To ask where young families are moving to when leaving London?

[Yellowstickynote]

DH and I live in SW London and absolutely love it. So much access to green spaces, wonderful bars & restaurants on our doorstep and so many friends in the area. Sadly, we own a 2 bed flat without lift access. We need more space, and heart is set on 3 house w/ garden, which is out of our budget if we remain in SW London.

We have Hybrid jobs (in office 1-2 days per week), so need good commuting links in to London (any London station is fine as can work from multiple offices). Most importantly, we want to move to a vibrant area which has plenty of things to do for young couples in their 30s, both with children and without. E.g. we love being near to green spaces and going to wine bars and restaurants. Some of the areas we’ve visited are lovely but so quiet and a much older crowd. We’d love to move somewhere that’s full of other young couples/families where we can make friends in the area.

Any recommendations welcome! Our budget isn’t the highest - don’t want to spend over 750k if we can help it.

Another vote for Folkestone here. Apparently the UK’s first music town. There’s something to do every weekend on top of all of the restaurants and bars and then there’s the lovely hills to walk on and the sea.
There are grammar schools and it’s a quick commute on the high speed into central London.
prices are still on the cheaper side for Kent but they are increasing rapidly.

Loads have moved to my town. They sell their crappy little London flats and buy mahoosive houses and commute in. Utterly screwed my kids chances of buying a house near where they grew up.

We looked at St Albans some years back and found commuting by train to London is very expensive (although that was when we were in the office full time) and limited houses with parking within walking distance from the station.

As someone who grew up on the Isle of Dogs when it had one bus and no one wanted to come and live there until Canary Wharf was built, I feel your pain. But no one gives a shit about Londoners chances of buying where they grew up, being screwed do they.

@Yellowstickynote

It's not a flat even though it's leasehold - it just doesn't have a garden (weird layout)

I would keep an eye on it, as there should be some houses that will go up for sale - it is a beautiful area on top of central London.

I grew up in Brighton. It’s now really expensive (and when I find out how much someone paid, I usually say “They paid that to live THERE?!?”). Areas that weren’t all that nice are now really smart.

Many people who grew up in Brighton now live in Worthing (nice schools, parks and they can afford a family house).

Lewes is nice but it used to be really hard to buy a family house there. Many people prefer to sell to Lewes people (Brightonians are often not considered local). Lewes had a terrible time when Southern Rail were striking.

Driving in Brighton and Lewes is not fun (to the point where many people who live fairly centrally don’t have a car).

You'd get a 3 bed semi in Petts Wood for your budget, lovely parks, tennis courts, clubs for the children, woodlands, nice wine bar in the old bank called Vault & Vine, pubs, award winning One In the Wood micro pub and independent restaurants (Tapas, mediterranean, Turkish, Chinese, Grill, etc), direct train links to Victoria, London Bridge, Cannon Street, Lewisham (for DLR), Charing Cross etc. Still 'London' as in London Borough of Bromley zone 5 on oyster but has a fairly village feel. Lots of young families but there are some oldies too. My daughter makes quite a bit of money in the Uni holidays from baby sitting and there are a lot of active baby and toddler groups, Brownies, Scouts, baby ballet, orchestras, martial arts, junior tennis etc

I can comment well having lived all over London and Brighton too. Can confirm Worthing is a great place if you want:
-A lovely quiet beach
-Beautiful countryside and walking nearby
-Friendly safe community, quite diverse and queer friendly
Very good cafes restaurants pubs and bars (both traditional and also natural wines bars and small plates etc, craft breweries for Brighton vibes)
-Good schools
-Leafy parks
-Decent town centre with walkable shops
Three train stations(!) and an easy enough commute straight to Victoria/East Croydon/Clapham, and Brighton of course
-Decent parking (especially compared to Brighton)
And affordable homes! I bought my three bedroom house in a good area for only 30k more than my one bedroom flat in Brighton- and for the price of a one bedroom flat in Zone 3 London.
For us it's been a no brainer and we love it, we're in our 30s and lots of our friends are following suit.
-Best areas: Check it out in person. Personally we're near the station on a leafy nice street, Tarring (West) is also desirable. But the best way to ascertain is to go and walk around.

You can definitely get a 3 bed house with garden, within a mile of the station in St Albans for £750k!

The train is expensive though. But the flip side is that some of these places suggested are indeed lovely and the commute manageable for 1/2 days in the office. If your employer turns that into 4 days, you might feel differently about the commute. Somewhere like Surrey/Hertfordshire is full of people that pre 2020 were commuting in full time

Agree @Setyoufree Many of the places mentioned on this thread would be a long, costly commute if in the office for 3+ days.

Before we moved out of London I wanted to be within a mile of a fast rail line, which limited housing options, whereas people in surrey seem to drive more and households often have 2 cars.