Moving to Kent - Tunbridge Wells or somewhere else?

[gottomove]

Not sure where the best place to post this is but here goes!
DP has been offered a job in Kent (we currently live in Yorkshire but not together) which he has accepted and now needs to find a place to live. As it's so far away and virtual tours of houses are a lot better now due to COViD we are hoping to get away with not going until he actually moves. Obviously that means finding a house to rent without looking in an area we don't know!

The place he will be working is an 8 minute drive from Tunbridge Wells so this seems like the obvious place to look and from what we can see online it looks like an ok place to live but just hoping to get some advice from anyone living in the area. Other areas we have seen houses are Southborough and Tonbridge, out of these 3 are there any places to avoid? And are there any other areas to consider? Ideally it would be no more than 20/25 minutes walk to a high street with a few bars/restaurants and shops.

He will be looking for a house share until I can (hopefully, job dependant) move down in the next 6-12 months and his budget is £600pcm including bills but looking on rightmove this seems doable in all of those areas.

Basically any advice is welcome, thank you!

TW is a great town, you can't really go wrong. Most areas are walkable to the High St and Pantiles in 30 mins

Lots of pubs and restaurants. Trains to London take about an hour. Many people commute daily

House prices are high

Traffic can be bad, not sure where your partner is working but 8 mins may not be accurate in peak times

The traffic is generally awful in T Wells so worth bearing that in mind when looking at your commutes, also bad in Tonbridge. Where is the new job? I may be able to help suggest some areas. Pembury is nice but has no 'town' so you would have to travel in to either Tunbridge Wells or Tonbridge for shopping etc.
If he isn't averse, could he become a lodger, look on spareroom.com. that could.give him the freedom to swap areas etc and find out where colleagues live and try a different place rather than being tied into a contract.

8 mins out of town in which direction? If it's north, then Southborough might work. Otherwise, he's going to have to fight through all the school traffic (4 secondary schools all near to the main road heading north out of town).

He will be working near Bells Yew Green so east of Tunbridge Wells, obviously if it's a bit longer than 8 minutes that's not the end of the world but will bear in mind that traffic can be bad especially north of the town thanks!

@coachnhorses yes it's galling that we were about 6 months off looking to buy a 3 bed semi up here but won't even be able to afford a 2 bed semi for a good while in Kent!

@Astrid01 he has actually seen a nice house near Pembury which is on the shortlist, do you know roughly how much it would be in a taxi to Tunbridge Wells? We both drive but as we won't be seeing each other very much we will go out for a meal/drinks when I'm there which is why we want to be close ish to bars and restaurants. Someone at the new company is going to get back to DP on Tuesday as he mentioned a few others live in house shares so is going to get more details but we will definitely have a look on spare room too thanks

Well you could go round the outside (east) edge of the town to get to Bells Yew Green and miss out the centre. That is a tiny hamlet with a pub, a village shop (at least, there used to be) and, bizarrely, a railway station. That's it.

@CallmeHendricks ha yes I could see from looking at google maps there isn't much there, that's initially why I didn't specify exactly where he would be working as it's quite easy to narrow down where he will be working! He will be happy to know there is a pub for a pint after work though

Just out of interest if anyone sees this thread again, what is the rental property market like at the moment? DP is struggling to even make contact with agents about potential house shares. He has seen a few different places he would like a viewing for/more information which are on with 3 different agents and he has been trying to call each of them since last Tuesday but just can't get through to anyone? Also messaged through Zoopla and replied to the adverts on Facebook market place but isn't getting any replies! Do you think it's because they are all being snapped up? I know where we live it's really hard to get rentals at the moment?

Getting a bit desperate as he is due to move in just over 2 weeks!

Sorry, no idea.

Which sites are you using? Are you on spare room?