Thoughts on Bournemouth Move From Perth

[Blue Flu]

Anyone with personal experience of living in Bournemouth or other desirable area of Devon? I've seen property could afford not far from beach but never actually been there. It seems a great part of the country for walkers, riders and aquatic pleasures. I have lived on the South Coast close to Brighton as a kid, but don't find that affordable these days. It gives the appearances of a nice enough area with a vibe and mixture of ages. Weymouth looks nice enough as well. We were supposed to have gone there last year but obviously could not leave. Don't have work concerns and would be spending a lot of time on The Continent. 

[Amzlou84]

In short, both are lovely. Id say Devon as a preference. So many beautiful towns and villages. 

[Jon the Hat]

Lovely, but if you are working regularly in Europe you might want to do some research on travel?  Its a long way from Bournemouth to Heathrow etc, so you would want some local flight options.

[Parley]

22 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Lovely, but if you are working regularly in Europe you might want to do some research on travel?  Its a long way from Bournemouth to Heathrow etc, so you would want some local flight options.

Bournemouth International Airport.

[Jon the Hat]

1 hour ago, Parley said:

Bournemouth International Airport.

Yes I know but you don't have the same range of destinations from Bournemouth as you do from the larger airports, hence my comment about doing research on whether that meets their needs.  It is painful enough heading to the airport at 4.45am when it is 20 minutes away, let alone 90 minutes.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Jon the Hat

[Blue Flu]

1 hour ago, Jon the Hat said:

Lovely, but if you are working regularly in Europe you might want to do some research on travel?  Its a long way from Bournemouth to Heathrow etc, so you would want some local flight options.

No won't be working most likely or At least not as a necessity. I think there are ferries from Poole to Cherbourg. I'd be staying in Europe part of the time, if went ahead. I suspect the local airport would be sufficient for near Continent flights but not checked destinations yet. 

[Jon the Hat]

1 hour ago, Blue Flu said:

No won't be working most likely or At least not as a necessity. I think there are ferries from Poole to Cherbourg. I'd be staying in Europe part of the time, if went ahead. I suspect the local airport would be sufficient for near Continent flights but not checked destinations yet. 

Definitely well located for Ferries.  Are you sure it much cheaper than Brighton way?  Bournemouth is a bit mad money wise.

[Blue Flu]

3 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Definitely well located for Ferries.  Are you sure it much cheaper than Brighton way?  Bournemouth is a bit mad money wise.

A quick search seemed to suggest while hardly cheap, more for your money than Brighton. I expect Worthing and similar are cheaper but probably deservedly so. Also comparing to Perth prices not a lot of difference, if inner city. Other costs cheaper over there though like food for example. 

[Road1]

Hi, I live in Bournemouth and can recommend it as a place to live. I'd say there is quite a variation in the broader Bournemouth conurbation (includes Poole/Christchurch) for factors such as housing and general quality of immediate area, so worth checking out the area you'd chose to live in. 

Positives include the sandy beaches and access to the Purbecks/New Forest/Jurassic coast etc. You can get to London in 1hr 50mins on the fast (peak period) train, Bournemouth airport has some limited European destinations (Southampton airport c.40mins away has more options, Heathrow c.90mins drive), ferries from Poole to Channel Islands/France.

Negatives, gets really busy in the summer with tourists, road network in/out isn't designed for the volume so can be long queues. Bournemouth town centre has gone down hill in recent years. Property, particularly in the nicer areas is expensive and increasingly so.   

The variation in property prices by sub-area makes it difficult to compare directly to other places as an overall comment, there is such a range, e.g Branksome Park up to c.£5m, vs other areas in the low hundred Ks. 

Cheers. 

[Red Rose]

Everywhere just seems expensive these days. Anyone been to Cambridge before? If you are looking at living near the centre of Cambridge you don't get much for half a million quid, maybe a 2 bedroom flat. Brighton is probably even more expensive. 

[Quoll]

9 minutes ago, Red Rose said:

Everywhere just seems expensive these days. Anyone been to Cambridge before? If you are looking at living near the centre of Cambridge you don't get much for half a million quid, maybe a 2 bedroom flat. Brighton is probably even more expensive. 

Yup, Cambridge is eye wateringly expensive! 

[newjez]

10 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

A quick search seemed to suggest while hardly cheap, more for your money than Brighton. I expect Worthing and similar are cheaper but probably deservedly so. Also comparing to Perth prices not a lot of difference, if inner city. Other costs cheaper over there though like food for example. 

Worthing is actually quite nice, and is increasing in price rapidly. Lots of boutique breweries popping up. Quite nice restaurants. Lancing etc are still a little rough.

Eastbourne too if you want to go the other way.

But I love Bournemouth. Never lived there but visited many times. Lovely beach.

[Blue Flu]

8 hours ago, Road1 said:

Hi, I live in Bournemouth and can recommend it as a place to live. I'd say there is quite a variation in the broader Bournemouth conurbation (includes Poole/Christchurch) for factors such as housing and general quality of immediate area, so worth checking out the area you'd chose to live in. 

Positives include the sandy beaches and access to the Purbecks/New Forest/Jurassic coast etc. You can get to London in 1hr 50mins on the fast (peak period) train, Bournemouth airport has some limited European destinations (Southampton airport c.40mins away has more options, Heathrow c.90mins drive), ferries from Poole to Channel Islands/France.

Negatives, gets really busy in the summer with tourists, road network in/out isn't designed for the volume so can be long queues. Bournemouth town centre has gone down hill in recent years. Property, particularly in the nicer areas is expensive and increasingly so.   

The variation in property prices by sub-area makes it difficult to compare directly to other places as an overall comment, there is such a range, e.g Branksome Park up to c.£5m, vs other areas in the low hundred Ks. 

Cheers. 

I wonder if Bournemouth city centre has gone down hill due to closing business or something more profound in the sense of social issues in your view?  I guess I would expect an influx of visitors during the summer months. I do wonder just how disconcerting this might prove to be. It would certainly be best to spend a period of time there to capture the true essence of the place before committing. I'm now thinking just how much a million $A and location would buy in Bournemouth?  

[Parley]

I lived there as a child - West Parley, Ferndown area. Nice suburban livelihood back then, prob 20 min drive to Bournemouth city centre.

Used to ride my bike to Hurn Airport to look at the planes. Now it is Bournemouth Airport.

[Paul1Perth]

Loved Bournemouth for holidays when I was in my 20's. Met my wife there, she was staying in the same hotel with a friend, I was there with a few mates.

When the weathers good it's brilliant, one of the best beaches in the UK, much better than Brighton. Gets packed on a nice day though, don't even think of driving and being able to park. The hotel we stayed was about half hour walk from the beach but that was fine.

Had the reputation of being a retirement spot but it was always lively enough for us. If we wanted really lively we'd just go to Spain or Greece.

If we had got turned down for emigration we would have moved to the South Coast, Bournemouth would have been on our list.

It's a nice spot for the UK but nowhere near as nice as here.

 

[can1983]

Bournemouth is very pricey because it has one of the souths only sandy beaches and is "commutable" to London. Although why anyone would want to spend 5 hours a day on trains I have no idea....

Traffic was horrendous on a sunny day don't miss that....

[Marisawright]

1 hour ago, can1983 said:

Bournemouth is very pricey because it has one of the souths only sandy beaches and is "commutable" to London. Although why anyone would want to spend 5 hours a day on trains I have no idea....

Traffic was horrendous on a sunny day don't miss that....

Yes that’s what we found. House prices are very variable so it’s easy to get an optimistic impression online, but when you get there, you find all the nice suburbs are very expensive. You might like the outlying villages but then you have to contend with the fact that all the motorways are practically car parks. I think we would have liked living there if we could have afforded it

[newjez]

2 hours ago, can1983 said:

Bournemouth is very pricey because it has one of the souths only sandy beaches and is "commutable" to London. Although why anyone would want to spend 5 hours a day on trains I have no idea....

Traffic was horrendous on a sunny day don't miss that....

Looking forwards, people will only spend one day a week in the office. That is our plan. So five hours once a week is doable. I expect Bournemouth house prices to increase accordingly.

[Parley]

52 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Yes that’s what we found. House prices are very variable so it’s easy to get an optimistic impression online, but when you get there, you find all the nice suburbs are very expensive. You might like the outlying villages but then you have to contend with the fact that all the motorways are practically car parks. I think we would have liked living there if we could have afforded it

Cheaper than Melbourne I would say. Looked up my old area and looks like about £475000. Where i live in Melbourne now is $1.4 to $1.6M.

[can1983]

13 minutes ago, newjez said:

Looking forwards, people will only spend one day a week in the office. That is our plan. So five hours once a week is doable. I expect Bournemouth house prices to increase accordingly.

I don't believe for a second that once the pandemic is 5 years in the past companies will allow staff to work from home 80% of the time. During lockdown at my work we all turned to the 'get round to it job list' and spent working time painting walls and building a new deck. One person reno'd their whole house!

Moving areas and houses are long term decisions and if you moved 2-3 hours away from work in the long term its goodbye beach hello GBP9000 season ticket and binging on netflix.

Edited August 17, 2021 by can1983

[newjez]

2 minutes ago, can1983 said:

I don't believe for a second that once the pandemic is 5 years in the past companies will allow staff to work from home 80% of the time. During lockdown at my work we all turned to the 'get round to it job list' and spent working time painting walls and building a new deck. One person reno'd their whole house!

I think you are wrong.

[Marisawright]

35 minutes ago, newjez said:

Looking forwards, people will only spend one day a week in the office. That is our plan. So five hours once a week is doable. I expect Bournemouth house prices to increase accordingly.

When we were there in 2015, house prices were already rocketing and we were told (by estate agents) that it was entirely due to an influx of young families from London.  At the time, it amazed me - how could anyone sensibly decide to live in Bournemouth and commute two hours each way every day?  

[newjez]

50 minutes ago, can1983 said:

I don't believe for a second that once the pandemic is 5 years in the past companies will allow staff to work from home 80% of the time. During lockdown at my work we all turned to the 'get round to it job list' and spent working time painting walls and building a new deck. One person reno'd their whole house!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.apollotechnical.com/working-from-home-productivity-statistics/%23:~:text%3DSeveral%20studies%20over%20the%20past,and%20are%2047%25%20more%20productive.&ved=2ahUKEwiJiYDusbfyAhWIDMAKHSukA7QQFnoECAUQBQ&usg=AOvVaw34ZYDWiIlzPFTbE_eZEyVH

You really think that your company can't monitor the traffic over your connection? Those doing renovations will have some pretty interesting conversations.

[newjez]

32 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

When we were there in 2015, house prices were already rocketing and we were told (by estate agents) that it was entirely due to an influx of young families from London.  At the time, it amazed me - how could anyone sensibly decide to live in Bournemouth and commute two hours each way every day?  

I was working two days a week from home before the pandemic. Most people aren't bludgers and actually do more work from home.

[Blue Flu]

5 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Loved Bournemouth for holidays when I was in my 20's. Met my wife there, she was staying in the same hotel with a friend, I was there with a few mates.

When the weathers good it's brilliant, one of the best beaches in the UK, much better than Brighton. Gets packed on a nice day though, don't even think of driving and being able to park. The hotel we stayed was about half hour walk from the beach but that was fine.

Had the reputation of being a retirement spot but it was always lively enough for us. If we wanted really lively we'd just go to Spain or Greece.

If we had got turned down for emigration we would have moved to the South Coast, Bournemouth would have been on our list.

It's a nice spot for the UK but nowhere near as nice as here.

 

I'm afraid I'm way over 'here". I won't go into detail but very confronting and more than a little sad just what is going down. We had thought about changing location but not easy to find a suitable location within price considerations and don't want a return to the present under any circumstances. I prefer Europe/UK but Brexit put paid to plans to take up where I left off in Europe and residents card now long expired. 

I am thinking of a place never been to but heard only positive things about. Some say Weymouth is worthy of consideration as well. There is plenty of time, as it will be at least a year I suspect before travel becomes anything like a return to normal and possibly longer.