I would like to ask for advice on nice family safe areas in London / nearest commuter belt.
We are looking to buy a quality 3-bed house with driveway & decent garden - budget up to 550-600k.
Both work in central London (Euston/ Farringdon/ city) and have plans to have kids quite soon, so looking for good state schools catchment areas and nice parks.
Would be great to have a nice high street and commute to central London no longer than 30-40min (up to 70min max door to desk), preferably underground, but train could be ok.
Basically looking for something "Villagey", as described earlier in other thread as - not having to leave your area to do things eg lots of places to shop, entertain & eat & green space very close by, [but also within daily commutable distance to central London].Â
We are quite flexible in terms of directions and have no specific wider family/friends restrictions, but South-West or North would be preferable I guess...
- Sutton / Cheam (tricky to find the "right" part of it for the commute + decent environment?)
- Carshalton (pricey?)
- Epsom (a bit longer commute?)
- Kingston / Surbiton / Teddington (pricey?)
- Walton-on-Thames (further and further away)
- Barnet (any options within this budget?)
- Ruislip (haven't really properly checked yet)
On the east side we might be considering:
- Chingford (not too many good schools?)
- Chigwell / Loughton / Epping
- Woodford
- Upminster
Any feedback on those areas and where exactly to search within those or anything to stay away from?
Any other nice areas we've missed?
Any specific schools within those to keep an eye on?
We have just recently started looking and are not in a rush, I would like to take my time choosing the home where we will raise our kids.
We are planning to buy next summer and it is already quite difficult to find the right quality/money balance and understand where to focus our search so would really appreciate your advice!