London areas for 2 bed, 200k budget

padington

sarah3585 wrote: »

Hello all.

We have had an offer accepted on a 2 bed house down Edward Road which is north of E.Croydon station just under a mile away.

We are very pleased, but my OHs mum started doing some research and has read about Croydons rep. She is now concerned we are making a mistake, especially as our first offer on this property was accepted within a few hours.

We've been to Croydon a couple of times, and wasn't put off by anything, the properties street looks nice and residential to me.

I guess I'm looking for some assurance that we aren't making a mistake. It was the more than helpful users of this forum that directed my attention to E.Croydon.
Thank you.

I bought after the wood green riots, best time to get in when everyone is talking an area down. Don't worry so much about the general area, worry about the streets you will be going down regularly.

The questions you need to ask yourself is are there many idiots next door / on my street / on the way to the bus. You should have spent time hanging around the micro area around your prospective house, if you haven't done that you haven't done your homework. That's much more of an important question to ask then what's one swathe of London like.

So unless someone lives exactly where you are planning, only you really can do that research.

BitterAndTwisted

Edward Road isn't that far from where some friends live, south of Lower Addiscombe Road. It's nice round there and I doubt very much whether you'll see or hear any weekend "liveliness" at all.

Jaynorth_2

sarah3585 wrote: »

Hello all.

We have had an offer accepted on a 2 bed house down Edward Road which is north of E.Croydon station just under a mile away.

We are very pleased, but my OHs mum started doing some research and has read about Croydons rep. She is now concerned we are making a mistake, especially as our first offer on this property was accepted within a few hours.

We've been to Croydon a couple of times, and wasn't put off by anything, the properties street looks nice and residential to me.

I guess I'm looking for some assurance that we aren't making a mistake. It was the more than helpful users of this forum that directed my attention to E.Croydon.
Thank you.

Could just be that the sellers are in a hurry to sell although the crime stats for that location are not too good but no more or less than any other london suburb, so your home and contents insurance may be a bit high, but you should benefit in the long term from its proximity to the proposed Westfield shopping centre to be built in croydon so who knows...

You should do a walk by the street on a Friday or Saturday night probably from E.Croydon station and see what it is like.

olly300

Jaynorth wrote: »

You should do a walk by the street on a Friday or Saturday night probably from E.Croydon station and see what it is like.

Oh and it's about 11pm and 2am at night you want to do the walk.

If you go at between 6pm-9pm nothing really happens.

Fizzymartini

I hear you. I faced the same problem with family members, as I was searching for "affordable" places that don't have the shiniest reputations.

I found this website particularly helpful in my property search:

http://www.police.uk

Enter the postcode of your prospective home, check out the map and zoom in, right in, to your street and its immediate surroundings. You can see all the types crimes reported and their resolutions. Don't worry too much about vehicle crimes... it's ASBOs and Drug offences you need to look out for.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Great news!! Thanks for the update. As said before, Croydon is a whole borough, the size of a city. Within that there are good and not so good areas. But find yourself one of the pockets of niceness and you can get a good deal because of the reputation. You will have already made a lot of assessment of the immediate vicinity based on your viewings and journeys to and from them. Keep on getting familiar with the area including checking out local pubs/shops and talking to locals if you get the chance (awkward for Brits though that may be!)

If, after all this, you are of the opinion that it's a good area for the money then it's probable that other people in similar situations will be too.

BTW I was a FTB in Battersea in the '90s when it still had the industrial taint of the recently closed power station hanging over it and a few older people had concerns about me buying there. Reputations often lag behind on the ground reality especially when people are forced to explore new areas by high house prices.

Good luck.

EDIT: this list out today shows Croydon somewhere well down the list of violent areas and behind desirable Islington and Lambeth which includes Clapham.
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/UK-Peace-Index-2013-IEP-Report.pdf

sarah3585

Thank for everyone's replies. I'm on my way there now for the weekend, just as for a final scout around.

All the regeneration work looks interesting, may turn into a very good investment. I was already quite impressed with the shopping facilities, so will be keen to see what the Westfield centre will add.