The process of moving home can be both a scary and stressful time. We spend hours upon hours packing up our most beloved items in to cardboard boxes, blissfully unaware of what the future holds in our new residency. But when we finally arrive at our newest abode, we begin to get excited at the prospect of a new chapter in our lives. We leave the past in the past and start our new lives in our new home. Intrigued to understand our motivations for moving home, The House Shop conducted a YouGov survey of over 2000 Brits to discover the reasons why they upped sticks and relocated to a new area. Here’s what we discovered…
24% of us move home to start a new job – Nearly a quarter of us Brits moved across the country to begin a new career in a new town. 25-34 year olds were the most likely to have moved to a different area for the sake of their career, with 27% saying they had relocated to start a new job.
19% of us move home to be with our partner – They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, but try saying that to 1 in 5 Brits who have made the move to be with their other half. Women appear to be more mobile than men in the hunt for love, as the results showed 22% of women having relocated to be with a partner, compared to 16% of men.
14% of us move home to be better off financially – Many families have decided to take the plunge and down size to help them save the pennies. 23% of 25-34 year olds said they had moved to a new area to be better off financially, almost double the figures for other age groups, perhaps showing the struggle for this generation to find affordable housing in their local area.
9% of us move to escape a bad neighbour – Love thy neighbour isn’t always the case where you live and so it’s no surprise that nearly 1 in 10 Brits have sold their pads to escape neighbours from hell. This indicates that the stress of neighbour disputes can wreak havoc on our day to day lives to such an extent that we are forced to move home.
5% of us move away from an ex-partner – Break ups can be hard and dealing with the discomfort of seeing your ex around town with a new partner can be really tough. So much so that some of us Brits have moved out of town to get away from our old flames. Its easier being in a new house rather than the doghouse!
The survey results show that people are clearly prepared to pack up their entire lives and take the plunge by moving to a new area if the right motivation is driving their decision. Nick Marr, director of property portal TheHouseShop.com, commented on the positive impact of modern technology in making people more confident about moving to a new area:
“Moving to a new and unfamiliar area may seem like a daunting prospect for most people, but modern technology and the internet have made it easier than ever before to learn about your potential new home without ever having been there. In the past, relocating to a different area was comparable to a blind date, where you had little idea what you could expect on the other end. Now, however, people can easily and quickly find page after page of information on a given area and can even download detailed area guides before making a big move.”
“Plus, with the advent of Skype and similar online communication tools, we no longer need to live round the corner from our friends and family members to maintain a close relationship with them. Allowing us to follow our hearts, minds or wallets to new places without feeling isolated.”
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