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I agree about care homes. I worked in them but maybe its a compromise worth making?
Maybe one day- but not yet 🙂
There's also the NHS Care at Home service and the hospital in Aviemore now. I guess it just depends how specific your training is and where the roles are available?
As others have said the Aviemore -> Raigmore commute is realisitcally 40-45 mins, mostly on the A9. When my wife did it many years ago she wasn't a fan but we both have a low tolerance for sitting in cars.
For those asking about the schools in Inverness, I've taught in a fair few of the secondaries and they're all pretty good. All the schools have a fairly mixed intake - most people go to their catchment schools and most of the catchments cover a reasonable socioeconomic mix. When we were looking for a place last year, we didn't even think about catchment areas.
OP - you mentioned that you do sailing and SUP. Fort William is great for those things and pretty OK for biking. The Belford almost certainly need nurses.
Just noticed that I could actually rent in Inverness, that would make it easier to sell here and decide where we want to go before buying.
That would be a good call
So what’s a reasonable spread of properties that you could get for, say, £250k?
Very much depends on the location - in some places places it’ll probably stretch to 4 bedrooms on a residential estate but in other more desirable areas, a nice, 1-bedroom flat, particularly in honeypot areas where you’re competing with people buying holiday homes and rentals. The days of picking up a bargain doer-upper with half an acre are probably long gone as the local builders will have been there long before. Prices are generally more compressed top-to-bottom in more rural areas because there are fewer, well-paid jobs. For many people, work is seasonal or a couple of part-time jobs including weekend rental changeovers as you can earn £300+ cash vs 5 days of minimum wage toil.<br />We spent months during lock-down looking at prospective areas, properties to buy and building plots. <br />New builds and restorations aren’t coming through as material prices remain quite high and many rural location suffer an acute shortage of skilled trades - the crew of predominantly Polish builders who built our house have all gone home. It took 6 months to build my house, but the build next door is unfinished after 9 months.
Offers over 250k, forest walks and rides straight from the door and 35 min to Raigmore and walking distance to a bar. Really good trail riding from the door too.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/140701952
If SWMBO didn't work in Edinburgh id be talking to the seller later today.
I’d be trying to minimise school changes. We moved over between terms and initially moved to Aviemore. Luckily I knew where we would end up (waiting on new build) so got the kids enrolled in the nearest schools to the new place. That meant one school move for each of them. Not always easy to do though.
My parents rented in Kingussie when looking to move from Northumberland (moving to be closer to my sister who at the time lived in Wick)
They remarked on having to put on a winter coat in August 😉
Also they where unable to find anything in their budget and ended up on the Black Isle.
Somebody already raised the point about school catchment areas, your kids friends may live some distance away and either never see them or you end up being a taxi for them.
Really good community in Black Isle although Fortrose gets rammed with tourist traffic apparently in the summer
High School in Fortrose is very good I've been told.
Slightly different circumstances but it's been a blessing being that much closer to all the services in Inverness.
Not sure how old your kids are but what opportunities are there for them in Kingussie as they get older (I speak from experience as grew up in a remote part of northumberland and work and travel was a big impact on my early working life)
Weather is generally pretty good where they are, and being 10 mins from Tore Roundabout they where spoilt for choice in terms of places they could get to easily.
Offers over 250k, forest walks and rides straight from the door and 35 min to Raigmore and walking distance to a bar. Really good trail riding from the door too.
Nice but looks pretty small for the price, from a South Wales perspective 🙂
we have toyed with Aviemore area for many years, possibly for holiday use and rental then a move to permanent once retired. It is so expensive compared to central belt, a huge premium as so many of the properties are used for rentals. If you look to wider NE, lots of great looking nice houses for less money, eg :
Desirable properties are going 20% over asking, possibly more. It's gone mad since COVID
2 bed semi rental in Inverness will be circa 900.
Nice but looks pretty small for the price, from a South Wales perspective 🙂
cheap as chips from an edinburgh perspective. Horribly small rooms tho
2 bed semi rental in Inverness will be circa 900.
You would be lucky to get a one bed flat in Edinburgh for that. Saw one the other day for £1100 and it was two rooms plus bathroom. ie a bedroom and an a kitchen/ sitting/ dining room!
property market is just absurd and the regional variations seem unjustifiable. I know - market forces and all that but even so
I'm from Fort William, grew up there and stayed till I was early 20's. I now live about 50 miles north, 15 miles outside Inverness. The difference in the wet weather and amount of midges is absolutely huge! My wife still works in Ft W and commutes there 3 days a week, quite often it's been pouring rain all day in the Fort and has been dry all day as soon as you pass Fort Augustus. Along with cold dark winter nights, you can either embrace it with good bike lights or hibernate!
The trails and bike community in Ft W are great though but I'm happy enough to spend an hour driving down and visit my parents at the same time. FWIW the hospital there struggle with recruitment so healthcare workers would be more than welcome.
The roads and facilities get busier up here in the summer but not enough to make me want to live somewhere with wider roads and even more people.