[Closed] Working from home - Lets all move to the country

Nope, already in the countryside.

If I was in your position though I would regard it as a non brainer. I would jus tbe looking to crack on before every other city person tries to do the same. A lot of media bout rural estate agents seeing a big surge in demand, try and get in there quickly

Will the countryside become urbanised and we'll all go to ghost town cities for a bit of peace & quiet?

Better hurry up. If everyone does it your big city house will soon be worthless.

It seems everyone is thinking the same as you.

We’re out in the sticks and when properties do now come on the market, they’re gone the same day (our neighbours house recently sold a couple of hours after being put up for sale) and prices are absolutely going through the roof, as are rents.

If you’re going to do it, I’d get a wriggle on

NOOOO, the countryside is mine! Get orf my laaaaaaaand

"once a week" at parents or an AirBnB seems quite a lot to me, would that be indefinitely? For me, the novelty of that would wear off really quickly if it were a permanent solution.

am definitely considering this. don't want to be oe of those townies who moves to the coutnry and HAS to have a massive 4*4 then complains because there's no local shops within 5 minutes walk, and the smells are awful, and the farm is noisy at 6am with the animals bleating for food...

There has been a sudden upsurge in house sales around us for allegedly this reason. It seems to have gone mad.

Anyone else in this boat?

Quite possibly very soon, sort of. Currently in a job that whilst stable is becoming more and more frustrating and I've got a role secured (nothing signed of at the moment, no notice handed in etc.) which is a 90 minute commute from where we live at the moment, however there is the caveat that the work can be done from home it's almost entireley cloud based. Initially I'll be needed at the office for training etc., funnily the commute is from the a rural countryside town to a rural countryside town, although if all goes well we'd be looking to move closer in 12 months time.

It's a sidestep from what I'm doing at the moment, but in the same industry, however it's a positive step forward whereas the current employer seems to be looking backwards.

Will this be an unexpected boon to the forgotten towns on the outside edges of the commuter belts?

I live on the outside edge of the Glasgow conurbation (almost halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh) and can be in the countryside in minutes.

Our town, in the main, only has two kinds of people in it. People who work / shop / socialise somewhere else and people who don't have jobs. As a result the town, up till now, caters almost exclusively to the unemployed. The only reason that people move in to the town from elsewhere is the cheap property prices.

Maybe this'll change moving forward? Hope so.

It seems everyone is thinking the same as you.

We’re out in the sticks and when properties do come on the market, they’re gone the same day and prices are absolutely going through the roof.

If you’re going to do it, I’d get a wriggle on

I'm generally very risk adverse though. In the current climate it seems a bit of a no brainer but what if everything is back to normal in 2 years time and I'm 'expected' in the office 3 days a week or more. The risk to me is once we sell the big city house and move the kids schools etc then logistically and financially it would be very hard to move back. The commute would be horrific.

It's happening

Our road, in our semi rural village, is definitely a target. Two houses (out of 30?) for sale and sold in days. At quite a lot of money. Both families out from London, and both moved in already.

We've had a few notes through the door along the lines of 'If you're thinking of moving, we want a house'. If it all helps with the pub and school, I'm all for it.

and we do have decent FTTP broadband - up to 900Mb - so it's better than at work...

Need to consider the internet service before the leap to the countryside. In places it’s nonexistent. How are you going to browse STW whilst “at work”?

You might be working from home at the minute but IMO it won't last for the majority. I certainly wouldn't let something as big as a house purchase be based on what has happened in the last six months.

Friends of ours already done this, moved at the end of July, cv19 just proved how easy working from home would be for them.
Our house 5mins from chiltern line station is looking less financially attractive ☹️

“once a week” at parents or an AirBnB seems quite a lot to me, would that be indefinitely? For me, the novelty of that would wear off really quickly if it were a permanent solution.

The alternative solution is to drive home which would take 3 hours and then drive back again in the morning leaving before 6 and hitting the big city traffic at 8am and crawling through it for an hour.

The novelty of both has very limited appeal. Hence the uncertainty of what average future office occupation trends will be like is a big issue and to be honest I'm slightly on the side of stay where i am.

Its age old thing with Kids though, we are 3/4 years out from GCSEs for the oldest. If I wait a year or two then its that much harder for them.

Already happening, reports in the housing press about demand exceeding supply and pushing up prices in areas that are commutable to London 1-2 days a week. Local contacts here round Nottingham and Derby are getting London based enquiries.

Act soon if you want to do it.

Think carefully over the "big house/small mortgage" question. We went for the latter, even on modest wages we overpaid and were mortgage free at 45. Suddenly any job uncertainty disappears once the house is paid for.

I certainly wouldn’t let something as big as a house purchase be based on what has happened in the last six months.

Nor me. Some companies will see the light and realise people work just as well at home and are happier so may work more along with not needing all that expensive office space but if a vaccine came along next week I imagine most companies would be back to how they were pre 2020 fairly quickly.

Really depends on who you were work and which approach you think they would use.

Yeah I've thought about it, my Mrs is generally change adverse at the best of times and throws up many barriers whenever it comes up, uprooting the kids being the made one.

I'm pretty set on changing jobs post-covid, I don't know what role that will be, but if WFH is an option it might come with a home move.

We were planning to move to the countryside this year, early next year. We've been talking about it for a couple of years and finally decided to go for it after I had it agreed with work that I can WFH 4 days a week.

I've decided that moving at the minute is a bad idea with the upcoming economic shit storm. The other half disagrees and thinks we should take advantage of the current incentives.

Bring it on though! We're just about to put my late mother-in-laws house on the market. Sleepy village, parking for 6/7 cars, double garage (with inspection pit), 3 beds, needs modernizing. Should fetch a shit-ton in this market! 🙂

Yup: https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/trading-city-life-for-sea-mountains-bath-to-s-wales-good-move-or-mistake/

We have our house on the market in Bristol and looking to move on nr the brecon beacons.
My work are looking to move to a hub style office where you can book space.. so expected to be in 1 day a week

If that changes i can alwasy get fully remote work (i'm a web developer)

ve decided that moving at the minute is a bad idea with the upcoming economic shit storm.

this is also worrying me slightly but feel like it's now or never. Seems everyone in our area is having the same idea (at least families)

Am being told by the estate agent that there's a lot of interest from 20-30 somethings wanting to move to bristol as it's cheap!

We were in the process of moving to the countryside before Covid and now every ****er is at it and prices have rocketed.

We were planning to move to the countryside this year, early next year. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of years and finally decided to go for it after I had it agreed with work that I can WFH 4 days a week.

I’ve decided that moving at the minute is a bad idea with the upcoming economic shit storm. The other half disagrees and thinks we should take advantage of the current incentives.

Another big factor in current demand is the stamp duty thing. It would save the buyers of my house £15k and us about £10k on our purchase. Stamp duty is dead money. But its not a big issue for us as the other issues are just far bigger.

I can see the appeal but not sure I would if there was still a requirement to be in the office at least 1 day a week (and that meant 3 hours commute each way/staying overnight somewhere the evening before). Every two weeks I could cope with that but not every week.

Would also depend a bit on how safe I thought my job was as if you did lose it and had to find another then you're cutting down your options if they have to support frequent remote working (or you'd be looking at moving back to the city again)

It certainly does seem appealing right now doesn't it ? BUT being very honest with yourself about - kids, schools, transport, after school activities, social stuff, general services etc is really important - we've been looking for another house since this time last year as I already work mostly from home. We were being a bit specific on area and since C-19 it's gone mental, one place just sold for frankly a stupid amount of money and will be used maybe 4 times a year. Multiply that and in that village (Boat of Garten) theres a lot of holiday homes already. Would be v dull on a wet Wednesday in Nov when you are sat on your tod.

You might be working from home at the minute but IMO it won’t last for the majority. I certainly wouldn’t let something as big as a house purchase be based on what has happened in the last six months.

Well lots of things could happen here. If people have already moved then it would increase pressure on companies to let it happen - companies aren't going to fire a load of their important staff even if they were able to.

On the other hand, if those people lose their jobs due to the recession, they're going to find it a lot harder to get more jobs that will offer such flexible terms. UNLESS those bosses hiring are now fans of WFH and have realised they can choose from a larger pool of workers for specialised roles and in theory then get better candidates.

Currently in the process of moving so this is a real dilemma for us.

Been working from home successfully for going on 6 months but transitioning back now. I can see the direction of travel in our place is everyone back - even if it will take a while. The only lasting change I can see is that limited wfh will continue to happen at the discretion of individual managers. So maybe odd days or 1 day a week depending on role.

It would feel risky for me to buy into a lifestyle that relies on remote working continuing at my current T&Cs. The obvious issue is that for many roles it can be really hard to recruit the right people at the right time for a specific geographical location. If you successfully make it a remote working role suddenly the available pool of suitable labour increases greatly, even within the UK. Some of the very essential clerical / admin folk I work with have been doing a brilliant job working remotely, but it does beg the question - could someone in India have done that for half the cost?

I certainly wouldn’t let something as big as a house purchase be based on what has happened in the last six months.

Yeah, whilst we've thought similar, it's tricky to know what the final work outcome is going to be once this all settles down. We're pretty confident that we'll be WFH for the majority of the time, but it depends just how much of a majority that is. If, say, we have to go in once a week, we can probably stand a long commute to get there if that means we can live somewhere rural-y. However, just up that to twice a week and that commute starts to become a ballache. So, we'll see.

Will this be an unexpected boon to the forgotten towns on the outside edges of the commuter belts?

That would definitely be a good thing

I would jus tbe looking to crack on before every other city person tries to do the same

Definitely already happening here (North Yorks market town) - we had a bidding war for the modest semi next door, it was gone within a couple of days.

Another big factor in current demand is the stamp duty thing. It would save the buyers of my house £15k and us about £10k on our purchase. Stamp duty is dead money. But its not a big issue for us as the other issues are just far bigger.

unless you are in wales

it does beg the question – could someone in India have done that for half the cost?

Our first/second line support and development is done out of Bangalore

We spend an awful lot of time saying 'No' to them. Because it's not their firm, they appear to have less concerns about making mistakes/trying things out in Prod. Most of my actual team are based around Europe, and the difference is palpable, due - I think - to being actual paid employees, rather than outsourced contractors.

Now, obviously just my experience. And it does take a lot of personal off our payroll. But it doesn't appear to work effectively for us.

Already happening a cottage that had been empty for 3 years and before that lived in by a hoarder and probably only held up by the hoarding. Called "outsider" honestly that's the name of the cottage.
Went on the market for £70k 40 viewers in first week. It's 8miles from nearest town and 1mile up a dirt road (with questionable access). Sold for £120k to folk from Yorkshire who won't be able to live there for 5 years.

We’ve had a few notes through the door along the lines of ‘If you’re thinking of moving, we want a house’.

Yeah, I’ve had a couple of those recently, probably because I paid off my mortgage last year, and Chippenham is well placed for commuting to Bristol, Bath, Swindon, London, Reading on the train, although ticket costs are eye-watering! It’s also a nexus for the road network, being on the A4, A420, A350, so east/west, north/south - Poole is signposted as you come in from the north.
And I’m not interested in selling, either!
With reference to Wales, I can get to Crickhowell in less than an hour and a half, and I have driven to London, parked up in Hammersmith an hour and a half after leaving Chippenham, but that was unusual, it’s normally about two hours.

I can't afford / don't want to move but I anticipate in 4-5 years time it'll be nearer to situation normal.  With Jobs as they are - and of course depending on your role - I wouldn't want to reduce my options by being somewhere I can't travel/it'd be a ball ache to travel from over the next few years.

I'm very tempted to move to an even more rural location myself. However, I can't help but feel there are some very powerful vested interests who don't want to let swathes of commercial and office space lie empty.

To answer the OP properly no way would I be moving if it was going to involve a lengthy commute/airbnbs etc

It looks like the high street shops death has been rapidly accelerated since Covid, I can see a lot of those city centre stores like Debanhams being converted into flats. If "everyone" wants to sell their nice urban home and move to the country, who is going to buy them to give those who want to move to the country a handsome profit on their purchase price?

But there is IMO the huge risk that all these now WFH jobs will steadily sail off overseas for less staff overheads, while those that remain in the UK could well face an effective wage cut over time, so decreasing the size of the mortgage during the move to the country would be a less risky strategy.

Very tricky situation, but if you are going to do it, act quick before countryside homes prices boom and urban home prices bust!

Need to consider the internet service before the leap to the countryside. In places it’s nonexistent. How are you going to browse STW whilst “at work”?

It will be interesting to see how good the performance of Starlink sattelite broadband when it goes live.
Current speeds look pretty good!

As above there's no way (imho) that WFH will be the norm in a few years time. A move to a place that is uncommutable daily is not the long term answer. Selling if you get a silly offer and can make a sensible move is.

“once a week” at parents or an AirBnB seems quite a lot to me, would that be indefinitely? For me, the novelty of that would wear off really quickly if it were a permanent solution.

That and a 3hr round trip to do it once a week would certainly have me pausing for thought. That would be cash down the drain every week, may be no worse than current commuting costs? but then other costs (like driving to shops, swimming pool, pub, cinema etc) just got bigger by being in the country too.

I've no doubt that WFH will be the norm in my current role, and we may have weekly or less frequent visits to an office to interact. I'm already "semi rural" so not looking to move but if I were looking to be further out my concern would be will future employers think this way - they might be enlightened like molgrips alludes to... but they might not, it will only take a few people ripping the piss out of WFH and suddenly managers will start with the we need to see them stuff (if not permanently then at least for new hires).

I’m very tempted to move to an even more rural location myself. However, I can’t help but feel there are some very powerful vested interests who don’t want to let swathes of commercial and office space lie empty.

This is a good point.  They'll be long term lets and contract the landlords won't want to give up and Companies are tied to, your management may find themselves needing to justify its use by making sure you use it.

already happening here too. smallish village (c 2,800) in the high peak. given it's slightly prettier than some of the surrounding ones, noticeably cheaper than hope valley (but right on the edge of it), two decent pubs and on the direct rail line to Manchester (45 mins into the centre) we found that good houses were going within a few days / week max when we moved last year. apparently now they are going within a day or two at most, with most of them selling before they've even got the board up!

if you think your job is secure (as much as anyone can think that at the moment) and WFH will continue, it would be very tempting to do it now. if not wait 9-12 months, see how it all pans out and wait for the inevitable cooling of the market as the economy falls apart

It would feel risky for me to buy into a lifestyle that relies on remote working continuing at my current T&Cs. The obvious issue is that for many roles it can be really hard to recruit the right people at the right time for a specific geographical location. If you successfully make it a remote working role suddenly the available pool of suitable labour increases greatly, even within the UK.

This is where i am at (I think). My role is fairly solid right now but it is quirky. With some regulation change it could disappear. The majority of similar roles are generally office based and London or big city type locations. One option is maybe give up the big city career if that does happen. We would be in a position with a fairly modest mortgage - Could i be employed in some sort of country bumpkin work?

If your company's policy allows you to move to the country, which one are you choosing...... India ? Vietnam ? China ??

Be careful what you wish for !!

I have much faster internet here in rural Cumbria than I did in Glasgow BTW. Upload speeds are cray-cray

https://b4rn.org.uk

If your company’s policy allows you to move to the country, which one are you choosing…… India ? Vietnam ? China ??

Be careful what you wish for !!

My employer is global and we recently had a circular around about cross country working i.e. living in one country and being contracted to work in another. This causes a mass of HR / Tax / Employment law issues and is a clear cut no no. That is the only solid advice we have had on the topic since lock down started. Everything else is up in the air.

I live in a picturesque Cumbrian village which is mostly made up of pensioners but things are selling within days and it is families who are buying. Great news for a school with only 30 kids.

It works for me and the type of job I do but like others I am not sure how long WFH will be so widely used. At the moment we all know our work colleagues well and know how the business ticks as people leave and new starters arrive I think a office/home balance will need to develop to allow the business to work efficiently.

Houses are selling super fast by me, incredibly so. If you think you can make it work chop chop I’d say. I hope everyone can continue working from home to make my trundling about a lot easier.

I live in a picturesque Cumbrian village which is mostly made up of pensioners

Whereabouts or is it a secret? 🙂

I am currently staying at my ma's in Kirkby Lonsdale but looking to buy somewhere near-ish soon hopefully. Shame if all these latecomers spoil our plans, we were trying to buy before the lockdown but it didn't happen.

I did this about 8 years ago, moved to a lovely village in Shropshire and have a five hour commute when I’m in work. Max I do in a week in work is three days, sometimes none. Don’t regret it for a second, I just wish I had done it sooner. Bringing my daughter up in this environment really suits us, it’s a very pleasant way to live.

I did this about 8 years ago, moved to a lovely village in Shropshire and have a five hour commute when I’m in work. Max I do in a week in work is three days, sometimes none. Don’t regret it for a second, I just wish I had done it sooner. Bringing my daughter up in this environment really suits us, it’s a very pleasant way to live.

Is that Shropshire to London? I assume you stay down there when doing consecutive days?

It's gone absolutely mental in the Forest of Dean and the Brecon Beacons for sales and rentals according to the estate agents I've been speaking to. Have been looking to rent in either of those locations as I'm having to go where the work is and prices have jumped a good 25% on rentals. Haven't got a job yet but the average price for rentals in each for a flat or small house was £5-550pcm, they've all jumped up to the £700 mark before being snapped up by people from Bristol and Cardiff who can now WFH. Sales are up a similar amount too, especially as there's now no bridge toll for the Bristol area workers.

It's doubly annoying as I may have got a chance at a job I've wanted to do for a while and the barrier is going to be affordability purely down to rent prices.

I can see a lot of those city centre stores like Debanhams being converted into flats. If “everyone” wants to sell their nice urban home and move to the country, who is going to buy them to give those who want to move to the country a handsome profit on their purchase price?

.

5 minutes from my house is countryside, 10 minutes is the beach, 15 minutes is the big, horrible shity. The only place cheaper than where I live is the shity.. so where to go , outside the commuter belt? Up north? Wales!? Yeah Wales. Doesn't it rain all the time there? I don't like rain.

Doesn’t it rain all the time there?

Yep. You'll fit right in. 😉

And its full of The Welsh

Bugger off and take your avocados with yer

Avowhatsnow?

Ah Waitrose deliveries! Nah, I'm a Lidls shopper, me 😀

Wouldn't put too much in to the fact that houses are going fast and for over asking price, lots of houses everywhere seem to be going fast and over price, lockdown held up everyone's plans and the lack of stamp duty means people have a few more grand to throw in to a bid. Market seems to be going mental everywhere.

We've been holding off/working towards moving house for 4 years, was just getting ready to sell when lockdown happened. If I had the option I'd wait and see for a while (or sell now and rent for a while and wait and see).

THe actual answer for the OP is to buy somewhere cheap in the nice countryside whilst converting his big city house into an HMO and renting rooms to worker drones for the city whilst keeping one bit of it for himself as a pied a terre for his infrequent jaunts to the city.

If his fortunes change he can kick the plebs out, move back to the smoke and keep his country pile as a holiday house to rent to the plebs when they go on their holibobs.

Was already moving largely towards WFH pre lockdown and this has just accelerated it. Don’t live rural as such but do live in Yorkshire and worked mostly in London when in office. Going forwards will prob do 1-2 days max in office. Also have a colleague who lives in France but used to commute to UK and live in a flat 2-3 days a week. Based on how well she has coped, we are now considering our long talked about 2nd home in Northern France, could happily live there for a few weeks at a time, and WFH.

THe actual answer for the OP is to buy somewhere cheap in the nice countryside whilst converting his big city house into an HMO and renting rooms to worker drones for the city whilst keeping one bit of it for himself as a pied a terre for his infrequent jaunts to the city.

If his fortunes change he can kick the plebs out, move back to the smoke and keep his country pile as a holiday house to rent to the plebs when they go on their holibobs.

There are variations on this theme that could come into play. However if you take a simple one and I rent out the big city house I have to pay circa 40% tax on that rent income, its dead money. And as a former small time land lord I don't want to go there again. In that game you either go big or go home and I chose to go home.

Another option is to also buy a big city 'shitty' apartment for minimum cost and have a base here. I weirdly found a perfectly good one with secure parking for £45k and i cant work out why its so cheap. I could buy that outright but then you have all your bills and ownership hassle x2 - paying council tax and for internet etc when you are only there 2 or 3 nights a week is just more dead money and hassle (although it would also be a future income source).

So creative solutions have been mostly ruled out.

No, mainly to Manchester, but also London on occasion. I used to stay over if I was there consecutive days, but not so much in the last year or so.

Wales!? Yeah Wales. Doesn’t it rain all the time there? I don’t like rain.

Looked at a house in Arnside today (peninsula just south of the Lakes), there were people viewing before and after us and the estate agent said there have been several viewings every day since it went on the market a couple of weeks ago.

Lots of people buying second homes as well as families moving apparently. :-/

I've been WFH for a while (my contract is 1-2 days in the office in Shoreditch,London) and commuting from Stockport.

We've been talking about moving somewhere nicer for ages, just can't decide where to move to. Might have missed the boat a bit - every nice house that pops up now in west yorks is gone almost as soon as it comes on the market

This time last year a couple with one 3 year old son moved into our cul-de-sac. They moved as Dunblane High was the 'best' state school in Scotland by results, having no connection with the area, but he is in IT (natch), can work remotely, and they swapped small flat in London for 5-bed detached, ready to sit out the next 7 years to high school for their lad. There was two offers - and theirs was 20% above valuation.

Now we have the house opposite for sale - a 2-bed house owned since new in 1973 by the same lady who passed away at Easter. The house is a total 1980 time-warp with structural problems caused by huge trees. It went on the market on yesterday, we have watched a line of cars today do 'drive-by' and nosy through the windows, plus three viewings. According to the viewer there have been three offers, two haven't even viewed, they have folk viewing mainly from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Falkirk...

I guess my point is there has always been a steady flow of folk doing the 'country' thing for 'good schools' and 'cheap houses'. Nothing new there.
However, I do think that even if a small proportion of folk have re-evaluated life and priorities through this pandemic, then we will see a real spike in demand for houses in rural/semi-rural/commuter towns.
The price of the houses on our road, and the todays feeding frenzy of house buyers seems to show a real rise in demand.

'Property expert" on Radio Scotland yesterday saying they've had a big jump in enquiries from England, particularly the west coast and the isles. Expect it's a combination of Bre$hit and Covid. You certainly need to look at broadband availability if WFH - at my current address there's no landline and I need a 4G aerial to get a weak signal that drops-out regularly. SMS texts take days to arrive.

We moved last year from just outside Leeds/Bradford to Welsh borders.

Pros - clean air and no pollution, people are nicer, traffic jams are non existent, houses are cheap. It’s dark at night rather than an orange glow. Can leave the doors unlocked. I live in stunning countryside that tourists appear not to know about. Brilliant road bike riding. Even in the depths of COVID still could go out multiple times per day. Still pinch myself that this is where I live and not just on holiday

Cons - everyone knows what you do, wages are low, not much employment, health care not great, decent shops at least 45min drive away. Mountain Biking not as good on the doorstep (population that low that there are not many BW’s & paths). No kids around of my sons age.

The "house are cheap" and "not much employment" are clearly linked. Where I live has a lot of the pros that you mention but the houses are definitely not cheap and there is employment.

I suppose it all depends how much equity you have in your city house and whether buying a very cheap house and a much lower paid job with no mortgage and money in the bank works for people.

The “house are cheap” and “not much employment” are clearly linked.

Correct, Mrs FD and I both work for the NHS so our salaries are equitable to what they were (although I took a big pay cut). I looked at changing careers when we moved and very quickly concluded that I would 1. struggle to find a job not in my current sector 2. I would be lucky to find anything that would pay above minimum wage.

We actually started this process pre-covid. Went from near an airport, motorways & a mainline Waterloo station to 2 hours away, close to the England/Wales border. We live in the FOD now as luckily both our employers are good about WFH anyway, so we questioned why do we live in a dirty concrete jungle?

Now we live on a forestry track on the edge of a village in a house twice the size of the old one with a plot of land multiple times the size - for the same outlay.

I commute to the office 1h45m once a week, which is a fairly long and boring day. I figure it’s not too bad, I’ve got friends who commute by train every day for that long. I’d happily do it for the new normal.

That said even in the time we’ve been here, houses are selling, fast. I very much doubt we would have agreed on the deal we got with this, now.

I suspect that the pandemic and its subsequent trends are having a more complicated set of impacts. More demand for countryside housing is one aspect, but I think there will be more to it.

Perhaps another conclusion us that people are looking to take the next step rather than a radical shift. We live in an inner city suburb with strong local amenities including a relatively thriving high street. While a lot of houses have sold post-Lockdown (with families moving typically to semi-urban settlements outside the city), there is also clearly a whole heap of new people prepared to move in on a lifestyle / loving the community vibe ticket. We don't know anyone who's moved to the proper countryside as a result of CoVID - it's more typically the next closest step to suburbia.

Many places see a very small proportion of their housing stock sold in a typical year, so it's possible to overread the trends. It also only takes 2 buyers to be seriously interested in a property to push a price up.

To be fair the Lakes has always been bonkers. I offered £260,000 for a 2 bed house in Stavely that needed a complete refurbishment and didn’t win. Nice places just get dearer. Plenty of people with plenty of money about, sadly just not enough in my account.

Best thing I did was move out of London 20 years ago. Commuted for a bit until it got too much then found a local job on a 1/3 less money. All went fine until the banking crisis when the firm folded. Then it gets tricky as finding work is a real challenge. Wound up in a job I don't really enjoy, but overall I've no regrets as I'm compensated by a far better lifestyle. The current situation is obviously a concern as now this job is decidedly vulnerable. However I'd most likely have had the same stresses employment wise if I'd stayed in the Smoke.

I wouldn't like to be the owner or seller of a city centre flat with no outdoor space right now.