£400k budget, 2-3 hours from London - AIBU to ask where you would live?

[HensInTheSkirtingBoard]

DP and I currently live on the Surrey / London borders and want to move.

We have a budget of approx £400k (although could be stretched a little for the perfect place) and I will need to be in London for work, max once a week, so needs to be commutable within around 2.5 hours on the train.

Minimum 3 beds, good size garden for chickens, bees and veg (yes I know it's a cliche )

No new builds or 'executive' estates (sorry). Quirky is fine.

Would like to be within walking distance of a village at least (don't want to have to get in the car if we run out of milk) and ideally somewhere that has a bit of a 'community' feel - pub, cafe, etc.

No school-age kids so we don't need to worry about catchments.

Where would you move to in our situation?

I’d think about which other areas of the country you need to access and go from there. Eg, if your DS doesn’t have a job after uni and needs to move home would he be able to commute to London or wherever for interviews? Or get a local job? Possibly not if too rural.

Do you have ageing parents who you want to be able to drive to in less than an hour or two? That’s what I’d be basing my decision on. Don’t go too rural unless you’re used to it- it can be isolating unless you’re very good at mixing and joining in at church/committees/WI/golf club etc.

I’d look around Castle Cary. Some lovely villages and should get something decent for your budget (it will get you more house if you head into Shepton Mallet, which isn’t the smartest place but has a lovely community, or will get you more land if you head away from Castle Cary towards Yeovil). How about something like this? www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/105349244#/

If you need a separate home office this would be nice... www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/105349244#/

York! Less than 2 hours on the train, 400K will buy you a nice house. And it's lovely.

Castle Cary? very rural, train to London.

@HensInTheSkirtingBoard

That's useful about Northants - we've got family there but I'd never really liked it tbh , maybe worth taking another look.

We don't need schools - ds is at university.

I quite fancy Cambridgeshire / the fens but it's probably out of our price range?

The Fens would be within reach, but not Cambridge itself.

Cambridgeshire (we are to the west of Cambridge - about 20mins by car - in a large town). Direct train route from our town to Kings X in London, which takes 45mins on the fast commuter train. 50mins-1hour on one of the trains that stops a lot. A1 road is also straight south down to London. Town has everything we need - lots of restaurants, cinema, and tons of pubs. Shopping wise, there is less in the way of clothes shops in the town itself, but if we want to go clothes shopping I'd usually pop to Cambridge (~20min drive) or Milton Keynes (about 40min drive) or Rushden Lakes (~30min drive).

A 3 bed with a garden would likely be anything from £325-£425 depending on how big garden is or whether its been extended and up to a decent spec.