Buying a house - suggestions for where to buy

The_Pink_Wafer

Hi everyone,

I realise that this is an incredibly broad question, but in the name of research, I'm asking anyway as forums with real people are genuinely very useful for this sort of thing!

My fiance and I are looking to buy our first home - we are currently renting just outside London. We have recently had our first child and think it would make sense to buy as it gives us an asset.

Our financial situation is fairly unusual. He's a poker player (although he is giving up to do his accountancy exams) and I am self-employed. He has an excellent credit rating - me less so, although improving. I am also currently on maternity leave. However, we do have a good pot of savings.

Therefore, rather than rent, we want to try to buy. However, our budget for a property is low - about 100k - but we would be cash buyers as we have the money. Obviously London and much of the south is out, but we are open to moving almost anywhere in England as we know in some parts of the country, we will be able to buy outright.

And so opens the question - we've been doing research on the internet and it's really hard to decide where to look when you are open to the whole country and so I was wondering if anyone can recommend areas which aren't too horrible where we may be able to find somewhere as at the moment, we are simply typing the various different counties into the search box on right move and then googling areas which come up - but it would be good to have some recommendations from real people!

I don't drive, so the only real criteria at the moment are not too rough and reasonable transport links!

Thank you.

Dan-Dan

Your looking North East in my opinion

00ec25

surely its down to where you can get a job?

is he intending to do all 3 years of accountancy exams as a full time student (I assume he is doing either ACCA or CIMA rather than ICAEW) and then find a job? As such if you put down roots in one location you may find yourselves having to move within 3 - 4 years which from what you say is hardly ideal.

The_Pink_Wafer

00ec25 wrote: »

surely its down to where you can get a job?

is he intending to do all 3 years of accountancy exams as a full time student (I assume he is doing either ACCA or CIMA rather than ICAEW) and then find a job? As such if you put down roots in one location you may find yourselves having to move within 3 - 4 years which from what you say is hardly ideal.

Yep, this a good point and something we have talked about. We are not against moving again in a few years, although would prefer not to.

With regards to jobs, the nature of what I do as a consultant, I can do from anywhere. Depending on where we end up, I may have to drop my prices, but I can at least try to continue what I do. He hasn't started his courses yet - we are wanting to decide where to live first and as we can hopefully buy outright, he is fine with taking a min wage job if necessary and we will also have some savings to live off.

Have been looking at North East - seems to offer quite a bit for money, also been looking Lowestoft in Suffolk as it makes London commutable. It's very hard to narrow down!

Dan-Dan

If it`s just the two of you

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=REGION%5E1408&insId=1&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=flats&minBedrooms=&maxBedrooms=&minPrice=80000&maxPrice=110000&retirement=&partBuyPartRent=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&_includeSSTC=on&sortByPriceDescending=&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&newHome=&auction=false

:-)

The_Pink_Wafer

Dan-Dan wrote: »

If it`s just the two of you


:-)

Thank you - but us and baby, so not suitable. Thanks anyway though

Dan-Dan

ooops , sorry , i missed that!

i could actually recommend the middle one!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=REGION%5E792&insId=1&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=&minBedrooms=2&maxBedrooms=2&minPrice=&maxPrice=110000&retirement=&partBuyPartRent=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&_includeSSTC=on&sortByPriceDescending=&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&newHome=&auction=false

hanfrangipane

Hi!

I have just moved from the Norht East - I rented a flat on Gateshead Quayside. I now live in Leeds and am looking to buy a first home down here on my own. I'm also an accountant so I'll give you a bit of info on both areas which might help you out!

I did my training contract in the North East with a top ten firm (ICAEW exams). There are quite a few small firms that he could potentially look for a training job with if he wanted to get his exams paid for. There is also P+G up there which is a great traininer for CIMA exams. City wise, the North East is brilliant, I absolutely loved my 7 years up there and only moved back to Leeds to be close to family. I think it's great area to bring up a child, there's so much to do on your doorstep and transport links are fantastic with the metro system. If you got a house somewhere on the metro line you can get around most of Newcastle/Gateshead/Durham within an hour which makes most of the region commutable for jobs. Everyone is so friendly too, which is a major plus! You could easily get a really decent house for £100k in many areas and the cost of living up there is low.

Leeds is also a great city - transport isn't quite so simple though. There are plenty of buses/trains but the cheaper housing areas will be a little more hit an miss in my experience. Personally I am centering my job search on Wakefield as it's still easy to get to Leeds which opens up job search areas but housing is really good value for money. If your fiance is looking for a finance job once he has finished his exams Leeds/Wakefield will have better job prospects, as I have found myself since I moved down here.

On a practical job front, I would recommend that your fiance finds a training contract. It's not essential but having worked in the industry I've repeatedly found that those who have worked in finance whilst studying have found it a much more supportive experience (the exams are not easy, especially with no 'on the job' experience!) and have therefore been more successful in completing the qualifications. Also makes him MUCH more employable once he is qualified. I certainly know that neither of the places I have worked would employ someone qualified but that has no work experience in either industry or practice.

Since you're living in London currently, I question whether somewhere as small as, say, the North East would suit you. It depends what kind of lifestyle you're after really.

Hope you find some of that useful, it's hard to give you any direction with such a wide search but they're the areas that I have experience of.

Let me know if you want to know about any specific areas that you've looked at and I'll see if I know of them

Han

cte1111

In North Manchester you would be able to get a nice house for £100k. If you look for areas which are on the Metrolink (tram), then you're sorted for public transport.

In Radcliffe, for example, you would have a good choice of 2 / 3 bedroom houses for your budget. Here's one that looks quite nice and a short walk to the Metrolink:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36300676.html

If you want to be more rural, then try Ramsbottom (not so good for public transport though):
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-28615275.html

cte1111

I've always wanted to live by the seaside, so if I was starting again with a blank canvas, then think I would be looking in Llandudno. There's not much there for £100k, but there is in nearby Colwyn Bay and Rhos-on-Sea. This one looks nice:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43072451.html

Johnandabby

The_Pink_Wafer wrote: »

Have been looking at North East - seems to offer quite a bit for money, also been looking Lowestoft in Suffolk as it makes London commutable. It's very hard to narrow down!

Lowestoft to London is not an easy commute and would very quickly make you want to move, particularly as Greater Anglia is joint bottom of all train companies in terms of customer satisfaction. Commuting costs are very high on this train line to London.

IMO anything further north east than Colchester or Ipswich is not an easy commute. And would also limit jobs to that side of London unless you want another 1 hr on the tube. Some areas of Ipswich, or Sudbury in Suffolk where £100k would get 2 bedrooms with good access to amenities and London.

And being very rural, travelling anywhere in north-east anglia can take much longer than you think - mostly single carriageways, and I wouldn't drive from Lowestoft to London along the hideous A12 every day.

Definitely take your time with this decision