Buying a house to get to East Croydon

herc182

hi

We have a 2 bed flat and are looking to upsize to a 2/3 bed house so that we can get to east Croydon within 30mins tops. Of course that's work related but its also easy to get everywhere else from there.
We have looked further afield (like 45mins+) but at that point, we are doing serious travelling, not enjoying the house, and spending a second mortgage on travel.

Its me, my wife and 4 year old. We need to be close to a non religious school and no more than a mile to train station - cake and eat it I know.

Budget is 600k absolute max.

The 3rd bedroom could be dropped to be closer to station. We really just want a study space which we don't have at the moment.

What areas would you recommend? We are currently considering:

• Brentford
• Ealing
• Beckenham
• South Croydon
• Crystal palace

Any thoughts on those above or any other places? I know on zoopla you can do a travel time search (which I am doing) but I want to settle on an area before xmas so we can concentrate and focus the search after that.

thanks in advance

Cakeguts

Try South Norwood.

Soundgirlrocks

Addiscombe is really lovely and 5 min on the tram to East Croydon. Crystal Palace is expensive but its great, can be a bit cut off from easy access to Croydon you are reliant on trains really (buses take forever) the Tram is super quick and very regular so I'd stick to being close to the tram line

Take a look at this https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55768902.html

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65651059.html

SmashedAvacado

I would recommend Oxted

1 stop to east croydon - very good schools

herc182

Oxted is a good shout - didn't think of that. Very good value properties there (comparatively)

lookstraightahead

Sutton, or other parts of Surrey?

Murphybear

My first husband came from Sutton so I had a quick look on Rightmove (nostalgia :T) and was amazed at some of the beautiful properties for £600k. You could get 4 bedroomed detached so there should be plenty in your budget.

bouicca21

beckenham Junction to East Croydon takes 26 minutes on the tram. Beckenham is classic leafy suburbia with lots of cafes, restaurants and pubs, plus a huge amount of green space at Kelsey Park and Beckenham Place Park. Might be worth thinking about some of the other tram stops, like Birkbeck or the other branch from Elmers End.

Personally not too keen on South Norwood though I've never been quite sure why. it does have some nice properties and open space as well as the Stanley Halls for a bit of culture/community life. Plus the journey to East Croydon would be quicker.

Have you thought about Sydenham?

Plus

I'd look at the train timetables from the south. For instance, just about in radius is Horsham (35 mins), Wivelsfield (35), Haywards Heath (31), Three Bridges (21)/Crawley, Horley (14 at peak time), Caterham (28), East Grinstead (28), and lots more. Also, Gatwick is surprisingly rural if you can a) deal with planes and b) work out a route to get out of the airport - it's not really designed for pedestrians or cyclists.

Soundgirlrocks

bouicca21 wrote: »

Personally not too keen on South Norwood though I've never been quite sure why. it does have some nice properties and open space as well as the Stanley Halls for a bit of culture/community life. Plus the journey to East Croydon would be quicker.

South Norwood is on the up, its benefitting from the trickle down effect from Crystal Palace. Fast trains to London Bridge, the tram, and the country park. The Weatherspoons has been replaced by an Antic Pub (Shelverdine Goat House great food and real ales) and Costa on the high street. Quite a lot of terrace housing thought so might not be quite what the OP is after

bouicca21

Yep, that's a thumbs up for Shelverdine!