Where would you live?

[Beelee]

300k Budget
3 Bedrooms
Spacious kitchen/dining area
Nice sized garden
Within 1.5 hours from London
Close to good secondary schools

Are there any nice areas we could get all the above in?

Nowhere?

Giving a bump. Will be interesting to see the replies Op.

Worthing should do the trick

Stansted and surrounding villages.
Flitwick (Bedfordshire)

Done bits of Essex but you won't get a train line for that price...

@historysock what parts of Essex? Doesn’t need to be on a train line.

Braintree, Dunmow, more rural bits north of there? The further out you go the cheaper it gets and some of the villages are beautiful.
But you might need to compromise on some
Of your list (or get a fixer upper)
I whisper Harlow... it's cheap because the town centre looks awful (Good shops though) and some bits are rough-but the newer estates are the same as estates anywhere and it's brilliant for commuting to London.
Stevenage is the same.

Bedfordshire?

What about this?

A quick right move shows a lot of Braintree/Sudbury areas that might suit...

Braintree, Dunmow, Chelmsford.

Thank you - does anyone live in these areas and know if they are a nice place for teenagers?

Manningtree or Thorpe le Soken. Both have direct train services into Liverpool Street. You could also search for surrounding villages on those lines into London.