The smart towns and affluent villages that make up Cheshire’s footballer belt are home to soccer royalty, from Wayne and Coleen Rooney to Marcus Rashford and Raheem Stirling.
This golden triangle of real estate set just south of Manchester is also home to a less well-known name: Luke McDowell.
Luke relocated from north London to the town of Poynton, where he has been able to get on to the property ladder for a fraction of what he was paying to rent a studio flat in the capital.
“They know it is cheaper here, but when I told my friends in London that I was buying a flat here for £175,000 they were shellshocked,” said Luke.
Luke, who was brought up in Cheshire, moved down to London to pursue a media career.
He started off working as an assistant producer at ITV, and then moved into public relations.
By 2018 he was paying £1,200 pcm for a tiny studio near Finsbury Park, and getting increasingly fed up.
"I was constantly feeling I had no money and couldn’t go out and do anything.”
“It was really cold, the year of the Beast from the East, and my commute was a nightmare,” said Luke.
“My train only had two carriages, and I’d sometimes have to let five trains go by before I could get on. Almost all my money was going on rent, and although I love London it just wasn’t sustainable for me," he adds.
"I was constantly feeling I had no money and couldn’t go out and do anything.”
After taking the plunge Luke initially freelanced before landing a job with one of Manchester’s biggest social media and PR firms, Tangerine, in 2019.
This allowed him to start flat hunting, and he opted for a home in Poynton, a 20 minute train ride from the centre of Manchester.
He used the now-defunct Help to Buy scheme to buy a one bedroom flat in a newly converted commercial building, in 2019 and now feels he has the best of both worlds.
"I can get into Manchester easily and if I’m going to London it takes an hour and a half."
“There is a lot of green belt countryside around here, and there are wine bars and restaurants in the village. I can get into Manchester easily and if I’m going to London it takes an hour and a half from Wilmslow.”
Because he was brought up locally Luke already had a network of family and friends in the area.
“I never knew my neighbours in London, but there are a lot of single young professionals living here and I’ve made some really good friends just by living here,” he said.
Four years after buying his flat the relative affordability of Cheshire means that Luke is even starting to consider upsizing.
“I’m thinking about an actual house, with a garden, which would never be a thing in London,” he said.
He does, of course, miss his London friends, as well as the city’s culture (and in particular the V&A), but has found more than enough to keep him busy in Manchester.
And, with mortgage payments totalling £400pcm, he finally has enough disposable income to make the most of its bars and restaurants.
“I am a big shopper and I was really worried about the shopping here, but actually we have got two Selfridges, not just one,” he said.
