Advice on areas to buy in London, currently looking at Highams Park and Chingford

Filo25

I am interested on any suggestions for potential areas of London where we could look at as potential first time buyers.

We are first time buyers, looking for a 3+ bed house with off-street parking and some outside space on a quiet street in a safe area, budget up to a maximum of 550k.

In terms of areas we are looking for something which isn't significantly more than an hour of a commute for either me or my wife, I work in Angel, she works in Victoria, although is likely to be moving office to Elephant and Castle soon.

It has proven surprisingly difficult to find anything so far, I hadn't realised quite how many areas were now priced significantly above that!

If anyone has any suggestions of areas we should look at, they would be gratefully received.

One area we have looked at and do like is E4 (Highams Park and North Chingford), I'm not sure if anyone on here knows the area on here but if anyone does I would appreciate any further local knowledge

Thanks!

benjus

As I'm sure you know, London is a big place, and Angel/Victoria/E&C are accessible from many directions with an hour's travel.

Are you only looking at NE London or are you more flexible? Do you only want to use the tube to get to work, or would you use other forms of public transport (e.g. suburban rail lines)?

Filo25

Willing to look all over really at decent areas, prefer to stay within the zones, to avoid more extortionate travel costs.

Currently renting in NW London (Golders Green), so know that area reasonably well, but not so much elsewhere.

Unfortunately most of NW London is out of reach pricewise these days, so what little knowledge I have isn't much use.

AndyBSG

Highams Park/Chingford isn't too bad an area as far as London Boroughs go but you need to be careful where in those areas you buy, if you go too far South you move into Walthamstow which isn't as nice so stay North of the North Circular.

Buckhurst Hill is also in that region and nice.

You will be at the mercy of the Central Line when it comes to commuting which is probably one of the most overcrowded lines in London during rush hour but you'll be getting on the line early enough that you should get a seat before the real cattle crush begins.

You also have Epping forest on your doorstep and there's plenty of decent bars and restaurants around as well as being a very short tube ride to Westfield.

One thing to consider though, you're going to be over an hours commute from both your places of work. You may well find that moving further out of London on a suitable train line will see you have the same journey time but benefit from MUCH cheaper house prices?

I lived in South Woodford and worked in the City and found I had a 50 minute door to door commute but was paying London prices.

I've now moved out to Chelmsford and actually have exactly the same commute time to Liverpool Street but was able to buy a 3 bedroom house for less than I sold my 2 bed flat for and now live in a much nicer area!

For example, somewhere like Chessington is only a 40 minute commute to London Victoria and is a lovely area

[Deleted User]

AndyBSG wrote: »

One thing to consider though, you're going to be over an hours commute from both your places of work. You may well find that moving further out of London on a suitable train line will see you have the same journey time but benefit from MUCH cheaper house prices?

This is a very good point. If you have no emotional ties to London then why not look at moving out of the big city? You can get trains direct to Marylebone or Euston from many stations in the Midlands that take not much more than an hour and with HS2 being built over the next 5 years it maybe worth looking at Birmingham. 550k will go a lot further in Birmingham than it will in London!

[Deleted User]

Deleted_User wrote: »

This is a very good point. If you have no emotional ties to London then why not look at moving out of the big city? You can get trains direct to Marylebone or Euston from many stations in the Midlands that take not much more than an hour and with HS2 being built over the next 5 years it maybe worth looking at Birmingham. 550k will go a lot further in Birmingham than it will in London!

However, it won't appreciate much like a property in London will (probably!)

Not everyone wants a monumental commute or to spend £4 a year in train 'tax'

[Deleted User]

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Not everyone wants a monumental commute or to spend £4 a year in train 'tax'

Correct, but not everyone will be against the idea either...

elverson

Have a look around Crofton Park (Brockley) and Nunhead stations. Trains direct to Elephant & Castle and St Pancras - then you can walk/bus/tube to Angel.

Brockley and Nunhead have plenty of larger houses and the areas are good - lots of cafes and parks. The stations are Zone 2/3 rather than Zone 4/5 for Highams Park/Chingford so you'd save money on travel.

http://www.southeastcentral.co.uk/threads/nunhead-area-guide-tell-us-what-its-like.1095/

http://www.southeastcentral.co.uk/threads/brockley-area-guide-tell-us-what-its-like.1094/

Filo25

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

With regards to moving outside the M25, I would be open to the idea but my wife is unfortunately vehemently opposed!

She likes being able to get home late at night, as with her workplace that is occasionally "required", or in other words once in a while they all go out until the wee small hours of the morning!

To be fair if we were moving out of London our budget would also be smaller as the commuting costs for the 2 of us would probably hit affordability significantly, and I am also wary of how significant future train price rises would be as well.

Good shout on Buckhurst Hill, might be marginal on the commute time (and maybe even budget) but certainly worth a look, would Loughton and Woodford Green out in that direction be worth looking into?

[Deleted User]

If you are looking at Elephant and Castle then maybe checkout the Thameslink map? http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/Thameslink_route_map.pdf

If you moved out to Zone 6, you could get a 3 bed with a drive way in Borehamwood (Home of Big Brother, Eastenders and The Voice!) for under £500k. You're then looking at £2.4k-ish each on the train.

Filo25

elverson wrote: »

Have a look around Crofton Park (Brockley) and Nunhead stations. Trains direct to Elephant & Castle and St Pancras - then you can walk/bus/tube to Angel.

Brockley and Nunhead have plenty of larger houses and the areas are good - lots of cafes and parks. The stations are Zone 2/3 rather than Zone 4/5 for Highams Park/Chingford so you'd save money on travel.

Thanks Elverson, much appreciated, especially as my knowledge of South London off the tubes is pretty much non-existent.