To want to move my family to London

[Miralala]

I've been offered a job in Zone 1 (mix of wfh and 5 hour return commute on diff days).

I really want to take the opportunity to live in London now, as live fairly rubbish city I don't like - however we have the 'ideal' life now with great schools, 3 bed semi, leafy suburbs, nice little high street and park 5 mins away.

We can up our house budget so could we keep any of that lifestyle anywhere in London for £700k? Absolute must is a nice secondary as kids are gentle souls and getting to secondary age, and son plays music, chess, etc - would be eaten alive in typical comp. I have no idea whether / where to start looking in London.

I think it’s ok the be in Zines 4,5,6 if there’s features there that attract you to the place in its own right. Living in 4,5,6 still feels ‘London’ enough that it feels very different to the rest of the U.K. or non-London places. Also, very different to suburbia. Just find a place you can afford and where you like the atmosphere. For instance, from Teddington etc, it’s very quick to get into Waterloo and trains are frequent in that line. Then you can walk over to Holborn.

Very few families actually live in the West End! My DD has a friend who lives in an apartment just a few blocks back from Piccadilly Circus. Very glamourise but no outside space. Even my DD (15) has realised she wouldn’t want to live there all the time.

And realistically, with a £700k budget, you are looking at Zones 4,5,6 and that’s the reality.

I would rent for a year to get to know the area before buying if you're unfamiliar with London. I did this and was glad that I did as it saved me from buying a dud.

k? Absolute must is a nice secondary as kids are gentle souls and getting to secondary age, and son plays music, chess, etc - would be eaten alive in typical comp

This is bollocks and is an insult to all the teachers who work so hard to make 99% of typical comps a perfectly decent place to learn

Wowzers I cannot take you seriously with your comments about comps…

@feyzer what's the difference between outer zones & surburbia? I grew up & still live in z3 & would always class my self as living in the London suburbs.

700k would struggle to get you a decent two bed flat in any nice bit of zone 2. You'd need to go further out. I don't think you're budget is high enough to afford a decent lifestyle in London. Unless you want to be in a commuter town. But then it depends what you consider nice.

I don’t think you should move to London OP with your views about a typical comp. Where do you think your kids will going? Unless you have money for private school and unless you’ve tutored them do you think they’d even get in. Do you not think typical comps have chess and music clubs?

@Franca123 the OP can afford z4, 5 & 6. Do you not consider them nice?

Sutton (London) to South Downs 10 minutes 😀🤔

700k would struggle to get you a decent two bed flat in any nice bit of zone 2

I know it’s not what OP is looking for, but that’s not true. We have a spacious riverfront 2 bed 2 bath in a nice part of zone 2 which we bought just two years ago for less than that.

gilorga - I think some Zone 3 areas feel more suburban than others. Maybe it depends on the type of housing there - eg. If it’s mainly semis or large houses (as tends to happen more quickly as you drive out through North London) it feels more ‘suburban’ somehow. In SW London, I think of ‘suburbia’ starting in places like Sunbury, Esher, Epsom etc. Richmond does not have a London postcode (it’s TW something I think), but is in Greater London rather than Surrey. Richmond probably just about ‘London’ I’d say, even though it’s a town in its own right.

@PinkWednesdays

700k would struggle to get you a decent two bed flat in any nice bit of zone 2

I know it’s not what OP is looking for, but that’s not true. We have a spacious riverfront 2 bed 2 bath in a nice part of zone 2 which we bought just two years ago for less than that.

This sounds like the area I’m looking for - whereabouts @PinkWednesdays?

@1990s I’m in Greenwich - trains straight into London Bridge, Cannon Street and the City and the DLR too. Love it here!

Watford, just inside Hertfordshire borders, excellent secondary schools 20 minute commute to Euston and lots of green spaces

“ People romanticise London, it’s not as nice as you think normally.”

On the contrary, most people do the opposite - “London is a polluted hell-hole” etc. In reality it’s way too big and varied to generalise. But one thing’s for sure: it’s a lot nicer to live in if you’re wealthy.

As someone who had their teenage years in Ickenham ( Z6) It's not somewhere I would inflict on children growing up. Vyners is pretty oversubscribed and house prices in the catchment area are artificially high.

Getting into London to do anything is a bit of a slog. It's very quiet, not very diverse, a bit gammony, and Uxbridge as your nearest town centre is pretty dire with shops closing every five minutes.

There's nothing overly wrong with it but it's not "moving to London" by a long stretch.

@feyzer I would definitely class Richmond as suburb, part of Greater London. Lots of areas in SW London have the semi detached house with a drive in Z3.

You’re not getting a 3 bed house for 700k in Richmond. Maybe in twickenham or Kew if you’re lucky.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

k? Absolute must is a nice secondary as kids are gentle souls and getting to secondary age, and son plays music, chess, etc - would be eaten alive in typical comp

This is bollocks and is an insult to all the teachers who work so hard to make 99% of typical comps a perfectly decent place to learn

Sorry, did not mean to offend. I guess my impression is coloured by TV shows and the media. In my country we don't have huge schools, so I don't have an understanding of them and worry that children get 'lost' compared to primary school. My son has already been bullied for not being a 'stereotypical' boy and I worry this will still happen at secondary school. Reassuring to see lots of people say that most schools will suit all types of children.

It really depends on your expectations.

I live in London, BR postcode zone 5, but have 1hr commute and that's the norm for most people with families who don't want to live in inner-city London.

Each outer area of Lonodn has it's own issues, I live in nice leafy surroundings but just 15 minutes drive and we run into a more difficult area. But I have everything I need on my doorstep, unless I work or to see a major play/go to a museum I don't go into Central London at all.

You would get a 3 bedroom terrace where I am or a semi in a more busy road.

You need to look first which transport is near your work and go from there, no point looking east when you are in Kensington or looking west if you are in the City. I would hate using train and tube (it's also eyewatering expensive) so for us looking at direct train links was important when we moved.

The thing is, the OP is highly unlikely a 3-bed house this side of Richmond for 700k. So even though Richmond is a ‘suburb’ compared to somewhere in Zones 1&2, at least it’s on the District Line. And it’s not ‘suburban’ in the sense it’s just houses or somewhere people live purely to commute into town. It has its own centre, restaurants on the riverside and quite a lot of character in its own right. Teddington is just across the river, but much cheaper and still very quick mainline connections into Waterloo. And you can get a three bed terrace there for £700k (I just looked)! So that’s why I was suggesting it as an idea.

If the OP wants to live in Zones 1 or 2, she would be looking at a flat. Even in Barnes /Putney / Fulham where I live, a small 1 bed flat over a shop will be £500k upwards and most are more than that.

Shooters Hill. You'll be able to get a 3 bed for that budget, Grammars just down the road, 20 minutes down into Woolwich for mainline, DLR, and Crossrail.

Our budget is similar. We're already in London and I just can't consider leaving!

Nice areas with good schools - East Putney, Wimbledon, Earlsfield, Southfields, Hampton Court, New Maldon, places around Greenwich. If you're open to living in a flat - you'll have more choice.

You'd be able to afford a lovely big house, with great schools if you moved out to Hampshire. Surrey is more expensive so smaller house but cheaper commute etc.

What TFL says on its website is not the real travel time. You will have to build in walking time to station, sometimes the tubes aren't even delayed but the platform is so busy it can take you 15 minutes to board a train, then you have possible changes (TFL doesn't calculate how long it may take you to cross a station like Waterloo or Paddington) then walking the other side to your office.

You could look at houses in Bexley, generally fab schools and grammar schools if your children are that way inclined, you could get a house for £700k easy and many different routes into Central London