Help with areas to buy house - £260k budget; commuter into central London

GoodnessGraciousMe

Hello all,

I need your help, please.

I am a single buyer with a max. Budget of £260k for a 2 bedroom house. I work in Bank, Central London, so need to commute into London Bridge/ Cannon Street / Blackfriars / Fenchurch Street / Liverpool Street. I would like my commute to be 1 hour maximum, if possible.

I have lived in South London my whole life so am struggling with potential areas to buy my first home.
Up until now, I have been looking in: the borough of Bexley (Erith, Bexleyhealth, Barneshurst, AbbeyWood, etc), Dartford/Crayford and Swanley. I wanted to stay within the London travelcard zones (1 - 6), if possible.

Any suggestions on which other areas I can look at?

All advice is welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Browntoa

1 hour commute takes you out as far as Gillingham/Rainham/Chatham/St marys island

Lunchbox

Orpington/Bromley/Croydon?

ManofLeisure_2

Have you considered Tonbridge in Kent? The journey to London Bridge is less than an hour and you would have a choice of properties within your budget. The downside is the cost of the season ticket - no idea as to how much that would be.

GoodnessGraciousMe

Sorry. It won't let me edit my original post.

Ideally, I would like a one hour, door to door, commute which is basically a 30- 40 minute train journey plus 20-30 minutes walking to/from station and to/from work.

I am also trying to keep annual travel costs below £2.8k (£250 per month).

GoodnessGraciousMe

Also, I am happy to look on the other side of the river; Hertfordshire, etc.

Thanks

bouicca21

If you are prepared to travel to a station, it might be worth considering Thamesmead. Abbey Wood station is going to be on crossrail so the area is improving, and that is likely to ripple out to Thamesmead.

I think abbey wood itself is out of your budget.

psychological

In a very similar position, looking at Hertfordshire. Bishops Stortford has an easy line in to Liverpool Street. Welwyn/Hatfield/Hitchin/Letchworth the price is right and commute seems easy enough to Kings Cross. Although the further north you go in Herts the railcard ups to c. £4k.

Good luck.

Kynthia

I agree with the suggestion of Thamesmead, try Thamesmead North which is by the river and has good bus connections to Abbey Wood station (South Eastern and Crossrail soon), Woolwich (DLR) and North Greenwich station (Jubilee Line).

onlyroz

Have you thought about moving further out to e.g. Woking? It's an easy train journey to Waterloo and then one stop to Bank (or you can cycle the last bit if you get a Brompton).

dinkylink

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34786092.html


Hatfield Peverel?! Close to the station and 45 mins to Liverpool Street on the train.


You could also try Witham which has a similar train journey time, though doesn't seem much decent available there at the moment


Don't think you will be able to get much closer to London than Hatfield Peverel/Witham on this line if you max budget is £260k and you definitely want a 2 bed house.