the best place to live if only can afford £300K for buying a house?

[happyfishcoco]

hello everyone.
recently My DH found a full 5-day WFH job. And as I quit my job for my DC, now just have some freelance job. So we don't have to stay in London anymore.

we both don't like crowded places, living in London is just for work.
We never live in other cities before, not sure if we can fit in.

Now I live in London in a 2-bedroom flat.

And I really want to move into a house with a decent garden, at least 3 bedrooms, as the second baby is coming and My DH need a room for his home office.

And I need a good school catchment!!
good primary school (maybe move again for a good secondary school 5 years later?)
or give up primary school, only target good secondary school.

I have a look many many places, £300K is really not enough.

1. three bedroom house
2. garden (I am happy maybe just 300 ft )
3. in good school Catchment
4. good area, less crime and less racism

Any recommend? thanks a lot

I would recommend Wales if you're looking for good state schools. Education standards and outcomes are lower than England and your post suggests private or tutoring isn't an option.

But Selby is manageable if you do like the North Yorkshire area and it’s only 12 miles from York and 20 from Leeds. Good rural village schools too and an outstanding rated high school

Sorry, I meant wouldn't recommend Wales as regards educational standards.

Northampton

Lincoln or Norwich

Time warp house with potential

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126769220?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

Modern with next to no work required

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126536702?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

brand new, and in the catchment area of one of the highest ranking state schools in the region

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/125283386?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=new-homes&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_NEW

lol yeah, sorry I mean 300 sq ft,
may I know where do you live?

We were in a similar situation and ended up in Chester - green surroundings, smallish safe feeling historic city centre, good shops, friendly people, 30 min to beaches, within reach of North Wales and Peak District , 2 hrs train to London if you need to get back to visit friends or for work occasionally. So far so good!

Sheffield. All the benefits of city living, with the Peak District on your doorstep.

www.propertypal.com/61-starbog-road-larne/758187

Is this garden big enough!

totally outside the box. Crawfordsburn in Northern Ireland.

beautiful village - good primary school, Great grammar schools close by. close to Belfast city airport

www.propertypal.com/crawfordsburn-village-brow-bangor/d2615/photo-7

feon Thai little development you can walk across the road to the crawfordsburn inn. Country park on your door step. Primary school in walking distance.

From this little development that should have said!

Newton Mearns, in East Renfrewshire on the southern edge of Glasgow. Big city on your doorstep, with rolling moorland the other way and only 25mins to the coast. Two of the best performing secondaries in the country are there (Mearns Castle HS and St Ninians RC HS) and the primaries are very good. You can get a 3 bed with garden for £300k, although parts of NM are blingy and houses go up to £1.5m. But it’s all low crime and all of it is leafy and “nice” with shops.

It’s a bit of an unplanned sprawl, of cul de sacs and various housing areas from 1920s-brand new (bit of a dormitory town compared to London) but very popular, lots of green space and almost wholly middle class with driveways. It’s quite diverse (for Scotland) as families from all cultures are attracted to the schools, but not quite multi- cultural.

Oh, and the carrot of free university education for Scottish school leavers at Scottish universities does attract families from down south.

On the third link, what is the thing at the end of the bed called, it's not an ottoman but like one.

York is lovely but very expensive!

A slightly odd chaise longue maybe

Of, given you cannot lie out full length with a partner, a chaste longue!

Go to Wales, but in a cheap area but put your kids in Welsh language school. It’s basically a way of getting your kids into a ‘better’ school if you can’t afford high house prices.

Forest of Dean has some cheaper but still good places to live, which may suit your budget. Maybe along these lines:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/125913452#/?channel=RES_BUY

Otherwise I'd agree you may need to look further north.

West Midlands + 40 miles brings over 7,000 3-bed properties between £200k and £300k

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E61378&minBedrooms=3&maxPrice=300000&minPrice=200000&radius=40.0&sortType=1&propertyTypes=detached%2Csemi-detached%2Cterraced&includeSSTC=false&mustHave=garden&dontShow=retirement&furnishTypes=&keywords=

you need to narrow your search down a bit more. Do you want city/town/suburb/village? Do you need to be near a motorway? A train station? Do you want new build or old? etc

It’s offers over. It will go for more than 300k. It’s a different buying system in scoltland.

£300k would get you a big 4 detached house with big garden and garage in a lot of parts of the north east

West Bridgford in Nottingham ticks all your boxes, albeit not huge houses for your budget, it's a great place and amazing schools