London leavers: 'The mortgage on our period home in Exeter costs half that of our old Dalston flat'

When she was a teenager Katie Cross used to sell homemade cakes to augment her pocket money. As an adult her love of baking has propelled her into a new career, in a new city.

She and her husband Edward moved from Dalston to Exeter with their 11-year-old son Charlie — more than halving their mortgage payments in the process.

“We were always very snotty about people who would move out of London and how boring it sounded, and thought we would be in Hackney til we died,” said Katie, 43. “But being in London during the pandemic was just so stifling, and as parents we weren’t really making the most of the city.”

Pre-pandemic Katie, who had moved to the capital in her early 20s to study, was working as a charity fundraiser. Edward, also 43, works in visual effects in the film industry.

The couple had put down roots by buying a three bedroom maisonette in Dalston, paying a monthly mortgage bill of around £2,000.

But even before Covid-19 Katie was thinking of a career change. “I just fell out of love with charity fundraising,” she said. “It is important stuff but pretty repetitive. I had baked since I was a child – my step-grandmother taught us and instilled a love of it, and when I was a teenager I baked cakes to sell in the village hall.”

In January 2019 Katie decided the time had come to quit her job and set up Cake or Death.

With no real business plan she borrowed cooking space from a nearby community centre and began trawling Hackney cafes asking what sort of cakes they might be willing to buy. The answer was a resounding: “Anything vegan”. Katie realised she had found her niche.

Over the next year she began to build up a strong client list and rented her own catering unit. “Then the pandemic started, and all my contracts were immediately cancelled,” she said.

Undeterred Katie switched her business online, designed by-post brownie packs and publicised them on Instagram. Her early customers were family and friends but word spread rapidly. “The whole thing just exploded and suddenly I had an online e-gifting business,” said Katie.

At this point Katie and Edward still considered themselves diehard Londoners, but on a long drive home after visiting Edward’s sister in Cornwall they had a lightbulb moment. “Edward’s job had gone fully remote, I could work from anywhere, and we realised we weren’t tied to London anymore," said Katie.

The couple picked Exeter as their chosen location, because it is close to their respective families and has fast trains to London, and started house hunting.

They rapidly fell in love with a three bedroom, Grade II listed, end of terrace house on a street a few minutes’ walk from the city centre. It was about the same size, possibly a little smaller, than their London flat but had just the sort of period charm that had been totally beyond their means in the capital and was affordable.

Their London flat sold for £720,000 and they paid £495,000 for their new home, which means that even with higher interest rates in the picture their monthly costs are now around £700.

The family moved down in 2021 and have only limited regrets.

Charlie is still cross about being yanked out of London and considers Exeter a very poor replacement, and Katie wishes she’d known how much it costs to maintain an older house: “You have to pay £10,000 a year just to stand still," she said. "I wouldn't buy it again."

Other than that the move has been a resounding success. Katie now has a bakery and shopfront in the city and her journey to work is a ten minute walk. 

Costs notwithstanding the house is everything they dreamed of, the neighbours welcoming, and being able to get out of town and into countryside quickly is a blessing.

The university city has enough buzz not to feel dull, and has a decent music and comedy scene.

“There is a really good arts community and we have met some really cool, arty people, and started to form a really nice community,” said Katie. “It is a really friendly city — which is just so different to London.”