Anyone from Southend/Essex?

Pauper_Princess

Hi all,

Having FINALLY paid off our loans and credit cards, OH and I are going through a bit of a life assessment-thing at the moment!

Both 33, no kids, I'm an accountant, OH is a postie :rolleyes: but doing some IT course in spare time.

We live near Leeds at the moment but through family, not choice. We've been thinking about moving elsewhere but no idea where. Would prefer - family reasons - to be at least a good few hours' drive from here!! OH has a friend living in Southend so we've been talking about that tonight.

Couple of quick questions:

1. What's the housing market like there (obviously well aware of the price diffs to Yorkshire!!) I mean would we be be completely priced out? Obviously a lot depends on how much I could earn I guess.

2. What's the job market like? Had a quick look just now and there don't seem to be an awful lot of accountancy jobs but may need to register with an agency.

3. Really embarrassing this but how far afield could I look for a job - is it commutable to London?? (OH's friend lives and works in Southend!)

Thanks for any guidance

Nenen

Can't possibly tell if you'd be priced out without knowing what your budget is! Have a look on rightmove and here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/html/kf.stm

It is possible to commute to London from Southend, lots do it, but it is reknown for being a terrible railway line (possibly worst in the country) with loads of trains late or cancelled. You stand most of the way during peak times too! Personally I'd HATE to commute but it all depends upon your endurance levels.
A good friend of mine moved to Leigh-on-Sea a couple of years ago (nearby but supposedly posher than Southend:D ) and loves it.

Lomion

2 bed flats tend to go around £110-125k, 3 bed houses anywhere from £170-210k. You can rent a nice place for around £550/month. Searches on Rightmove using SS0, SS1, SS2 postcodes will give an idea what's about.

http://www.reed.co.uk/ is what the missus uses to find her Accountancy jobs. They have an office in the High Street. Average local salaries for a qualified management accountant start around £18-20k. She's never had trouble finding a job when she needed one.

Commute into London takes about 55 minutes to get to Fenchurch Street. Season ticket costs about £3k. The trains are all fairly new, but it can be standing room only during the rush hour peaks. Like anything, you get used to it

inmypocketnottheirs

Being Leigh on Sea born and bred, and having lived in Westcliff I feel suitably qualified to comment. You will of course note that I now live in Cheshire. I still have family in Leigh and thus have relevant experiences of the area.

Leigh, Chalkwell and Thorpe Bay are the better areas. The 'greater' Southend area taking these parts in, is in my opinion very over crowded. It is commutable in under an hour to London Fenchurch Street (handy for the City, where accountancy jobs are abundant). Less crowded are outlying areas such as Hadleigh, Rayleigh and the surrounding villages. But the whole South East corner is very heavily populated and does suffer from heavy traffic, and the road network is not up to carrying the volume of traffic. Try driving from say Chalkwell to Basildon to arrive at 8.45 am.

Old Leigh, the area on the water side of the railway line is very picturesque. With the cockle sheds and Leigh Bawleys (the fishing boats) and pubs like The Crooked Billet and The Peter Boat, it is a nice place to walk and eat seafood. Also the whole Thames estuary is great for sailing if that is your bag.

However, having been away for almost 17 years, would I move back there? Not on your life! Too crowded, too little bang for your buck, both in terms of property prices ( and yes, I could move back there on a like for like basis) and general cost of living (and standard of living) too.

But why not go down for a week, and try the area out. It may be to your liking. After all, there are plenty who do like the area.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

djbd1973

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Being Leigh on Sea born and bred, and having lived in Westcliff I feel suitably qualified to comment. You will of course note that I now live in Cheshire. I still have family in Leigh and thus have relevant experiences of the area.

Leigh, Chalkwell and Thorpe Bay are the better areas. The 'greater' Southend area taking these parts in, is in my opinion very over crowded. It is commutable in under an hour to London Fenchurch Street (handy for the City, where accountancy jobs are abundant). Less crowded are outlying areas such as Hadleigh, Rayleigh and the surrounding villages. But the whole South East corner is very heavily populated and does suffer from heavy traffic, and the road network is not up to carrying the volume of traffic. Try driving from say Chalkwell to Basildon to arrive at 8.45 am.

Old Leigh, the area on the water side of the railway line is very picturesque. With the cockle sheds and Leigh Bawleys (the fishing boats) and pubs like The Crooked Billet and The Peter Boat, it is a nice place to walk and eat seafood. Also the whole Thames estuary is great for sailing if that is your bag.

However, having been away for almost 17 years, would I move back there? Not on your life! Too crowded, too little bang for your buck, both in terms of property prices ( and yes, I could move back there on a like for like basis) and general cost of living (and standard of living) too.

But why not go down for a week, and try the area out. It may be to your liking. After all, there are plenty who do like the area.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

I agree with inmypocketsnottheirs. Give it a trial and stay with your friend perhaps.

The area is overpopulated and Prescott has plans to build a whole corridor of thousands of houses still maintained by the same two roads that can't cope with whats there already. There are quite a few accountants in the area but as already mentioned, a commute is easily done but you would need to get up very early to get a seat on the earlier trains.

I personally would look outside of Southend for a house if you can - perhaps slightly nearer London or north of Southend along the A130/A12 areas because when there is an accident on either of the roads into/out of Southend, then you have had it.

Rightmove.co.uk is a good network for houses. Tudor Estates is one of the better estate agents -http://www.tudorestates.co.uk/

Good luck

shykins

why dont u look the other side of the river to southend ie the dengie area.. there is still atrain line into london which takes about 50mins at peak times and the houses are a bit cheaper... average 3bed detached £220k

u can drive to southend in about 35mins (depending on how far on the dengie u are) especially if u know the backroutes lol.... chelmsford has a big GPO office so maybe hubby could transfer?

HTH

Pauper_Princess

Thanks for all your replies!!

I hadn't really thought about it being crowded - whenever they talk about building new homes "down south" I tend to switch off - short attention span!!

Thought of 2 hours + commuting every day's a bit scary too At the moment I only have a 5 minute drive to the office!!! But I work out of the office a lot so I'm used to early starts and queuing on the M1 :rolleyes:

I'll have a look at Reed and see what sort of jobs they have. At the moment I work in practice - didn't really enjoy industry! - and earn a "good" salary for round here but I wouldn't mind taking a pay cut (although would like to be able to still buy a house!!)

Was very shocked to hear you can rent for £550 - am off to look on Rightmove (haven't a clue have I!!). In a rush sorry cos washing machine mans just arrived!!!

Thanks again

robwend

i live in southend <great wakering> and have done all my life, jobs are good nice most areas<avoid anything westcliff really> hamlet court road area horrible. 45 mins on train to london.also prittlewell right next door is nice. pm me with questions if you like

Bungarm2001

I left Essex about 4 years ago having lived most of my early life in Southend, Westcliff and a little place called Toot Hill which is nearer to Epping than Southend. I also lived in Tillingham which is on the Dengie peninsular, not a million miles from Southend, but totally without any form of public transport. (one reson why we moved!)

I used to commute to London every weekday when I lived in Southend, and did it for 12 years..yes the trains do get bluddy crowded at peak times, but so do all peak time trains across the country in my experience. I also remember well the 'friday fiasco' in Liverpool street when the trains were cancelled on such a regular basis at evening rush that we didn't even bother going to the station, but went straight to the bar instead! :beer:

Property prices were pretty reasonable about 15 years ago, then there was a bit of a boom as the BTL property investors moved in. It makes me laugh now when I remember my first house in Westcliff cost £10,500 (3 bed semi)

The main roads are pretty bad..the infamous A13 and A127 not to mention the A12 which is nearby all suffer in rush hour(s) The amount of traffic gets worse every year because of all the new builds..for instance, in the 6 years that I lived in Tillingham, they put in at least 3 new roundabouts on a minor road leading to Southminster (nearest town with a rail station) just to provide access to all the new estates, which incidentally were mostly built on flood plains (watch out for this if you DO decide to move there and start looking at newly built housing, especially around the Chelmsford or Maldon areas):eek:

Other little towns around Southend are worth a look..sometimes the property prices are less. Leigh and some parts of Westcliff are pretty expensive now, but I believe Prittlewell and Rochford are holding their prices.

Anyway, as someone here posted...would I go back to Southend to live? Absolutely not! We live in Derbyshire near the National Park and I wouldn't swap the moors for the marshes of Essex now if you paid me...!!

Good luck with your decision. Going for a week long 'look-see' or even longer is a good idea!

robwend

well i love southend. its great!! lovley people. great for socializing, great transport links and by the sea. its really each to there own

webitha

ive lived in southend and westcliff ( mum still does near the ariport) and i would not live there again if you paid me sorry robwend people are not lovely at allall i got was abuse and being laffed at all because i didnt have a essex accent which is hideous btw and so is soiuthend on mud
leigh is nice people nice thereand rayleigh has a fab rock scene

but that is just my bad experience you might like it and you wont know unless you get down there for a bit