{"id":32882,"date":"2026-05-10T11:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/32882\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T11:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:10:09","slug":"i-was-evicted-from-my-london-home-i-moved-to-scotland-and-bought-a-five-bed-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/32882\/","title":{"rendered":"I was evicted from my London home. I moved to Scotland and bought a five-bed house"},"content":{"rendered":"

When writer Kestral Gaian, 40, was evicted<\/a> from their Walthamstow home as the landlord wanted to sell up<\/a>, the plan was to find another rental property in the capital.<\/p>\n

Gaian and their friend had been paying \u00a32,800 a month for a three-bed terrace house and had hoped to find a similar alternative. But it wasn\u2019t long before they were priced out of the London rental bidding wars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking right on the outskirts. And just in the time that we lived in Walthamstow, rent had gone up so much that on the next street over there was a one-bed flat where the rent was the same that we were paying for that three-bed house.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became really clear that we just couldn\u2019t afford to stay living in London.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair toyed with the idea of buying a flat in Zone 6 \u2013 further away from the centre of London, Walthamstow is Zone 3 \u2013 but even with their combined savings, they could not afford it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we looked at Scotland where we\u2019d been to visit a bunch of times. We had friends that lived up here, so it wasn\u2019t a complete unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The duo managed to buy outright a five-bedroom property in Ayr, a town on Scotland\u2019s south-west coast. The property is located next to a river, has a \u201cnice garden\u201d and is a short distance from the sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically for half of the deposit for a flat in Zone 6 in London, we\u2019ve got an entire house,\u201d Gaian said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe space we now have to be able to live and also the things we now get to do, it has expanded our lives considerably.\u201d<\/p>\n

Average house prices stood at \u00a3293,000 in England, compared with \u00a3193,000 in Scotland, in the 12 months to November 2025, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).<\/p>\n

Better quality food and NHS care<\/p>\n

The lower cost of living also means Gaian is able to afford better quality groceries, and the arts are more accessible too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were paying about \u00a3150 to \u00a3200 a week for a food shop and we\u2019re still paying that now, but the quality of what we get is so much higher. We\u2019re able to go to a local fishmonger who gives us fresh fish caught that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get beef that\u2019s been raised on hills that we can drive past in five minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Gaian said they have been the target of a hate crime in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought living in London would mean living in the most tolerant and accepting place as an LGBTQ+ person and that really didn\u2019t end up being the case,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cScotland really had a lot going for it and seemed ultimately more progressive than many parts of England,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

Improved NHS care has also been a bonus.<\/p>\n

Despite living on the same road as their GP surgery, Gaian said they found it hard to see a doctor, and \u201cconstantly had issues with getting repeat prescriptions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNHS Scotland is much better and more affordable,\u201d they said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to pay for prescriptions up here, which is an incredible thing in itself. Access to dental care is easier up here and cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data from the ONS shows net migration from England to other UK nations is higher than it has been for two decades.<\/p>\n

Last year 58,000 people relocated to Scotland and 65,000 moved to Wales.<\/p>\n

Amanda Burnside, 56, and her husband, Niall, who is originally from Scotland, relocated to Argyll and Bute in 2024. Niall took voluntary redundancy in 2023 and Amanda left her career in education.<\/p>\n

\"AmandaAmanda Burnside and her husband Niall relocated from Sussex to Argyll and Bute in Scotland in 2024 (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n

They swapped a four-bedroom grade II listed cottage on a quarter-of-an-acre plot in Sussex for a five-bed with land. The nine acres is big enough for dogs, ducks, chickens and goats. And they are now mortgage-free.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could never have afforded that in Sussex,\u201d Amanda said. \u201cWe were just priced out of finding something with land.\u201d <\/p>\n

Familial ties to Scotland and the desire for a wholesale lifestyle change were the main driving forces for the move, with Amanda falling in love with her husband\u2019s homeland over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a family that loves the outdoors and being out in nature,\u201d Amanda said. \u201cAlthough we lived in a beautiful part of Sussex, it had become very busy \u2013 queuing everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas I think the appeal of being up in Scotland is we can be quite rural. It\u2019s just not as populated in the area that we\u2019re in, it\u2019s much more laid back, it\u2019s a much slower pace of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AmandaThe Burnside\u2019s Scottish home has enough land for animals, including goats (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n

However relocating meant leaving their three adult children behind in England \u2013 or so they thought. Their youngest moved with them and now attends the University of Glasgow, while their middle child is set to make the move soon. <\/p>\n

The Burnsides\u2019s children, who grew up kayaking, hiking and white water rafting, can now do all those things from their parents\u2019 front door in Scotland.<\/p>\n

As well as the benefits of the great outdoors, Amanda has noticed money goes further in Scotland, finding dental care, property, hairdressers and pints cheaper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of a pint, I mean that\u2019s what really amazed us. The cost of a pint in our local back in Sussex, was just under \u00a38 and here it\u2019s around \u00a35.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When writer Kestral Gaian, 40, was evicted from their Walthamstow home as the landlord wanted to sell up,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[154,6688,27,5350,1143],"class_list":{"0":"post-32882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-housing","9":"tag-housing-crisis","10":"tag-london","11":"tag-london-property","12":"tag-scotland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116549977705116282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}