Where to live near Heathrow?

00ec25

the first question should be what do you know about staff parking at the airport. Can be expensive £0,000 not £000 pa and distant (add another 5 minutes for shuttle bus to your 30 minute drive)

if you are still happy to drive then it will be cheaper rent if you are not on any other London commuter lines, be that rail or tube for obvious reasons . Starting at 08:00 will put you slightly ahead of some , but by no means all, traffic so would, for example allow you to live south of the River as you'd be able to cross it before the main rush starts, eg Staines bridge is bad from 07:50 onwards.

as others have said 30 minutes in a car is not much in distance. My lodger cycles there from Staines in 45 minutes

the next obvious killer is what is your rental budget if you want to save for a deposit. Eg windsor, wraysbury, egham will give you a suburban feel but you're looking at starting at £450 - 500 pcm for 1 bed flat. Advantage though is IHMO you can leave Feltham, Ashford (even Staines - to an extent!) to the Chavs that already live there.

also consider the possibility that 30 minutes at that time of day means its not impossible to live well away and come in by motorway, eg Maidenhead (but never ever Slough or Cippenham)

grifferz

I've lived in Feltham for almost 9 years and I don't find it that bad (or I would have moved before now). If we could afford it then sure, we would live in Twickenham or even Staines, but budget will not allow. It is certainly better than a lot of places nearer to Hounslow town, and I much prefer it to Slough which I also lived in for a couple of years.

There's plenty of supermarkets dotted around, but Feltham high street is a dead loss, ceded to chavs. When we want to do high street shopping we get on a direct bus to Kingston, or on the train into Staines (~10mins) or Waterloo (~32mins).

Like anywhere there are terrible areas and nicer areas. The West Feltham / Bedfont village area is a bit nicer although if you go too far that way you will be in direct flight path which may irritate you. You would actually be walking distance to Heathrow then though.

There isn't that much green space in Feltham. I mean there are a couple of parks but they're a bit grim. Richmond is 10 minutes away on the train and that of course has a nice green, Richmond Park and the river side.

Feltham gets a bad rap but in the >8 years I've lived here myself and my household have suffered no crime. You get kids hanging around the mcdonalds and station in town but I would have thought you get that in most places. If you look at stats e.g. http://maps.met.police.uk/ then Hounslow borough as a whole has slightly less crime per head of the population than the average London borough, and Feltham is not the roughest part of Hounslow borough.

If you are not wedded to living in a London borough then maybe some of the areas outside the M25 will be cheaper and better than inside. It really depends on your budget. Staines is definitely more expensive than here and I would have thought reasonable areas of Windsor would be as well.

reaprr

Thanks to everyone for all the replies, this is just the kind of advice I was after

I'm a bit rushed for time at the moment so I will look into your suggestions in more detail a bit later and might come back with some more questions.

In regards to getting public transport in; well my base is in Heathrow but I'm given a company car and parking space because I might need to drive to other sites (Gatwick/Stansted etc) so it would be much more practical to have the car with me at Heathrow.

Errata

In that case, have a look at Harefield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harefield#The_Harefield_Academy
There are also some decent flats with parking for rent in Uxbridge.

jessy1

Sipson is a good place to rent right now. Cheaper than average rents on nice properties bought up by BAA and rented out by Campsie estate agent Yiewsley High St. Added bonus of living as close to the airport as possible is that all bus travel to Heathrow is FREE, so savings there. I know you mentioned having a car, but just thought to mention bus travel because having worked at Heathrow and using the car parking with the company I worked for often I found ordinary bus quicker as the car park I had to use was so far from where I worked in Heathrow that I was bus'd from the car park to the terminal!

reaprr

Does anyone know what it's like around Southall?

I have just found out about the 'Newbuy' scheme and I think it might be perfect for my circumstances as I don't have enough for a deposit at the moment, and I need to buy somewhere right now. If I were to spend £600+ a month on renting I may aswell spend close to that on a mortgage and actually get some equity!

The new build that really caught my eye was The Primary as it is only 12 minutes drive from Heathrow airport, parking is available, and the houses look nice.

Anything I should be concerned about?

jamie11

Southall is crowded, a bit like Bombay central. Those flats look like rabbit hutches. They're way over priced, If you do buy there give my regards to Sehmi at the engine shop on the corner.

Dragonista

Hounslow has been missed. It's about 15 minutes to Heathrow by car, and the tube goes there too. Also cheaper than say Twickenham, but super close.

bizzybee

Lower Sunbury?

reaprr

jamie11 wrote: »

Southall is crowded, a bit like Bombay central. Those flats look like rabbit hutches. They're way over priced, If you do buy there give my regards to Sehmi at the engine shop on the corner.

Thanks for the insight! I was judging my opinion based on the interior of the flats and I thought they looked quite spacious especially for that close to London, obviously I wouldn't buy anywhere without looking around in person. The price I thought was actually quite reasonable - especially considering with the 'Newbuy' scheme I would only need a 5% deposit and the government would lend me 20% of the price interest free for 5 years.