advice on moving to North London / Hertfordshire

[imaginaryfriend]

Dp's got a new job so we have to move from S London to N London / Hertfordshire. We don't have a big budget at all, will be looking for rented places and only have one dd who's due to start Reception next year. Any ideas of somewhere nice with a good primary school but not too pricey? Dp fancies Barnet but I think it might be slightly beyond us ...

TIA!

Thanks! What kind of rent would you expect to pay for a 2-3 bedroom place in your neighbourhood? Any ideas? TIA!

WGC, c'mon ,its lovely here!!

Depends on how close you need to be to a tube station , proximity to schools etc.

misdee. Dp just can't be persuaded. I don't know why exactly, he just didn't take to the place although I think I'd be quite happy there.

comeoveneer closeness to tube isn't a massive problem but a nice primary school is very important.

Where we are there are 3 good primary schools (excluding private), Moss Hall, Frith Manor and Woodridge. (plus a lot of good church schools but no chance of gaining a place there unless you are a regular church goer.

And rental prices? Roughly? (thanks for the help btw!)

It is difficult to say exactly(as it depends where you are looking and the "quality" of property) but take a lookat this .

comeoveneer I think it looks a lovely area but seems too pricey for us. What isn't!? If only we could stretch to an extra few hundred a month we'd be fine.

What is your budget and needs (you have probably said already but pop it down for me and I will see what I can find).

we can only stretch to £800 a month (currently in a council flat at £400 a month) (we both work in the arts so earn very little), we can manage with 2 beds but would LOVE 3, most important is to find an ok school for dd who's nearly 4.

Does that include bills/ council tax etc or purely th erent?

purely rent.

OK a quick search hasn't shown up anything suitable around here. I am away until the weekend but when I get back I'll give it another go.

Thanks, you're kind for looking.

you can definitelly get two beds for that price around harpenden and st albans which seem to have fantastic schools. not sure about three as we're going to manage with two for now till we buy (if we need to rent). will have a look at price of three.

just had a very quick look on rightmove and you can get three beds for 800 a month in st albans, watford and radlett.

we used to be in woodside park oveneer!

Hi I posted ages ago on granary beck's thread. have you looked at bushey or oxhey which are parts of watford. I was brought up in oxhey and it is very family oriented and I think the schools are pretty good. THey also do things like open gardens/scarecrow hunts. It has a park with paddocks behind and you walk through that to get to the next village, bushey. but it has a 20min journey to euston and is closer to london than watford so cheaper tickets.

Just a thought, I'm going to look for some costs for renting but just found a 3 bed in vale road bushey which, from memory is a good road. right move.

www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8338075.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=rent

Thanks manitz, I'll check it out!

How's it going imaginaryfriend? I think we're settling on harpenden or redbourn a nearby village, and just accepting that for now can only afford small house. I hope your search is going well.

We're going to visit Hitchin and Barnet first and see what we think when going there in person. But we won't be trying to move until end of November at the earliest ...

Oh hope it goes well. I think that is the only thing you can do to get a real feel for a place evn if it is time consuming.

granary, we're visiting Hitchin on Sunday. No idea what to expect!! Any tips? I have a good friend in Harpenden by the way, haven't seen him for a while but he seemed to love it there.

Hitchin is lovely!
Good parent networks/kids activities and good schools too.
Town centre is improving all the time.....enjoy your visit!