Forever home: Nisha, Neil and Bertie outside their house near Guildford, Surrey
(Picture: Nisha Patel)During the first lockdown, many of us had time to take a long, hard look at our lives.
Nisha Patel and her husband Neil Robbins were no exception, and they decided the time had come to put their long-planned move out of the capital into action.
At the start of 2020, the couple were living in a three-bedroom split-level flat in Crystal Palace with their son Bertie, now five.
They loved the area, and the flat, but its lack of a garden made those early long weeks of house arrest tricky.
“Neither of us actually come from London, and we had that idea that you don’t want your child growing up in a city centre,” explained Nisha.
“It is a feeling of having a bit more space and maybe a bit more safety. Our aspiration was for a quieter way of life.”
Before putting their flat on the market they “prevaricated” for a while, doing a bit of redecorating and DIY, and it was not listed until November 2020. They accepted an offer, from a first-time buyer, in May 2021.
Meanwhile, they had been house hunting over a wide area of Hampshire, Sussex and Surrey, but had failed to find anything they really loved.
“Luckily, on the weekend we got the offer, Neil found details of a house in the junk folder of his email. We went to see it, loved it, and made an offer,” said Nisha.
Their three-bedroom house surrounded by heathland is on the edge of the village of Pirbright, near Guildford, Surrey.
Not only is it much more spacious than their London flat but it has a great-sized garden, parking and scope to extend into the loft should they want an extra bedroom.
The couple sold their flat for £440,000. Their new house cost £705,000. “We were OK with that because we do want this to be our last move,” said Nisha.
Work-wise, Neil, 47, is a driving instructor, which means his work is highly flexible. Nisha, 43, is a data analyst. Her offices are in central London, but she is now working partly from home.
The family moved in September and, once he had seen the garden, Bertie’s concerns about “leaving home” evaporated. He is now happily settled at the village school.
Having a 20-minute walk to the local pub, no local shop and the simple reality of living off the beaten track is taking a bit of getting used to for the grown-ups, but Nisha is finding her new community welcoming and is starting to make friends with other school parents.
“We have uprooted our lives to move somewhere we knew very little about,” said Nisha. “I have had to get used to the idea of country roads which feel really unsafe with no lights. I do miss our little corner shop.
“One thing I have learned is that you have to be a little bit more prepared when you live out here.”
