Yeah, I'm also in Edinburgh. I honestly don't see the London appeal these days. There are a few cheap northern cities with solid tech scenes, little competition and cheap cost of living. Edinburgh's the best one, but I've heard tons of great stuff about Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham. Even accounting for salary (and those have been going up in Edinburgh recently) you're still better off due to cost of living. Plus green space!

What a coincidence. I'm currently in London but have been given permission to relocate to Edinburgh if I wanted (keeping London salary).

It's really tempting. The thought of being a hour or so's drive from wilderness is very appealing. My main concern is being stuck up there if things really go to shit. That and the poorer weather!

One thing I would recommend if you do consider moving to Edinburgh is moving to a place just outside of Edinburgh that is on a rail line. After living the centre of Edinburgh for ~30 years we moved across to a rural location in Fife and it's the best of both worlds - getting into Edinburgh by train is easy and actually quite a pleasant journey (the Forth Bridge!) and you are a good bit closer to the Highlands (where I go most weekends).

Out of curiousity, how long is the commute and how much less would you the cost of living is? 25%?

Roughly the sliding scale is that 250k buys you:

- a garage in London

- a small flat in central Edinburgh

- a medium sized house in Edinburgh outskirts

- a large house in Edinburgh commuter belt

- a mansion if you're prepared to drive more than an hour

- or a small island in the middle of nowhere

My commute is about 50 mins door to door - 10 min drive, 30 on train and 10 minute walk. Mind you even pre-coronavirus I was only going into the office 2 or 3 days a week, working from home the rest of the time. The train trip is actually quite nice as you go along the coast then across the Forth Bridge.

Property is much cheaper in Fife than a comparable property in Edinburgh. We got a nice 5 bedroom house in a rural area with a large garden and fantastic views for about a third less than a 4 bedroom flat in Edinburgh.

Even without driving there's so much green space up here. And the weather isn't that bad. The east coast from Edinburgh to Dundee is in this weird spot in Scotland that gets significantly less rain than most other areas. It's just a bit colder.