where would you rent/buy in Portsmouth

andy.m_2

thats all good advice except the bit about Southampton, its definitely a hole

abankerbutnotafatcat

The thing with Portsmouth is that it's an island and a small island at that. So whereas other cities expanded in all directions as they grew historically, Portsmouth couldn't - it grew upwards with tower blocks and through its satelite and neighbouring towns. As a result to simply slam the whole city 'a hole' is a both a bit unfair and rather unjustified.

Firstly, there are some very attractive pockets within Portsmouth City such as a lot of Southsea and bits of Old Portsmouth but admittedly most of Portsmouth City is very 'urban'. Secondly, one needs to think of 'Portsmouth and its environs' i.e. the towns and villages that consider Portsmouth to be 'their city'. If looked at in this wider context its actually got a great deal going for it (countryside, coast, transport links) with lots of attractive possible places to live, many which have already been mentioned here such as Wickham and Denmead. Personally, I love the Meon Valley which has some gorgeous Midsommer Murders-esque villages. Good luck OP.

geoffky

scummers...

TrickyDicky101

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

Secondly, one needs to think of 'Portsmouth and its environs' i.e. the towns and villages that consider Portsmouth to be 'their city'. .

That's funny cos when i want to insult my friend who lives in Wickham I call him a Pompey boy!

wannabehermit

Ideally I think you need to be looking at the areas between Pompey and scum, as others have said. The traffic tends to build up around J9 (Whiteley) so if you were this side of J9 the traffic won't be as bad (when you're working in Pompey anyway). Having driven through Swindon a couple of weeks ago, even the worst parts of Southampton will look nice, and the worst parts of Portsmouth will look like heaven! Portsmouth itself does have some really nice parts, Milton has a totally different feel from the rest of the city, I found it a lot more laid back and friendly when I lived there compared to other parts that I have lived, but getting out can be a pig as it can take a good 20 minutes just to get up the Eastern Rd to the 27.

For your shopping & activities - Gunwharf or Old Portsmouth would be your no1 choices. I used to live in Old Portsmouth, just wish I could afford it now as that would be our first choice to live. Only drawbacks with there are traffic getting out when you are working in Southampton, although a big plus point is you are within walking distance of John Pounds Centre.

Richard_Webster

I will ignore the nasty remarks about Southampton - the argument about which of the two rival cities is best could run and run!

Somewhere near the M27 between Southampton & Portsmouth seems best for driving. Hedge End/Park Gate/Whiteley etc are pretty soulless. You just have to a little further from the motorway if you want somewhere nicer like Wickham or up the Meon Vallley/Bishops Waltham etc.

phoebe1989seb

I was born and brought up in Southsea (and DH is from Southampton so I'm forever getting comments regarding the football rivalry, lol!) and have to agree that it's virtually (with the exception of some parts of Old Portsmouth/Gunwharf) the only decent place to live within the island. As someone that lived in the Portsmouth area for many years I have to say we never shopped in the main city centre (or North End which I agree is awful) and I don't miss the city itself at all since we left.

My parents currently live in Milton, which does have reasonable shopping facilities, two parks and a few larger family homes with driveways, but it's not my cup of tea.

Until 2007 we owned one of the larger Victorian houses close to Palmerston Rd shopping area and everything we needed was within walking distance......handy as I don't drive! You have a reasonably good array of shops (including Waitrose), Southsea Common, the seafront and several good schools (the independent ones anyway, I can't speak for the state-run schools as our son went to the independent PGS) on your doorstep. Many of the similar houses in that area used to be flats or rest homes (indeed we converted ours back from 4 flats) but many have now reverted to family homes. Depends on your budget though as in Craneswater and similar conservation areas you are looking at £500k - £800k for a good detached 4 bed family home.

Despite not driving myself, I have to agree about the difficulties of negotiating the roads during rush-hour though - DH commuted to Petersfield (which as other posters have said is another good place to consider) and hated the trouble he had stuck in traffic every day.

Emsworth and Chichester are lovely - Chichester is very good for shopping, but can't agree with Fareham - although it is seen as a desirable area with some nice houses - as the shopping centre is still perceived as being rather 'chavvy' We pulled out of a house-purchase in Fareham this year because we felt the centre was very similar, albeit on a smaller scale, to Portsmouth. Areas on the outskirts of Fareham are more rural and have some nice houses - Bishop's Waltham, Wickham etc......

andy.m_2

PGS sucks, I went to St John's.
Same rivalry as Scum v Skates

phoebe1989seb

andy.m wrote: »

PGS sucks, I went to St John's.
Same rivalry as Scum v Skates

Quite agree andy.m in fact our son did do two terms at SJC before he was offered a place in PGS Pre-prep (aged 4)........I have to admit it was at the time of the Brother Cyril affair and most of our friends thought that's why we took him out, although that wasn't actually the reason - we just thought PGS would offer him more We thought SJC seemed ok from our limited experience......sorry for going off-topic OP!