What do you think of this property in North Cheam?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

The 93 is a great bus service, but is rammed during peak times. You'll have to factor queueing at Morden in the evenings and never getting a seat.

Some newbuild flats can be very noisy, others are better built. It's always a gamble.

sarm333

@fairy lights - yes I did, but that thread was mainly a question in regards to space of living. So I thought I'd ask about the area, the estate agents and the apartment as a whole. Sorry if this seems like a duplicate question but I never intended it to be.

@broughts - Yep, but as you said, there's no new builds round there. I was aiming for a new build but still considered resale if I found anything I liked. Thanks for sharing your experience with Barnard Marcus. So far they've been very good. I'm currently in contact with Chelsey, from the Worcester Park branch, and she's been great.

@Out, Vile Jelly - I've seen that we can take quite a few buses up to Morden. So 93, as you've mentioned, 293 and 413. This really effected the decision as I didn't want to just be limited to one bus. So hopefully the queues you mentioned won't matter to us!

StumpyPumpy

sarm333 wrote: »

@Out, Vile Jelly - I've seen that we can take quite a few buses up to Morden. So 93, as you've mentioned, 293 and 413. This really effected the decision as I didn't want to just be limited to one bus. So hopefully the queues you mentioned won't matter to us!

Surely you've checked this properly rather than relying on hope?

If it were me, before committing to spending £300k+ on a property in an area I know little about, I would be making a visit to Morden during the rush hour to take couple of trips on the buses that are going to become part of my daily commute.

SP

sarm333

@Stumpy - Its a given that there's always going to be an abundance of people during rush hour or peak times. Having more than one bus that we can take would just mean that we have more choice. What I mean by 'won't matter' is that we can just get the first available bus to us rather than waiting and queueing for one specific bus.

camptownraces

It's on a busy, noisy road, with lots of buses and diesel fumes.

How high up is the flat you've reserved - far enough away from the noise and fumes?

And it really is a long walk to the nearest station. Hence the additional hassle of buses every working day.

For this money, you could get a flat within ten minutes' walk of Sutton station with bigger rooms.

PasturesNew

You enter through the kitchen, which is fine ... so long as you have enough storage space to keep all your stuff. Else you'll forever feel you have to keep the kitchen clean/clear in case somebody knocks on the door.

If there's a fire, it seems the only way for anybody to exit is through the kitchen - which, statistically, is most likely to be the source of a fire. I've seen building regs make people renovating old flats put in a firebreak/wall so there's a clear exit/access. I am therefore quite surprised to notice that this flat doesn't have that at all.

In a real fire, of course, you can leap out of the windows, presumably. But sometimes, in your jim jams, it might be a "fire, but not a biggun" and you'd simply want to step outside of the front door and await the authorities.

StumpyPumpy

sarm333 wrote: »

@Stumpy - Its a given that there's always going to be an abundance of people during rush hour or peak times. Having more than one bus that we can take would just mean that we have more choice. What I mean by 'won't matter' is that we can just get the first available bus to us rather than waiting and queueing for one specific bus.

If you already know what the buses are like in reality at Morden that is fine.

Personally, I have no idea about Morden. I do know, however, that at the bus station I would have to commute through (If I needed to use a bus), during the rush hour the queues are long (more than a bus full) and the buses that head my way use different stands. So you can't just switch and change as you would be constantly at the back of the queue. Of course, Morden might be completely different, but that is why I would check it out as I don't know.

SP

suki1964

93 bus service is very very frequent, indeed as they get bunched through Wimbledon and colliers wood. you often get five arriving at the same time

These the flats built on the old TA grounds?

Lot of money to spend to live in no mans land, seriously there is nothing along that road other then takeaways and restaurants. And the traffic along there is horrendous evenings and Sunday mornings

I would look towards Worcester park personally

piggeh

These are a conversion of the old Newsquest building that is next to the nelson/St Anthonys Hospital.

With regards to buses it will take about 20 minutes to get to Morden during rush hour. There are bus lanes once it gets to Morden park near South Thames/Merton College so its pretty quick from there on. As long as you're happy with this then fair enough. It's nice to get on at Morden as you always get a seat. Depending where you're coming back from in the evenings can be a bit cramped though. I used to go from Tottenham Court Rd and it was always packed unless you left early or late.

I would not use the 413 though (although good for Sutton), as it goes down to lower morden before coming back up towards morden itself, so a bit of a convoluted route. As the 93 only commences in the 'north of cheam' though you should find them not too packed at that point on their journey.

There's also a new set of flats awaiting planning permission on the old Dairy Crest site in Morden itself which could be good for the commute into London. Once the night tube starts up I would think Morden might start to go up in the world a little bit. At the moment its a bit of a dump.

sarm333

@piggeh - thanks for the tip! Luckily, where we get on the 93 is somewhat the beginning of the route, so should be ok. I need to get from Morden to Leicester Sq, so that journey roughly matches my current journey that I make now. Then add the bus journey I have to get now for roughly 10-15mins, I'm looking at around a 10-15 min increase in journey time, which I don't mind. The good news, is that I could potentially get a seat for both the tube and bus journey, seeing as they are at the beginning of the route/line. I just didn't like the fact that the estate agents are saying its a 10 minute bus ride to Morden. TFL says 16-18 mins, so I'll just round to 20