Relocating to near Brighton for work

[waitingforthesun6]

Husband needs to be based within an hours commute of Brighton for a new role. We are currently in London but would love to go further towards the coast/out of London to get more for our money. Where would you recommend please for a young family. Thanks

How about the coast from Worthing to Littlehampton?

Thank you @feliciabirthgiver I will take a look.

Our budget is around £700k by the way.

Two nice towns on/near the coast within an hour from Brighton: Eastbourne and Chichester. 700k would get you a lot.

Whereabouts in Brighton?

I don't think I would go as far as Eastbourne if he will be getting the train as not direct.

Chichester is nice ( although not coastal per se) - and the train can be a bit of a drag ( I commuted to Chichester from Brighton / Hove for over a decade).

If you want coastal and for that budget I would actually look at Shoreham-by-Sea ( I am biased but I live there).

For your budget you could get a really lovely house on the area called Shoreham beach. It's a shingle spit of land connected to the town by a road bridge and a glass footbridge across the river Adur.

The houses are all post-war ( due to an interesting history) - a lot of really innovative new builds and made over bungalows as well as 70s style chalets. What is lovely is direct access to the beach which is a nature reserve and a lovely bathing beach / popular with windsurfers and SUPers.

The town itself is lovely too - but it's charm is not immediately obvious. There's a lovely town centre with a flint church and a pedestrianised center with restaurants / bars and a farmers market.

The coast road through the town let's it down on first appearances - and the outskirts from Brighton are industrial before yoh get to the town proper.

There's an Art Deco airport, the river Adur and an amazing houseboat community. Lots of pubs and cafes, good schools, ok high street ( slightly too many charity shops and estate agents). But the basics like a boots and a wh smith, pharmacies and some nice chi chi shops too

Lewes, Steyning, Henfield, shoreham and shoreham beach are all easily commutable to Brighton if driving.
Worthing as well might be worth a look.

What are you really looking for? What are your non negotiables? Do you want to be on the coast or near to it? Do you want a big town or a smaller village? Does it need to be commutable by public transport or car?

There are some lively towns and villages within an hour of Brighton. The things to consider would be how long you want this next property to last you. We started our family in a Sussex village and it was lovely as we were involved with the primary school and the church and had a lovely community but the committee to secondary school was a bit tricky. We moved to a lovely smaller village that had a good secondary school and that worked for first few years but now we have 3 older teen-agers, they complain about lack of bus service, being stuck in middle of nowhere etc. It is a big school but covers large rural area and none of my 3 children have made friends that live near so if they want to see friends were are driving them all over the place. Somewhere like Lewes is nice. Hassocks, Lindfield and Cuckfield, All close to decent schooling. Cuckfield and Lindfield you may have to cycle to station. Plumpton has a station. Bolnore village is walkable to Haywards Heath station.

commute, not committee!

There are some lovely villages as well as places like shire ham by sea-storrington area-Worthing-
The other side of Brighton is peacehaven and rottingdean although it’s been a few years since I lived there!

Seaford, salt dean, Rottingdean
If you want to go left instead of right from Brighton

I live in a village outside Newhaven, which is really lovely. Have to go to Seaford for a small town, or lewes for mid size, and Brighton or Eastbourne for big.

It is quiet here, but very friendly

On the coast I’d go for Shoreham, Rottingdean, Saltdean or heading in land a bit Lewes, Henfield, Hassocks (or Hurst with that budget) are all nice.. and I don’t even live in them I might have recommended my town with a lower budget..!

Thanks so much all, that's super helpful. I guess we would like a 4/5 bed house that we can stay in for a long time so ideally good schools not too far away, a pub or two and a decent high street with cafes ideally within walking distance. And if there was a train station within a mile or two that would be useful. I'm thinking I might need to commute to London once or twice a week initially so somewhere that didn't take too long to get to London would be a bonus but not essential. I guess overall just a nice community feel. Thanks again :-)

Shoreham and the coast westbound from Brighton all have mainline stations with direct Brighton and London connections. East along the coast sadly not. Lewes also has London and Brighton direct connections.

North of Brighton hassocks / Haywards heath / Burgess hill and surrounding villages all have too

I grew up in Hassocks and it was great. the schools were (and still are) very good. Not much for teenagers to do there though so we used to get the train to Brighton for shopping etc. Hassocks has obviously grown since then and has changed a fair it but is still a good place to raise a family.

I now live in Worthing which I absolutely love! The town centre is nothing special but the beach is fantastic and we have some really good restaurants, bars and pubs; two theatres and an independent Art Deco cinema. Brighton is about 25 mins by train, and approx 70-80 mins to London.

Thanks so much everyone, this is so helpful. We're going to get researching 😊

That's a good budget. Worthing has some nice houses, lots of good schools and is by the beach. Personally I would avoid places like Peacehaven/Newhaven, not much going on there. Shoreham is nice, and with £700k you could even do Hove, Actually.