Nice areas of Suffolk or Norfolk?

skm1981

I'm looking to move out of London as really want to be mortgage-free.  This would probably give us a budget of around £300k, and I just wondered if anyone knows what areas would be nice in Norfolk or Suffolk?  I've only ever been on holiday there, so only really been to the more touristy areas.

I really like the idea of being in a village setting, yet not too far from the beach (ideal would be within a 15-20 minute walk).  Schools are also important as I have two primary school aged children.  

youth_leader

I've been looking at Norfolk. You might like Sheringham, Wells Next The Sea, Cromer. Train station is at Sheringham. 

Ditzy_Mitzy

What sort of thing are you looking for, property-wise?  You could probably get a two bed bungalow fitting those requirements fairly easily, but would struggle with a larger house or character property.  You'd also get far more for your money if you were prepared to consider moving inland.  There's a lot of Norfolk and Suffolk that isn't coastal and you'll have the benefit of not having to compete with everyone else from London who's trying to move into the same small-ish bit.  Be aware, though, that there isn't a hell of a lot there and secondary schools are fewer and further between than in a lot of other areas.  A lot of people end up with fairly long commutes to their nearest sizeable towns for school and work, thus it's something to consider for when the children get older.  
It would be helpful to know what your other requirements are too: close to town; close to major roads; within commuting distance of London, Ipswich or Norwich; number of bedrooms; how much parking (tend to get more of that the more rural you are).  Also, have you got the time or inclination to take on a house that isn't connected to the full range of utilities?  All houses will have electric and an ordinary telephone line.  Fewer have reliable broadband connections, some lack reliable mobile telephone reception and others aren't connected to gas or water mains or mains sewers.  It's not all like that, but you'd need to be living somewhere a bit bigger to get the full range of urban utilities. 

FreeBear

youth_leader said: You might like Sheringham, Wells Next The Sea, Cromer. Train station is at Sheringham. 

Sheringham can get overwhelmed when the North Norfolk Railway has one of their weekend events on - The 1940s weekend brings the town to a grinding stop along with Holt & Weybourne. Suffice to say, the coast road gets gridlocked as well.

Wells is nice, but doesn't cope with the large volume of traffic during the summer months. During winter, it is pretty dead - Also very isolated compared to some of the other villages in Norfolk. Unlike Sheringham, Wells has big, wide open sandy beaches. Some nasty rip tides, and it is very easy to get stranded when the tide comes in - You really do need to watch the children as several have drowned in the area.

Cromer, nice beaches, fairly good access to Norwich (also has a railway station), but house prices are creeping up. Overstrand isn't too bad, but I'd avoid the other side of Cromer (East/West Runton) - One narrow coast road that gets clogged with traffic most of the year.

Avoid anything within 5 miles of Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft - Really not nice places. Dereham isn't much better, but it has improved a little in recent years.

Diss is seeing several new housing developments being built - The ones Sis was looking at, right next to the main Norwich<->London railway line. Great if you don't mind hearing trains rumbling through every hour..

Thetford - You don't wanna go there. The best bit about Thetford is the A11 bypass. Stay on it, and keep going until you are out of the woods.

Holt is nice. A bit isolated at times, and the houses tend to be a bit more expensive - Retirement belt for the better off. Good school though.

Aylsham - Vastly improved in recent years. Fairly quiet, but not too far from Norwich. Regular bus service, and also has a railway station - OK if you want a narrow gauge trip to Wroxham, but not a lot else.

Wroxham - Meh... Just watch where you buy. It is on the edge of the Broads, and flooding is a concern. Also getting close to Gt Yarmouth.

Norwich - Only a couple of hours from London by train, three hours by road. Forget trying to go North or West. Road links are appalling. Some good schools, and a couple of not so good ones. Within striking distance of the coast either by road or train.

Slinky

Can you work from home or are you planning on getting a new job in your new area? Salaries are nothing like London, where jobs are available, a lot will be minimum wage.

A few miles inland you will find places that are not gridlocked in summer and empty in the winter, yet are still driveable to the coast within 15-30 minutes. We thought about living in a coastal town but decided that even if you paid a lot of money, it would still be very easy to end up being surrounded by holiday lets and Airbnb places, where there is likely to be a lot of noise every week from different folk on their holidays.

ETA, if you do want coastal, have a look at Old Felixstowe.  It's not all docks there, there's good value housing a short walk from the beach.

DairyQueen

A budget of £300k won't stretch very far for a family home across much of Suffolk. The coast (other than Lowestoft and Felixstowe) is expensive courtesy of London second-homers. Much of the coast is protected land so coastal villages are at a premium. 

What you seek (nice village, good school, walking distance of beach) is a particularly costly combination. There are many nice villages with good primary schools inland but pressure is high on the catchment areas of good secondary schools. Bear in mind that you may need to move and pay a property premium when your children reach secondary age.

£300k will buy a 3-bed detached or 4-bed semi in a cheaper town like Stowmarket or Ipswich. Expect much higher prices in 'desirable' towns like Bury (St Edmunds), Framlingham, Clare, Lavenham, Woodbridge.

Halesworth, Beccles and Bungay are nice, small towns within 20 minutes of the coast and offer similar prices to Ipswich and Stowmarket. 

Villages are more expensive generally, and especially those that offer services and good schools. I doubt you could meet your 'nice village, good school' criteria inland on a budget of £300k. Up that by £100k and you would have a decent choice of 3-bedders in good villages and 4-bedders in cheaper towns. £500k would open up the cheaper end of the 3-bed, village market on the Suffolk coast but that excludes the 'end of the central line' 2nd-homer villages: Southwold, Dunwich, Aldeburgh, Walberswick, etc. £300k could buy a couple of beach huts there (slight exaggeration but you get my drift).

We may be in the sticks but we have super fast broadband, good mobile signal, mains electric, water and sewage. Mains gas is rarer than hen's teeth in most villages.

ratechaser

FreeBear said:

youth_leader said: You might like Sheringham, Wells Next The Sea, Cromer. Train station is at Sheringham. 

Sheringham can get overwhelmed when the North Norfolk Railway has one of their weekend events on - The 1940s weekend brings the town to a grinding stop along with Holt & Weybourne. Suffice to say, the coast road gets gridlocked as well.

Wells is nice, but doesn't cope with the large volume of traffic during the summer months. During winter, it is pretty dead - Also very isolated compared to some of the other villages in Norfolk. Unlike Sheringham, Wells has big, wide open sandy beaches. Some nasty rip tides, and it is very easy to get stranded when the tide comes in - You really do need to watch the children as several have drowned in the area.

Cromer, nice beaches, fairly good access to Norwich (also has a railway station), but house prices are creeping up. Overstrand isn't too bad, but I'd avoid the other side of Cromer (East/West Runton) - One narrow coast road that gets clogged with traffic most of the year.

Avoid anything within 5 miles of Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft - Really not nice places. Dereham isn't much better, but it has improved a little in recent years.

Diss is seeing several new housing developments being built - The ones Sis was looking at, right next to the main Norwich<->London railway line. Great if you don't mind hearing trains rumbling through every hour..

Thetford - You don't wanna go there. The best bit about Thetford is the A11 bypass. Stay on it, and keep going until you are out of the woods.

Holt is nice. A bit isolated at times, and the houses tend to be a bit more expensive - Retirement belt for the better off. Good school though.

Aylsham - Vastly improved in recent years. Fairly quiet, but not too far from Norwich. Regular bus service, and also has a railway station - OK if you want a narrow gauge trip to Wroxham, but not a lot else.

Wroxham - Meh... Just watch where you buy. It is on the edge of the Broads, and flooding is a concern. Also getting close to Gt Yarmouth.

Norwich - Only a couple of hours from London by train, three hours by road. Forget trying to go North or West. Road links are appalling. Some good schools, and a couple of not so good ones. Within striking distance of the coast either by road or train.

And yet, for some inexplicable reason, I have an elderly relative that actually wants to up sticks and move to Gt Yarmouth to spent her remaining retirement years. And she knows well what it's like. And I've reminded her many times.

I've given up, no helping some people!

FreeBear

A taste of what just £200K will get you - ttps://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83283446.html

Not sure I'd want to be too close to the cliffs though. A few good storms, and you'd be on the beach like much of Hopton.

Slinky

ratechaser said:

FreeBear said:

youth_leader said: You might like Sheringham, Wells Next The Sea, Cromer. Train station is at Sheringham. 

Sheringham can get overwhelmed when the North Norfolk Railway has one of their weekend events on - The 1940s weekend brings the town to a grinding stop along with Holt & Weybourne. Suffice to say, the coast road gets gridlocked as well.

Wells is nice, but doesn't cope with the large volume of traffic during the summer months. During winter, it is pretty dead - Also very isolated compared to some of the other villages in Norfolk. Unlike Sheringham, Wells has big, wide open sandy beaches. Some nasty rip tides, and it is very easy to get stranded when the tide comes in - You really do need to watch the children as several have drowned in the area.

Cromer, nice beaches, fairly good access to Norwich (also has a railway station), but house prices are creeping up. Overstrand isn't too bad, but I'd avoid the other side of Cromer (East/West Runton) - One narrow coast road that gets clogged with traffic most of the year.

Avoid anything within 5 miles of Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft - Really not nice places. Dereham isn't much better, but it has improved a little in recent years.

Diss is seeing several new housing developments being built - The ones Sis was looking at, right next to the main Norwich<->London railway line. Great if you don't mind hearing trains rumbling through every hour..

Thetford - You don't wanna go there. The best bit about Thetford is the A11 bypass. Stay on it, and keep going until you are out of the woods.

Holt is nice. A bit isolated at times, and the houses tend to be a bit more expensive - Retirement belt for the better off. Good school though.

Aylsham - Vastly improved in recent years. Fairly quiet, but not too far from Norwich. Regular bus service, and also has a railway station - OK if you want a narrow gauge trip to Wroxham, but not a lot else.

Wroxham - Meh... Just watch where you buy. It is on the edge of the Broads, and flooding is a concern. Also getting close to Gt Yarmouth.

Norwich - Only a couple of hours from London by train, three hours by road. Forget trying to go North or West. Road links are appalling. Some good schools, and a couple of not so good ones. Within striking distance of the coast either by road or train.

And yet, for some inexplicable reason, I have an elderly relative that actually wants to up sticks and move to Gt Yarmouth to spent her remaining retirement years. And she knows well what it's like. And I've reminded her many times.

I've given up, no helping some people!

Two of my brother's favourite places to visit are Skegness and Clacton, neither of which score highly on many others desirable places to live. To each their own.

Ditzy_Mitzy

FreeBear said:

A taste of what just £200K will get you - ttps://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83283446.html

Not sure I'd want to be too close to the cliffs though. A few good storms, and you'd be on the beach like much of Hopton.

It's nice that, lots of character but I'd be dubious about taking on a property of that size with no central heating.  It could probably be fitted, but it's presumably gone without for years and might be damp.
More to the point: half a million quid to live in Overstrand!  No thanks - feel sorry for the locals being priced out.  It's the same here in Essex, though.  

skm1981

Thank you for all the responses.  Will have a read through all of them later.  With regards to what I'm looking for, I'd ideally like a 4 bedroom house, semi-detached or detached or a bungalow with off street parking.  I don't mind going inland more, it doesn't have to be by the coast, but I do like the idea of being within walking distance of the beach, but I drive so not a problem.  

Work-wise, currently I have a part time job in London and I am also self-employed outside of that.  I plan to give up my London job and just continue with the self-employed work.  My husband is a delivery driver but is open to other options, but financially I think we should be fine.  

Being near to some shops would be nice, but again not essential.  Definitely need to be somewhere with a good broadband connection for work really.  We won't be commuting into London, although will be heading back to Kent/South-East London every so often as my parents live there.

I guess in a dream world, I would have a detached 4 bed house, has to have at least 2 bathrooms, a reasonable size garden, doesn't have to be massive, nearish to some shops, in a village setting but also walking distance to a quiet beach, rather than the touristy type.  Saying that, I quite like the look of Bury St Edmunds and found this house, but no idea what the surrounding area is like https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-73163293.html.  I really am open to any suggestions.  I just want to be within a 2 hour-ish drive of South East London/Kent borders, but I don't want to live in a rough area if you know what I mean.  Enough of that where I am now!