Renting in Essex? Is it possible

[lucy2204]

Will be looking to move from the area I'm in within the next couple of months, to essex (maldon, witham,mayland,romford,greys ) it will be me and my partner plus 2 children and a well behaved dog,I will also be working 24hrs per week,partner will be looking for work to.
is it possible?
All the houses I've seen to rent are around 850+/1000+ pcm (only moving due to no jobs in the area we live in,very small town&would like to be near family) I'd be bringing in just under 800 a month so that wouldn't even cover rent. I know il get help (uc) But know one seems to take hb there, any private rent landlords on here with any houses coming up or people who rent in the area an know the best place to look

Not sure if this is in the right place

I'm it sure where in the country you could private rent on £800 pm single income. Can you up your hours/ partner get a job first? Why Essex is it where your work is?

Look at places further out like braintree and colchester! You have focused on some "desirable" areas and some too near London

Colchester is lovely, I would probably join some local Essex pages on FB and ask your questions there.

You'd be fairly barmey to move somewhere so expensive, close to London and with such pressure on housing in the circumstances you describe. You've pretty much already sussed out the problems. Move somewhere cheaper.

I live in one of the towns you mention and average rent is about £1300 PCM for a three bed house. I know a friend in Wickford rents a two bed flat in a dodgy area for £800 PCM. Essex isn’t cheap because of its good, fast transport links to London.

It’s worth scouting round the areas you want to live in and checking out the adverts boards in shops for private landlords. I would do this with very low expectations and the intention to move under an alerting agent/social housing asap, most likely when your partner has a few payslips under his belt.

To be honest the dog does make it harder, we’ve always gone through a letting agent and applied for anywhere that doesn’t explicitly state absolutely no pets and offered a pet deposit (c£250) for the cats.

I doubt you would even get a 2 bed flat for £800 here (1 of those areas).

Romford is basically the very outskirts of London, prices are not cheap.
Maldon and Witham are the "better" parts of Essex and also not cheap.
Have a look on right move and see what you can get for that price in areas that are convenient for whatever reasons you want to move to Essex.

Where will you be working? Witham is near Colchester, Maldon and Mayland are miles from Romford (which is in the London Borough of Havering, not Essex) and it's a busy route in rush hour.
Grays is a bit rough and rundown.
I live in Romford, it's good for commuting to London. A three bedroom house within walking distance of the station will set you back around £1400 a month.
Don't underestimate the upfront cost of moving either; you'll probably need about £3k for the deposit and a month's rent in advance.

You're probably looking at 1000+ for a house, most likely 1200/1300, Maldon and Witham probably on the slightly cheaper side. You might want to try Braintree or Colchester as mentioned. Hard to manage with not much income coming in and reliant on UC, it's an expensive place to live and we both work. Do you have to live in Essex, it's only expensive due to proximity to London, there's nothing special about it and lots of London crime is moving out here (not a native Essex person ).

A friend of mine rents a 2 bed Victorian terrace in Bocking near Braintree, for £900 pm. Sweet house, lovely garden but expensive.

If Maldon and Witham are considered the good parts, god help the rest of Essex.

I would not class Maldon and Witham the "better parts of Essex" either.

Doesn't have to be them areas, just there the areas our families live in, we plan to save before making any move was just to suss out where would be cheaper out of the areas obviously won't move till we have a decent amount of money behind us, by the sounds of it would be better if partner had a job lined up before going there tho,thanks for all the replies

OP, all the areas you mention are not great areas of Essex (Romford and Grays are actually considered more of an extension of London) and are very expensive because of the good links to London.

If you are looking for cheaper Essex rentals you will need to consider Colchester and further and more rural/coastal areas.

There's always Basildon that is very cheap, but not as desirable as some of the other towns you mentioned.

Colchester's nice