Commutable Towns and Cities close to London

Consecca

Hi,

I am a single living 38 year old male who is looking to buy his first property.  Still got a bit of saving to do but while I am still saving, I wanted to seek out some advice on recommended towns and cities to move to that are considered within commutable distance into London. Areas that are no more than 50mins by train.

Thanks
Dean

Getting_greyer

Luton or bedford

vitaweat

Woking, Guildford

numbercruncher8

TBH it might be difficult to recommend, and depends on budget. Places such as Luton or Crawley are cheap, and have good regular transport links into London because of the airport. But they might not be the nicest places. Other places far outside of London such as Brighton are almost as expensive as London.
Should also say London terminals are not equal and may depend on your circumstance, no point getting a 50m ride to Cannon Street if your destination is Hammersmith.
Train fare relative to job as well has to be considered. Ebbsfleet or Ashford are closer to St Pancras (in terms of time of commute) than many tube stations, but the season ticket cost may be disproportionate to salary. But by contrast Dartford or Redhill can be accessed with Oyster card.

silvercar

Also consider the cost of the commute and the distance from the train station.

Thrugelmir

Where in London will you be working? 

Ibizafan

Rugby has a commute of 50 minutes tops to Euston and has attracted a lot of Londoners to the town. The house prices are very attractive compared with similar journeys much closer to London.

Emmia

I think the area of London you work in and/or the terminating station (for connection to tube etc.,) are key to this question. Also what do you consider a reasonable commuting time?

blue_max_3

The thing is, if it's about 50 minutes away (and I have found almost any commute is about an hour no matter where it is!), property has already factored that in the price. I once thought I'd look at the end of a tube line, but found the prices actually rose in price as it was a more desirable place to live. You'll need to look a couple of hours away to see any significant improvements in price affordability I think.

[Deleted User]

Anything on the high speed line from Kings Cross St Pancras through Kent will save a lot of money in buying costs.., but as already pointed out, then you have to work in how much you will be paying to commute.  For what you'd pay for a one bed flat in London, you could very easily buy a two bed house (so no leasehold costs). 

davidmcn

Given it can take the best part of 50 minutes just to get from one London terminus to another, I think you'll need to be more specific about where you're commuting to.