by When the sun is shining, Elizabeth Berman enjoys the view of the Camel River estuary from her infinity pool deck, or swims in the sparkling Celtic Sea.
When the wind howls in the chimney, she curls up in front of the open fire, re-reading Daphne du Maurier’s classic Cornish novel, Jamaica Inn, by G&T.
It sounds idealistic, but this isn’t the story of her retirement – it’s what she’s leaving behind to retire to a London hospital.
After living year-round at her family home, Treverra Farm, near Rock in north Cornwall for 14 years, why would she leave all this behind, to go back to London with retire at age 63?
Berman is one of the latest recruits to the “boomerang brigade” of people who return to cities in their later years, instead of spending their final years in rural or coastal locations, the traditional choice for retirees.
“There’s a dawning realization that you’re going through the motions of life the wrong way,” she says.
The number of people retiring to cities is increasing. Recent research by conveyancing solicitors Bird & Co, using data from the 2021 census, found that Central London was the second most popular place to retire in England and Wales after Medway in Kent, with a 15-year increase in the population over 65 years of age in the county. ten years between 2011 and 2021.
The same research found that Cornwall was the third least popular place for retirees, after the Isle of Wight and Rutland, seeing a 9pc drop in over-65s between 2011 and 2021.
Robin Thomas, of Recoco Property Search, says: “It’s all well and good moving down to Cornwall in the thirties or forties, but then two things happen. Those small children of five, six, seven, eight or nine become teenagers who don’t want to be there anymore, and people who are 60 years old have elderly parents.”
Life changes have a huge impact, says Berman: “Logically, there are things that don’t really work. A rock is a beautiful place, but I don’t play golf, [my husband] Charlie doesn’t have any red trousers, I don’t have a dog.
“I’m probably quite an urban person – I went to university in Manchester – and my two children are now in London. I won’t be here when I’m 90 years old.”
Perceptions of isolation also change as people age.
“Where we are is very beautiful, but it’s at the end of a farm run,” says Berman. “There is very little public transport. Health care is distributed. My son recently got an infection in his leg and the ‘local’ hospital in Truro was an hour and 15 minutes away by car.”
For Berman, quality of life is part of the appeal of moving back to London. As she moves out of Cornwall, she will leave behind the responsibility of looking after a large house, and reconnected with old pleasures, such as browsing antiques in Marylebone and Fulham.
And while she will miss the “peace and space” of north Cornwall, she is ready to welcome “the things you can’t do in the country, like Deliveroo or taxi apps and Uber”.
She wants to be near her mother, who lives in Sandwich, Kent, six hours’ drive from Rock. Charlie, 66, who runs a fintech start-up, wouldn’t want to retire permanently to Cornwall. There are also his children – George, 31, who works in film production, and Fred, 28, a video editor, who both live in London.
“Just being around to have dinner with them or being around if needed when they’re tired, broke or just had a bad day,” she says.
Almost all of Elizabeth’s friends are also in London, so being close to them is another main motivation behind this retirement relocation: “I’m also looking forward to the variety and quality of food shops and restaurants as well as art galleries, the ballet , I love – I am a Friend of the Royal Ballet, the theater and the museums.”
And, she admits, “the hairdresser, very shallow, I know, but I never stopped traveling to London to do my hair”.
However, she is a little alarmed at how much everyday life in London has changed since she left: “I notice that the traffic is terrible now, much worse since the cycle lanes and the new limits. When I am there, I always notice the noise and that you are more frenetic. More doing, less being and always exhausting, but I’m a very relaxed person so I can live with that.”
Still, Berman says, “there’s never a day when I’m not in awe of how beautiful it is. If it hadn’t been so beautiful here, we would have left earlier”.
The couple bought Treverra Farm and its 13-acre estate 24 years ago for around £1.25m. After eight years, they converted the original farmhouse into a three/four bedroom holiday cottage and built their own new five bedroom traditional style home.
There is also a one-room garden studio, converted from a stone barn. It is now on the market with Knight Frank for £7.5m.
For ten years, while their sons were at school, the family enjoyed their Cornish retreat as a holiday home, keeping their main residence in London. Then as the boys grew older, Berman decided to live here permanently, with Charlie spending the work week in their “broom chest sized” flat off Sloane Square.
The couple has not yet decided how much of the capital they will use to buy their new home, and they have not set a budget.
“I’m thinking about renting to try out different areas of London,” says Berman. “The first thing we do next should be our last home, so we want to make sure we get it right.”
This critical step includes good public transport, good local food shops, nearby green space, “ideally nice pubs”, and enough full-time residents in the area to provide a strong and safe sense of community.
“Crime is getting worse [in London] too,” she says. “You can’t leave anything in a car near our flat without breaking the window.”
With a background in travel and public relations, including running a chalet business in Switzerland, Berman founded a vacation letting firm, CK Rock, to manage two vacation properties at Treverra, and an additional home, Shalmar Hollow, on behalf of a neighbor. The business will be discontinued by retiring to London.
“I plan to spend more time going on vacations than organizing them,” she says. Being close to London airports and being able to take the Eurostar to Paris from Kings Cross is a big advantage of the move, she says.
However, big gatherings around the dining table, birthdays, two family friend anniversaries and “lots of fun over the years” will make it hard to leave Treverra Farm.
“One of my fondest memories is when we first bought the house,” she recalls. “We were living in Chelsea at the time. The day after we arrived, George was seven years old, and he said to me, ‘Mommy, is it okay if I go out the front door by myself?’
“He was an urban kid to say the least. We had this garden, so obviously it could, but it really struck me that it was so important for the kids to be able to come here and have this freedom of space.”
She loves the end of summer, when the tourists leave and you can hear the sound of the waves on the beach again.
“But many people are deceived. You come on a wonderful holiday, and imagine you live here permanently, walking on the sandy shore in a designer jumper.”
The reality is that life goes on, and the bad weather: “This winter has been really tough, the rain was like a screensaver outside my window.”
