There are two things that you may (or may not depending on how regularly you read the blog) know about me. Firstly, I live in Thirsk, North Yorkshire and secondly I am a properties tart. By properties tart I mean that I love to trawl through properties to buy and rent online, purely to nosy inside and see how the other half lives. This hobby or pastime if you can call it that started with looking at houses comparable to my own in size and location and now I like looking at the dream houses, the houses in different areas and the more unique properties. I know I’m not the only one who likes a good nosy on Rightmove!
My Pinterest boards also reflect the interior projects and designs I would enjoy if I owned one of the dream houses on my mental list (fairly modest ones) as well as those which I aim to do here at some point.
Living in rural-ish Thirsk (Think of James Herriot, the vet and Thirsk Races) we seem to have a fairly high property value compared to some areas. Rents and house prices appear to be at all all-time high and people are buying and selling fairly quickly. We’d always known in the past that if we moved areas that we could potentially get more for our money size and room-wise, although our house is far from shabby. The problem with that is that we don’t want to leave our lovely town and also, moving areas now wouldn’t necessarily offer the property upgrade it once would as the market seems to have evened out in many (but not all) areas.
Living near Harrogate and York, having excellent links with the North East and more Thirsk has always been fairly attractive for businesses and commuters yet retains its rural charm. What we didn’t realise but do now is that as expensive we feel our property prices are, they are nowhere near as high as some UK much sought after areas!
Realistically it depends on what you are looking for as PropertyRescue.co.uk state that the average (England and Wales) property prices stands at approximately £184,682. That’s ok if you want a two, maybe three bed semi up here (North) but what if you want to live how the other half live? I’m talking gated properties and key locations such as Chelsea or St John’s Wood (if I was to live in London it would be St John’s Wood). Have a look to see what kind of price tag you could expect to pay for a swish pad in or around London for example. If you were to receive change from a million pounds (a million pounds!?) you would be fortunate it seems.
In real terms if I sold a property in one of those areas I could buy straight out four 3-4 bed really quite lovely houses here. That’s a heck of a difference when put side by side. I think for now we’ll put off buying something in Kensington or Westminster as while many would pay the ultimate price for a three bed apartment there I am more than happy enjoying the rural, community feel of our lovely local area in my own three bed yet much cheaper house.
It makes you think though, doesn’t it? The grass may not necessarily be greener on the other side for us however it depends on who you are, what you want and how much you are willing to spend on a property to get exactly what you want. Thankfully we are very content for significantly less and are content to limit ourselves to browsing such properties online.
Would you like to live in one of those homes? Does the price make your eyes bulge like they do mine? I’d love to hear.
