Moving to London - Where to Live?

Hi All-

Learning a lot reading everything on here...thanks for all the advice!

I recently accepted a job in London (south side of Hyde Park) and am trying to figure out good places to look into living. My wife and I will be moving in late August and we will be having a baby in late November, so we're looking for a 2 bedroom place in an area good for a young family. If possible we'd like to keep our budget under £1500 per month, inclusive of council tax and a season ticket for myself. If utilities can be squeezed into that I would be very, very happy! As for commuting, I'd like to keep it under 45 min to gloucester road or south kensington stations (or somewhere near there). I'm ok with the tube, overground, biking, etc. If the average commute stretched to an hour but is worth the extra 15 min each way, I'm ok with that.

Also, I'm currently planning on flying out in mid July to look for a place. Is this about the right timing for finding a place that can start mid August to early Sept?

That's going to be hard...  I don't even know where to tell you to start.  Can you stretch your budget?  Something is going to have to be compromised on, either the budget, the size of the property, or the commute time...  Sorry to not be more positive. 

I highly doubt you can find something like that for so little money. I suggest you look for a one bedroom.

Unfortunately, I don't think that budget will be realistic for what you're looking for.

The average rent for a one bedroom flat in London is now approximately £1200, not inclusive of council tax or any other utilities.

To keep to £1500 and under per month, you will likely have to compromise on something.  Conversely, you'll have to increase how much you are willing to spend.  London is stupidly expensive.

I live in zone 3 and my rent (one bed flat) + council tax + travel card for myself = approx £1350 per month.  The commute to central London is about 1.5 hours each way.

I'm going to have to agree with the other posters here-- Finding a 2 bed flat in a nice safe, family-friendly area with council tax and your travelcard included for under £1500 pcm could prove difficult.  Including utilities in this would be closer to impossible.

Somewhere on the District/Piccadilly lines would suit you, so areas of west London like Ealing (Zone 3) and Chiswick (Zone 2) are quite family-friendly, given the number of prams (strollers) I used to see being pushed around there, but a quick search on Zoopla shows only a few 2 bed properties under £1250/month.  Rents do tend to get cheaper the further out you get, and the difference in cost for a monthly travelcard from zone 3 vs. zone 2 is a minimal £20/month more (Z1-2=£120, whereas Z1-3=£140 and Z1-4=£170).  The commute from Chiswick/Ealing would probably be 45 mins door-to-door, depending obviously on your journey to/from station.

I'm not familiar with areas further afield from here, but they could be worth looking into if you're more flexible with commute time than cost.  It might also be worthwhile to start out in a shorter-term 1 bed place until you can get a feel for the different areas, and use this as a base. If your wife won't be working during her time in the UK, perhaps she could arrange viewings and get a feel for the market (I've never been 6 months pregnant, so am not sure how feasible this is...)

My partner and I were looking to move from West London to North London, to be closer to my job/share the burden of commuting.  At the time, our jobs were just over 2.5 hours away from each other, and we were pretty restricted with respect to budget and search area, which was dictated by transportation links. We held out, and searched for over a year to find a place that fit our requirements, and finally did. (Unlucky for me I then changed jobs...).  My point is that maybe by renting a place in the shorter term will give you both more time on the ground to find something that will suit your needs.

Hmmm...didn't think it would be that dire for the budget. As an example, it seems like there are a bit of a selection for 2 bed options in a place like St. Albans for around £1000-1100pcm (judging by rightmove and zoopla), plus around £150pcm in council tax, and then £350pcm for a season pass. This would hit at £1500-1600 and doesn't include utilities, but since St Albans is suppose to be a nicer area I was thinking there may be other options for a bit less.

Does this calculation seem off? The commute from there looks like its around 40ish minutes from St. Albans to Gloucester Road Station, which could leave 20 minutes of time to get to/from a station. I currently bike about 8 miles in the US to work, so I'd estimate I could do 2-4 miles by bike in 20 minutes depending on the roads taken for the commute.

I think most of us assumed you would want to live on a tube line. If you are willing to live as far out as St Albans, then yes, you will find something. But I would guess your commute is going to be hard going.

St. Albans is lovely... my only word of advice is the train service (FCC) to London is pretty horrible, so be prepared for a commute that's do-able, but probably not exceptionally pleasant.

Whew! I thought I was missing something there for a minute! Now that its clear that trains are on the table, are there any suggestions? A small list I've cobbled together from variety of websites has locations such as St Albans, Amersham (travel to Marylebone then bike through Hyde Park looks like about 60min total - would prefer to bike on other end of the commute, though), South Woodford, Woking, and Sutton. I've only been to South Kensington to interview, so I really don't know much about the different places, especially when it comes to which commute is more tolerable.

I'll probably have 1.5-2 weeks at the most to try and find a place in July when I visit, so I hope to have only a couple locations to check out since I won't have a ton of time.

It's really going to be half again that time, maybe twice that. FCC trains to St. Albans are NEVER on time.

We're on the outskirts of Croydon, which is very well linked with public transport and we have a 3 bedroom house for your budget, council tax inclusive, with some change. My husband commutes in and it takes about an hour -- but any time he has to take FCC, even just a few stops, it puts at LEAST 30 minutes onto the commute.

Can't comment on commutes from Woking but, if you are thinking of living that far out, I would recommend Weybridge or Walton on Thames (one and two train stops near to London) for a nicer environment.