Where to live in Birmingham?

[Taskmasterlover]

Only post on here to get some responses. Looking to possibly move to Birmingham sometime next year - want to be within a 30-40 minute public transport commute ideally. Budget is £450k for a 4 bedroom house, want a nice family friendly area, happy with new builds.

Any suggestions of areas? Thanks

There's been a good mix of suggestions. Some certainly are in Birmingham (Harborne, Moseley, Bournville, Bearwood, etc), some bordering and some within an easy commute.

Lived in Sutton Coldfield for over 40 years. Brummie born and bred. Brought our 2 children up here. Nice restaurants, pubs, beautiful Sutton Park, good schools, primary and secondary. Agree the Town centre needs improving. Ventura Park at Tamworth is great, about 15 mins away. Birmingham city centre is about 20 minutes away by car. Michelin star restaurants, world renowned CBSO. Theatres, cinemas, the usual for a major city. Of course there are negatives to living city life as there are to living rurally and small towns.

@Pottedpalm

I lived in Sutton Coldfield and went to school in Erdington many moons ago. Had a Saturday job in the old BHS when it was British Home Stores and on the opposite side of the road. Still visited regularly until DM fied s few years ago. Nothing particularly pretentious about the place, unless you lived in Four Oaks Private Estate, or Rosemary Hill Road, for which you would need megabucks. There are many beautiful areas of Birmingham; perhaps when you start looking and spot a property you like, come back and ask opinions?

That's a great idea, thanks!

Tamworth
Lichfield
Sutton
Solihull

all lovely as are Kings Heath and Harborne

Ignore the negative comments Birmingham is brilliant - lively and full of culture and interesting stuff - I moved here from Liverpool and it's almost as good !

Handsworth, Ladywood, Winson Green or Lozells all have a lot of big families in. Alum Rock is also lovely too. Some nice old terrace houses.

A lot of the areas mentioned also have a 25-35 minute flat cycle into town along the canal and/or parkland cycle path (Rea Valley cycle path), as an alternative to public transport commute, and faster too, in the mornings. Harborne is less good for public transport links than some of the others mentioned, which pretty much all have train stations. I've lived in Harborne, Moseley, City Centre, Stirchley and now in Kings Norton.

@ipseity

There was a thread on here recently where many people stated they hated living in or visiting Paris and were describing it as a complete hell hole. On the flip side, there are obviously many, many people who absolutely adore Paris. This happens with every city around the world. It’s all subjective - you may hate Birmingham, but there are millions of people who either live there, who plan to move there or who love to visit who won’t feel the same way as you.

Agree with this.

I live in what most people consider a beautiful city, but there are some areas that aren't great, it's expensive, traffic is shit. I'm sure the experience of growing up here has been very different for my son and his middle class friends, to that of less privileged kids in less desirable parts of the city and probably have very different ideas of what living here is like.
Interestingly, he and his friends have left to go to universities in places like Manchester, London and Birmingham, and I think all appreciate there are pros and cons to both types of city.

coffeerunner

I'd stick with Edgbaston, Bearwood & Northfield. Possibly Streetly if budget allows.

Streetly is far nearer to Walsall than Birmingham - much to their dismay 🤷🏻‍♀️

@converseandjeans

coffeerunner

I'd stick with Edgbaston, Bearwood & Northfield. Possibly Streetly if budget allows.

Streetly is far nearer to Walsall than Birmingham - much to their dismay 🤷🏻‍♀️

But still easily commutable within half an hour. It’s pretty much bang between Sutton and Walsall.

@CrazyCatLover

Handsworth, Ladywood, Winson Green or Lozells all have a lot of big families in. Alum Rock is also lovely too. Some nice old terrace houses.

Are you seriously recommending Alum Rock to someone who doesn't know Birmingham and wants to settle there?

OP there are lots of good suggestions but Alum Rock isn't one of them.

@campion I highly doubt she was being serious. Betger to ignore her.

Try Droitwich way, regular trains to the center, or Bromsgrove.

Most of my family are moving further out to avoid the over crowding and poor schools.

I live in South Birmingham (longbridge/northfield/Rubery border) and I really like it. Moved here from Lincolnshire 10 years ago and wouldn’t leave.

Bromsgrove might suit your requirements OP. It’s classed as Worcestershire but is still a B postcode.

The location of the station in Bromsgrove really annoys me. Not really in Bromsgrove, but the trains are very frequent and fast into Birmingham City Centre. Bromsgrove town centre is not looking great either these days.

The town centre thing is only relevant really if the OP doesn’t drive and will always just be popping into the local town.

Let’s face it Northfield and Rubery town centres are hardly worthy of praise. But they function for what you need and you can drive to many a shopping centre and go into city centre for culture.

I think the point I’m making is I wouldn’t buy a house purely based on the town centre when it comes to birmingham...because there’s like a million other town centres that are easily accessible

I get what you mean @JoshLymanIsHotterThanSam, i just didn't want OP to be expecting great things if the local shops in the town mattered to them.

Op are the schools here important to you?

Be aware that pretty much any commute is going to take longer than you expect. My 10 mile commute is averaging 45 minutes either way.

However, living within a 2 minute walk from doctor, dentist and pharmacist, plus corner shop and 2 bus stops one way, while a mile from the countryside the other makes up for it. With the nearest hospital 3 miles away (good for DW and her list of specialist).

(I'm pleased a few posters upthread were a bit snobby about areas, as it means it'll keep the twats out of ours. Being able to take a 15 minute bus journey into town one way, and a 15 minute walk into the countryside the other isn't for everyone).

[quote HumunaHey]@campion I highly doubt she was being serious. Betger to ignore her.[/quote]
*Better.

What’s all this about? I’ve always lived around these areas and there is nothing wrong with them so what exactly are you suggesting is wrong?

OP asked where to live and I answered like everyone else.

These threads always go the same way when it comes to suggestions of places to live. Like anyone aside from a small handful of us has any idea of what it's like to live in an area which isn't majority white British and have only their prejudices to go on.

@crazycatlover I know little about Alum Rock but all the other areas you listed are rife with gang culture. Surely you know that?

Ladywood is slowly bring gentrified so, unfortunately families are being priced out as apartments are being built aimed at rich young professionals so, either way, not ideal for families.

The fact that you listed all those areas together would make it seem you were joking.

I'm sure there are plenty of nice families who live in these areas but they are up against their kids being caught up in gangs or caught crossfire as a result of gang warfare. I don't know what the core issue is but I would say parents are up against a lot more in these areas than others. These areas are often in the news, sometimes with very tragic stories.

I'm really not sure that a lot of the areas being suggested are white enclaves....rather that the crime rates are reasonable, there's green space, decent public transport and schools.

A lot of the areas NOT being mentioned as good options are very white, too. I don't see Weoley Castle anywhere, for example...

Moseley and Kings Heath are very ethnically diverse but are consistently very popular with families

No one's suggesting Weoley Castle as a rubbish area though. It's all majority black/brown areas which people are against.

There's lots of green space in those areas too, public transport is excellent where I am and the schools are too. There's loads of independent shops, business and retail. You can buy anything within a 5 minute walk from my house. Crime is everywhere and it's really naive to suggest otherwise. I'm not saying it's perfect but people suggest areas that have 'people like them' which is why all the middle class rich areas get trotted out. I don't have an issue with that. I do have an issue with people saying my area and those like it are bad places to live when they have no direct experience.

That's true and fair enough- I suppose it's a self-fulfilling prophesy if the same places get recommend as 'nice' all the time.

I think the budget and type of property being mentioned has a bearing too though, if OP had said they were a couple with half that budget looking for somewhere to buy and then sell on in a few years so somewhere up and coming and commutable, or similar, you'd maybe be recommending somewhere different like Ladywood, maybe Small Heath or Sparkbrook with them being along from Digbeth which seems to be where the investment is going at the moment? But half a million quid bear enough would be hard to spend in some of the areas named as being less desirable as 4 bee detached would be few and far between, and the budget gives an idea of expectation of size and style of housing required.

I always think Hall Green looks nice too but that's only dim memories of going to the dog track for work socials as a youngster.