Live outside London and have a new job in the Capital City? A good reason to move home! Living in London and moving job location – from South London to North, or perhaps East to West? The new office location may add so much travel time by car or public transport, or introduce the inconvenience of multiple bus/ tube/ train switchovers that it’s suddenly worth moving.
Sure, you can move closer to your new job, lets just put everything into perspective first. If you travel an extra hour each way, each day, that’s 20 extra days of travelling a year! Love where you live: because of friends, shops you love, parks you enjoy, neighbours who are friendly and kind? Moving for convenience won’t make you happy if you leave all that behind and how long will you take to build all this again in a new location?
Will you be able to work from home or other locations in the future? As work becomes more mobile it’s worth checking with your HR department and managers about the possibility of you working from home for some of the week… even one day at home can mean you don’t mind that extra journey.
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Will life become work and no play? Moving closer to work gives you the temptation to stay there longer – it’s a psychological trick that’s very effective. Do you want to spend longer at work? If you have less to do because you have moved away from people you know and places you liked hanging out in, will you work longer hours, work more when you get home or go into the office at weekends?
How long will you be in this location? Companies move more often in London than anywhere else because office letting prices change dramatically with supply and demand and companies merge or diversify and spread out to new sights. Witness Financial companies leaving the city for Canary Wharf or the West End. Media companies moving from Soho to Clerkenwell and Hoxton, or large office headquarters moving from one industrial park to another for better rent terms. It may just be that you think you will move on from the firm in a few years rather than a few decades – jobs are much more fluid and less certain than a decade ago.
Moving home and then moving again in less than 5 years because office location can wipe out a huge amount of savings in Stamp Duty, moving costs, legal fees and new decoration and furnishings.
If in doubt… stay put, experience 6 months in the new job location then think about moving. If still in doubt, rent your home for 6-12 months, rent in the new neighbourhood and see if you truly are happy switching. This sounds like more hassle than it’s worth – but real hassle is realising you just gave up a home in an area you love for a property in an area you find ‘convenient.’