Affordable areas to buy a house - mixed race family?

[OhPlums]

We're a mixed family, living in the outskirts of London so it's still been very multicultural. We're looking to move before DD starts school next year and have enough for a deposit for a house (320k top end but could stretch to 350k if we sold off an asset).

We'd like a 3 or 4 bedroom to settle down for a good number of years but the biggest draw back is lack of diversity when searching, it's been a massive shock for us when looking at figures recently. Is there any area you'd recommend? Not looking for the diversity we have where we live or where I grew up in London but just somewhere without feeling out of place or DD being the only minority as she's been talking about race when coming home from preschool and is now very aware of it already.

[Hope4theBestPlan4theWorst]

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/94661135#/

This village isn't miles from where we are but the nearest city Lincoln has a direct train to London and if you drive 20 mins more to Newark the train service is more frequent.

Have you considered "up north"?

[Hope4theBestPlan4theWorst]

There is a huge hospital in Lincoln and staff from all nationalities and lots of them live in the surrounding villages

Meant to add that!

[OhPlums]

Thank you @Hope4theBestPlan4theWorst !

I should have added that I'll have to commute to work (in London) at least a couple of days a week and although would consider 2 hour's commute (which would allow either a car or train journey to fall back on if there's issues with one of those methods), I think Lincoln might be too far.

[Hope4theBestPlan4theWorst]

@OhPlums
Lots of people round here commute;

You could look at somewhere like collingham near Newark perhaps? They have a train station in their village.

Just thinking you'd get a nice family house from within budget further north.

Lincoln is (under normal circumstances) a vibrant university city and as mentioned a big hospital and 2 prisons (male and immigration removal) and there is a new mosque here and lots of other faiths have places of worship too.
There is a beautiful cathedral aswell.

Maybe once this latest round of chaos Is over (2nd Dec or after) you could visit some of these places - and get in touch with local groups and ask to meet them? It's very hard deciding to relocate when you aren't sure if the areas and a big decision - hopefully you'll find something suitable soon 😊

[OhPlums]

Thank you! I'm going to do some research.

It's one of those things where I've been so concerned about other factors like moving DD away from my family when they will show her a diverse mix of backgrounds as well as continuing to have the social life I have with friends I have locally and us all not moving and feeling isolated. I really wanted to stay closer by but I just don't think it's doable

[Ellmau]

Reading's quite diverse and has some nice areas, while being commutable to London.

Generally speaking you'll find towns are better than country villages for diversity.

[OhPlums]

@Ellmau are there any specific areas you'd recommend?

[Mondy]

Leeds is very multi-cultural, the cul-de-sac I used to live in had people with at least 10 different ethnicities, some people had lived in the street since the street was built 30 years ago, others like us 10+ years, some a matter of weeks, everyone got along fine, it was a great place for my step-daughter to grow up, she grew up without any prejudice, simply seeing people as people.

Leeds is like a mini-London in many respects, there's great road and rail links. £300k will get you a really nice house.

Chapel Allerton is where everyone in Leeds wants to live, it's within your budget too:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-81747856.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-75210807.html

These are brand new, great road connections and a nice area (not as posh as Chapel Allerton but it's still pretty posh by my standards!):

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-99278765.html

A few more, all in decent areas:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-93584597.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-96622082.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-84357982.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-73399224.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70447236.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83405179.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-80144587.html

Alwoodly - posh!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65352477.html

River views:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-76979773.html