Suggestions for buying 3 Bed House under £ 525,000

chami1982

hazyjo wrote: »

Not if you live near Leigh Station (I'll only be an 8 min walk away)

Chalkwell is nice too! Offered on a house there and interested in a couple of others. At least there's the odd fast train from Leigh which you'll get a seat on. They can get very busy.

Good schools around the area/s too.

Not keen on Leigh / Chalkwell area as apart from fast train, it may be far from London... and I dont have any of my contacts living there... My preference is to live within Zone 2 to 6..

chami1982

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I'd consider renting in whatever area you choose, just to make sure you actually want to live there!

Yes, I think thats a good approach. .One of my friend also did that... Also, I think the prices are not going to drastically increase in next 6 months..

But since I am FTB and new to UK, dont want to change address which may have an impact on my credit history and lead to issues in getting mortgage.. 4-5 months, I was not able to get mortgage upto 475K with 90% LTV since my name was not on electoral, had only £1000 credit ... since they I have added to electoral, increase credit limit to £5K.... so dont want to jeopardise this.... considering I wish to get on property ladder, I may have to find best possible property without relocating now

chami1982

caronoel wrote: »

I would suggest Guildford or Godalming. Really lovely towns, with good access to lovely countryside and about 45 minutes to Waterloo.

Surrey is much nicer than Kent or Essex.

Hi my colleague lives in Woking and Guildford... and yes these are great areas I heard.. but would want within 60 min of commute and within zone 2 to 6.

hazyjo

chami1982 wrote: »

Not keen on Leigh / Chalkwell area as apart from fast train, it may be far from London... and I dont have any of my contacts living there... My preference is to live within Zone 2 to 6..

How far 'east' is east then that you'll go to? I'm currently in North Chingford which is also nice. You'd get a decent 3 bed semi for that money.

chami1982

hazyjo wrote: »

How far 'east' is east then that you'll go to? I'm currently in North Chingford which is also nice. You'd get a decent 3 bed semi for that money.

As my knowledge is limited on good hotspots around london, I am using Zone 2 to 6 as a yardstick.... checking Chingford....looks close to Walthamstow ( which i had read good reviews on movebubble website)

thanks

hazyjo

chami1982 wrote: »

As my knowledge is limited on good hotspots around london, I am using Zone 2 to 6 as a yardstick.... checking Chingford....looks close to Walthamstow ( which i had read good reviews on movebubble website)

thanks

lol how times change - North Chingford was highly desirable for many years (still is) and Walthamstow was an absolute dump. Parts of W'stow are now desirable (the village is lovely) but be very careful re the rest. It's not all 'nice' (and still not anywhere I'd choose to live). Yes prices have increased a lot - but so has N.Chingford (nearly doubled my house value in 4 years due to the same turn in the local market). Highams Park also desirable, still with a huge amount of potential. Used to be the cheaper side of E4, but it's now matching N.Chingford pretty much.

Lokolo

http://www.commutefrom.com/

This website should be of help. You can put maximum commute time, and also choose average house price.

Be aware that it shows "best" train times. For example, my best train time is 23 minutes. However on average it takes 30 minutes depending on the train and number of stops.

Waterlily24

caronoel wrote: »

I would suggest Guildford or Godalming. Really lovely towns, with good access to lovely countryside and about 45 minutes to Waterloo.

Surrey is much nicer than Kent or Essex.

Not in my opinion!

SuboJvR

I'd also be wary of limiting yourself to Zones 2-6 unless absolutely necessary for cost. Growing up in Zone 6 myself I was pretty sheltered to how easy/fast it can be to get into London from outside the zones... until I moved elsewhere.

Typically in Zone 5/6 there'll be a few stations that do have fast i.e. minimal stops services into London (e.g. Surbiton) but the majority are all stoppers all the way in so take 30-45 minutes, maybe even a bit more. And yet from the likes of Sevenoaks in Kent you can get to London Bridge in 22 minutes on a fast service, because it's on the "fast" line from further out, there's no more stops on the way in.

It's been quite the eye opener! It's not all about the Zones.

caronoel

Waterlily24 wrote: »

Not in my opinion!

Ok.... thats convinced me