Is Milton Keynes a Good Place to Live?

loveandlight

Can anyone tell me where are the good places to live in Milton Keynes with a good secondary school? The area and school must be nice and known for being friendly with a budget of £250k to buy a house.

Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

kazd

Olney is on the outskirts of mk and has a new secondary school just recently opened. Olney is a lovely market town but prices are slightly higher than mk.

We lived in Cranfield and the secondary school would be Wootton which I believe has a good reputation, we left before our children were of secondary school age.

Some lovely places around mk but not sure which would be the relevant school are Loughton, Wavendon, Aspley Guise (very expensive)

Raksha

We live in Bletchley, kids go to Lord Grey, although I would have preferred Shenley Brook End school http://www.sbeschool.org.uk/ which has been awarded mathematics and computing specialist college status. The area around Shenley is mostly fairly new build, so I guess they'd be fairly welcoming of new comers.

Over all, Milton Keynes is a great place to live, I've waited nearly 20 years to live here. Just be warned, when you look at the map, I was told the areas to avoid are the ones near the city centre which are obviously built on a miniature grid system. Ofcourse, there will be pockets within those areas that are nicer, but generally they are known for being the more difficult areas.

HTH

Jemma1986

I've lived in Milton Keynes all my 22 years of life and now work for the local council dealing with the growth of MK expansion areas. To set the scene further, I completed on a four year old 6-bedroomed £250k house in an area called Medbourne (to the west of the city) on Friday... and am now procrastinating to avoid painting!!

Anyway, MK is planned to grow by approx 70,000 houses by 2031 so you need to pick your area carefully as what might look lovely now may turn into a building site in the next few years. The main growth areas are to the East (Broughton Gate - good school catchment - the new Oakhill school) and to the West (near Crownhill and Two Mile Ash... but this isn't being built for a good few years yet). There are also new areas called Oxley Park (good school catchment - the new Hazeley school) and Ashland, both of which are very nice.

If you're not after a new build, then Raksha is right, Shenley Brook end is nice, as is Shenley Church End. Also you have Middleton and Monkston which are nice little estates that are fairly new (early 2000's) and close enough to the M1 without being able to hear it!! Personally, I would avoid areas such as Fishermead, Netherfield, Conniburrow and Beanhill as although there are some nice pockets in them, generally they are seen as some of the most deprived areas of MK.

Hope that helps

otb666

i have lived in aspley guise for 15 years-this is beds not bucks-my children have gone to aspley lower sch-fulbrook middle school and cedars upper school(our catchment was van dyke-) -for 250k you would pick up a 3 bed hse very few available-your best bet would be woburn sands beds-not bucks this would ensure a place in cedars catchment also houses are less expensive and theres more choice--nb we are moving in april 2010 if you are interested-
all aspley l and fulbrook schools are highest in beds and cedars 2nd highest

loveandlight

Thank you to all of you who have posted. I really appreciate all the info and the time you've taken to post it. It helps me a lot. Thx once again.

hethmar

Blimey a 6 bed house for £250K - thats amazing

Sassa

'Ousedale' is Newport Pagnell's secondary school and it is excellent. My two sister's went there. You have to live within catchment to get a place, this means living in N Pagnell which is an older part of MK It has a traditional high street, pubs etc... There's a mix of housing, from 3 bed traditional semis/ Victorian terraces, to new builds and detached houses. It's pretty reasonably priced I think. Search postcode MK16 in rightmove to get an idea of what's on the market.

lincroft1710

Aspley Guise/Aspley Heath/Woburn Sands (not to be confused with Woburn proper, 3 miles away), all adjoin one another, with no discernible boundary other than village signs. The Aspleys are in Beds, WS is part of MK, though separated by countryside. AH is very select, but AG and WS not too far behind.

Olney very nice with wide, wide main street and lots of small local shops. A few miles from MK, but still within city for admin.

Newport Pagnell, another pleasant small town on edge of MK.

Raksha

There's also a dedicated MK thread on MSE here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=189006

Jemma1986

hethmar wrote: »

Blimey a 6 bed house for £250K - thats amazing

I know... that's what I thought, and it's not even a small 6-bed!

Was a repo but in nigh on perfect condition (just needs a new front door as they had to bash the existing one in and a lick of paint to make it to my taste... although to be perfectly honest, the paintwork is in decent condition as it is!)