Where to live in the UK?

Other than the city of London, are there any other cities that can be recommended? My fiance and I were thinking or renting for 6 months and then buying a 2 bedroom flat.

Although I would like to live in London or near it, I don't think it will be affordable for us. So we are looking into other areas such as Hertfordshire, Bedforshire, Essex, East Anglia, and Kent. Does anyone here live in any one of these counties and if so what do you think of it?

We are in Cambridgeshire (which is East Anglia) with lots of friends in Bedfordshire. I'd reccomend them as lovely places to live. But I guess it depends what you are looking for in a place to live. Where we are is just close enough to London to enjoy it when you want to and far enough away you can forget about it the rest of the time LOL

I'd also give Kent a long hard look. We love taking weekends in Kent. The whole reigon is just lovely.

Rosie

Hertfordshire(at least the bits I looked at) is expensive, I actully work there but live in Bedforshire as  my rents cheaping being slightly further from London.   Bedfordshire, specifly Leighton Buzzard,  is quite nice and afordable, although perosanly I'd be a bit closer to the West Midlands  but only because I'm from there,

We live in South Bucks. Not too far off the map from some of the areas you're considering. It's expensive, but certainly not as bad as London. Easy commute to London, lots of lovely villages, nice people and low crime. Not really enough countryside for me - I'd prefer to be a bit further out - but for practicality it's a happy medium between city and country for now....

To second AnneG's comment, I live in Berkshire (just next to South Bucks) and there are some lovely areas to live here, some affordable, some not so affordable.  I have to admit that I live in Windsor and love it TO DEATH!!  THe transport links to London are great with rail links to waterloo and paddington, also to oxford, reading and the southwest through the slough link.  There is an excellent bus service to heathrow (great for picking up the rellies) and it is very green and generally lovely.  It does come at a price though...

Slough is also a good bet.  It is a very diverse city with LOADS of regeneration on the way.  It would be a good place to buy as property prices will increase with all of the associated investment.

I wouldn't recommend Slough as a place to live unless you want to get seriously depressed though! I think that might be a bit too much of a culture shock for people coming from a clean and green place like Sweden.

We currently live in Tonbridge, Kent which is quite lovely but somewhat expensive since it's a decent commute from London and with a mainline railway.  Tunbridge Wells is a bit nicer but a lot more expensive.  I do like Kent a lot but we're in the midst of finding a home in Devon which is really nice but not close to London.