Moving to Manchester-Anyone from there?

Hi,
 My husband and I will be moving to Manchester in September.  I was wondering if anyone on here is from there.  How is living there?  We've been there a few times but only stuck to the city centre area. 

We're looking at apartments but can only afford 350 rent or less.  I've looked up the areas and Manchester seems to have double the theft and burglary of the national average in places, but is it really that bad?  Is a 350 rental place going to be lacking in safety and security?  Is it possible to get a nice place for that amount? 

I am not from Manchester but from a town called Wigan about 25 miles from Manchester.  I do not know much about Manchester either in terms of where to live, but I do know that there are some really bad neighbourhoods and places that you probably dont want to live.

I am sure someone who is more familiar with Manchester can help you out.  The other option is to look on the outskirts of the city.

Good Luck

I am not from Manchester but from a town called Wigan about 25 miles from Manchester.

Wigan!  I've got quite a few in-laws in Wigan.

I'm not in Manchester, jessicabeech, but there are several folks from the area here on the boards....I'm sure one of them will be around soon.  I can tell you, though, that DH and I live in a relatively cheap area of the UK, with fairly high crime stats - Teesside - and we'd have been hard pressed to find anything worth renting for £350pm. Our first flat together was £410pm - given, it was a 2br on the first floor, but it still wasn't in a very desirable area.  I feel much better about leaving the house on my own now that we've moved.

I'll be moving to Manchester also in Sept. to move in with my partner and plan our wedding. Not sure exactly what area yet - but we should know within 2-3 weeks... Am begining to get overwhelmed by the idea of packing and the such! hehehe

Hiya, I live in S Manchester. I love it here except for the weather but that's to be expected!

You do need to be careful, some places in Manchester are really really  bad.  A good resource for checking out areas in Manchester in upmystreet.com  I think it's mostly for buying but it can give you the low down on areas.  I think you can link up to estate agents through that site and most estate agents have a rental section.  I know that when my S/O was living in the US he rented out his 2 bedroom house for 650 GBP and that was cheap (he wanted to make sure it was ALWAYS rented) and that was at least 3 years ago.  You might be able to find cheaper living accommodations because of the high student population here. I know that Andrea is a student @ MMU so she might be able to hook you up w/ a resource that caters to students which  might be more within your budget.
If you have any questions regarding neighborhoods just ask.  I know that you want to avoid some areas.  Manchester is not a cheap place to live but you can find some relatively cheap places if you don't mind a commute.  Good luck.

hey! I'm moving to Manchester too (as Lindy knows;-) (From Michigan, in September)
Lindy knows the area, but here is what I am hearing from my brother who's wife is from the area. (for what it's worth). Basically, they say that there are a lot of great towns on the outskirts of Manchester, and the area they recommended as affordable but safe and very nice is Bury (Northern Manchester).  Great thing about Manchester is the transportation--lots of trains and metros into the center, so living away from the center is not a big deal.

Lindy's right about upmystreet--really really helpful:)

Good luck!

I Live in Failsworth Manchester, on the border with Oldham, I mainly moved here because of the cheap rental when i split up from My ex, I love it here, people are friendly, and i have no probs, just bought my first house here too, again house prices are cheap. There is crime like any other place in Manchester, but it is low level, nothing drastic

I'm another South Manchester resident, been here on and off since 1993, been here permanently since 1999.I freaking love it here, personally, big fan of Chorlton. Love it. Its a suburb of the city with a village feel. Other parts of South Manchester are nice too...

Like Lindyloo said, there are areas to avoid, there are areas with bad reputations but they are actually not as bad as one would think and they are lovely places to live (Whalley Range in particular, not a good reputation (thanks to Morrissey) but its a lovely place to live with nice parks and good schools. I don't  know how much rentals are, but Chorlton, Didsbury, Fallowfield (ignore the triple murder there on Sunday...its a nice area) are all very close to the city centre. Avoid Moss Side and Hulme like the plague. But the other areas I mentioned are nice family-centric places.

There is a lot of crime in the UK, there is a lot more house burglaries than in the states, but if you are smart and take good security precautions (you know, panic room, snipers etc) you will be absolutely fine. Its a fantastic city and a great place to live.

I think one thing about South Manchester that would appeal to people from outside of the area, is that SM is full of students, university staff, and transplants, so its quite easy to be an outsider there, they are used to them. When you go to other areas (for example, gingajoy...Bury) its very insular and there are a great deal of ethnic minority groups which while exciting and diverse, do not go outside of these groups (I base this on the fact that I do recruitment for a major UK company and this is what we find in our Bury location) Bury is also not that close to the city centre, although accessible by Tram...

This is just my opinion..

but if you are smart and take good security precautions (you know, panic room, snipers etc) you will be absolutely fine.

very good to know. i will put the snipers on the "items to ship" list, then

this is great info, precisely what I was looking for.  Huz and I are academics, and so your description of Southern Manchester sounds more appealing to us.  Whoo HOO!