Aberdonian considering move to Devon
Discussion
Hi PHers,
Anyone from down Devon way or know it fairly well?
I'm a young guy still at home with parents and up in Aberdeen. Everything is expensive so I can't afford to move out despite being paid pretty much the UK average. If I got a flat, I could not afford to live. No chance of council house by the way!
From my research so far it seems the south west of England around Devon is pretty expensive?
Flat price in Aberdeen is around 100k for a one bed room. 1 bed room Devon is possible at around 70k.
How is the cost of living etc?
The reason I ask is that it looks likely I'll be offered a job. It's a junior sales job so driving around the region (how are the roads/traffic?) and the pay is £25000-£30,000 plus potential 10k bonus max a year and a company car.
Money aside, anyone been in a similar situation? Devon is right at the bottom as opposed to near the top of the UK like Aberdeen so ages away from home/mates etc. I'd probably have a crap social life but I'm hoping the sacrifice will be worth it in the end and I can move on to better things sales wise. I can't get a job in the particular field closer to home and I've been looking for years now and don't want to be stuck in a dead end job as I am now.
Anyone from down Devon way or know it fairly well?
I'm a young guy still at home with parents and up in Aberdeen. Everything is expensive so I can't afford to move out despite being paid pretty much the UK average. If I got a flat, I could not afford to live. No chance of council house by the way!
From my research so far it seems the south west of England around Devon is pretty expensive?
Flat price in Aberdeen is around 100k for a one bed room. 1 bed room Devon is possible at around 70k.
How is the cost of living etc?
The reason I ask is that it looks likely I'll be offered a job. It's a junior sales job so driving around the region (how are the roads/traffic?) and the pay is £25000-£30,000 plus potential 10k bonus max a year and a company car.
Money aside, anyone been in a similar situation? Devon is right at the bottom as opposed to near the top of the UK like Aberdeen so ages away from home/mates etc. I'd probably have a crap social life but I'm hoping the sacrifice will be worth it in the end and I can move on to better things sales wise. I can't get a job in the particular field closer to home and I've been looking for years now and don't want to be stuck in a dead end job as I am now.
babo456 said:
Hi PHers,
Anyone from down Devon way or know it fairly well?
I'm a young guy still at home with parents and up in Aberdeen. Everything is expensive so I can't afford to move out despite being paid pretty much the UK average. If I got a flat, I could not afford to live. No chance of council house by the way!
From my research so far it seems the south west of England around Devon is pretty expensive?
Flat price in Aberdeen is around 100k for a one bed room. 1 bed room Devon is possible at around 70k.
How is the cost of living etc?
The reason I ask is that it looks likely I'll be offered a job. It's a junior sales job so driving around the region (how are the roads/traffic?) and the pay is £25000-£30,000 plus potential 10k bonus max a year and a company car.
Money aside, anyone been in a similar situation? Devon is right at the bottom as opposed to near the top of the UK like Aberdeen so ages away from home/mates etc. I'd probably have a crap social life but I'm hoping the sacrifice will be worth it in the end and I can move on to better things sales wise. I can't get a job in the particular field closer to home and I've been looking for years now and don't want to be stuck in a dead end job as I am now.
Seems a somewhat odd thought process to be young and go and live in some serious backwater. However nice Devon is absolutely no sane person can admit that moving there isn't going to pretty much halt your life's potential before you've even started. Anyone from down Devon way or know it fairly well?
I'm a young guy still at home with parents and up in Aberdeen. Everything is expensive so I can't afford to move out despite being paid pretty much the UK average. If I got a flat, I could not afford to live. No chance of council house by the way!
From my research so far it seems the south west of England around Devon is pretty expensive?
Flat price in Aberdeen is around 100k for a one bed room. 1 bed room Devon is possible at around 70k.
How is the cost of living etc?
The reason I ask is that it looks likely I'll be offered a job. It's a junior sales job so driving around the region (how are the roads/traffic?) and the pay is £25000-£30,000 plus potential 10k bonus max a year and a company car.
Money aside, anyone been in a similar situation? Devon is right at the bottom as opposed to near the top of the UK like Aberdeen so ages away from home/mates etc. I'd probably have a crap social life but I'm hoping the sacrifice will be worth it in the end and I can move on to better things sales wise. I can't get a job in the particular field closer to home and I've been looking for years now and don't want to be stuck in a dead end job as I am now.
Why not leave the UK? That's what most young blokes seeking a better quality of life have always done.
Aberdeen is a pointless place to live if you're not going to tap into the oil revenue for a living
I live on the Devon border but I work in Devon. Roads are good, some excellent. Some stunning coastline and quite a big difference between North Devon (on the Bristol Channel) and South Devon on the English Channel.
M5 and then A38 and A39 are the major roads in the area, along with the link road from M5 J27 to Barnstaple. All of these roads can become hideously busy in the summer months, and it's not uncommon for the M5 to be solid right up to Avonmouth.
Devon is a nice place, but it's very expensive to but a property. Many people there don't earn much money so affordability is among the worst in the country.
What Devon s though is small and rather beautiful. Exeter is a nice city, then there's Dartmoor and all sorts of coastal loveliness. It does get full f holidaymakers, but equally a lot are passing through to Cornwall.
London s about 2:30 from Exeter by train, so not too bad. In all this is a nice part of the world. We have great pasties and cider.
M5 and then A38 and A39 are the major roads in the area, along with the link road from M5 J27 to Barnstaple. All of these roads can become hideously busy in the summer months, and it's not uncommon for the M5 to be solid right up to Avonmouth.
Devon is a nice place, but it's very expensive to but a property. Many people there don't earn much money so affordability is among the worst in the country.
What Devon s though is small and rather beautiful. Exeter is a nice city, then there's Dartmoor and all sorts of coastal loveliness. It does get full f holidaymakers, but equally a lot are passing through to Cornwall.
London s about 2:30 from Exeter by train, so not too bad. In all this is a nice part of the world. We have great pasties and cider.
DonkeyApple said:
Seems a somewhat odd thought process to be young and go and live in some serious backwater. However nice Devon is absolutely no sane person can admit that moving there isn't going to pretty much halt your life's potential before you've even started.
Why not leave the UK? That's what most young blokes seeking a better quality of life have always done.
Aberdeen is a pointless place to live if you're not going to tap into the oil revenue for a living
I take it it's full or old people and holiday makers in summer! I know, it seems drastic but there are not much jobs going in the specialism I want to work in. I don't have a degree so unsure what I'd do abroad! Why not leave the UK? That's what most young blokes seeking a better quality of life have always done.
Aberdeen is a pointless place to live if you're not going to tap into the oil revenue for a living
Aberdeen really is a pointless place to live if your not in oil, it does grudge me that probably most people in the city are not earning stupid money (including some oil workers) but yet everyone wants a slice of that oil cash because we all earn £60,000 a year!...
I'm hoping it would be a quickish steping stone up the ladder in sales (medical) but perhaps Devon is too drastic?
I'm just so fed up here. It really is depressing, I don't want to be living at home at 30! Although I have a few years to go.
Thanks for food for thought so far.
babo456 said:
I take it it's full or old people and holiday makers in summer! I know, it seems drastic but there are not much jobs going in the specialism I want to work in. I don't have a degree so unsure what I'd do abroad!
Aberdeen really is a pointless place to live if your not in oil, it does grudge me that probably most people in the city are not earning stupid money (including some oil workers) but yet everyone wants a slice of that oil cash because we all earn £60,000 a year!...
I'm hoping it would be a quickish steping stone up the ladder in sales (medical) but perhaps Devon is too drastic?
I'm just so fed up here. It really is depressing, I don't want to be living at home at 30! Although I have a few years to go.
Thanks for food for thought so far.
Devon is a wonderful place but just not somewhere a young person would go to find their way in life as opportunities are limited. Aberdeen really is a pointless place to live if your not in oil, it does grudge me that probably most people in the city are not earning stupid money (including some oil workers) but yet everyone wants a slice of that oil cash because we all earn £60,000 a year!...
I'm hoping it would be a quickish steping stone up the ladder in sales (medical) but perhaps Devon is too drastic?
I'm just so fed up here. It really is depressing, I don't want to be living at home at 30! Although I have a few years to go.
Thanks for food for thought so far.
I'm not sure how old you are butbive leaped at the assumption that you are in your twenties, hence the bigger off abroad angle.
No point in necessarily coming to London as its a larger version of Aberdeen although it is notably more diverse. But the one thing I've learnt on looking back is that if you are good at selling one thing then you are good at selling anything but the key lies in liking the underlying subject. And also don't go thinking you have to stay in a sector in your 20s as it is rather important to find what you love and where you love foremost.
Aberdeen is a genuinely miserable town to not be rich in so I completely understand the desire for change but don't let your current career necessarily define your move.
I still think buggering off abroad is one of the most positive things you can do when young and fed up. Even if its just six months in a kibbutz etc. it is amazing how much clarity you can find when you spend 182 days in the sun, picking lemons for some miserable old f
ker. 
Oddly enough I was in a pub in Exeter on Saturday evening with the wife of an Aberdeen rig worker (he was on the rig!). Having re-read that I should probably point out that my wife was there too as they were old friends.
I'll agree with what a lot of people have said - Devon is not really the land of opportunity for younger people, although Exeter and Plymouth cities are fairly lively due to their student populations. It is largely a rural county (like Somerset and Cornwall) and so big industry and the money it tends to bring is not prevalent (not that there isn't big money in agriculture, assuming you're one of the big farming families
). However it isn't as cheap as you think.
A reasonable 1 bed flat will be £90k in Plymouth in a reasonable area, similar in Exeter, and in either place you can double or treble that figure for an upmarket seafront type development. In some of the less desirable areas you can get cheaper, but you'd spend the difference buying new wheels for your car every couple of months.
If you're a travelling salesman, the roads are similar to Scotland in that they're quite sparsely separated and fine out of tourist season, but you get used to them and avoid them as best you can. You also get to point and laugh at the miles of queues heading into Devon if you decide to go elsewhere on a Bank Hol weekend (and again on your way home on Monday afternoon). At least most of the main ones down here are dual carr, unlike the A9, A90, A82, etc.
Like Aberdeen, everywhere is further away than you think. Consider that Plymouth - Bristol can take 2.5 - 3 hours to drive at the wrong time of day. People get to Bristol and think they're in the Southwest, rather like getting to Edinburgh and thinking they're in the middle of Scotland. However you should be used to that.
Renting rooms down here is pretty easy - loads around for well under £400/month and that is for large room with en-suite and all bills. I rent a couple of rooms out in Plymouth to visiting PhD students and researchers for £200 (single) and £300 (double) per month when the car is due a service (which it is soon - I must finish the painting this weekend
)
If you need to get back, flights from Exeter to Aberdeen and Inverness are daily from around £70 each way.
The best bit about Devon is it is far enough away from London to keep a relaxed feel, the disadvantage is that it is so far away from everything else. And you will save a fortune on jumpers
Paul
I'll agree with what a lot of people have said - Devon is not really the land of opportunity for younger people, although Exeter and Plymouth cities are fairly lively due to their student populations. It is largely a rural county (like Somerset and Cornwall) and so big industry and the money it tends to bring is not prevalent (not that there isn't big money in agriculture, assuming you're one of the big farming families
). However it isn't as cheap as you think.A reasonable 1 bed flat will be £90k in Plymouth in a reasonable area, similar in Exeter, and in either place you can double or treble that figure for an upmarket seafront type development. In some of the less desirable areas you can get cheaper, but you'd spend the difference buying new wheels for your car every couple of months.
If you're a travelling salesman, the roads are similar to Scotland in that they're quite sparsely separated and fine out of tourist season, but you get used to them and avoid them as best you can. You also get to point and laugh at the miles of queues heading into Devon if you decide to go elsewhere on a Bank Hol weekend (and again on your way home on Monday afternoon). At least most of the main ones down here are dual carr, unlike the A9, A90, A82, etc.
Like Aberdeen, everywhere is further away than you think. Consider that Plymouth - Bristol can take 2.5 - 3 hours to drive at the wrong time of day. People get to Bristol and think they're in the Southwest, rather like getting to Edinburgh and thinking they're in the middle of Scotland. However you should be used to that.
Renting rooms down here is pretty easy - loads around for well under £400/month and that is for large room with en-suite and all bills. I rent a couple of rooms out in Plymouth to visiting PhD students and researchers for £200 (single) and £300 (double) per month when the car is due a service (which it is soon - I must finish the painting this weekend
)If you need to get back, flights from Exeter to Aberdeen and Inverness are daily from around £70 each way.
The best bit about Devon is it is far enough away from London to keep a relaxed feel, the disadvantage is that it is so far away from everything else. And you will save a fortune on jumpers
Paul
Troubleatmill said:
Scottish equity and English house prices do not mix. ( Assuming you have some to begin with )
Eh? Did you read his post?His whole point is that he's in Aberdeen, where the average house price is over £200k. He reckons a 1 bed flat is £100k here, but that's only if you want to live in the s
tiest of areas - i.e. ex council.1 bed flat in a nice area = £165k+
It's a bit s
t really.Mcbeth said:
It's Australia where you need to go, you just mightn't know it!
Not now. It's about to fall off a cliff economically and a country that is already more racist than France is going to get pretty grim. Besides, Australia has always been the place Brita run to when they have given up. America is a better bit tougher place the head.
rovermorris999 said:
At your age I'd be looking at Canada.
Sadly they are dacing the same problem as the Aussies. A huge economic boom built on the back of Chinese demand for resources that has been coming to an end since late 2012. Add to that the collapse of shale oil. At least the canadians wont go all National Front when looking for someone to blame for thier silly credit card bills. Plus, they have a neighbour of substance. And a Scot will be more welcome there than in Aus.
DonkeyApple said:
Sadly they are dacing the same problem as the Aussies. A huge economic boom built on the back of Chinese demand for resources that has been coming to an end since late 2012. Add to that the collapse of shale oil.
At least the canadians wont go all National Front when looking for someone to blame for thier silly credit card bills. Plus, they have a neighbour of substance. And a Scot will be more welcome there than in Aus.
I think long term Canada will be fine. A big and beautiful country with few people, loads of natural resources and the world's biggest economy next door. The low oil price won't last. The great thing about shale is how quickly wells can be be brought on stream.At least the canadians wont go all National Front when looking for someone to blame for thier silly credit card bills. Plus, they have a neighbour of substance. And a Scot will be more welcome there than in Aus.
rovermorris999 said:
DonkeyApple said:
Sadly they are dacing the same problem as the Aussies. A huge economic boom built on the back of Chinese demand for resources that has been coming to an end since late 2012. Add to that the collapse of shale oil.
At least the canadians wont go all National Front when looking for someone to blame for thier silly credit card bills. Plus, they have a neighbour of substance. And a Scot will be more welcome there than in Aus.
I think long term Canada will be fine. A big and beautiful country with few people, loads of natural resources and the world's biggest economy next door. The low oil price won't last. The great thing about shale is how quickly wells can be be brought on stream.At least the canadians wont go all National Front when looking for someone to blame for thier silly credit card bills. Plus, they have a neighbour of substance. And a Scot will be more welcome there than in Aus.
If you've already got a job opportunity on the table then that clears up the biggest issue with Devon.
I love it myself and couldn't class it as any more or less of a backwater than Aberdeen. There's a lot more to see and do within a lesser distance.
There are countless wonderful nooks and crannies and loads of other spots that aren't too far away. London and West Wales are within a 3 or so hour drive. Bristol/ Cardiff/ Land's End would be no more than two.
North/ Mid Devon is where the cheapest properties often are but that's for a reason. They have a real end of the line feel to them. Lots of cheap stuff in Torquay but getting out of it can be a bh. Plymouth is that much further west that it would put a dampener on any spontaneous trips further up country.
Exeter is best placed for accessibility and there's a bit of life to it. Not as much as I would expect but it's out there.
I love it myself and couldn't class it as any more or less of a backwater than Aberdeen. There's a lot more to see and do within a lesser distance.
There are countless wonderful nooks and crannies and loads of other spots that aren't too far away. London and West Wales are within a 3 or so hour drive. Bristol/ Cardiff/ Land's End would be no more than two.
North/ Mid Devon is where the cheapest properties often are but that's for a reason. They have a real end of the line feel to them. Lots of cheap stuff in Torquay but getting out of it can be a b
h. Plymouth is that much further west that it would put a dampener on any spontaneous trips further up country.Exeter is best placed for accessibility and there's a bit of life to it. Not as much as I would expect but it's out there.
Interesting thread
I work in sales in Devon. Its brilliant, relaxed people, little traffic jams, close to beaches..
But........
Slow people (particularly behind the wheel) - I find the most frustrating thing is people driving at 30mph in a 60mph zone and nowhere to overtake. I drive 40k miles a year. In the summer it takes twice as long to get anywhere.
My only reservation for you, in your 20's, is that there are very few sales jobs that pay over your 30k current offer in this area. You will find it difficult to move on from that role and earn more money.
I left here at 18, gained my experience in Manchester, London, Northants etc and then moved back home to Devon once I could secure a good job due to experience - however I know I am stuck in this role now as there are few places to jump to.
My advice would be, move to Bristol, take the Southwest patch job (its great) - enjoy the city for a few years, find-yourself!, and then make some decisions.
In Bristol, you have the chance to work elsewhere in the Midlands or M4 corridor. At your age that's what i'd recommend.
I work in sales in Devon. Its brilliant, relaxed people, little traffic jams, close to beaches..
But........
Slow people (particularly behind the wheel) - I find the most frustrating thing is people driving at 30mph in a 60mph zone and nowhere to overtake. I drive 40k miles a year. In the summer it takes twice as long to get anywhere.
My only reservation for you, in your 20's, is that there are very few sales jobs that pay over your 30k current offer in this area. You will find it difficult to move on from that role and earn more money.
I left here at 18, gained my experience in Manchester, London, Northants etc and then moved back home to Devon once I could secure a good job due to experience - however I know I am stuck in this role now as there are few places to jump to.
My advice would be, move to Bristol, take the Southwest patch job (its great) - enjoy the city for a few years, find-yourself!, and then make some decisions.
In Bristol, you have the chance to work elsewhere in the Midlands or M4 corridor. At your age that's what i'd recommend.
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