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Shetland: my dream move


bill r
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Shetland is a wonderful place to live. I am from Shetland, my family date back generations. Unfortunately, due to soaring house prices, mainly from people ‘re-locating’ here from the South of England I cannot afford to get property here. There is also nowhere to rent due to people turning their rental properties into holiday lets. As for jobs, they too are limited. The market appears to be saturated. Shetland has a glamorised image. The reality is quite different. It is beautiful. We do have endless daylight in summer but we also have nine-month winters, punctuated with wind and rain. I am currently looking into leaving. This isn’t what I want to do after finishing uni and coming home but I have no other choice and will certainly be leaving my home with a heavy heart. Ordinary Shetlanders are being pushed out with the soaring house prices and lack of jobs. I begrudgingly wish you luck.

 

That's a sad state of affairs to feel like that.

 

We've certainly struggled to find long term rentable accomodation due to holiday lets. But the house prices in general are no worse than anywhere else in the UK, which are terrible, in fact you often get a lot more for your buck due to location and size. And if you look out into the country the prices drop off rapidly below that of other UK areas.

 

As for the work, for a place of only 23k people there are plenty of jobs in the times each week, everything from shop help to professional posts and on the various websites. Again I know cos I'm looking and applying...

 

Be interesting to see how the place would be if everyone from Sooth left (and I don't just mean south of England). Plenty of jobs struggle to get filled due to a skills shortage up here and the re-location aspect actually, so may be you need to look at those gaps and train to fill one?

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In the light of that recent post, I would heartily endorse the need for a recce visit, and also you should contact those Shetlanders who have encouraged you. Thing is, if you get here, and find out that you can't stand it, which does happen, you are a long and expensive journey's distance from the mainland. Like 14 hours by sea, not always apleasant sail, or an extremely expensive flight

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For a short visit. come by air. its normally a lot cheaper than the boat. Look at the Flybe website. if you can be a little bit flexible and play around with the days and also plan ahead you can get fares from sometimes as little as £30 each way

 

Me thinks is a tad more to Newcastle Airport. The cheapest (with islander discount) I've managed to quote online was £69 months in advance one way.

 

I note Bill is in Northumberland - I've just done Aberdeen to Durham on a super off-peak return and the train fare was £91.20, if that helps at all in giving you an idea of train fares. Otherwise, it can vary from £44 single up to £135 single on the train.

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You can get that price (£30) Sumburgh to Edinburgh but that's the core price only, then you have to add your taxes etc on each way.

 

Depends if speed or money is an issue. With us it's money other wise fly Newcastle, Edinburgh, Sumburgh and hire a car

 

If it's any help we're from just south off teesside. Cheapest non-car way is train to edinburgh, shuttle bus to airport and then fly to sumburgh.

 

But I'm assuming you'll want a car to visit and explore? So it's drive to aberdeen and ferry with car but without a cabin and otur about not forgetting the Bods to stay in.

 

Need to phone the ferry company to book doggies on. Sheep everywhere up here so if your doggies like their lamb it's on the lead all the time :cry: . My poor lurcher never gets the runs she used too...

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^^ Some peeps reckon the kennels on the ferries are okay, I reckon they are in the wrong place (on the noisy car deck). One of my dogs was fine on the journey coming over, the other hated it.

 

Personally, if coming for a visit, I would not bring the dogs.

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In terms of buying property in Shetland it pales in comparison to most areas, i moved to Aberdeen 3 years ago for work and despite a the economic crisis a single bedroom flat in Aberdeen will set you back 80K-100K. A plus point in Shetland is having the option to purchase land and build a house, there is many people de-crofting sections of land looking to sell. My parents did this and still live in Shetland and i head up at every opportunity, it may be worth renting a place for 6 months and deciding what exactly it is you are looking for. this would also give you the chance to job hunt and get a general feel for the place.

 

I am looking for every chance to move back to Shetland... I don't want to live anywhere else, at the moment though i am relatively young but hope to move back within the next 5-10 years and build a house.

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