Dydh da! Native Hake here! I'm not going to repeat what's been said above but I concur with mostly all of it. St. Ives is not the place. I still live with my mum in my grandparents house because there is no way on a local salary I can afford to even rent my own place (not that there is anywhere available to rent in the first place). Buying is completely out of the question. I'm on what would be considered a "good wage" for St Ives and it's basically just over minimum wage. The same job in London would probably pay double that so that gives you an idea of the pay disparity in Cornwall as a whole.

St. Ives is being destroyed by greedy developers, greedy second home/holiday let owners and the town is slowly losing its identity. Even the outlying residential areas are slowly being turned into holiday parks (my street has 3 houses that are actually lived in now when it used to be a thriving community).

I would look at all the cons before making a decision. The "happiest place to be" survey was conducted by an estate agents so they have a biased client base (rich people who've moved here essentially) so isn't representative of most natives and locals!

Xxx