Moving from rough part of London to Birmingham

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Hi all

I'm new to this site so I hope that I've posted this in the right area!

I'm a recent graduate, with an 11-month-old and another child on the way!! London is too expensive for us to live comfortably (Garden, drive etc), so I have been considering moving to the West Midlands for the last two years.

I went to uni in the East Midlands and enjoyed the quiet roads, neighbours being friendly etc... but do also like the option to have a good time and not be tooo far from the city!

I work in the city for a big four finance firm and I have managed to save up enough money to afford a tiny flat on my rough estate or a big (I think) house in Brum! I would be able to transfer to the Birmingham office of my company, partner would have to find a new job but shouldn't be too hard as every company has HR roles!

Our budget is around £300k, maximum £350k (mortgage). We would like 3 bedrooms minimum, 4 would be nice.

I would like to be close enough to commute to Broad Street/Snow Hill area in under 45 minutes, 30 minutes or less would be ideal.

Good schools, primary and secondary are also very important. Our first born is a boy and second is a girl, so would need mixed gender schools.

We are of Caribbean descent so it would be nice to live in a multi-cultural/diverse area, but at the same time there have been so much shootings and stabbings in my area in London so would like to be in a decent area too!

This is one of the main reasons for wanting to move to (a nice part of) Birmingham so that our children don't have to grow up through what we (I) did.

I've heard about Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, Moseley, Solihull... where else is nice!?

Main concerns are the commute to the city (for me) and good schools for the kids.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks all

In Birmingham, most suburbs are actually quite mixed.
As an example, you have mentioned Edgbaston. There are many beautiful, multi million pound houses in Edgbaston, and there are also some quite impoverished areas in Edgbaston.
Selly Oak has been mentioned as being a student area - one part (between the train station and the University) is, but there are several other parts, also with a B29 (Selly Oak) postcode, that are really nice, and "sought after".
You can go on and on - lots of areas are like that.
If a house is advertised as being on BVT (Bournville Village Trust), then it is generally a 'sought after area'.
All that said, it is worth asking about particular roads or houses once you start looking (come over to the Birmingham 'Local' site), as areas do vary within suburbs.

If you intend to drive in, my advice would be to not live on the North - which rules out Sutton Coldfield. It is a nice area, but the traffic on the Aston Distressway is awful (this is the A38M that goes between the City Centre and Spaghetti Junction). Generally my advice would be to live near the Cross City Train line and use that.

Or look at trains in from Hall Green or Acocks Green, which go in to Snow Hill, and not New Street. A different line from the cross city line.

Harborne is lovely, but it would be a lengthy commute for your partner if they were driving. Also, I'm not sure where you'd send your son to secondary.
Edgbaston is also nice, and a very easy commute, but if you're using the state sector it's not an option.
Where will your partner be working? Driving into the city isn't practical from bournville, kings Norton, Moseley, kings heath etc.

Arf @ Aston Distressway backforgood!

I'm lucky enough, when I cross the City, to be going the opposite way from the bulk of the traffic, and I thank my lucky stars each time that I don't live in Sutton / Erdington etc. - lovely though Sutton Coldfield is, it's just not great if you want to drive into the City.

I live near Hucknall. It’s a tram ride into Nottingham then train to London.

Bromsgrove/Redditch areas have good schools and you have nice countryside very nearby too. The right side of town to get to the M40 easily as well.

All this driving into the city talk! I would never commute into the centre in rush hour from Sutton Coldfield but the trains on the cross city line are ok. For that reason I've always lived near the cross city line. It's nowhere near comparable to the tube (I'm from London) but it's generally ok.

However for comparison I drove into the city yesterday (half term, not in rush hour) and it took about 15/ 20 minutes.

You don't have to drive into town. I don't understand those that do.

I'm in birmingham now until Friday afternoon! I've got my car - what areas should I definitely take a drive through? A route would be perfect

Through Edgbaston to Harborne, across through Selly Oak and past Weoley Castle to Bournville then down through Kings Norton and Northfield to Longbridge.

Make sure to stop off in Bournville for a wander through the parks and to smell the chocolate in the air!

Go beyond Longbridge and have a walk in the Lickey Hills

Pop into the Communitea cafe on Boldmere High street in Sutton Coldfield for a break and then take a walk into Sutton Park 10 minutes away.

@EduCated thanks for the route!! I used it last week.

Really like Edgbaston and Harborne.

Moseley and Bourniville are nice too, would opt for bournville though because of train station.

On way to kings heath, moseley, from bournville drove through stirchley and didnt like that area!

I do think I will move to brum but probably around 2020!!