Closer to London vs much further out

[YolandaTheYeti]

Dh, the dcs and I are (finally) moving area (woohoo)! We have not been happy here and are so pleased we are finally able to make the move.

We had a list of possible options on another thread this week and we have now narrowed it down to;

1. move closer to London (dh works on the outskirts of London). His commute would be a lot better and I would have access to more work in London.

2. move right out to the sticks. DH would have a hell of a commute and have to work flexibly so that it would be viable; ie work three long days in the office and one from home. I would still be able to work, but it would be less due to dh’s longer days and also location. But, we could afford a bigger house, maybe detached and a bigger garden for dcs, (7mo and nearly 4yo).

Full disclosure; I prefer option 1. DH prefers option 2, as he doesn’t want to downsize to a flat, which we would probably have to do to live nearer London. In fact, he doesn’t really relish the prospect of downsizing at all, which makes moving closer to London very tricky.

Any opinions much appreciated.

Apologies for the second thread on a similar subject within a week btw, but it really helps to ‘talk’ things through and read others’ opinions.

There are some houses in your price bracket in Hampton. That's a much nicer area than Sunbury or Chessington

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67367005.html

I used to work in that direction. Lots of people commuted from places like Windsor, ascot, Marlowe, Henley, lots of places between reading and London would be possible to maybe get both. The trains from Surbiton/Kingston were not so good as no direct route and transfers didn’t match up well.

Thanks all.

oliver

Thanks so much for your support, but worry; dh will absolutely not convince me to go against my will! I don’t think he’d even try and if he did he’d get precisely nowhere.

I love Marlow and Henley! And actually there might be some work for me there too.

You cannot predict whether your children in 6 years's time will prefer city life to country life. Otoh your DH will be faced with commuting all the time which is always unreliable and sometimes sheer hell.
Remember that the three worst words in the English language are "rail replacement bus".

Have you looked at Isleworth at all? Lovely schools, great community feeling, monthly farmers market, nice coffee shops and river walk to Richmond and not far from Felthan either, it’s also cheap in comparison to surrounding areas. Our closest station is St Margaret’s and it’s about 30 mins to Waterloo.

Speaking is Isleworth there are also some nice parts of Brentford.

or Whitton. Looks like a nice quiet road

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-75515120.html

If you're looking at Brentford, I give you Southall again. Seriously, I went to Brentford last week, having barely been there since I was at school over 40 years ago. The High street is the same with lots of ugly 1960s developments, I remembered it all. But the riverside area looks like it's being exploited for luxury housing. It really felt like a town of two halves

I used to live in Brentford and I think it’s actually got a lot worse! They’ve been promising to redevelop it for years... I think offers are being accepted in Isleworth which are quite considerably below asking price, we’ve just bought so not great for us, but it’s worth speaking to local estate agents.