where to live in the Manchester area??

[nixpix]

Hi I currently live in Leeds and we are looking to re-locate to Manchester/Lancs area. I don't know the Manchester area that well and wondered if anyone could recommend areas to start looking. It needs to be within 30 minutes of Chorley, have good primary and secondary schools and close by to nice countryside. Any help most appreciated!!

Very much depends on your budget.....you can get property to suit all budgets.

Didsbury is probably one of the most sort after areas, however Altrincham, Hale (both Trafford) are also very nice. Heaton Moor (Stockport) is nice and only 4 miles from city center. None of these are especially cheep thought (av 3 bed semi £250K plus).

are you/significant other commuting to Chorley? If not, where are you travelling to? traffic is a nightmare here, and IMO it pays to be on the right "side" of wherever you're travelling to most often.

If you're travelling to chorley, you're definitely looking at north manc. It would take much longer than 30 mins from anywhere else. Ramsbottom is nice- small town, nice restaurants, easy distance to nice walks. Depends on budget tho- it's recently gentrified and quite desirable (relatively speaking- it's no Didsbury).

I live in, Audenshaw, Tameside, Greater Manchester and we are near (1 mile) to the M60 to travel North to M6. My husband used to drive from here to Preston each day.

Its quite a nice area, 7 miles to Manchester (about 20 mins drive) there are good bus services and a train station to Manchester Piccadilly or the other way to Glossop.

There are good primary and secondary schools locally. St Stephens CE Primary (my son's school) is 1 mile/20 mins walk and Audenshaw High School (boys only) and 6th form (mixed) literally out of bed near where I live and Fairfield Girls' 2 miles.

Depends what you want to spend on a house, I live on an estate with a mix of town houses, semis and detached with some for rent. There are terraced houses and rented accomodation.

We are near to countryside too with various canal paths and wooded walks nearby. Good luck!

I live in Stalybridge, which is lovely in every way,though not convinced about the secondaries for my DS. though for Chorley, you may find places like Urmston or Eccles good school wise. I would say that being this close to the M60 means you can 'go over the top' of the M60, and would be in Chorley before too long. The crazy thing about commuting in Manchester means you have to be very careful on the main routes in to town. It can take you longer to go 2 miles than 15 depending on location. I know Manchester pretty well, Lived in South Manchester near Withington for most of my life, and moved over here to get nice house/good schools on a budget, which is still possible(can be about 50% cheaper over here) . We live on the border of the Peak district, and it is a good town with many rural places very near,though good enough to commute. my choices in general as a rough guide, and believe me, spend enough time obsessing about this would be 1. Trafford (Altrincham, Sale. 2. Urmston/Eccles. 3.Heald Green and surrounding. 4. Stalybridge.
You will find this is a sliding scale of affordability! Hope this helps.

I've just moved here having lived in Withington (South Manchester) for two years. Yes it is true North Manchester isn't as glamerous as the South however things are changing.

Blackley has loads of greenery and parks around it, especially Boggart Hole Clough, an awesome park that will take you several weeks just to cover it.

There are a lot of new build houses being built by Taylor Wimpey, especially on Charlestown Road. There is a good influx of middle class people coming in and the property prices are set to rise significantly as a result of this in the next few years. It's got good links into town with buses every 10 minutes and local pubs and all the 5 big supermarkets (Aldi being one of the 5!) within a 5 minute drive.

I would just say remember West Didsbury 15years ago? You wouldn't recognise it if you went through it then but now its very cosmopolitan. I can't say for sure but I reckon Blackley will be the next trendy secret of North Manchester in a couple years.

I'd have to disagree slightly about Blackley, we lived there for 10 years and moved back to Trafford last summer. We moved there in our early 20’s as we were priced out of good parts of Trafford.

Yes Boggart Hole Clough is lovely when it’s quiet, but we couldn’t go with my 2 year old daughter at the weekends because of idiot lads with dangerous dogs.

It’s an ok place to live, and we didn’t have any issues with burglaries or car crime, (on a quiet new build estate), but had a few problems with neighbours that bought in the 2006-7 ‘free for all’. There’s not much beyond the parks/walks though, no jobs or nightlife. Most of the pubs that existed in 2004 have burnt down. The Tesco& Library on Victoria Avenue is an improvement though. Our main motivation for moving back to Trafford was for schools, they are bottom of the table in Blackley unfortunately.

I doubt prices are set to rise much in Blackley (given that most houses are around £100k, and rough ones on council estates are £30k ish and rented out). After 10 years of owning and improving, our lovely house and garden was only worth the same as it was back in 2004! And no one on our old drive has managed to sell since mortgage MMR rules kicked in last April, the market is dead there. The block of flats they developed not far from the Clough have seen their values dive from around £100k to around £45k. It took us 5 years of planning and saving to get out!

I saw the new houses being built on Charlestown road, all priced POA, Help to buy 20% free loan madness etc. I doubt there’s an influx of middle class, mainly Blackley born, high on credit.

West Didsbury? The amazing Victorian houses/mansions there were definitely desirable & pricey 15 years ago, and much longer ago than that!

My recommendation for North Manchester would be the edges of Bury, Prestwich (North end of Heaton Park – lovely hidden away streets of Victorian houses there, but pricey), parts of Whitefield, near Ringley road is nice but £££.

I live in Ellenbrook in Worsley, it's lovely. Close to M61 & M60 so very easy access to Chorley. Lovely village feel with great pubs, lovely walks near by. My hubby works near Chorley and his commute is only about 20-30 mins depending on the traffic.

Other areas worth looking at are around Bolton, there's some lovely villages such as Egerton, Turton and Hawkshaw, but it does depend on your budget, the nice areas can be quite pricey.

Ramsbottom and Helmshore are nice, surrounded by lots and lots of hills and greenery. You get good house value in Helmshore too because it's further from the City.

Buckshaw Village is supposed to be nice, that's very close to Chorley, I think it's mainly newbuilds if you like them, apparently you get a lot for your money.

Some parts of Whitefield and Prestwich are nice too.

I wouldn't like in Blackley if you paid me. I know a few people who have moved there because they got a good price on new builds but now they can't sell the them because the area surrounding the estate is dodgey.
victorianbeaut my dad rents one of those apartment, they're really nice inside but they've really gone down hill in the last few years since my dad has been living there. There's police there most weekends.

Ivy123, didn't know the police were often there. Across the road from those apartments there they demolished a small wooded area & house, to build on, they boarded the whole area up and left it like that for the last 8 years, it really annoyed us as it looked a state, complaints to the council went unheard. Glad we are out.

I've lived in Didsbury and Chorlton (renting) and have to say that both areas aren't as nice as their reputations. There is zero off road parking in either town so even if you were to be able to afford one of the terribly expensive nice Victorian/Edwardian houses; you will be parking on the street with loads of other cars so do make sure you can parallel ;) From driving around- Heaton Moor as cardy said looks lovely; big houses, wide roads, greenery- not cluttered little streets like Didsbury and Chorlton. Agree with Littlemissneurotic that Stalybridge is lovely as are Uppermill, Greenfield, Marple. Other places near to nature are Delph, Diggle, Dobcross. Also Hale Barns, Altrincham and Timperley- depending what you can afford. You've probably moved by now since the date first posted but thought I'd add to the thread as it may be useful for others :)

I would agree Blackley use to be dodgy as hell, frequent police patrol, people in trackkies walking around during the day. But since the hospitals have been replaced with new build developments it seems like all the unsightly folks have disappeared.

The real issue is the house prices seem to be going up as a results of these fancy big houses and as our rent is being increased heavily 2yrs in a row i suspect all the working class people will be financially turfed out, just like in Ardwick.

It's a shame there is such a good community spirit but it looks like things like that come with a price, even in Blackley.

Hang on, they've only built about 20 or so houses so far where the hospital used to be, it's not changed that much. The council estates are still there and close by. When it was a children's hospital, visitors cars would be broken into every single day, nice huh, the same people will be targeting the new houses and cars. The hospital administration building was an amazing old building and was supposed to be converted into apartments as a strict condition , but the council backtracked and let the developers knock it down, ignoring local opposition, then they built two bed rabbit hutches and four bed rabbit hutches instead.
I wouldn't put up with rent increases in blackley, tell them it's not London! and find out what else is available for the same money.