Cardiff area advice

tiernsee

My transgender son and his friend a transgender female are desperate to leave rural Devon where they have been harassed and bullied. They both love Cardiff and would like to go to college there. In terms of where to live they need to be within 30 mins of Cardiff Central. Any suggestions or places to avoid? Probably looking at buying up to £140k preferably house(son has a dog). I wondered about Treforest/Pontypridd given it is a University town? Thanks in advance. 

Marky4040

Treforest and Pontypridd are in the Valleys where they would likely afford a house but their not great places to live, especially as trans. Forget all the "welcome in the valleys" nonsense you see on tv, they are a different breed from town and city people with little tolerance for diversity. Treforest and Ponty are close together and a 25 minute commute to central Cardiff with frequent trains. Source of info - I lived in Pontypridd for 5 years.  

Cardiff Bay is called the "gay bay" for a reason. It's primarily apartments but there is some housing stock there.
It's easier to tell you areas to avoid in Cardiff which are - Ely, Tremorfa , St Mellons 

Anywhere East of the city centre has terrible transport links although there are plans to build a stop at St Mellons between Cardiff and Newport.

All suburbs North, South and West of Cardiff Centre (apart from the above) are decent places to live with often their own busy high streets. 
Cathays  / Roath - Student ville
Canton  - Lots of nice areas here mainly families
Pontcanna / Llandaff  - Where all the rich gays and tv people live
Adamstown / Splott  - used to be run down but now much improved with still affordable housing

There's a huge new housing estate called Plas Dwr being built next to Radyr on farm land, Radyr has a good train station with frequent services and a 10 minute ride to the centre. Apparently there will be lots of "affordable" housing on this estate.

Property prices in Cardiff have seen a big rise over the last 18 months extending out from the city centre, however those prices are forecast to level off the second half of 2022.

Deedoodee

I second Marky4040. I lived in Cardiff for 8years. I have good friends who have lived in Pontypridd for over 10years and do a lot of community-based work. Town is nice enough but diversity is really lacking. And I get the impression it’s a very small place/ ‘everyone knows everyone and their business’ type of place. I imagine their experience would be much better in Cardiff centre, but house prices are going a bit nuts there. 

tiernsee

Thanks for the comments. I had hoped that with the University of Glamorgan there Treforest/Ponty may have been more accepting. Any views on either Barry or Caerphilly? Prices in Cardiff are quite high for my budget 😟

trevormax

They will struggle to find a house in Cardiff for £140k, and any house that is in that range will be in areas they would likely prefer to avoid such as the outer East or West areas of Cardiff (Ely, Llanederyn, Rumney, StMellons, Pentrebane) or a run-down shell of a house needing a lot of work.

There are plenty of 1 bed flats/apartments available for around £140k, but given the whole fire safety thing that's been going on since Grenfell, many of these are cash only or come with high risk of ongoing safety costs, so may be unmortgageable.

Just outside of Cardiff, you have the Taffs Well/Treforest/Radyr area, but also there is Caerphilly/Abertridwr/Nantgarw in the other valley. These places are an easy 30min train ride or a 30-40 min drive from Cardiff Centre, and house prices in these areas are around the £140k budget you have for your typical 3 bed terrace house. These are small town/city areas, and therefore less diverse than places like Cardiff Bay. Treforest has a large student community, so does have a diverse range of people, and would be more welcoming than other parts of Pontypridd. Caerphilly is somewhere in-between Cardiff Bay and Pontypridd on the diversity range, being more diverse the closer you get to Cardiff.

Cactus_Flowers

If your son & friend are going to be in Cardiff at any point soon, it might be worth them dropping in to the Queer Emporium on St Mary's St to ask the staff their opinions - they'll know about whatever locations they live in, and will probably have insight if there are any specific areas of Cardiff better than others

tiernsee

That is a good idea. I’m going up to Cardiff with som this month and will go in there again (I have visited several times with him!) 

t1redmonkey

Cathays would've been a decent choice about 6/7 years ago in that price range (from my experience it's more of a progressive area because of the large young population/students up there), but I've noticed now everything seems to be more like £240k+ there now because of the house price boom.  I've lived there about 12 years ago, and have an LGBT colleague at work who currently lives there.  Might be able to get a flat in the £140k bracket now if they are ok with that - I think the flats in Cathays are either low rise or converted houses so most are probably not affected by the whole EWS1 thing as well.  I'm not too sure about Barry/Caerphilly, haven't spent much time in those parts.  I would echo some of the previous posts about areas to avoid though.

gettingtheresometime

I live 40 mins from Cardiff, north of Caerphilly,  & tbh even at £140k you'll be hard pushed to buy a house.

Marky4040

Cactus_Flowers said:

If your son & friend are going to be in Cardiff at any point soon, it might be worth them dropping in to the Queer Emporium on St Mary's St to ask the staff their opinions - they'll know about whatever locations they live in, and will probably have insight if there are any specific areas of Cardiff better than others

lol,oh you are funny, it's just called Mary's, hasn't been the Emporium for years. And you don't need to go asking in a gay bar where do the gays live in Cardiff

OP avoid the valleys they're awful places to live apart from Caerphilly. Barry is an option ( i forgot about that) just avoid Cadoxton.

I moved from Cardiff 6 months ago, lived there for 20 years. Don't go any further north than Radyr, no further east than Splott / Adamsdown, all of South Cardiff is great but pricey (includes the bay), no further west than Barry, which technically isn't Cardiff but a 20 minute train ride and on the seaside as a bonus.

Grizebeck

The valleys are what they are, because of their history. They are not bad places to buy a first home as they are cheap and you get good transport links into Cardiff etc
You cant worry about people being accepting you just have to get on with life
Yes the valley towns and villages are no oil paintings but you really can't go wrong a with a solid terrace house there ( given the price)