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Commuter towns with good schools and low crime rates?

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letitbe90
letitbe90 Posts: 345 Forumite
in House buying, renting & selling
Hi all,

Currently I am residing in London (Havering area) and am thinking to buy a house in the next 2 years. My budget is flexible in that, I am happy to spend anywhere ~£300,000 but can also stretch it to a maximum of £500,000.

As I work in software (London), I would need to be able to commute to London ideally within an hour.

St Alban's seems to be an ideal choice, but are there parts of London I could also consider? I can see there are some really good schools in the west side of London, but I am guessing they will be out of my budget.

It would be either a 3 bedroom house, or a 3 bedroom apartment (i.e. those developments with facilities such as concierge etc) that I'd be aiming for.
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  • shirlgirl2004
    shirlgirl2004 Posts: 2,983 Forumite
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    Chelmsford has 2 of the top grammar schools in the country. Train to liverpool street is 35 mins. Know lots of people there and I've never known one to be burgled, car stolen etc.
  • tiernsee
    tiernsee Posts: 296 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Mortgage-free Glee!
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    Another mention for Chelmsford (where I grew up and went to School). My Dad worked in Central London and my Mum taught in Havering. Within Chelmsford, Springfield and Broomfield used to be nice areas.
    Colchester also has good schools, is cheaper for housing but further to commute
  • letitbe90
    letitbe90 Posts: 345 Forumite
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    Chelmsford is a good shout, thank you guys.
  • bouicca21
    bouicca21 Posts: 6,514 Forumite
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    Even £500k won't go far in St Albans.
  • MF2015
    MF2015 Posts: 333 Forumite
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    Saffron Walden and the surrounding villages. Fast trains into London and excellent schools. Perfect for a bit of country living if that!!!8217;s your thing.
  • Brookside88
    Brookside88 Posts: 338 Forumite
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    market harborough? maybe a bit further out than you'd have considered
  • AndyBSG
    AndyBSG Posts: 986 Forumite
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    I live in Chelmsford but would add some words of warning to the above recommendations.

    The Town Centre itself is very good, you really do have everything you need there.

    However, the transport network is terrible.

    The buses are ridiculously overpriced and extremely unreliable. If you are planning on getting the train to London then you really need to look at cycling to the station or being in walking distance.

    The train itself also isn't great. In comparison to C2C it is much more expensive with much older trains and there seem to be constant engineering works of a weekend.

    Driving and parking in the Town Centre is also pretty poor and the Army & Navy roundabout is notorious despite it being the main gateway to the City.

    Also, there's a HUGE amount of development planned over the next few years with the number of homes in Chelmsford due to increase by over 20% from 70,000 to 90,000+.

    Given that the road network is already at 96% capacity and no new roads are planned I honestly don't know how it will cope.

    On the plus side, they are planning on building an extra railway station... But they've been planning that for over 20 years and even if it does go ahead it won't happen for another 10 years at least :)

    All that aside though, I moved to Chelmsford from London and wouldn't back to the big smoke for all the money in the world.

    Also, if you work in IT there's plenty of local companies that pay fairly reasonable wages in comparison to London.
  • pimento
    pimento Posts: 6,242 Forumite
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    Rayleigh or Hockley are worth a look.
    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." -- Red Adair
  • letitbe90
    letitbe90 Posts: 345 Forumite
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    AndyBSG wrote: »
    I live in Chelmsford but would add some words of warning to the above recommendations.

    The Town Centre itself is very good, you really do have everything you need there.

    However, the transport network is terrible.

    The buses are ridiculously overpriced and extremely unreliable. If you are planning on getting the train to London then you really need to look at cycling to the station or being in walking distance.

    The train itself also isn't great. In comparison to C2C it is much more expensive with much older trains and there seem to be constant engineering works of a weekend.

    Driving and parking in the Town Centre is also pretty poor and the Army & Navy roundabout is notorious despite it being the main gateway to the City.

    Also, there's a HUGE amount of development planned over the next few years with the number of homes in Chelmsford due to increase by over 20% from 70,000 to 90,000+.

    Given that the road network is already at 96% capacity and no new roads are planned I honestly don't know how it will cope.

    On the plus side, they are planning on building an extra railway station... But they've been planning that for over 20 years and even if it does go ahead it won't happen for another 10 years at least :)

    All that aside though, I moved to Chelmsford from London and wouldn't back to the big smoke for all the money in the world.

    Also, if you work in IT there's plenty of local companies that pay fairly reasonable wages in comparison to London.

    Thanks, that is very helpful and insightful.

    As my work is consultancy based (work on a day rate), with most of the financial institutions being in London (paying in excess of £500 a day), opportunities like these are rare outside London (similar jobs maybe £300'ish a day?). The difference in cost of living unfortunately isn't covered by the wage drop.

    This is the reason I have kind of restricted myself to commuter towns.
  • smem18
    smem18 Posts: 79 Forumite
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    I can recommend Borehamwood. We moved there in December 2017 and are really liking it. Its 30 minutes on the train to Kings Cross. There's a big Tesco Extra supermarket, a good high street with adjacent retail park - so there are all the shops you could ever need, dentist and doctors that are currently taking NHS patients, green spaces and parks, good connections to the motorways...

    St Albans is really expensive and I don't actually think you would get much for your money there. You could get a 3 bed in Borehamwood for £350-£500,000 though (low end of the scale would be a "do-upper"). Also, I don't have children, but my colleague also moved to Borehamwood because he said the schools are excellent.
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