Best way to research an aera?

Soprano

I'm guessing would be to actually visit the aera itself, take a drive around at night to get a feel of the place.

But are there any websites which state the aera has a large council estate nearby for example?

benjdr

I'm not sure how you spelt "area" wrongly three times...but www.upmystreet.com might be of some use.

OrangeProse

Yes, upmystreet.com is definitely worth a look. You can search by area name or postcode.

I go on findaproperty.com sometimes, too. Search by area name, and when the list of results comes up, you should see a blue link near the top of the page that says "Show area info". Click that and it'll take you through to a page which gives you an area guide, plus reviews by local residents.

The only thing with findaproperty is that a lot of the time, the reviews posted by residents have a whiff of "estate agent's pen" about them as they tend to be overwhelmingly positive. Even in the roughest areas (and bear in mind that I live in a less-than-pleasant part of south-east London at the moment) you'll find lots of comments about "green spaces", "I know all my neighbours by name" and even "swans floating past my bedroom window" (hard to imagine in Peckham, I know).

Not that ALL reviews on findaproperty are nefarious... I'm sure a lot are genuine. I guess I'm saying that there's no substitute for either going up to the area you're interested in and having a poke round, or (if it's somewhere reasonably local to where you are now) asking around at work or through friends to see who knows what.

The other thing that I've been doing recently which is very useful is visiting prospective areas at different times - i.e. Saturday afternoons, and even trying out the commuter run (again, very important in London) to see how bone-gratingly horrible it is. Well worth a "dry run", wherever you're planning on moving to.