Last year, Alex Cheung swapped living in a 1930s semi-detached four-bedroom house in Cross Gates, Leeds for a two-bedroom, new build flat in Hayes, London.
“I was born in Hong Kong so living in a bigger city has been embedded in me since childhood,” the 50-year-old says.
“I would have moved to London at an earlier stage, but I couldn’t afford it when I was younger and I didn’t want to live in a box room. I can now afford a spacious two-bedroom, top floor flat, so this move was about affordability, lifestyle and my career,” he adds.
In Leeds, Cheung, who works as a senior community and engagement lead in the NHS, lived with his parents, and part of the catalyst for the move was their decision to return to Hong Kong, where he financially supports them.
“In Asian and Chinese culture, you often have to look after your parents and support them financially in old age, as part of paying back for what they did for you as a son or daughter,” he says.
With his parents abroad, Cheung would have been living in the house on his own, something he couldn’t justify because of the amount he was spending on bills and maintenance.
“The property in Leeds needed loads of things doing to it. That was part of the consideration with moving to a new build and also energy efficiency,” he says.
“There were constantly things to do in the house and, in general, I was paying £3,000-4,000 a year on this,” he says.
“The boiler needed changing, the garden needed doing and, because it was built in the 1930s, a lot of the electrics and gas safety wasn’t compliant anymore. Building costs are going up. What was £2,000, five years ago, is now £10,000,” he says.
Cheung says he didn’t learn how to do maintenance himself and doesn’t find it easy learning from YouTube videos. Along with maintenance costs, his gas and electricity bills in the house came to £160 a month and his council tax bill was around £150. The 50-year-old had lived in the property for eight years and paid off the mortgage.
In June 2025, he sold the Leeds house, which was freehold, for £290,000 and bought a leasehold flat in Barratt London’s Hayes Village for £445,000, taking out a £180,000 interest-only mortgage, for which he pays around £700 a month.
“Financially, I know London prices are down at the moment, but I think it will be a good choice in the long term. Property in London is always a good investment, and I would do it again without hesitation,” he says.
His new property comes with a service charge of around £200 a month, £2,300 a year, which is spent on cleaning the communal areas, maintaining the communal garden and a security system.
There haven’t been any major maintenance costs – even though Cheung is the third person to live in the new build property.
“The maintenance is a lot lower. I’ve been here a year and only had to do a bit of redecorating; in the house, I’d have to be constantly painting the inside and out and doing the garden too,” he says.
The bills are also lower and his electricity and gas come to £80 a month, half of what he was paying in Leeds, while the council tax is similar.
“There is a massive difference in bills. I made the right choice – especially with the cost of living,” he adds.
Cheung, a keen traveller, walker and countryside enthusiast, has no regrets about swapping suburban living for city dwelling.
“Most people say: ‘You are moving to a concrete jungle’, but it’s still very green. We are near [Heathrow] Airport and next to the Grand Union canal, and you can get out of London easily. On Fridays, all my colleagues know that I am coming into the office with my weekender and flying back into London on a Monday, so living so close to the airport is great.”
He enjoys walking around the city and has walked from Hayes to Paddington and onto Canary Wharf before.
“The open views of Heathrow Airport from my balcony have given me countless hours of entertainment, which is absolutely invaluable, not to mention I can see Windsor Castle in the far distance,” he says.
There are some things Cheung misses about his old home.
“The other day I thought it would be nice to have a fireplace in the winter because of the smell,” he says.
He feels like moving to London later in life has its advantages: “I would recommend this move to other people. The difference between moving to London when you are younger, and now, when you are stable, is massive. I can afford now to make the most of it.”
Plus, he says, his new flat pretty much looks after itself: “I don’t need to get my hands dirty.”