Crawley and around

Deep_In_Debt

propertyman wrote: »

But living in Redhill you spend most of your life on a hill, or having to go via a hill or sloping road, with little or no street parking- which makes for great fun on snow days or carrying shopping.

Horley town does have a Waitrose but on an autumn or winter day you do feel that Zombies are lurking around the next corner.... especially in the cut through by the Halifax...

Yes I know that cut through!

Horley is not really on the flight path and not that noisy. I lived in Pound Hill as a child, before it got built up (yes, a very long time ago!) and Crawley wasn't that bad then. Sadly, it's gone down a lot since then.

We could hear the aircraft starting and testing the engines every day and smell the aircraft fuel from Pound Hill.

I live on the outskirts of Horley (Langshott) which is not a bad area and easy walk to the station, about 15 mins depending on whether you live in the depths or not, and there is a nice fast train - 32 mins to/from Victoria. Even the stopping trains are less than an hour. I work in Victoria also so know the journey well!

JodyBPM

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

An example of a 3 bed doer-upper in Redhill

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36783425.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DUSERDEFINEDAREA%5E%7B%22id%22%3A329995%7D%23_includeSSTC%3Don%26auction%3Dfalse%26displayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26includeSSTC%3Dtrue%26lastPersistLocId%3DUSERDEFINEDAREA%255E%257B%2522id%2522%253A329995%257D%26locationIdentifier%3DUSERDEFINEDAREA%255E%257B%2522id%2522%253A329995%257D%26maxPrice%3D250000%26minPrice%3D210000%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26previousSearchLocation%3DIncluding%2520East%2520Reigate%2520(Drawn%2520Area)%26radius%3D0.0%26searchLocation%3DIncluding%2520East%2520Reigate%2520(Drawn%2520Area)%26searchType%3DSALE%26useLocationIdentifier%3Dfalse%26box%3D-0.24359%2C-0.12857%2C51.21032%2C51.26030%26popupPropertyId%3D36783425%26mapType%3DMap&fromMap=true

Emlyn road is a road I'd avoid personally. There's a troublesome ASBO family who live at the end of it http://http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2040241_earlswood_brothers_given_fiveyear_asbos

propertyman

It's not like the days that you could stumble home from the Six Bells or Station Tavern, even the old Foresters Arms, before the brewery bought old Evelyns sweet shop, and the only problems were the odd house on Court Lodge.

There were rarely problems the most obvious was the mad socialist who use to harrass people outside Waitrose "for the miners".

The trick is to live near these areas for what they offer and live outside in the village bits, or as quiet an enclave as you can afford.

And as said watch out for zombies in Horley town centre:cool:

propertyman

JodyBPM wrote: »

Emlyn road is a road I'd avoid personally. There's a troublesome ASBO family who live at the end of it http://http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2040241_earlswood_brothers_given_fiveyear_asbos

Perhaps this sort of "hard cases" could be shipped off to Afghanistan and they'd soon learn how brave and tough they really are.

It wouldn't take long for them to long for home, and a pair of dry underpants..;)

Nothing else seems to work......

Angelicdevil

propertyman wrote: »

It's not like the days that you could stumble home from the Six Bells or Station Tavern, even the old Foresters Arms, before the brewery bought old Evelyns sweet shop, and the only problems were the odd house on Court Lodge.

There were rarely problems the most obvious was the mad socialist who use to harrass people outside Waitrose "for the miners".

The trick is to live near these areas for what they offer and live outside in the village bits, or as quiet an enclave as you can afford.

And as said watch out for zombies in Horley town centre:cool:

The kebab shop by Waitrose is rather good...occasionally pop in there after the weekly shop....

JodyBPM

propertyman wrote: »

The trick is to live near these areas for what they offer and live outside in the village bits, or as quiet an enclave as you can afford.

Can I just ask which villages you would recommend, since you seem to know the area quite well. We're currently in Earlswood in a smallish 3 bed semi, and want to move out to a "proper" family home sometime in the next year or two, but are genuinely struggling to find anywhere that quite fits the bill.

We've budget of around £400Kish, and want 3 double beds, a decent sized kitchen, preferably an extra reception downstairs for a playroom/family room (although we'd consider a home office/outbuilding in the garden/4th bed upstairs) , decent sized garden, NOT newbuild or on an estate, happy to be a bit further out, but within say 15mins drive of a decent mainline station (preferably Redhill/Earlswood, as we would be driving children to school in Earlswood for the first few years anyway, but would consider other stations with a decent service)

Suprisingly we're really struggling to find anything. There seem to be a lot of smaller 3 bed properties around the £250-£300K mark, and then a huge jump up to the half a million plus bracket...

abankerbutnotafatcat

JodyBPM wrote: »

Can I just ask which villages you would recommend, since you seem to know the area quite well. We're currently in Earlswood in a smallish 3 bed semi, and want to move out to a "proper" family home sometime in the next year or two, but are genuinely struggling to find anywhere that quite fits the bill.

We've budget of around £400Kish, and want 3 double beds, a decent sized kitchen, preferably an extra reception downstairs for a playroom/family room (although we'd consider a home office/outbuilding in the garden/4th bed upstairs) , decent sized garden, NOT newbuild or on an estate, happy to be a bit further out, but within say 15mins drive of a decent mainline station (preferably Redhill/Earlswood, as we would be driving children to school in Earlswood for the first few years anyway, but would consider other stations with a decent service)

Suprisingly we're really struggling to find anything. There seem to be a lot of smaller 3 bed properties around the £250-£300K mark, and then a huge jump up to the half a million plus bracket...

Hi Jody, propertyman might charge a fee for his expert services!!:) I've been keeping an eye on the local market since I bought last May and had actually noticed that in Earlswood, St. Johns, Meadvale, Redhill-Reigate borders there isn't much in the £300k-£400k category. There is in Reigate but it's for large 2 bed, smaller 3 bed that you describe. I do remember a lovely large 3 bed property several months ago up on that hill that goes east from Redhill station for around £300k but that was so rare i've remembered it!! Have you been looking in Nutfield, Godstone etc?

JodyBPM

abankerbut... we generally do a rightmove search within 5 miles of Redhill, and then look at it on the map view as we def don't want to go upwards towards London, so we discount Coulsdon, Purley, Warlingham, Caterham etc.

There does seem to be a big gap in the market at the £350-£500K price bracket. I think that ideally we want to move a bit further out, as we're chicken keeping, vegetable growing, wellie boot type people who would probably be happier in a village or rural environment than a town one, although I must say we have been very happy in Earlswood for the last decade. It's just very difficult to get anything with a really decent sized garden in this area.

Reigate would sadly be out of our budget for the kind of house we want (apart from Woodhatch/South Park, which we don't like). Love Outwood, but very few houses within our budget there. Have thought about Smallfield, but its become very built up, and I think it will eventually merge into Horley. Plus there's airport noise to consider in Smallfield. Villages between Reigate and Dorking are very pricey. Like some parts of Bletchingley, but again its hard to get a decent sized garden there, plus many houses are bang on the main road.

Think we might need to stay put for a couple of years and add to our savings.

Grimbal

JodyBPM wrote: »

abankerbut... we generally do a rightmove search within 5 miles of Redhill, and then look at it on the map view as we def don't want to go upwards towards London, so we discount Coulsdon, Purley, Warlingham, Caterham etc.

RM has an option to draw a search limit around the exact places that you're interested in - so no need to do a radius search only to discount areas. Look at "drawn areas" on the website

propertyman

I spent a number of years in the area in General Practice so I am not so sure about values these days as I now do specialised litigation and advice, ( some pro bono and fun stuff on 2 fora) and we have "retreated into the woods of Sussex"

As a rule east of the A23 is cheaper with values declining from the South Nutfield Godstone down to Small-field, all of which are close enough to a mainline station. The EG Copthorne Lingfield bit is just as nice, but you are facing longer commutes of the less reliable EG services. Closer in at worst you can get to Gatwick almost anytime and is an easy trip from there.

West of the A23 is broadly expensive especially when you get to Leigh but there are plenty in between and Charlwood on average is cheaper with Sidlow Ironsbottom moving up to Bletchingly Betchworth etc in the middle though properties are relatively scarce. Certainly hopping on the bus or a walk to get to the station from a remote secret free parking spot, is harder to the west.