to the west and if you look over your shoulder to the south you can see the Boston Stump.

Random fact....Lincoln Cathedral holds the title of being the World’s tallest building for the longest....238 years.
If the original spire hadn’t collapsed in an earthquake, it would have held the title for 578 years, right up until the completion of Eiffel Tower in 1889. Quite incredible really.

[iridium_moon]

I moved from London to South Norfolk 30 years ago. It was amazingly cheap then, and is still relatively cheap.

If you choose to be outside Norwich (10 miles plus) you can probably get somewhere with enough land to build sheds. Lot of sheds. And no one on here needs telling what to put in those sheds!

Cheers, Mark

[anonymous-user]

dvs_dave said:

Random fact....Lincoln Cathedral holds the title of being the World’s tallest building for the longest....238 years.
If the original spire hadn’t collapsed in an earthquake, it would have held the title for 578 years, right up until the completion of Eiffel Tower in 1889. Quite incredible really.

Dad was a choirboy at Lincoln. End of random fact.

[oldbanger]

aka_kerrly said:

Haha, there is a slight hippy aspect & flair to Stroud but it doesn't really impact your life. Recently there have been one or two clowns in the town who have been particularly vocal about their feelings regarding the Covid situation. This led to some silly 100+ people marches in town & a protest or two in the park.

On the whole though, Stroud isn't bad at all, it offers some wonderful countryside with a bit of town life & easy access to city life. The neighbouring towns & villages like Nailsworth, Tetbury, Minchinhampton, Eastington or Uley are rather pleasant places to live with good access to facilities , the M5+M4 are only a short journey allowing efficient travel North/South/East/West. Within 2 hours you can be in either of Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol or Oxford by car or train.

Oh an since this is PH there are many fantastic roads around Gloucestershire plus Castle Combe & Prescot hill climb track!!

Stroud does flood very occasionally so aim for somewhere like Selsley on the hillside just on the outskirts

[oblio]

ElectricSoup said:

oblio said:

monkfish1 said:

bennno said:

monkfish1 said:

Well it depends on where you are looking. North devon, herefordshire and shropshire have a resonable amount to choose from. Or did. Until the prices really started going up post the first lockdown, spurred on by stamp duty holiday. I probably see something that might be suitable at a rate of 1-2 a week. Of course, when you get there, it might not be quite as described". Estate agents after all. West coast of scotland fits the bill. Wife says no, and with sturgeons anti-english pot stirring, id be thinking twice about it too.

My problem is i need to sell what im in to do it. Which puts you on the back foot straight away.

We looked at all those areas and found stamp duty holiday + covid wfh has pushed up prices hugely, north Devon also has real infrastructure challenges especially backwards in terms of internet speeds. We looked at Wales, anywhere idillic within an hour of Bristol has jumped following removal of bridge tolls and previous value differential. We went further and bought near Tenby, big house, triple garage, large garden, mile from beach, non estate, 900mbps fttp for £425k.

Agreed, wales in an obvious answer. Ive been unable to convince myself i could live with the hostility of being an englishman in rural wales. The cities are fine, but the change of attitude in the more rural parts is quite obvious.

Do you not find that an issue? Assuming you are from england of course.

As long as you are not a knob you'll be fine.

We moved to a small village in the middle of nowhere in west Wales. I am Welsh (but haven't lived here since the 80's) and my wife is English. 100% no problem at all: very welcoming and friendly. There are other English people living here, as well as 1 x Swiss, 1 x Italian...and even some people from Cardiff!

We live in a Welsh speaking Plaid Cymru voting area and it really is no problem. My wife has experienced no issues at all and neither have the other English folks in the village. You get good and back everywhere and tbh the only tossers in our village happen to be Welsh

Well, as you say, you're Welsh. My half English, half Maltese Mum (with a Scottish surname thanks to my late father from a Scottish family) has lived near Carmarthen since 1985, and still gets grief. Despite having run a business there and generated jobs and income for the area for decades, the local authority still block everything she wants to do, despite immediate Welsh neighbours doing whatever they bloody well like. I hate the place (not the whole country, just the bit my Mum is in, it's havily parochial to a fault). My sister is now considering moving there for retirement and I can't say I understand why. There's so much resentment of outsiders it's seriously not funny.

I'd consider living in the southern and eastern bits near the English border, but I'm done with west Wales.

Edited by ElectricSoup on Thursday 4th March 10:35

Strange that as I live near Carmarthen too...as do all the English folks in our village who have no issues at all. Perhaps the issue is with your Mum.

[parakitaMol.]

HRL said:

parakitaMol. said:

cayman-black said:

parakitaMol. said:

Just about to complete on a house Mid-North Devon and we found it really difficult during the 18m we were looking because the places we liked were few and far, then got snapped up instantly.

We thankfully persuaded our vendors to sell despite having withdrawn from market but this was only possible by chain free cash purchase. Depends what you’re looking for I guess but seems to be very little period/large/with land available.

What and where did you buy para? And yes you are absolutely right

It's in-between Torrington and Winkleigh

I hear they have tails up there!

Beaford here hopefully in a few months. Pretty sure that’s also between Torrington and Winkleigh, or certainly thereabouts.

Ha! The house we are buying is in Beaford!

It’s got a great looking pub! I’m looking forward to getting into the property next week and exploring the area.

Where abouts in Beaford are you buying?

ETA - oh my God that’s hilarious, I randomly spoke to your wife this week via the pub Facebook page - we had a dog related chat!

Edited by parakitaMol. on Friday 5th March 07:09

[monkfish1]

iridium_moon said:

I moved from London to South Norfolk 30 years ago. It was amazingly cheap then, and is still relatively cheap.

If you choose to be outside Norwich (10 miles plus) you can probably get somewhere with enough land to build sheds. Lot of sheds. And no one on here needs telling what to put in those sheds!

Cheers, Mark

Sadly (and this applies elsewhere) having lots of land doesnt necessarily mean you can build lots of sheds.

TBH, this is why i keep looking for something with a big shed(s). You simply cannot gurantee that you can build x or y until you stick in for planning, or confirmation of permitted development rights. But if you have bought it by then, its too late if it goes against you.. But its certainly a more cost effective route to a nice house in the country with a big shed. Class Q planning for barns has seen to that.

Ive seen plenty of suitable houses with plenty of space, but have to rule them out because i cant "know" what i can do. I hate our planning system.