Renting in Brighton or Hove

[Chocolatedays]

Hello!
We've made the decision to move to Brighton and Hove (from London). We found a lovely house to buy but were pipped at the post my a higher bid so we've decided to rent (at least until the market has settled a little).

We are looking at Hove, Hanover, central and starting to look at Preston Park. If you have mo please give me your views on where we should aim for. Also, if you see an interesting property near you we'd really appreciate some info (plus any agents that are good or should be avoided). We are hoping to find a 3 bed with outside space where parking is either included or not a problem.

We're expecting our first in July (was East Sussex Hosp OK for you?). Really looking forward to meeting some of you if it is OK to gate crash your meet ups!

Thanks
Choc

Hi choc, what's your budget per month?

It's hard to go wrong in any of those areas so it really depends what you want. Do you need the station nearby? Do you want shops within walking distance? The sea? In 3-4 year times when schools become an issue, are you going private or state? Are faith schools an option?

We've rented in Hove and Preston Park while deciding where to buy. Both have pros and cons, but schools drove the decision in the end as we have a 4yo.

Congrats on the imminent arrival. The Royal Sussex is fine. It's like any large NHS unit.

I'd say Fiveways is best for primary schools - Downs and Balfour are both meant to be superb. That's mainly why we live here. Parking can be dodgy in the evening though.

Royal Sussex very good by the way.

Great local shops at Fiveways too. Good for the food-obsessed (me)

Personally, if I was doing all this from scratch again, I'd be as close as possible to Downs school, somewhere off the Ditchling Rd. It's easy to get to town, the sea, not too far from station, it's a good school, walking distance to preston park and the shops at fiveways...

Where we are now (nr Preston Pk station) is too far from town for me, and there are no decent local shops apart from bloody tesco express

But the joy of renting is that you can try out a couple of areas before buying. the market is totally stagnant at the moment and primed for reasonable drops.

Why don't you come to the Brighton meet up next Sat lunchtime...we don't bite honest! Have a look at the thread in Meet Ups.

Hi and thanks for your lovely responses. We've just come back from home hunting in Brighon & Hove (the weather was so much nicer than in London!!)

We've pretty much agreed on a 3 bed flat with balcony in central Brighton - it's not the kind of place we'd buy but as a fairly recent new build it seems good for rental - HOWEVER it does not have parking and I think we'll either have to leave the car in Hanover or use a car-share scheme and get rid of the car. Any of you any experience of car share schemes? Any of you carless? We're on the greener side of things and so being carless sounds OK but a think the realities may be different once we have a kid. Please feel free to voice your opinions!

Would love to the meet up but won't be down south next weekend. Look forward to meeting you once we've moved.

Thanks again for your support
Choc

If you've got everything on your doorstep, I think you'll get away without a car, Choc. I wish we weren't so reliant on ours...

Have just come back from an overnight stay in central London catching up with friends. Arriving back down here is bliss! I don't miss London at all. You and the bump will love it, I'm sure

we (me, DS and DD) live in Hove and don't have a car - that is the beauty of Brighton and Hove -= nothing is too far away. You'll love it here.