Owning your own home

Bullshit nowhere in England. West side of the Lake District ticks all of your boxes.

On the sea, short drive to amazing mountains, Cockermouth has some culture, as does Keswick. Carlisle and Penrith for more and trains to London or Glasgow.

Oh yeah, you also get a snooker room and a field to keep horses in.

http://m.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/43244371

Under 400k.

Only if you have a ride on mower

+1 on North Wales. The west coast has great beaches with Snowdonia pretty much behind them. Great riding. Access to London is not fast but not terrible on Virgin Trains.

Cultural centre? Er...

I'm in Girona at the moment, it's not on the coast but is lovely and is near the coast, Barcelona to Heathrow is 2 hours, dunno about property prices though.

And apparently it's Christmas all year round too!

in the UK

The only problem with Girona is all the British pro cyclists (Cycling News reckons about 50 upwards). Great quote from Hugh Carthy on why he chose to live in Pamplona instead:

"If you're in a place like Girona and out shopping in the supermarket and your season is not going very well, and then you run into another pro who's having the best year of their lives, then you'll be most likely thinking to yourself: 'Ach, f***ing dick,'"

:)

Sorry that was meant to be in reply to @dammit obviously.

Added bonus.

The virgin trains to Shrewsbury are okay, but the arriva trains to the coast from there are regularly delayed or break down in my experience. Definitely not cultural unless you count all the pubs in Aberystwyth

west coast of Cumbria.

Beaten to it. I grew up there, if you're serious I can tell more.

Luckily I am not -and the risk I would say is low of becoming - a pro cyclist. The old town is lovely.

It depends on whether or not you consider the Costa del Sol to be in the UK or not, in a post-Brexit world.

In which case, the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada would give you all you wanted, plus good weather.

Thanks @BleakRefs @Greenbank @Hefty @ChasnotRobert @mashton @Fox @dst and begrudgingly @Dammit and @TW with your forrin talk.

Never been to a lot of the places suggested so I've added them to my road-trip map this summer.

I've been thinking Scotland - I love it - I can even bear the Scots. I love Edinburgh so somewhere in the vicinity is a possibility though Monrose sounds lovely.

Wales is another thought I've been having - probably south wales rather than north for access to the Gower/sewin rivers etc. Also access to Cardiff/Bristol for work.

Another issue is factoring in whether to move my business or "open an additional office" and whether that would be best placed in Bristol or Edinburgh. Also schools (have a 4 month old so will want other, sane, children nearby)/grandparents (cornwall/winchester/bedford) access etc.

I'm sure there's a sweet spot somewhere and I'm not sure Brighton is 'forever' anymore.

Road-trip it is.

ownership of leasehold isn't anywhere near as free and easy as ownership in freehold is.

With leasehold all you have to do is get your wallet out. At least you don't have to deal with builders and tendering. But you do have to deal with the nagging feeling of being ripped off.

I imagine this gets pretty wild when the block is privately owned managed - I've only ever deal with HAs and LAs who have their own curious ways of working.

Rather than doing an RA I'd try to buy the freehold - but then you are entering a whole new world of pain especially if the development is large.

Is it normal to do your own stamp duty tax return? I was under the impression the solicitors normally handled that part (money and any other paperwork) but have had a quote back saying it's an additional £75 if we need help with that.

It was that cost for us, we paid as by then we were used to shelling out more for every little thing.

Any recommendations for a firm in southwest London to outsource a flat revamp to basically looking at

1. Patch some plaster and make good
   
2. Skim coat throughout and prep for paint
   
3. New flooring
   
4. New kitchen
   
5. New bathroom
   
6. Incidental electricals
   
   

Recommendations gratefully received

Luckily I am not -and the risk I would say is low of becoming - a pro cyclist

Well I didn't want to say that...

I am also not a pro cyclist so would like to go there.

It's ok, I have come to terms with not being Spanish, and therefore not getting significantly better at cycling (with no drugs!) as I get older.

Has anyone had a buildings survey done by a firm they'd recommend and who included estimates for the cost of putting things right? Seems like a pretty powerful bargaining tool but not everyone does it.

We had quotes from one surveyor (in Bristol) but they were useless for bargaining - had to get quotes from relevant trades (in this case roofers and plumbers) so wouldn't go out of your way for a different surveyors

What can you borrow as a multiple of joint salaries these days? Looked at a place we liked this morning but need about 4X to make it work.

Also, I'm in a 5-yr fix with Bank of Ireland until October 2018. I suspect they're going to sting me to moe early? Any Janice that they'd waive that if I took new mortgage with them, do you think?