Location, location, location...help me find the perfect one for us!

Ellie007

Hi all,

I'm after inspiration....we are looking to sell our house in East London imminently and want to move to a country retreat! However we are very undecided on where to focus our search for a new home....

Main criteria: Budget of c.£300k (could stretch to £330k or so if necessary). 3 bedrooms or more. Ideally detached with a good sized garden. Needs to be commutable of London for work, so max. 1.5 hrs drive, and ideally near a main train route into London. It also needs to be a horse-friendly area with good bridleways (a house with stable provision would be a dream, but probably really is just a dream!:o) We would like somewhere in a village ideally with shop, post office and decent pub .

Can anyone help with possible locations?

Thanks! xx

goldbyron

Heading out North East - Parts of North Essex but may be pricey. Would look at West Suffolk or lower Norfolk to find within budget and distance. Lots of Londoners have headed to the Thetford region - maybe a village near there....

Milliewilly

Ellie007 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm after inspiration....we are looking to sell our house in East London imminently and want to move to a country retreat! However we are very undecided on where to focus our search for a new home....

Main criteria: Budget of c.£300k (could stretch to £330k or so if necessary). 3 bedrooms or more. Ideally detached with a good sized garden. Needs to be commutable of London for work, so max. 1.5 hrs drive, and ideally near a main train route into London. It also needs to be a horse-friendly area with good bridleways (a house with stable provision would be a dream, but probably really is just a dream!:o) We would like somewhere in a village ideally with shop, post office and decent pub .

Can anyone help with possible locations?

Thanks! xx

Newark / Grantham on the East Coast Mainline if you can get on the train everyday.

lovethymini

How about looking at the best station in London to commute into and then going back up out of London and looking at all the towns/villages that line services?

TrickyDicky

If you dont mind waterloo then Woking is a 25 min train ride. £300k will get you a nice 3 bed (mostly semis, detached will start around £300-350k) and its not long before you get into the surrounding countryside / woodland.

The problem is its west london so driving into London might be a bit slow.

BitterAndTwisted

Kent. Walmer and Deal in particular. The train service is currently 2 hours but there is a high-speed link being planned and the route connects Charing Cross with Folkestone, Dover and Ramsgate so when that happens it will be much less than 2 hours and prices should rise. *Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...* Deal has a Georgian conservation area right on the seafront which is lovely but not necessarily ideal for geegees but perhaps a village like Ripple very close by might be.

mlz1413

bedford & milton keynes are on main lines to london, the villages surrounding are good horsey country.

I used to live in Rushden 10 miles from bedford and the riding is brilliant, but the town has become a commuter hotspot and so often has traffic jams at peak times.

sunshinetours

Mid/North Essex would provide you with train links of around an hour or less into Liverpool Street

Look along the A12 corridor at villages around between Chelmsford and Colchester areas.

£300k will buy you a nice semi probably with decent garden although you may struggle for stables/detached at that sort of budget. You will also have good access to Essex coastline and marshland and country parks

As someone else said see what station in London serves you best and work backwards out of that as the commutes across London can add significantly to time and cost of travel

martindow

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Kent. Walmer and Deal in particular. The train service is currently 2 hours but there is a high-speed link being planned and the route connects Charing Cross with Folkestone, Dover and Ramsgate so when that happens it will be much less than 2 hours and prices should rise. *Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...* Deal has a Georgian conservation area right on the seafront which is lovely but not necessarily ideal for geegees but perhaps a village like Ripple very close by might be.

Already a HS service running to some of Kent

http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/app/webroot/files/cache/Timetable%20HS%20December%202009%20%203.pdf

BitterAndTwisted

True, but I believe that the regular, slow service from Dover Priory to Ramsgate runs only once an hour so you'd probably be standing on the platform at Dover waiting for the train out of Charing Cross anyway. I took that service at New Year and had no idea I could get the HS to Ramsgate and then the slow one to to Deal. Thanks for that link! It might come in handy for when I go down next time with my bucket and spade

Running_Horse

Meopham or Longfield railway station:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/map.html?locationIdentifier=STATION^6161&sortByPriceDescending=true&minPrice=250000&maxPrice=325000&minBedrooms=3&radius=3.0

Or Staplehurst or Headcorn or Lenham or West Malling or Borough Green stations.