Kent or Essex

mystic_trev

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

You won't get much of a 3 bed for £250,000 though, you'll get more house for your money in Tonbridge, which is just down the road, but it's nowhere near as nice as Tunbridge Wells;)

You won't get much for £250k in Tonbridge either. What you would benefit from is three times as many Trains to London than Tunbridge Wells, as it's on both the Ashford and Hasting line.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27415938.html?premiumA=true

pimento

Rayleigh or Hockley have good schools and don't have the TOWIE feel.

Season ticket about £4000.

Mr_Moo_2

As others have said, the SouthEastern High Speed service is really quick (and pretty reliable) and opens up a large part of Kent for good access to Stratford. Even as far down as Folkestone is less that an hour on the train. But it's expensive. Deoends on what sort of lifestyle you fancy? Good luck with the search.

Flairy

Thanks everyone,

I have seen some nice places in Colchester and Chelmsford that we quite like. It's hard to know where to look as I've never even been to Essex but a lot of people say its great for commuting.

I must admit though I have a bit of a soft spot for Kent as we lived there for a very short while years ago, didn't have to commute or anything though so not experienced that. From what we seen there we really liked it as it had so much greenery and nice places to go for walks etc which is quite important to us, we also loved going to the beaches etc so got some lovely memories of there. Just seemed a very relaxed happy way of life.

Having said that I don't want to be swayed by that too much, as I really don't want my husbands commute to be too hard! Think I will look on the Ashford line as that seems to be perfect for what we are looking for, and also explore the Essex a bit more.

hazyjo

Not sure if either of you have commuted to london before - from my experience, it's much easier to stay on one line. If you have to change, you're relying on two (at least) lines running without probs. Also, if you're changing in London, it can be HORRENDOUSLY busy and you might have to wait for a couple of trains to go past before you can even get on.

I have been on 'overheads' since 1991 and would hate to go back to the underground. Now and again I think about changing jobs and that a little commute on the tube wouldn't hurt, I could cope with that - UNTIL I get a tube to meet friends after work in the rush hour in the height of summer. Yuck yuck yuck. It's boiling, stuffy, you have an armpit in your face (my height) or worse things in your face if you're sitting down!

Overground is so much nicer - and plenty go into Stratford so your hubby would be very lucky. If you're not restricted as to where you go, I would make that the only condition - one train journey to Stratford. It's a nightmare station at the best of times - very busy. You don't want to be adding to the stress by changing en route.

Jx

BitterAndTwisted

Stratford is one train-stop from Liverpool Street on the overground taking about three minutes so I'd look at where on the Anglia services a one-hour commute could take you. I haven't looked at the "commutefrom" website for a long time but that could be quite useful to see which parts of Essex or Kent are convenient to travel from in an hour.

Flairy

We haven't commuted in London before but my husbands head office is down there so he gets the Leicester to St Pancras train regularly which is nice and straight forward. He would need to go to Stratford International for this job which I think can be done direct on the Ashford high speed train in about 25 mins? Might be the best option as I can imagine trying to change trains etc when it's busy can be a nightmare.

hazyjo

B&T - good point. You can avoid the three tube stops. I would add North Chingford (where I am) to that list then. Trains (I think it's a lovely little line!) to Liv St, and a stop back out on the overheads to Stratford.

Jx

BitterAndTwisted

The changing trains part is time-consuming, crowded and stressful if you're going from the overground onto the underground. Overground to overground, especially if you're going in the opposite direction to commuters is much less so, like Liverpool St to Stratford.

In any case, once you think you've decided on an area it would make sense to rent for ix months in the first instance so you can get to know the area well before you commit to buying.

JimmyTheWig

Flairy wrote: »

I have seen some nice places in Colchester and Chelmsford that we quite like.

I've never lived in either, but from what I've seen and heard, Chelmsford is _significantly_ nicer than Colchester.