Where to live in Birmingham?

[Destinysdaughter]

Me and DP both live on our own but are planning on pooling our resources and buying a place together in Birmingham. Neither of us live there but he works there. We are in our 50s so schools aren’t an issue. Our budget is 350-400k. I really like Mosley but it is pricey. I’d like somewhere that has good public transport links and is safe, and has some good local cultural life?

Would really appreciate any advice as to where pp would recommend living? Thanks!

Public transport wise - moseley & kings heath have the number 50 bus, which comes along every 2 minutes. The 35 and the 1 are also pretty frequent.

Utterly shocked at the places people are suggesting to you.
Has anyone been to kings heath recently?! I'd avoid it like the plague.

Harborne is nice but you'd get very little for your money.

Stay away from edgbaston unless you need to live on the skirts of the city centre. It's prostitute central (gilet road, anyone?)

Sutton Coldfield or Solihull are the ones I'd go for. Posher than Birmingham but still close enough to the city.

arf@ Gilet Road. Did you mean Gillott Road?
Edgbaston south of the Hagley Road is usually OK.

OP, Birmingham will be holding the Commonwealth Games in 2022 - that might make a difference to your choices. Will Kings Heath station be open by then: I would have thought so, or is that expecting too much joined-up thinking on behalf of Them In Charge.

See I am worried about crime especially as I don’t drive and would be using public transport

Bournville is extremely safe. In ten years of living here, I've only once felt unsafe walking home from the station at night. You have the very good quick, every-10-minutes cross-city train service, plus the Pershore Road bus services, plus the glorious Number 11 bus.

Do a whole circle around Birmingham on the Number 11 - it'll take 2 hours & you'll see the whole city and all its variety!

And if you look outside of the Bournville Village Trust, prices drop markedly.

Apologies for the spelling error @senua

Didn't mean to make anyone 'arf' 🙄

No worries. Gilet Road sounds very naice and middle class.
(I only mentioned it in case OP tried to find it on google maps)

It does 😆 tbh, i did think it looked abit strange when I wrote it.
I must be dreaming of warm padded waistcoats.

South Birmingham
Moseley can be nice, unless you're on the sparkhill border.
Kings heath is nice, unless on the druids heath border.
Transport is buses at the moment, crime not anything I've had a problem (moseley on the sparkhill border is bad though)
(I work in moseley and lived in kings Heath).

Selly Oak and edgbaston have some nice houses. In selly oak it's best to be on the bournville border and edgbaston near the harbourne area (otherwise you're in student areas).
Harbourne and bournville are nice. But harbourne is terrible for traffic and Bournville isn't as nice near kings norton.
Good transport links (bus and train) in all these areas, again I've not had any crime problems.
(I've lived in selly oak on the bournville border, worked in harbourne and studied in edgbaston).

Solihull is nice, hall green is okay. Shirley is where I plan on buying a house, on either the hall green or solihull border. I live near Shirley now, but nearer to yardley Wood. I'd avoid the yardley Wood area to buy.

North Birmingham
Sutton Coldfield is your best bet. Steeetly is okay, not much going on round there though. Transport is better is Sutton as there's trains. But stay away from anywhere near the kingstanding borders. I lived in kingstanding and it's awful, loads of crime there lately, stay far away from there.

As for a little outside Birmingham, houses in Tamworth and Knowle are nice, I've got family in both. But houses in Knowledge tend to be quite pricey. Tamworth's not too bad and there's decent transport and shops.