Moving from London to the home counties... Where to start??

[hayleybalmers]

Hi all,

I would love any advice / suggestions regarding a move from our current home in Wandsworth to the home counties. Both my husband and myself are from the north of England so do not have any draws to any areas in the south. As we've always lived around Clapham / Wandsworth we don't really know many places further out. We also do NOT need to be more north for family etc. We don't really want to be in either Essex or Kent. An hour commute or a longer in to London would be fine as my husband does not need to travel in daily.

We've just had our first child and are planning a couple more so are now after more space and greenery. Good state primary schools are a must! We have a decent budget of around £1m and would like a 4 bed house for this, obviously the likes of Richmond are out of the question!

Any advice / thoughts would be much appreciated.

Regards

Hayley

The schools around Horsham are excellent.. West Sussex.

You could buy a reasonable house in somewhere like Guildford for that.

How much land do you want?

If you don't want Grammars then I would look at Surrey (proper Surrey) and Hampshire.
Do you want a town or village?
Is access to airports important/useful?

All I will say is ... are you absolutely sure?

We have had countless threads on here from Mumsnetters who have deeply regretted moving out of London. There was one only this week.

Mintyy
Many have daft dreams of living in villages
hence why both Greengrow and I up thread reiterated the point about access to public transport

Yes, but also a lot of people regret moving out of London full stop.

Indeed. So long as they move back without raising our house prices too much that is fine by me

No one suffers more from over-inflated house prices than Londoners.

I know lots and lots of people who have moved out of London for Surrey (on good train lines etc.), I have only known 2 in nearly 20 years, who regretted it enough to move back.

Do you like the atmosphere of South London? I know it well and moved out when my second baby came along to give us a better quality of life - big mistake. I hated the conservative (with big and small C) attitude of the Home Counties, nice people but sooooo dull after London. Once you move out you can't go back because of house prices, if I could invent a time machine I'd go back and change that decision.

One thing to consider is if you have family up north? We do and live in Herts. Its 4 hrs door to door because we are on the right side of London. If we were South, we'd add 1-2 hrs minimum onto the journey just to get round the M25 each time. Good state schools and East Herts (Bishop Stortford maybe) is much cheaper than North /West Herts, like Harpenden.

www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk

susann
stop spamming for your employer

This website seems to be designed to allow you triangulate between

• schools
• work commute
• house prices

www.locrating.com

PS - I have nothing to do with the site

PS - I know plenty of people who have taken advantage of the swollen house prices in London to move outwards, whether it's to a rural location or just a couple of tube zones further from the centre. None have regretted it, except when they look at how much their old house is worth today. The rest of their life seems better.

MN
Interesting site that
EXCEPT that the "top schools" measure compares with national rather than county or local - so is pretty meaningless in some areas

Good point. I guess the ofsted ratings combined with the exam ratings give you an "idea" of an area and then you can then hop over to the DoE to get some more info on.

www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/

Are you thinking of moving somewhere where the number 164! means anything?...

Talkin I bet you Understand, is that Verbal or Non Verbal Reasoning. ?

164 factorial is a really big number. Is that how much a house in London costs nowadays?

I think I'm missing the VR NVR question in there ....

smokepole
I can guess but never having seen one of those papers (apart from the bond books I got for my kids when they were bored with SATS I shall stay blissfully ignorant.

MN164
THe other thing the site does not show is catchment / LEA boundaries

• essential out here in the sticks when assessing transport options to schools which may be many miles away.

its a nice mash up though

Surrey is lovely.

Check out weybridge, Esher, Cobham area, lovely if you can afford it (which you can).

Talkin. A bit of Ted Rogers and 321.. Which type of schools use NVR VR ? What Does The Number 164 mean ? Well Selective Schools use NVR/VR tests 164 = the Number Of Grammar schools still left in the Uk. Sorry ,you have just rejected the place at the grammar.... and left you with the "Dusty Bin" of schools....

"Only a Bit Of Fun".... I expected a riposte from you !...

Smoke - not well today - only 1/4 of brain cell working

Wah, don't tell me about people regretting leaving London. I have cried many, many times over the whole thing - very much DH who wants to move.

We managed to find a house/project that I love and I have said that DD is staying at school in London for Primary and commuting, so hopefully I'm not going to feel too cut off.

I think my main panic is that house-prices are so ridiculous that yes, we have made enough to leave London, have a lovely house in a lovely place and be mortgage-free - BUT, we can never, ever go back as we won't be able to afford to without downsizing to a garden shed.

Terrifies me what DD will do if she wants to live there in the future.

OP, Tunbridge Wells is gorgeous and v quick into London Bridge. Fab grammar schools in the area.

GreenGrow has given excellent advice.

We all have our own preferences, but I think you are silly to rule out Kent and Essex without seeing what they have to offer.

Fab grammar schools in the area.
And for the kids who miss the cut?
What are the secondary Moderns like?

That is why I hate selective areas - MN posters always assume they will be able to pay their way through the 11+
In a comp area the bright kids make it to the top sets, not just the ones with rich parents.