The north-south divide becomes all the more apparent when you compare house prices in London and Manchester. Although the average price of a property has soared all across the UK in recent years, the difference between how far your money can go between the cities is still staggering.
For house hunters who want to live in amongst the hustle and bustle, Manchester city centre most often proves to be the much more affordable option, with many southern renters and homeowners having now upped sticks to the north.
After living in London for a decade, Becky Colley, 37, who is originally from Oldham, returned to her hometown and ended up buying her dream loft apartment in the city centre. Becky spoke to us as part of our Where I Live series, where each week we hear from a different homeowner to find about their home buying journey, the costs involved and have a peek inside their home.
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After being born and raised in Greater Manchester, Becky moved to London after university with her now ex-partner to pursue a career in TV.
Becky and her then-partner bought their first home together in the capital, but after splitting up, Becky rented for several years and found herself moving into a different flat 'near enough' every year.
It was in 2020 when the pandemic hit that Becky decided to go back home to live at her parents' house in Oldham, which was initially supposed to be for a short stay.
"I moved down to London and lived there for 10 years. Even when me and my ex partner separated, I just absolutely loved it there so I ended up staying," Becky, who works as a designer, told the Manchester Evening News.
"Then, during the pandemic, I became concerned that we were going to be shut down region by region to prevent people from travelling. So I decided on a bit of a whim to go back to my parents in Oldham and just stay there for a week or so and see what happened.
"But then we ended up going into lockdown and I got stuck there for three months. I literally had one pair of jogging bottoms and a pair of jeans, so not very much with me at all.
"I ended up having a really nice time and it just planted a seed about potentially moving back up north. When I was in London I’d always miss Manchester so I was never against coming home, and it just felt like the right time."
After her ex partner bought her out of their home in London, Becky was in good stead to start looking for a place of her own in Manchester.
Despite having a £49,000 deposit, Becky says that 'wouldn't have gone far' in the capital, especially as a solo homeowner with a single income.
"My ex partner had bought me out so I had a fairly good deposit. In London it wouldn’t have gone very far at all, but in Manchester it allowed me to look for something a lot better for the same price, which was one of the big temptations with moving back up north," she said.
Becky had her heart set on living in the city centre but says she was open to different areas.
“I’ve always loved being in the thick of everything and I love having everything on my doorstep," she said.
"I looked in the Northern Quarter, Ancoats and Castlefield. I just wanted everything to be within walking distance and easily connected to train stations.
"I only ended up viewing two properties - the first one was in the Northern Quarter and that was the one that I really thought was going to be the one that I'd go for.
"But when I went to view it with my sister, as soon as we both walked in we were just like, 'no, it's not the feel that we thought it was going to have.'"
Becky was going to cancel the viewing for the next apartment, until her sister persuaded her to go and take a look.
"As soon as we walked in, we just locked eyes and was like 'this is it'. They say you know when you know and I definitely knew with this one," Becky said.
It was a two-bed duplex loft apartment in a Grade II listed 1800s building near to Manchester's thriving Gay Village.
"A big thing that attracted me to it was the history. I was absolutely dead set on having some kind of warehouse conversion or something that resembled Manchester's heritage. I didn’t want a new build I wanted something with lots of character," said Becky.
"The building is Grade II listed and it has loads of original features too. The apartment itself has exposed brick and cast iron columns throughout and in the basement where you go and put the bins out, there are some old tracks from some old horse and cart.
“It was also really big, about half the size bigger than most apartments that were on the market at the time, with really big high ceilings, so that was another feature that attracted me to it."
Immediately after viewing the apartment Becky put an offer in, but it didn't go to plan at first.
“It was on the market for £235,000 and I initially offered £220,000, but the buyers said no," Becky said.
"When I went back to negotiate, they then said that they were taking it off the market and that they were going to sell it to a friend.
"I was a bit disappointed but at the same time I had a feeling that it was going to come back on the market, and then about two weeks later, they got in touch and said that the friend has been made redundant and asked me if I'd like to make another offer.
"I ended up buying it for £230,000 as that was the absolute minimum that they were willing to go down to. At the time that felt very reasonable and a good value."
At the end of November 2020 Becky got the keys to her new apartment and began her DIY journey to making it her own.
"A big part of me wanting to own somewhere was the thought of being able to make it completely my own. The apartment was in a completely liveable condition but at the same time a few things were a bit dated and weren't to my taste," explained Becky.
"I was so excited to get started. The first thing I did was rip all the wallpaper off so that I could make it a clean slate and work out what I wanted to do with it.
“I've slowly been renovating bit by bit ever since and I've done pretty much all of it myself. My dad has taught me a lot along the way, he gave me a drill and taught me how to use it and all those things. I’ve always had the mindset to try it myself first and if that doesn't work out that's when you go to get someone else to help you."
Becky has made her apartment her own by adding pops of colour and injecting her personality into it.
"I’ve always liked vintage things and I'm really drawn to using lots of colours. I work in design so that's just a natural part of who I am and I like my space to be inspiring," said Becky.
"I've got loads of trinkets and prints all around, I'm really into Disney Pixar and Lego so I've got loads of toys that are used as ornaments, there's books everywhere because I love reading and all my furniture is pretty much vintage because I love a good rummage in a charity shop.
"I've tried to create a nice balance between vintage and modern. I'm aware it's not to everybody's taste, for some people my home is probably their worst nightmare, but it's just everything that I love. Home to me is the place where you can be yourself."
Becky added: "I think the apartment just has a really nice character and vibe to it. Even though I overlook Canal Street, it's quieter than you would think. I just really appreciate being able to live here and have all these amazing things on my doorstep."
Taking us through the layout of her home, Becky said: "It’s an upside-down layout with the main bedroom downstairs . As you walk in the main door and to the immediate left there is the spare bedroom or home office, however you want to use it, then the next door on the left is the bathroom.
"Then you go through a door at the end of the corridor and to the left is the open plan living space that's got mezzanine level as well, which is not quite full height but I've got a spare bed up there as well."
Becky has been with her partner Tim for 18 months and the couple have plans to buy a house together in the near future.
“We've kind of got a loose plan that if at all possible financially we would both like to keep the properties that we own now and rent them out and then we can buy somewhere else together. If that's not possible, then obviously, we'll sell them and we will use that money to buy just the one property between us, that's kind of the long term goal," Becky said.
"At the moment it's actually quite nice to have the balance between spending time at mine in the city centre and spending time at his house out in the suburbs as well. It’s nice to have that mix.
"We want to spend this year getting the tram to random places that we've not been to and see what it's like being there. I've got friends that live in Didsbury and we love it there so we’d like to find somewhere with that kind of vibe, but I’m not sure how affordable it is for us.
"Anywhere that’s got a nice little kind of village vibe and a high street would be really lovely, but for now I'm just really happy living in this apartment."
You can see more of Becky's home on her Instagram account @mymanchome.
Want to get involved in Where I Live? If you are interested in featuring in our weekly series, please email your name and details to phoebe.jobling@reachplc.com.
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