Where would you live outside of London for £550k?

[Pestoandsun]

Hi all

DP and I are looking at buying a house outside of London, commuting in to work a few days a week. I work SW London on Waterloo train line (about 15 mins from Waterloo), he works in the City. I would commute in about 1/2 days a week but probably could wfh longer term, he currently is in office 3 days a week.

We have probably around £550k to spend, ideally 3 bedrooms so we’d have room to have proper home office setup, we’d like to be somewhere with a bit going on, some pubs/shops. I’d like to have a small garden. Ideally walking distance (which could be 20 mins) to train station. It would be nice to be somewhere with quite a bit of green space around, good hiking. I don’t want to be right in the middle of a really busy big town.

We both much prefer period properties to new build.

Does anyone have any ideas or live anywhere like this?

Ideally towards Bristol or south direction if pushed. We’d be having children in next few days so probably good schools but don’t know much about that yet!

Thank you!!

Windsor, 550 won't get you something pretty but the area is. And you can get the train to Waterloo or go via slough for paddington.

I’d given it a look but yes I don’t think my money will stretch too far there!

@Pestoandsun

Here's a few more I thought were nice for the budget

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139050902

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86484729#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139443470#/?channel=RES_BUY

I've lived in Windsor by the way and hated it- it's bang on the flight path and it's from 4.45am to midnight- by the time we moved we were sleep deprived. It's worse at some times than others but it is kind of ever present- people said you get used to it, but we never did. The nice areas are out of budget and the not so nice areas aren't nice at all (in my opinion) if you went west I would look at Wokingham -

Farnborough has its good and bad parts same as anywhere. Great transport links and nice community feel.

Thank you for looking these up! I hadn’t heard of Godalming, it looks nice! Wonder how far the money would go. Probably wouldn’t go Epsom.

Yes that sounds understandable about Windsor, it’s probably a no for me too.

Will have a look at Wokingham too, thanks

Hi, we live in Alton, end of the line into Waterloo. 55-70 mins depending on he time, fantastic town, markets, multiple supermarkets (Waitrose, sainsburys, M&S etc), good schools and a great mum network (everything is WhatsApp groups so you integrate fast). We moved here in 2019 from Hertfordshire and love it, very quiet vs Guildford (which is very busy, I don't recommend personally). We have the brand new Everyone Active gym/pool too and loads of clubs for kids. 20mins to Basingstoke shopping, 45mins to Southampton Quays. About an hour to the beach. 20mins to bird world, Alice Holt, and Hogsmoor Enclosure (bordon). Good Thai, Chinese and Indian restaurants. Honestly we looked around for months before moving and love it here. Suggest you drive around towns and think about what you want. We think Farnham and Guildford are over-rated for the prices.

Good luck.

Rochester could work, or Hoo Penninsula, but you'd have to drive 10mins to get to the station!

Epsom, Ewell, Ashstead, or Chessington.

Bishops stortford would fit your list. It's a great place to live.

North Hampshire or Surrey, you can get some lovely villages around and on the Waterloo line.

Horsham , mainline train and could def get 3 bed for that

My friend just moved to bishop Stortford and it looks really pretty

Have a look of surrounding areas of Reading - Caversham, twyford. The train connections from Reading are very good, into waterloo and Paddington/ Lizzie line.

Thank you, I think the quick trains all go into Paddington and only the slow ones into Waterloo (or change and tube of course) which will be a bit much for me unfortunately. Thank you though!

In relation to the south east area by the sea, £550k could go quite far. Depends if you want something to do some work on or whether you want something ready to move into?
This, for instance, walking distance to Margate train station which has fast line to London, opposite big green open space and walking distance to the beach but probably needs new bathroom/kitchen/decor. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86645484

These are all places I have family and friends know like be at and also worked at.

Dorking trains take about 1hr 15 to get to Waterloo. The London Victoria trains are slightly faster but the rail company is more unreliable.

Haywards Heath has some fast trains but again an unreliable service.

Oddly never been on train to Horsham.

I wouldn’t want to live in Woking but am an SE escapee and like living way up North so not the best to ask.

Thank you this is all really helpful. Know those train routes aren’t always the most reliable, frustratingly! I probably need to go and do some visiting

We’re probably looking for somewhere with minimum work doing, certainly not the whole house - though it’s good to get an idea of the prices for that in case we rethink. We’d obviously need to spend quite a lot on the work so would need to find the property at a lower price too

Hartley Wintney in Hampshire would fit most of the bill but not sure how far the budget would stretch there

Battle? Pretty town, good village and town schools, train.. you ll get detached house here for that price.. 90 mins to London bridge

I had looked that up but unfortunately 90 minutes for train will be too long to commute, we’re looking for under an hour for the train journey. Thank you though, it looks lovely there!

From a quick google I can’t see a train station so would need to drive every day which might be tricky? I’m not sure where nearest train station is

Hook or winchfield

Those are houses linked are not great places to live in Guildford and not near the good schools. Budget not high enough for Guildford IMO. Also so much of the housing is not near the train station in Guildford