Moving to London with 4 month old

[SoonToBeDad30]

Hey all,
My wife, our 4 month old dd and I are relocating to London from Gloucestershire for job purposes. I’ll be working in Mayfair and we are looking for a quite a bohemian but family focused area. We are planning another child so need at least 3 beds and local baby groups and decent state primary schools as well as good nurseries. A private garden is preferable and the budget is roughly £500,000 any suggestions or particular areas we should look at?

Stroud was voted best place to live in the UK by the Sunday times this weekend. Looked quite lovely in the article

I currently live in Hackney (Stoke Newington) with DS who’s nearly 2. We’re about to move out to Hertfordshire. Whilst Hackney is vibrant and “bohemian” the housing market here is insane. A two bed terrace with a bit of concrete for a garden goes for +£1m. If space is important to you, you can’t afford what you want on your budget. 8 families on our street have moved (out of London) during the past 12 months. Primary school wise some are fantastic but catchments are very small, we are less than 5 mins walk to two outstanding primary schools but looking at past distances we miss out on both. Secondary schools aren’t great. I wouldn’t purchase a property on Dalston Lane.

I don't want to be negative, but I'm from a small town and I found living in london very difficult. It was exciting at first but it soon became stressful and overwhelming. I can't imagine living there with kids unless I had buckets of money, and even then...

Have you considered somewhere like Lewes? It's an hour and 15 min commute to Victoria and you'd get small town living amidst lovely countryside.

Hampstead Garden Suburb is lovely but the closest Tube station is a good mile away.

True, there are no tube stations in HGS, they are on the edge, @ChaBishkoot, but some of those flats are only 0.6 mile to a tube station. OP has said he might cycle to work. It's only 35 minutes by bike to Mayfair.

I’d also think about renting short-term initially while you find your feet.

I don’t quite understand why it wouldn’t be financially viable?

With a baby you could get away with a decent-sized 1 bed flat for the next 6months to a year easily, keeping the money ‘lost’ on renting to a minimum (even accounting for putting furniture etc into storage). Assuming you own now, you’d also be in a stronger position as a buyer as you’d be chain-free.

Would also look at Old Isleworth too. Some very good value properties on the edge of St Margaret's/Richmond.

I'm a born & raised Londoner & wouldn't buy a property in a part I didn't know extremely well without renting, I think it's crazy personally.

As a pp said you can have one road that you feel perfectly fine on & then 2 roads away less fine & catchments can be ridiculous, furthest offer at my primary was 350 metres.

I would advise you to look really carefully at secondary school catchments before you buy anywhere in London.

In the nicest possible way I think you will need to up your budget. I bought a four bed house for 500k but that was 12 years ago.

I think it’d also help to spell out a bit more about what you mean by ‘bohemian’. I don’t know if you want somewhere like Peckham which is very ethnically and economical diverse, rapidly gentrifying and becoming a ‘hip’ place to live (bars, restaurants, pop-ups etc).

Or somewhere like Crystal Palace which is a little bit more middle class suburban but still with a buzzy feel, popular with DINKYs and younger families.

Or East Dulwich which is a more affluent middle class version of Crystal Palace.

Or somewhere like Sydenham which is another notch or two down into ‘generic zone 3 London neighbourhood’ territory but very nice, more affordable, still got an artsy community side if you go hunting for it.

Or Catford which is cheaper, a bit rougher round the edges but again still artsy stuff happening if you know where to look.

(Sorry these are all SE London examples but it’s where I know but just want illustrate the diversity within a few miles).

In the nicest possible way I think you will need to up your budget. I bought a four bed house for 500k but that was 12 years ago.

3 beds for £500k is do-able but you’ll be compromising on something, you can’t ‘have it all’ for £500k. I think the OP has to decide whether they want a decent house in a good-enough area or a good-enough house/flat in a decent area. In either case ‘decent’ is not going to be ‘best’.

OP I realise this is probably a bit overwhelming

I'd definitely check areas out but don't think too much about boho or a good area.

As pp said, sometimes the line is just one street.

My local area was nice when I moved in and isn't so nice now. I wouldn't sacrifice space for somewhere you think is 'nicer" unless you can afford the Hampstead Garden Suburb type of place.

Forest Gate, as others have said, is a good bet. It's not wildly exciting imo but lots of families, lots of green space, good housing stock and decent schools. Some nice cafes and restaurants popping up in the railway arches. And you could get a 3 bed house with a garden. Also you're on the right side of town for East Anglia - trains for the east of England go from Liverpool Street and Stratford, which are in the east of London, and better for driving too.

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/58109870/?search_identifier=78b0501792ccc9d34962627ff99f314f

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/58108951/?search_identifier=78b0501792ccc9d34962627ff99f314f

That budget won't go far at all in London for what you want. If you do find anything it will be in the arse end of the not so nice suburbs.

You, say you cannot commute from Stroud, but you could get what you want within your budget and commute from elsewhere in the west country with fast trains into Paddington. Bath, Bedwyn and Bristol (either TM or Parkway) are all commutable to Paddington in around 1 hr. 30 and Cheltenham is also commutable at a pinch.

Should you decide to commute from any of the above places you need to budget at least 12k for an annual season ticket, which includes the tube zones 1_6 and buses.

Your family are in SE? You need to look at SE as your nearest port of call and suck up the drive to the other side!

Ahh didn’t see that your family are South-East. Mine are the same and I’ll be honest, getting out of London is the absolute worst part of visiting them. The south circular kills me.
Next year we’ll be moving to Bexleyheath/Orpington/Sidcup area and I cannot wait to just jump on the motorway and be there within 45 minutes rather than the hour and a half it usually takes. Just something to consider and a plus for being in the suburbs rather than more central

Try Loughton - nice family area and direct on the central line to bond st in 40 mins, plus is the right side of town for your relatives

@Snowbind

Try Loughton - nice family area and direct on the central line to bond st in 40 mins, plus is the right side of town for your relatives

Good thought Nice and not horribly overcrowded

Really look very carefully at school catchments. We moved to an area of London with a reputation for good schools (prior to having kids but it was on the cards) but didn’t really pay close enough attention and realised we bought in a bit of a ‘dead zone’ between the usual catchment areas for popular schools. Catchments can be tiny for popular schools.

Peckham might suit you. Locrating website is good for looking at properties and school districts all in one place. Often a few roads can make a big difference on which area you are eligible for. It links with zoopla. But you can then look at Rightmove for more properties.

I often where people choose after these threads. Hope OP returns!

I have recently moved to Loughton. Beautiful area, surrounded by Epping Forest with great high st, restaurants, gym and schools.