Surrey/ Kent

SmartGirl_2

What are nice areas in Surrey/ Kent with good secondary schools and reasonable commute to London? I am after 3 bed house, max budget £300k.

I have started looking for a property in NW London, but when you see ads like this one http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-13025788.rsp?pa_n=7&tr_t=buy, you know it does not make sense!

RHemmings

SmartGirl wrote:

What are nice areas in Surrey/ Kent with good secondary schools and reasonable commute to London? I am after 3 bed house, max budget £300k.

I have started looking for a property in NW London, but when you see ads like this one http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-13025788.rsp?pa_n=7&tr_t=buy, you know it does not make sense!

Hendon is not my favourite part of North London. I've mostly only passed through on buses, but it doesn't look like the kind of place I would like to live in. To afford a £349,000 property, you'd think that you would need a single extremely good salary of maybe £80,000. Or two salaries of £40,000 each. Plus a big deposit of £70,000 or more. Do people with those salaries and that wealth really choose Hendon as the kind of place they want to live. Is this a very nice or improved part of Hendon that I haven't seen from the bus?

SmartGirl_2

RHemmings wrote:

Is this a very nice or improved part of Hendon that I haven't seen from the bus?

This property is in Mill Hill, not Hendon. It is very close to the green belt and within travelcard zone 4, besides schools are excellent. However, property prices are ridiculous and the area is going downhill with houses being converted to flats, etc. Hence, I am thinking about moving out of London altogether. In other nice areas nearby such as Highgate or Hampstead £350k will buy 2 bed flat only. Affordability seems to be issue everywhere and apparently 80% of people in the area would not afford to buy their properties at current prices if they were FTBs.

RHemmings

SmartGirl wrote:

This property is in Mill Hill, not Hendon. It is very close to the green belt and within travelcard zone 4, besides schools are excellent. However, property prices are ridiculous and the area is going downhill with houses being converted to flats, etc. Hence, I am thinking about moving out of London altogether. In other nice areas nearby such as Highgate or Hampstead £350k will buy 2 bed flat only. Affordability seems to be issue everywhere and apparently 80% of people in the area would not afford to buy their properties at current prices if they were FTBs.

That's better. I've only ever visited Mill Hill for the garden centre. But it looks like a much nicer place than Hendon. I clicked on the map on the rightmove entry and the house is just a bit north of Hendon cemetary and Hendon golf course. But now that you correct me I see the tube station. I personally believe that houses will return to a more sensible level. But if you have children in secondary school, then you may be at a stage where every year in an excellent school rather than a poor one may make a sizeable difference to their future.

Have you considered moving up to Metroland? I've heard that the schools in Amersham are very good. Though please check the ofsted reports rather than take my word for it as I only heard this second hand. Looking on rightmove, it looks like your £300,000 could stretch to a terraced house or an ugly semi.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-11448953.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

Debt_Free_Chick

SmartGirl wrote:

What are nice areas in Surrey/ Kent with good secondary schools and reasonable commute to London? I am after 3 bed house, max budget £300k.

Cranbrook or Tonbridge Schools Catchment Area

e.g.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-7552705.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy

Avoid Kent and go for East Sussex

e.g.

Etchingham is on the Hastings line - 1hr 10 mins to Cannon Street

Train from Stonegate, as for Etchingham

Cooden is a much more difficult commute, but look at what you get for your money!



a bit over budget, but .... you get a lot for your money

p.s. I used to and my partner still does, commute from Battle or Etchingham into the City

thelawnet

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Cranbrook or Tonbridge Schools Catchment Area

e.g.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-7552705.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy

Tonbridge itself is pretty grim though.

Avoid Kent and go for East Sussex

Tonbridge is in Kent :-)

Anyway, go buy this book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Commuterland-Finding-Home-Within-Reach-London/dp/1845130359/

It has commuter times for every town outside the M25. Basically it depends what you want: a town + shopping centre, or somewhere more rural.

If you are looking at a town with under half an hour to London the train, I'd suggest Redhill or Woking. Sevenoaks is nicer, but expensive. Redhill is cheap, and there are a few good schools around, plus some good private schools in Reigate.

There are lots of other places, strongly recommend the book above, and you can decide what kind of place you want to live, and work out the train links (it depends a lot on where ytou are commuting to as well, Victoria is not a good station if you work in the City, but for the West End it's ok). Of course if you can put up with a longer commute you will get more for your cash.

Debt_Free_Chick

thelawnet wrote:

Tonbridge itself is pretty grim though.

Hence, no links to properties there But many of the surrounding villages are beautiful.

Tonbridge is in Kent :-)

But the catchment area extends to East Sussex Same for Cranbrook - it's in Kent, but kids from East Sussex go to school there.

The reason I suggested avoiding Kent, is that property prices are higher there especially around Sevenoaks & Tunbridge Wells. East Sussex is very reasonably priced, by comparison - as we found out when we moved here nearly four years ago. And it's remarkably uncrowded, for the South East.

Trains go into London Bridge, then Charing Cross or Cannon Street making both the West End and the City/Canary Wharf commutable

lilyann1

I live in Caterham Surrey,nice area but can be expensive. Nice 3 bed houses for under £300k and travel into London Victoria by train is 25 minutes.Caterham is a fairly expensive area,but a bit further south is East Sussex which is lovely too.
I came to Caterham from Winchester 15 years ago and we are presently selling our house and trying to buy another but many problems along the way with our chain,but I love Caterham as it is not far from anywhere but you can also feel like you're in the country too.