Affordable, family-friendly commuting town near London

[giovanabrei]

Hi everyone
I'm new here and I hope I picked the right thread!
I'm moving to England in a couple of months, as my husband got a job in London. We are Brazilians currently living in Japan and we don't really know London except as tourists.
Our idea is to live in a commuting town approximately 1h from central London, where we hope we can rent a 3-bed house with a little more space for the kids. We have a 2yo boy and another bun in the oven.
I'm really worried we could miss out on something critical during our research and end up in a trap for not knowing the city secrets...
I'm also worried about some news about a "London exodus" and prices going through the roof in commuting towns...
Husband will work from home 3 days a week, so commuting costs will be reduced, yet not negligible. Any advice on this? AIBU? :-)

Actually, you might be able to get a 3 bed in Burgess Hill or maybe even some parts of Haywards Heath for around £1300pcm. Then train would be £300-400 a month for 2 days. So you'd end up just on your max budget and right at the 1 hour commute mark.

Some parts of Crawley might also be affordable, but in those parts you'd need to get a bus to Three Bridges station before getting on a 40-50minute train.

@CyberdyneSystems

Daventry, Rugby, Northampton, Northamptonshire

I don't think any of these will be commutable to Blackfriars within an hour.

Does your one hour commute need to be door-to-door? With some of these suggestions you could end up walking 30 minutes before you even get on the train because anywhere closer to the station in desirable commuter towns will be out of your budget.

I've been looking at the costs for Bicester Oxfordshire. Rent for a 3 bed is around £1300 per month but the travel costs would put you over budget. A daily train ticket is £66.90, £160 for 7 days or £604 for a month. If it was possible to juggle the travel days around so they were at the end of one week and begining of the next so that you only needed to buy one 7 day ticket every fortnight you might get away with a total cost for rent and commute of around £1600.

Bicester commute would be over the hour, more like 1 hour 30 mins.

Arlesey in Bedfordshire is 50 mins to Blackfriars.

Oh how lovely of so many to judge Stevenage !
I live here , moved from west London and I’d never call it a shit hole.
Shitty parts ? Yes of course but every where has areas like that!
We have a detached 5 bedroom house , lots of fields and woodland for great walks and wildlife , I can get into London in 25 mins and drive in ,in 45.
Great independent restaurants both here and in neighbouring towns ..
The town centre is not nice but it’s being regenerated and for shopping we have lots of retail parks nearby and Watford isn’t far.
If I want more high end shopping then we just go into London.
I don’t regret moving here for a second .

Surely it can’t possibly be per week? Mumsnet is like a different world

Here’s a nice looking house in Reading which is walking distance to the station (about 15 minutes) for £900 a month: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/89779630#/ it’s also very close to a good primary school if you plan to stay there for a few years.

Oh how lovely of so many to judge Stevenage !

When a town within commuting distance of London is cheaper than equidistant others, there is a reason, and the reason is that not many people want to live there.

Leighton Buzzard is a 30 minute train to Euston which might work, a four bed house a few minutes walk to the station is £1,350.

Some parts of Hemel Hempstead or Watford might be cheap enough but it’s closer to 2 bed money

I'm in Surrey / Hampshire borders and have lived around here for a while.

Aldershot - you would probably get a 3 bed house at a push for £1500 but the commute is about 1hr from Aldershot into London Waterloo.

Guildford - the rents are quite a bit higher than Aldershot and a 3 bed would probably be about £2k a month. The commute is a little shorter, again into Waterloo.

But if you look into it a bit more aorund these areas there are lots of little villages where you may get somewhere for £1600 ish a month but again that would be ontop of any commuting costs. Also village train stations may mean you have to change trains at a main line station.

There are commuter coaches to Blackfriars from Kent, which are probably a bit cheaper than the train if you have to travel at peak times. For only a couple of days a week they might be a reasonable prospect. You would probably still need to budget around £180 a month for two days a week though.

Have a look at The Kings Ferry, but I think there is more than one company.
It may be the coach goes through communities without a station, and those places are likely to be slightly cheaper to rent.

Hi op, I wfh 3 days and commute to London 2 days a week. I live in Peterborough and either travel in from her or Huntingdon, about 30 mins by car closer to London. It cost me about £400-500pm (including parking) to commute and is roughly an hour from Kings Cross. So I leave home around 7 and get home around 7. A1 corridor towns and cities that are reasonably priced - Peterborough, Huntingdon, St Neots, Sandy, Biggleswade. Can only really vouch for Peterborough, Huntingdon and St Neots.

Oh and 3 or 4 bed houses on the outskirts of Peterborough (nice family area) are going for between £1,000 to £1,300pm.

Leighton Buzzard is a great commuter town. 30 min fast train service into London Euston. Would recommend living on the Linslade side which is nearer the station. In summary, a lovely market town with good amenities and great schools.

Look east along the cross rail route. Maybe you can find a deal between ilford and Romford. Lots of families and good schools, but still a bit rough around the edges, which suits your price bracket...

Out by us it's doable. Something around Sanderstead/Riddlesdown stations, 3 bed for 1400, about £15 a day on the Oystercard (z6) for a direct thameslink train into Blackfriars. Very quiet, excellent local schools. Not very exciting and the local shopping area is Croydon but it fits the criteria.

We moved to Croydon to allow exh to travel to Blackfriars area.

It’s actually very nice but the budget you’ve described might not allow for it.

Look at the Thameslink train routes as others have suggested, so he can go straight into Blackfriars station. To balance commuting costs you might want to look at zone 6 rather than commuter towns further out. Zone 6 is the last bit of london where london fares apply - there is usually a price jump once you leave the london zones. Zone 6 is generally a bit inside the M25 motorway which circles london.

Try Three Bridges, Crawley, Horley, Redhill and that way.

@Goslowlysideways

Bromley is in London but on the edge. Good schools and even has its own Brazilian shop.

Rightmove has got only 7 3 bedroom houses to let in Bromley at around £1500 & they are all in Downham

We are considering a budget of 1,500-1,600 for rent and commuting

Absolutely no chance.

What about Folkestone? 55mins direct link to St Pancras. Up and coming down, very popular with commuters and families. Seaside.

*town not down. I am tired.