Relocating from London suburb to outskirts of Bristol

[mellowyellow6]

Looking to relocate with my young family for better quality of life and more house for our money and trying to persuade my husband to consider Bristol and surrounding area as I've always liked it and have family fairly nearby. Please could anyone tell me their experiences of living near there with a young family and any advantages of there over London. Thank you.

Anyone? Thanks

It’s quite a broad question? I mean Bristol is lovely, and there’s loads of good places to live, but if you want feedback you prob need to decide what you’re looking for - village or city? Where will you be working? What kind of budget?

Thanks @Grooticle. Good point. We'd like more of a village/small town feel so out of the centre but ideally not far and with decent schools. We can both work from home although ideally not too far from a station as my husband will need to commute to London occasionally. Budget is £550k max although ideally around £530k.

Looking at towns like Portishead, Keynsham then? Or within Bristol itself Bedminster perhaps.

Be prepared to see the house prices in London rise after you sell, much more quickly than where you are.

I moved out of London and it's cost me about £250k in house prices rising faster there than where we went to. I wish I'd held on to my London place and rented it out!

Perhaps the difference between the London and Bristol isn't so.stark, but something to consider...

Thanks @ScrapThatThen. Those sound like good places to research and look. Yes ideally out of the centre but commutable in.
And thanks @ghostofchristmasyesterday, it's a good point and something to consider, although to be honest we probably couldn't afford to keep the London property and rent it out.

One thing to be aware of is the public transport in Bristol is awful. I love living in Bristol but if you're wanting to travel in and out of the centre via public transport then just double check what the connections are like. Our local train station has trains every half an hour at peak times and every hour at off-peak times. As a Londoner this blew my mind!

Somewhere a short drive from Bristol Parkway makes for a quicker commute to London than Temple Meads.

Going from Keynsham you would need to factor in a drive to Bath or a change of trains.

I'm not sure how much house you would get in a nice "village-feel" place for 1/2million.

Keynsham has trains to temple meads that take 7 minutes and can connect to London. (often packed or cancelled, and yes fewer outside peak times)

I live in Bristol with two young children. I'm from west London and originally moved to Bristol 12 years ago before heading back to London for work reasons and then back to Bristol when I got pregnant with first child because I decided I'd rather bring them up here because i loved it!

I live in a lovely but expensive area close to the city that had a village feel to it (you'll know the area if you know Bristol) it is lovely and there is so much to do with young children, outstanding primary schools, great to be able to walk to anything for me or the children, quick drive out to countryside, quick drive to the city and shops.

These are the issues though, I have a 2 bedroom (albeit lovely) garden flat, with parking it would sell for upwards of £550,000. Secondary schools are not great. There are some lovely more village-y areas outside of Bristol but it depends on what exactly you want and how far out you're looking, long Ashton, wraxell and Blackwell are nice areas and the little places in between, but again not cheap areas.

I would steer clear of areas like keynsham until you're up for battling awful traffic daily if you're ever looking to get into Bristol, but if you're not it could be worth a look at.

If you just want to pop to Bristol once in a while, look at somewhere like Corsham (2 counties away in Wiltshire) and drive to Chippenham to catch the train.

You'll get significantly more house for your money.

Thanks so much @Madcats. We'll have a look at that option

You would be surprised at how little you will get for £550K, if you want a decent area with good schools & commuter links- so does everyone else so house prices are sky high! Parking is a problem so you want to commute into the centre you need an office with a parking space. The more rural places within commutable distance are even more pricey!
Good points are that there are great facilities, lots of green spaces within the city and you can get out into the countryside very easily (lockdown notwithstanding) Life is good here but it is not that cheap!