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Author Topic: cheapest place to live in scotland??  (Read 21269 times)

crosser

  • Joined Apr 2010
cheapest place to live in scotland??
« on: July 06, 2012, 12:34:10 am »
hi folk,  were thinking of selling up here in lincolnshire to a move a bit further north, as we have no restrictions to where we can go but also looking for a nice project home with a couple of acres ...  where can people reccomend and advise where not to go in scotland?  we want to get the most for our money so hopefully try to be near mortgage free..  weve been looking at some great places on the orkney islands but any other suggestions would be great... 

lachlanandmarcus

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2012, 07:57:20 am »
some of the places I have seen advertised on the islands arent as cheap as some on the mainland, bearing in mind the additional costs involved in living on an island.
So I would say mainland, less touristy areas. Eg in Aberdeenshire, the flatter north east of the county plus Moray or Banff & Buchan would be more affordable than round Aberdeen or in the West round Royal Deeside. Cheaper still would be Sutherland but I couldnt cope with  the midgies. Caithness might  be worth considering too.

smudger

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • North Devon/ West Exmoor
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2012, 06:35:35 pm »
And remember wetter and warmer on the west and colder (NORTH SEA!) on the east. They say best weather is around the Moray Firth - all the rains fallen on the highlands.


One thing put me off returning was this whole sealed bid/ closing date thing and it seemed to happen about 2 weeks after details came through and hadn't even viewed the place. You need cash/ finance sorted to buy - different legal system so once accepted your committed. Best to sell up and rent, see if you like it. Take a long holiday and tour, find an area you like. And as LAM says, see if you can bear the midges.


PS also North of Inverness everything is in......Inverness. Its the local town/ hub for miles so bear that in mind.
Traditional and Rare breed livestock -  Golden Guernsey Goats, Blackmoor Flock Shetland and Lleyn Sheep, Pilgrim Geese and Norfolk Black Turkeys. Capallisky Irish Sport Horse Stud.

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2012, 06:43:50 pm »
Also consider what you want to do on your smallholding. The remoter areas are further from ready markets if you are running a business.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2012, 06:54:18 pm »
We have just got home after an abortive attempt to get to Inverness.  We got to Onich just past North Ballachulish and were told there was a three hour tailback to Fort William - which is only a few miles from there.  We turned round and came home (via a lovely walk above Glen Coe)
 
My point is that if you don't know Scotland you will be surprised by the time it takes to travel, the fact that the 'alternative route' may be well over 100 miles extra, and throughout the summer tourist traffic is unbearable in many areas.  Add to that the midgies, high rainfall and LFA status, and beautiful Scotland doesn't seem such a good proposition after all.  It might seem like a good idea to live somewhere really cheap, but hospitals are few and very far between, so if you have health issues you could spend a lot of time on the road. I should add that I absolutely love Scotland and wouldn't live anywhere else, but it might not quite match your expectations.
Have a look at prices south of the Central Belt - the country is still very beautiful but not quite so remote, and there is plenty of good quality land available.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Factotum

  • Joined Jun 2012
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2012, 07:37:03 pm »
Agree about renting - we sold our house in Herts and rented near Elgin for a year before we found our home.

Before that we'd done the trek north to view - one especially memorable trip was to view a farm in Aberdeenshire and we had to view it at very short notice. We, and 3 Boxers, spent an interesting couple of days camping at Aboyne in March - to say it was chilly would be a typical British understatement. The drive there & back was nearly 1200 miles, we made an offer but the owners sold it to someone else.

After that we moved up here & it made the search for a new home so much easier.

Moray is nice - the weather is less extreme than either further west or east. Prices have rocketed recently around here. Not sure about general cost of living cheapness - it costs more to get things sent here by courier, a trip to the nearest nice pub is 10 miles, the nearest supermarket is 12 miles, the nearest city is 40 miles... However the quality of life is wonderful, our village is welcoming and friendly and should we need any help any one of our neighbours would come running. We've found a great place to call home.

Have a look at the Solicitor Property Centres - up here solicitors do the estate agency as well as the legal side.

See:http://www.sspc.co.uk/

There are specific property centres for Highland, Moray and Aberdeen, other areas are available.

Good luck with your search.

Sue

lachlanandmarcus

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2012, 09:00:22 pm »
For Aberdeenshire its aspc
http://www.aspc.co.uk/]
nb we get most stuff without surcharge altho some suppliers do surcharge everything north of Gretna!

Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2012, 09:21:01 pm »
To add - depending on your family circumstances you may want to look at education, for example what the school catchment area is, high school etc etc. If you have to trundle your children to school for a 50 mile round trip, your diesel costs soon add up as does time spent on the road. Also they may have to board at high school, especialy if your on one of the smaller islands.
 
I would also look at Dumfries and Galloway, smaller farms available, lots of rain, but fairly good grazing land.
 
Avoid the central belt if you are after a rural lifestyle.

clydesdaleclopper

  • Joined Aug 2009
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2012, 09:28:08 pm »
One thing to be aware of if you want to grow tree fruit is altitude. Lots of places will struggle to grow good apples etc because they are simply too high up. Wherever you go check out the average climate for that area for the whole year. There is a website somewhere that unfortunately I can't remember the name of where you can check this out to see how many days rain, sun, snow the area gets on average.
Our holding has Anglo Nubian and British Toggenburg goats, Gotland sheep, Franconian Geese, Blue Swedish ducks, a whole load of mongrel hens and two semi-feral children.

smudger

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • North Devon/ West Exmoor
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2012, 12:16:32 am »
Anke, good point about schools. We considered a croft (with planning!) at one point, then realised we would be releasing ourselves from the daily toil of commuting to impose a 50 mile round trip on our child.  I come  from a rural area, so accepting getting on a bus is something you need to do if that's what you want lifestyle wise but to me 10/12 miles is the limit from a decent town, otherwise going anywhere becomes a day trip/expedition.  Of course if child free, different choices.
Traditional and Rare breed livestock -  Golden Guernsey Goats, Blackmoor Flock Shetland and Lleyn Sheep, Pilgrim Geese and Norfolk Black Turkeys. Capallisky Irish Sport Horse Stud.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2012, 12:22:24 am »
One thing to be aware of if you want to grow tree fruit is altitude. Lots of places will struggle to grow good apples etc because they are simply too high up. Wherever you go check out the average climate for that area for the whole year. There is a website somewhere that unfortunately I can't remember the name of where you can check this out to see how many days rain, sun, snow the area gets on average.

I second that - at 1000' we are on the altitude limit for apples - above it really.  One or two varieties grow, and we get a small crop most years, but the trees struggle and tend to get diseases frequently.  Several apple trees have died, and Victoria plums shrivelled up in the first winter  ::)  Pears flower but have only ever given us one or two  small, scarred fruit.   On the other hand golden gage, damson and mirabelles do really well.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

lachlanandmarcus

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #11 on: July 07, 2012, 08:11:38 am »
Anke, good point about schools. We considered a croft (with planning!) at one point, then realised we would be releasing ourselves from the daily toil of commuting to impose a 50 mile round trip on our child.  I come  from a rural area, so accepting getting on a bus is something you need to do if that's what you want lifestyle wise but to me 10/12 miles is the limit from a decent town, otherwise going anywhere becomes a day trip/expedition.  Of course if child free, different choices.

Round here (Upper Deeside Aberdeenshire) altho the kids are scattered around, they only have to walk to the junction of their track with the main road and they get picked up by the school bus, so it works quite well. Theres also the advantage I think up here that theres only one local school and no private schools so only the very committed or those working in Aberdeen take their kids to a private school; 99.9% of the local children are all attending THE local school, so there arent bad and good schools as such.

Scotsdumpy

  • Joined Jul 2012
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2012, 04:00:18 pm »
Hi, we moved up to Aberdeenshire 7 years ago - himself worked continental shifts so could spend time up here looking on his days off. We bought at the peak of the 'smallholding' rush and found the whole experience rather gruelling as properties were flying out of the estate agents as soon as we'd spotted them. We rented a small flat once we'd made the move whilst the house buying process started - we went to a closing date and made an offer on our current property. At this point we didn't know if we were the chosen bidders.
I think these days there just aren't the properties around - most sellers these days inflate the properties by selling the house and land separately.
There is a property on Gumtree today near Fraserburgh for £155,000. It has four acres of land. Fraserburgh has several primary schools and academies (secondary schools).
Good luck with your journey!

Victorian Farmer

  • Guest
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2012, 10:26:19 pm »
we have our own calinder the 31st off October is the start of winter Easter is the last big snow fall .no think happens on sunday .mot job on the car 2 weeks post 3.30 some days not when the wether is bad .time  light till 12 ,pm .town 30 miles away  day out never to much to do .Meet the highlands of Scotland .it is a very nice place and would take time to get used to .

ellied

  • Joined Sep 2010
  • Fife
    • Facebook
Re: cheapest place to live in scotland??
« Reply #14 on: July 08, 2012, 08:37:41 am »
The cheapest places are cheap for a reason - mostly inconvenience or difficulty of some kind.  Remoteness from services and the kind of work market that makes a high mortgage feasible, weather, midges, "less desirable" landscapes such as former industrial workings, mining areas, transport, population for potential markets/social contacts/assistance, and islands in some cases.

If you can cope with heavy rainfall and midges, west coast is stunning - the further north the harder and darker it is but D&G is between Glasgow/Ayr and England so you may find the last hour or so of driving home torturous but once you're out you're closer to things maybe.  I looked seriously into moving to Islay a few years back as it's one of the closer and better connected islands of the Hebrides and a warmer more productive climate than Shetlands/Orkneys.  I didn't make the move at the time for various practical reasons most of which have now changed, so may look again but you'd need to be able to cope with small town/community issues like everyone knowing all your business but you knowing nothing of the history on which all other relationships are interacting ::)

Aberdeenshire can be another good compromise, anything commutable to Aberdeen is expensive because of the oil but it also has good communications and a city centre full of amenities and services, so places slightly off the track can have the best of both worlds - but the further north think of the extra dark hours you'll get in winter and if you're prone to SAD then stay further south for your sanity!

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