Milton Keynes: Where to live & Estate Agents

Willow101

Hi,

So we're looking to move to Milton Keynes or there abouts. Crucial to our search is good schooling but also being able to reach MK station quickly and easily.

We're thinking "Two Mile Ash" might be a good place to live as close to central and good schooling. Not many houses coming up for sale though so any hints or tips appreciated.

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to live ?

Also, any recommendations for good estate agents to register details with... Rightmove has over 100 agents registered and not sure I can call them all !

Thanks in advance for your help.

dc197

Finally, DC's time to shine.

Agents: Michael Graham without a doubt. Best staff, best photos, best marketing. No teenagers.
Edit: as a buyer, find a house you fancy regardless of the agent. Just use right move for that, but register with all of them for pre-RM notifications.

Areas: the rule if thumb is that any estate with straight roads and a central boulevard is down market. Example: Coniborrow.
Anywhere that was an old village is the most upmarket. Example: Loughton, Woolstone or Woughton.

Two Mile Ash is fine. The nice end of that estate is the West end.

Everywhere is no more than 500m from a grid road, a dual carriageway, so there is always a bit of traffic noise everywhere.

You will pay a premium to be walking distance from MKC station. Consider being near the other two stations instead. Only 5 or 10 mins more on the train.

Willow101

Thanks for your response.

If you had to give your top five areas to live what would you choose ? Top priority is being in good catchment for primary and secondary schools. We need to be able to get to the station but within 30 mins either walking (preferably) or driving which opens things up a bit.

BarleyGB

I'm from the west side so maybe biased.

A good 5 in no particular order

Tattenhoe
Loughton
Westcroft
Kingsmead
Shenley Brook End

Don't know about schooling, but sure you can cross ref vs offstead rrports

pandora205

Two Mile Ash is an excellent area, as are the areas listed above. There is a new brand new development close by too (look for Fairfields and White House) with two new primary schools due to open 2016 and 2017.

I'd start by looking at secondary schools and work backwards. There are several that do well in league tables/Ofsted, depending on what you are looking for, and some children also take 11+ and go over into Buckinghamshire schools too.

getmore4less

Why mk station there are other options for station that open up nice parts surrounding mk.

With mk i think the trick is to do it by elimination once you cross off the definitely not areas(quite a lot) you can focus on the other criteria and look for value.

Lot of new development but the risk is you don't know where they will end up once established.

We did look for a while years ago to be closer, the OH worked there, but ended up not moving.

getmore4less

30 mins driving opens up a lot going west, Buckingham, Aylesbury, south Luton Dunstable east over the M1 loads of nice places north will start getting cheaper.

30min walk will narrow the catchment.

dc197

I don't know about schools but there is a website which maps them and colour codes them by rating.

My top 5 areas in no order, based on being attractive and upmarket with a historical slant.

Woughton
Milton Keynes Village
Stony Stratford
Woolstone
Loughton


Looking to the surrounding villages still within MK local authority you have some delightful places but houses there are even more rare.
My faves are:
Hanslope
Newton Longville
Haversham, but only the old East end
Stoke Goldington

I would not bother looking at Dunstable or Aylesbury. You have said you want Milton Keynes and they are not Milton Keynes.

Willow101

Thanks for all your replies - so helpful. It's really interesting and helpful getting other people's views and I will start looking into the areas mentioned tonight.

Just to clarify some of the questions that came up:
-> MK station specifically because we work inthe offices near the station, so we need to be able to reach the station but how we do it we don't mind.
-> When we say 30 mins commute; preferably it would be a nice walk but we don't want to rule out a nice area or village which we might not have heard of for the sake of a 25 minute drive. We're in the Luton & Dunstable area ATM and unfortunately commute takes more like an hour, sometimes more so thats why we're looking to move. It also looks like the schooling is better further north and we want to get our children into the best possible school.

Dan-Dan

Willow101 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies - so helpful. It's really interesting and helpful getting other people's views and I will start looking into the areas mentioned tonight.

Just to clarify some of the questions that came up:
-> MK station specifically because we work inthe offices near the station, so we need to be able to reach the station but how we do it we don't mind.
-> When we say 30 mins commute; preferably it would be a nice walk but we don't want to rule out a nice area or village which we might not have heard of for the sake of a 25 minute drive. We're in the Luton & Dunstable area ATM and unfortunately commute takes more like an hour, sometimes more so thats why we're looking to move. It also looks like the schooling is better further north and we want to get our children into the best possible school.

Linslade side of LB ?
Nice established area

15 Minutes on the train, deposits you more or less to work?

getmore4less

dc197 wrote: »

I would not bother looking at Dunstable or Aylesbury. You have said you want Milton Keynes and they are not Milton Keynes.

It was an indication of how far they could go in those directions and there are loads of decent place that border MK going out.