Dr. Samuel Johnson once said,
‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London, all that life can afford’. But that was back in the 18th century, and times have changed, in more ways than one. Now you may not be tired of London, but you may not be able to afford the life there.
Year on year, property prices rise, rental prices increase, and the cost of living in London seems way above that of the rest of the country. So even if your job is London based, it makes sense to at least explore the possibility of moving out into the country, as long as the commute is viable, and yes affordable too.
If you live in Central London and enjoy the lifestyle there, you may feel more comfortable just moving to one of the outer suburbs, maybe to Richmond or Twickenham. But you could also consider changing your life completely and relocating to say the East Essex, which would mean much lower house prices, albeit a more expensive and longer commute.
Do the benefits of life in the country, outweigh the time you will spend travelling, and cost of your yearly ticket. Or, is the overall cost in terms of money, time and upheaval, too much to even think about, so you stay in your small terraced family home in London, that you may be outgrowing, without even viewing a decent family sized, semi detached homes at half the price in Essex.
But in any case before you make any decisions, there is the small consideration of finances. Even if the number crunching adds up in your head and makes complete sense, you still need to do some major calculations, to see if your plan to move to the country is even viable.
One way to be sure you can scrunch the numbers and fudge the figures correctly, is to consult an expert in the financial field, and take a look at https://www.mortgagecalculator.uk/affordability/
You can play around with this handy little online calculator, and put in as many variations as you like, to hopefully get the answer that you are happy with. It has lots of functions, including calculating affordability, repayments, and remortgaging, as well as overpayments, and yearly capital and interest payments breakdowns. So that you can see exactly where you are.
It’s so easy to flick through a property magazine, see a fantastic house out in the country, then mentally do some sums and convince yourself that you can easily afford it, or on the other hand that it’s a complete non-starter. It’s not until you really get your finances in complete good order, and start doing some honest calculations, that you can move forward with any plan.
It would be a huge disappointment to create a fantastic new life in your head, only to find that in financial reality, its just not affordable. Likewise, what seems unattainable, may just be within your reach once you have all the figures to hand.
If you feel like the countryside is calling to you, and you are growing a bit disenchanted with the cost of living in London, then take some time to really examine your finances, see what would work for you, do some calculations.
You never know, a complete change of lifestyle, and a move to the country might have more advantages than you ever imagined.
