Commuter towns with good schools and low crime rates?

ReadingTim

Considering only the commute into London is only half of the picture - you need also to factor in the trip from whatever London mainline station you arrive at to your office. This can easily add another half to three quarters of an hour onto the journey, plus it's something else to go wrong, not to mention cost, stress, heat and overcrowding (especially on the tube).

And there's also the matter of getting from home to the station at the other end - time and (potentially) cost of parking at/near the station.

Your best bet might be to decide which mainline stations you could (or couldn't) commute into, and explore the rail maps out from those, considering or disregarding those towns/areas as necessary - at present your criteria gives a search location anywhere south of an imaginary diagonal line from the Severn to the Wash!

hazyjo

Leigh on Sea. Great C2C line (usually - few issues lately, but very out of character!). Love my journey into Fen St! Depends where in London you need to get to.

Thrugelmir

You'll find it difficult to avoid drug related issues at the current time. Where ever you live.

luis1988

£500k in St Albans will barely get you a decent 2 bed apartment unfortunately, prices are crazy right now

ReadingTim

Thrugelmir wrote: »

You'll find it difficult to avoid drug related issues at the current time. Where ever you live.

Stopping reading and believing everything you read in the Daily Mail helps massively in this respect, I find.

letitbe90

luis1988 wrote: »

£500k in St Albans will barely get you a decent 2 bed apartment unfortunately, prices are crazy right now

I've seen a few 3 bed apartments/houses under 500k in St Albans within a mile of the station (Rightmove) but I guess they are less desirable, seeing as you can have ones which cost 800k+.

mije1983

letitbe90 wrote: »

I've seen a few 3 bed apartments/houses under 500k in St Albans within a mile of the station (Rightmove) but I guess they are less desirable, seeing as you can have ones which cost 800k+.

Yes, those are in the 'less desirable' places of St Albans

Mmermaid

I'd be intrigued to know where abouts in Havering it is that you live... i would say its one of the best for schools. Have you looked at Upminster? All schools in that area are great, Hall Mead and Coopers especially. 25 mins into Fenchurch Street Station.

victoriavictorious

Have you looked at Hitchin, Welwyn Garden City or Letchworth Garden City? All are on a direct line to Kings X (once Great Northern have sorted out their timetable fiasco, that is!)

owenjt

letitbe90 wrote: »

Hi all,

Currently I am residing in London (Havering area) and am thinking to buy a house in the next 2 years. My budget is flexible in that, I am happy to spend anywhere ~£300,000 but can also stretch it to a maximum of £500,000.

As I work in software (London), I would need to be able to commute to London ideally within an hour.

St Alban's seems to be an ideal choice, but are there parts of London I could also consider? I can see there are some really good schools in the west side of London, but I am guessing they will be out of my budget.

It would be either a 3 bedroom house, or a 3 bedroom apartment (i.e. those developments with facilities such as concierge etc) that I'd be aiming for.

Did you find a suitable location letitbe90?

I'm also looking to move out of London. Currently in Wandsworth and looking for a commuter town that I could rent in initially and potentially afford to buy in the next year or so. Been researching Chelmsford which sounds nice and most of the posts here back this up. Also really like St Albans - used to live in Hertfordshire and worked in St Albans for a couple of years and would definitely move there, although it is expensive if you need to live within walking distance of the train station.