Which area should I buy a property in for family?

[Cbirch177]

Hello Everyone!

sorry I am aware this topic has been heavy discussed! :)

we are a couple aged 27 and 33 looking to buy a property. While I know we are lucky to have good salaries, I am finding the financial situation of buying a property and starting a family difficult. We are an international couple, so neither of us will have family to help look after our kids, and while we are lucky that my partner makes a good amount over the 100k salary bracket - this means we will not be eligible for any child care hours (i myself am about of the 75k mark before taxes, so me stopping work to take care of the kids while not ideal may have to be the solution)

Therefore i have a few questions:

1. we are keen to buy a property which we can raise our future family in. We have a budget of about 850-900k total for the property, however as my partner is completely office based and often works very long hours (8am to 2-4am regularly), we will need to be within an uber ride home while also requiring a tube station. Luckily his job pays to get him home at night, but this makes it harder for us.
2. We would like to be west central London based and were looking at Fulham/West Hampstead/putney/maida vale and such. Are there any other areas which we should be considering? While keeping west/tube and car distance in mind? E.g. how is Willesden and such areas?
3. How do we find out if the area has good schools or is safe?
4. How do people make it work with childcare? We are keen to have 2 kids, but realistically even with a 10k a month take home, £3500 mortgage and 3k per child nursery… we would not be able to live comfortably?

any suggestions or advise is welcome! We are both Europeans (Scandinavia) so we are very unfamiliar with the process :) thank you!

If you earn 75k, I wouldn't stop working because of childcare costs. Long term impact on your career and pension totally not worth it. I would say different if you were earning 30k.

Given that you're only 27, the obvious solution on childcare costs would be to space out your children to avoid two in nursery at the same time. Or a 3 year gap and dip into savings for the year they are both in nursery.

Other thing to consider is if you can compress your hours - say work 4.5 days in 4 or 3.5 days in 3 - keeps your salary but drops costs.

Where is your husbands office.. are you living in the UK at the moment or visit very often. Do you work in an office or will be working from home. Have you got UK jobs. Why have you picked those areas,they are very different to each other., would you want state or private schools. A lot will also depend on how much deposit you gave, disposable income.

850/900k is flat territory if you want to be west London, but not a long drive from the city. If you are OK with a flat, then places like Fulham, Battersea, West Hampstead are perfectly achievable for a 2/3 bed flat. Are you OK with that?

Hey yes we both work in London, I work out of east London but my partner is based by Bond Street. We both prefer west London heavily, but are open to north west, south west or pure west :)

we would be happy with a flat, bit we would ideally like 3 bedrooms which could be hard in West Hampstead/fulham type locations and hence why we are trying to see if there is good areas close by which hasn’t increased to the same price level yet :)

Rather than 2 in nursery you could find a nice nanny who could become part of your family and this would be more flexible and possibly even cheaper I think than those London nursery prices? Some kind experienced lady who's seen it all before - ideally local to wherever you buy as well given you don't have family in the country. My friends mother in law helped us on an ad hoc basis and she's now a friend for life - really comforting to go back to work knowing they're cosy and relaxed at home with her and she helped with school runs later sometimes too. Much better than a nursery and as you want 2 probably more cost effective too.

Somewhere on the Elizabeth line would suit you both. Acton/Ealing. You can also afford West Hampstead 3 bed flat with your budget.

Agree re nanny. We earn similarly to you, and use a nanny - costs most of my post tax income but I’m still paying into pension, building my career, and the net gain is paying for my own clothes and social life.