Where should we live (near London)?

Hi - My wife is British, but hasn't lived in the UK in 10 years, and at that time she was single. We now have 2 kids and our priorities are different.

Where would you recommend we look to for a family-friendly town that meets the following criteria:

1. Home prices (semi-detached, not a flat) around £200K or maybe a bit more

2. Not horrible schools (primary, our kids are 2 and 5)

3. Within about 40 minutes commute to London (for jobs)

4. Within about 40 minutes from Stevenage (Herts, where my in laws live)

We have been researching places online like Pinner, Stanmore and Harrow, but home prices there look just out of our reach (especially with no job yet!)

Thanks everyone!

I was going to say that most places in North/NW London would meet 3 out the 4 of your criteria.  But you are really going to struggle to find a semi-detached house for around £200K. 

I know when we were looking for places, Borehamwood was a bit cheaper and so was a small area called Park Street.  You may be able to find a terraced 3-bed for around £300K.

I wouldn't particularly want to live in Borehamwood.  I don't think it's a very nice place.

Places like Barnet, Winchmore Hill, New Southgate are good geographically but you are looking at £280k or more.  I really can't think of anywhere nice where you can get a 3 bedroom semi for £200k.

Vicky

If you want a home for that price, you're going to have to go further out.  For instance, you can get a semi-detached 3 bed in my husband's hometown for £150k, but it's a 40-50minute commute - and over £1000/yr in a annual rail ticket.  Try towns further out from London near your radius of Stevenage.  I did a quick search and found places in Luton (not that you want to live there - uck) and Leighton Buzzard (my hubby's hometown, so we're familiar with it).

Anything under £200k will be outside the London travelcard zones & therefore more expensive for commuting...

Try websites like rightmove.co.uk or findaproperty.com to explore housing prices.  A map helps too!

Sorry...I was going to edit and say that I have no idea how the schools are in Borehamwood and that it's not as nice as Pinner, Stanmore etc.  But again it seems to fit 3 of the criteria.  I think unfortunately, to get anywhere near your budget, you are going to compromise on either location or "atmosphere".

Shenley is another area that I think is a bit more affordable.  It isn't a bad little area, but I find it a tad remote.  I am not sure how long it would take you to commute into town, as I don't think it has it's own train station, so may be less convenient.

Good luck.

I second Victoria's suggestions of Barnet and Southgate as nice spots, although I too think you might have trouble finding a home around that price in these places; you might have to put your price expectation higher.

I also tend to recommend the places I have lived but I can't personally vouch for prices as I have not been in the market or looking. Chingford (London E4) Woodford (also still coming under London authority, and then moving on further out to Loughton which is postally Essex but in still in Zone 6 -- these are all on what would be the north-eastern "corner" of London as you look at it on a map. They are pretty much areas that provide a 40 minute commute into the centre of London, I know that for certain, and yet I think they are in reach of getting over to Herts in much the same time too although that's a guess.

Again though, these areas seem to be more up around the 250,000 mark and upward depending on where you look. Loughton and Chingford have a range of different housing from modest/cheap to pretty fancy and even wealthy, so there's a lot to look into.

Good suggestions -- thanks all.

I should have added terraced home would be acceptable too. Our budget might go up to £230-240K depending on if we can get a mortgage for 15% down and what kind of job(s) we get.

£1000 per year for commuting costs to London doesn't sound too bad to me -- about £4 per day, right? The commute time is more important than cost at this point. Who knows, I might end up witha job in Hertfordshire. So many unknowns right now...

Do you have to buy right away?  I would seriously suggest waiting until after you move, live here a while and then think about buying - that way you get to know the areas better, know where you are working and will have some credit...it's going to be tough to get a mortgage right now as many people who have lived here for years have found.

Oh yes, we're just planning ahead. We can't buy until:

a) One or both of us find a job
b) We get past the 3 month probabtionary period at said job

So we will rent for 6 months at least.

The trick:

Our daughter will start school in the Fall, so in order to avoid having to switch her to a different school, wherever we rent will have to be in the same catchment area we intend to buy.

So basically we have about 6 weeks from our arrival (in Mid May) to decide where to rent/buy.

It sounds crazy, but making a 5-year-old child transition to a new school after already transitioning to a new country/school system is simply something we have to avoid at all costs.

Hi,

I know nothing about schools, but we live really close to Hitchin, which is nice, and there's a fast train that goes into London in about 30 minutes.  The only down side is it's also really close to Stevenage, so you might be too close to the in laws.

In fact, while I think Stevenage itself is awful, there are a lot of nice little towns and villages around it.

good luck,
Carl

I would still wait to look around and spending time here before making such a lasting decision.  Can you move over, live in a temporary accomodation (or with inlaws?) and spend weekend exploring various areas?  I would think you'd need to live here at least one year before you'll have enough credit to really get a mortgage, so that also gives you time to look around...and a better idea as to whether the area is truly a good one for you all.  Kids are amazingly flexible (I know as I work in an international school with kids moving every 1, 2 or 4 years in some cases), so it might not be the worst thing if you have to change where you live if it doesn't work out for most reasons.  Best of luck!