Weymouth. Water. Hilly enough for me now. Good music scene, close enough to Bournemouth and Bristol for ‘culture’and London is an close enough weekend destination. I love it.
Other than that Tarifa in southern Spain. For similar reasons.
I'd spend £30k of the fund travelling the world for a year to decide where.
But from my previous travels, maybe a place in Liguria and another in Dunkeld (or somewhere cheaper nearby).
Croatia..... Half the budget on this place.... 45 minutes from Zagreb, an hour to the coast. This area is a truly stunning part of the world....
https://www.njuskalo.hr/nekretnine/jedinstvena-kuca-rijeku-mreznicu-oglas-27071135
The other half maybe on a mountain/ski cottage in Bosnia.
Job done
I'd return to Southern Germany. Get a nice place on the Swabian Alb. Caving and climbing on the doorstep, An hour to the Alps, Stuttgart and Munich just down the hill. Long hot dry summers and cold winters with plenty of snow. And great people when you get to know them/speak the local dialect. I have been searching for a property for years but the logistics of buying on my budget at a distance is tough. £500K would get anything you want.
Okay here's my advice from experience:
Before embarking on anything DO carry out an honest appraisal of your mental fitness in the face of stress. Then look at the distance to GP, pharmacy and hospital and think carefully about your physical fitness in future years.
Do NOT rush into any hasty decisions just because you don't like where you live and want to escape.
Do NOT allow your spouse and the architect to browbeat you into a big house.
DO NOT do all of this during a major pandemic.
DO come to the area you fancy, rent a house for two weeks in February and move around meeting neighbours and asking questions. If you can survive that you should be okay to buy the plot.
DO find out if there's a village news rag or Watsapp community, join in, watch and learn.
That's my advice.
I live just outside Keswick, Zoopla says my 4 bed semi looking straight at Skiddaw is worth 460k now. I’d live here!
Definitely not ****ing Sunderland that’s for sure.
Can't blame you Matt, even though I sometimes wish I was closer to the North East.
I always say I'd love a decent sized bungalow in NW Scotland on the shore of a sea loch. Sea in front, mountains behind.
In Harrogate in the same house but not sure why I should downsize!!!
I work in & around Harrogate, no way would I live there! I'm a comfortable 9 miles away in Boroughbridge.
Molgrips, I live in Machynlleth, did consider buying that house in Corris the only problem is it's bloody wet up there and it's pretty smokey in winter with all the burners. We're actually moving from Mach to Dyffryn Ardudwy, it's the sea views from the sun room that did it. 😎
I'd stay exactly where we are here in the Pyrenees, but finish our B&B "Project" so that we have our own place to live in and can sustain ourselves.
£500 000 is about 5 000 booking.com nights on average in the sort of places I like so I'll continue to live where I do and rent flats or rooms whenever and wherever I feel like. Which is pretty much what I do already. Last night was in Le chemin vers l'Etoile at 5:26 in this vid. Back home now as we're locked down as of midnight.
Also, I love that someone has seriously suggested Prestatyn.
😀
Buy the flat next to #1 Peebles road.
Get loads of bikes, kayak, decent camera and spend the other 395k on cake and coffee...
Why not?
If you're a scouser who can't be arsed to speak a few words of Welsh it's great!
It's also full of fellow scousers all complaining about the same things....well boss La!!
We can’t think of anywhere in the U.K. with current crazy inflation in these sort of locations.
Seriously?
I'll sell you my house for £400,000 and that'll leave you a bit of pocket money.
Co Kerry. Has everything. Even some rain if you like that kind of thing.
@scotroutes yep, my op was pretty vague
We just got talking, as Cornwal where we live, has gone mental and we are camping in the lakes at the moment and it seems to have gone equally mental.
We were looking at detached 4 bed family (interesting) houses, in awesome locations, where you can walk out the front door and get straight into the action. Seems like these places have gone bananas and you need to be bloody wealthy to live anywhere like that.
Even in the fantasy position of having £500k of debt free money, it seems like it would be bloody hard to find anywhere.
I haven’t looked that hard though!
Outdoor lifestyle
Social life
Access to trails, climbs, peaks etc, from the door
You could get quite a nice place in one of the towns outside Madrid for that - something like this for example (although I'm not 100% a fan of the style...)
https://www.idealista.com/en/inmueble/87872644/
Having been watching the Scottish property market pretty much all year, it's fair to say it does seem to have been pretty ballistic post-lockdown. Anything remotely nice has now sold including building plots that have been for sale for 10-13 years. There's one down the road from us that unless they go seriously off-grid for power it's going to cost £50k to connect because it's on the wrong side of the glen.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-95179226.html
I would buy this and be able to paddle down the beautiful Spey every weekend.
Only the nine bedrooms?
Pfft.
This is a good time to be buying in Grantown on Spey. There are a few nice new shops, cafes etc and when they complete the restored railway line to Aviemore it'll suddenly take off.
Orgiva
Yes please
£500k? There are fairly ordinary houses built in the last couple of decades around here fetching almost that much, my 3-bed semi built in the 1930’s is worth £200k!
There’s a lovely thatched cottage in Biddestone, about five miles away, that was up for sale recently, so I checked out the estate agent’s site - just shy of £1 million.
Not far from where I am now TBH, can get a decent place up Stainland/Greetland way for that money. Loads of doorstep riding and much more a short drive away.
Somewhere in the Bauges Massif
I'd buy a place in France in the southern Alps, either near sisteron or bit further down on the edge of Esparron du Verdon. And probably a place here in Somerset.
Another vote for Slovenia. It's pretty much the perfect country, geographically at least.
New Zealand if they'd have me. I'd probably have to marry one of them.
@halifaxpete - I'm up in Stainland (not in a £500k house though).
Are you sure you want to live up here in the clouds, rain and constant wind?
“This is a good time to be buying in Grantown on Spey. There are a few nice new shops, cafes etc and when they complete the restored railway line to Aviemore it’ll suddenly take off.”
Grantown is nice enough but it’s not so easy to ride straight from your door into the mountains from there as far as I can see. The advantage with Aviemore is you have the wilderness right on your doorstep.
Littleover in Derby it would seem 🤦♂️
Another vote for Kerry, lakes, mountains and good cycling, maybe a place in the Malaga area for a bit of sun and warm weather cycling, maybe El Chorro.
Can’t believe that with a fantasy £500k people are choosing to stay in GB - bit of a lack of imagination there 😉
Those saying New Zealand.
You'll probably need more money:
Lots of places round these parts for that sort of money:
If you want your own electricity and room to rent out: https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/gard-vathultsstrom-gislaveds-kommun-vathultsstrom-1-16773916
or maybe here: https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/gard-0rum-fredshammar-orsa-kommun-bruksallen-20-16254919
Or just buy a shit-load of forest near Åre and build something
Yep, New Zealand costs a lot to get into. You also need to spend a lot of money after you have moved there too. I looked into it but wouldn't have the money to move there.
Our in laws place in southern Corsica was only recently valued at £125k, only two bedrooms but 2nd floor attic could be converted. Live there for 9 months & rent it out over the summer when it's unbearably hot and busy whilst we holiday in UK
£500k? There are fairly ordinary houses built in the last couple of decades around here fetching almost that much
Yep, same where I am. An old caravan park just down the road managed to dodge planning and it is now putting in 80 of those static caravan type 'houses'. The 2 bed ones are starting from £300K with the 3 beds with better views (not just seeing other caravans out of the window) are close to £500k - for a ****ing static caravan!
I'd do what we have recently - move to a nice part of the FoD. We have most of that for well under budget & then use the balance to buy a property abroad (Somewhere along the Ligurian coast).
Right now the second part would be less of a great idea in a global pandemic!
Can’t believe that with a fantasy £500k people are choosing to stay in GB – bit of a lack of imagination there 😉
Ive lived in Havana, Torbole, Tarifa and spent huge amounts of time in North Africa and South America plus travelled a lot of nice places for over a quarter of a century with my job.
I could happily live in most of the Caribbean but really I’d miss England a bit. So Weymouth/Portland for me. And Tarifa a close second.
Can’t believe that with a fantasy £500k people are choosing to stay in GB – bit of a lack of imagination there
Some of us have family and friends!
We’re actually moving from Mach to Dyffryn Ardudwy, it’s the sea views from the sun room that did it.
Good choice. Went up there for a walk recently, the locals were even friendly 😉
Parts of Bulgaria look good too
Grantown is nice enough but it’s not so easy to ride straight from your door into the mountains from there as far as I can see. The advantage with Aviemore is you have the wilderness right on your doorstep.
True, and there's much more going on in and around Aviemore than any of the surrounding towns and villages but that's reflected in house prices. Still I guess that wouldn't be an issue given the OPs suggested budget.
I had this ”problem” a few years back and bought a house in a market town in Northumberland.
Just thinking of doing exactly that, looking in a corridor between the sea and the A1, north ot Newcastle up to about Alnwick.
Here's what £500k'll buy you round my way...
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-73357732.html
19 acres, a 3 bedroom cottage, 2 holiday cottages, 2 reservoirs, a trout fishery and your own bothy.
All set in as much wilderness as you'd want.