Moving to Bristol areas to rent

[Melody12]

Hello we will be moving to Bristol at the begining of the year we are a family of 5 and my husband will be working in Aztech west. I have been looking for rental properties on zoopla and right move, but many decent houses come up! Is this because not all houses are on the net and I should contact an agent or because there is not a big supply?
Can you also advise on areas to look for. I like period properties, tree lined streets, ability to walk to places yet having a house with a garden. We are looking for 4 bedrooms properties in safe areas.
If you could choose where to live and money wasn't a problem where would you live?

I meant to say not many houses come up!

You need to factor in the horrendous Bristol traffic and make sure your DH has an easy commute. We live in North Bristol and it was much quicker for my DH to cycle to Aztec than drive there. Schools should be a major concern unless you are intending to go private. There is a lot of rental property in Bradley Stoke and Emersons Green, which are family friendly areas and good for getting to Aztec, but new estates, not period. Would you intend to buy property once you are settled? I think large period family homes are mostly privately owned, not rented out. If money wasn't a problem I'd live in Clifton, but a house with a garden there would be millions, most are broken up into flats.

Thanks bakintins. We will only stay for four years so we are not planning to buy. Yes we will be sending the kids in private schools as it's gonna be challenging to get thw kids in good state schools in jan feb. I have looked into clifton but they only seem student accomodations no matter the price limit!

Agree with the traffic comment. I worked in Aztec West for a while and it could easily take half an hour just to get out of the car park - soul-destroying. Stoke Gifford and Bradley Stoke are close by but mostly new-build properties.
Fish ponds has more period houses but no idea if there's much of a rental market

Look at Gloucester Rd area so
Bishopston, St Andrews,

also Thornbury which comes under South Gloucester but sort of the right side for for Aztec West possibly better schools
Possibly Westbury on Trym as well and Winterbourne
Downend might be a possibility
Hope that helps

When I put these areas in the search no houses come up!!! This is so hard! Why there are no retals on these websites? Are there better websites around?

How about moving to Malmesbury-outside Bristol on the M4 corridor East but commutable to Azrec by car. The secondary school has been classed as outstanding.
www.malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk/
Here are some great letting agents
www.maisonlet.co.uk/index.php

Thanks Baytree, the place looks lovely. But maybe a bit too far to commute for my husband. Commute should be 20 30 mins tops. I also don' want to feel too isolated, as I dont know anyone I think it will be good to be near neighbours and walk and take public tranSports to move around.

Public transport in Bristol is quite poor IMO. I agree with HippyChick regarding areas. Bishopston, St Andrews, Redland, Henleaze etc. are still close enough to the centre without needing to drive everywhere. I would contact estate agents directly about rental property, get on their books so you get to find out about any properties before the go on to the bigger websites like zoopla.

Estate agents ( off the top of my head, there are prob many more)
CJ Hole
Andrews
Ocean
Connells

I don't live in Bristol anymore but look at sites like Gumtree, put in Gloucester rd Bristol , St. Andrews Bristol. Bishopston Bristol

Even Ashley Down and Horfield Common and the area by the big tescos is it golden hill or something
I'm shocked at the prices £2000 per month ++ for a four bed house

Also some houses might be in the catchment area for redland school which is new

Put into google
4 bed house to rent in ( choose the areas )
Bishopton ,
St. Andrews
Gloucester rd
Ashley down
Horfield
By doing that I found quite a few on zoopla

I live in Portishead, North Somerset. It's south of Bristol, good M5 links and an excellent coach service going to Aztec West called Kings Ferry. Only 20 to 30 minute commute too!

Portishead or clevedon? There are character properties in both towns but not sure how many on the rental market. Not many at the moment by the look of it!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^20140&insId=2&sortType=2&minBedrooms=3&radius=3.0&googleAnalyticsChannel=renting

Thank you for your advise they are very useful! What village do you think it's nicer among thorbury, cleavedon and portishead? What kind if people lives in these areas? How much would the commute be from places like redland to aztech w? Also it looks like there is only one rd from portishead to aztech west doesnt that get very trafficated?

Also in regards to almondsbury or stapleton.

Portishead and Clevedon have good and not so good parts (like any town).

Clevedon has more period properties and is slightly cheaper.

Portishead has almost doubled in size in recent history due to a big marina development. This also means there are new restaurants, bars and shops. I would say you have a good chance of meeting new people if you move to Portishead as lots of others will be new to the area too.

Aztec is along the M5 from Portishead (Clevedon is one junction further south). So mostly the commute is done on the M5. There is one main road out of Portishead to join the motorway. It can get congested... I would avoid it after 07:30 on a weekday morning.

But isn't there a train or tram or bus that connects suburbs like redland etc to Aztech west? From the map looks like Clevedon and Portishead look so much further! 7 30 is sooo early! What time do people go to work?

Bristol in general has appalling traffic problems - I think they've just been rated as the second-worst city in England for traffic (and associated pollution). It really is a difficult place to get around, hence why cycling is soooo popular, even with the big hills! I used to live in henleaze and work in clifton village and if I had to drive it could take nearly an hour to do literally a couple of miles.
There has been a long campaign to reinstate the train line from portishead into bristol, I think they have now decided it's going to go ahead? We've moved out of bristol now, so not totally up to date with the local news.
As I said, when I worked in Aztec west (and lived in Stoke
Gifford), it could easily take 30 mins just to leave the car park. And that was on flexi-time so I wasn't even constrained that much on leaving time!

You can get a bus from pretty much anywhere to/from the city centre, but connecting two outlying points is much less easy on public transport. No trams, no local trains though Bristol has two mainline train stations so easy to get to London etc on the train.
I have friends who live in Portishead which is v pleasant with lots of young families and her DH works at Aztec. It only takes one accident to bring the whole motorway to a standstill and then chaos ensues. If your husband is at all open to the idea of cycling that sidesteps the traffic issue. Good links to Aztec on cycle paths from North Bristol areas Bradley Stoke, Frenchay, Downend, Emersons Green.
To put this in perspective, we live 5 miles from Aztec in Downend. A normal car commute to Aztec is 40 mins at rush hour, but on a bad day it can take 30 mins just to get out of Aztec car park, longest it has taken to get home is 2 hours. It's 25/30 mins on a bike. Buses from us to city centre every 15 minutes, we also have the Bristol/Bath cycle path taking us right into the centre.

Westbury park
Thornbury
Staple ton village
Fern hay village
Henleaze
Abbots leigh
Redland
Clevedon
Portishead

I personally don't like the Gloucester Road area it's too 'urban' for me eg graffiti, trash, etc

Frenchay not fernhay sorry