Is Solihull a nice place to move? What to avoid?

[glika]

Hello all, we are looking to move houses as the family is growing! But I am not sure about the area. Is Solihull good for young families? In terms of buying a house which areas are good and which to avoid? Do you think people are friendly?

We have friends with families in Dorridge and Olton, both of which are 5-10 minutes from the centre of Solihull depending on traffic. Solihull itself has plenty to do with restaurants, cinema, shops etc, plus the pool and park at Tudor Grange. We are there frequently and it's always been friendly.

i live there and it’s a great place to live. People are friendly. The schools are good. It’s expensive for what it is though.

This is good to know. I work in Birmigham and my husband in Warwick so our options are Solihull or Warwick at the moment. Solihull cuts my commute to half which is the advantage. But i have no idea about the area ao I am hesitant. We currently live in Coventry but I do not like it in terms of raising kids. When you say expensive do you mean to buy a house or in general? Are there neighbourhoods to avoid? Thanks again!

Yes. We rent but want to buy and the prices to buy are very expensive. 3 beds on our road go for £500k. Take a look on right move. Good areas are Shirley (where I live), Dorridge, Knowle. I’d probably avoid Chelmsley Wood.

Solihull is pleasant but dull. Perfectly harmless place to live.

Just avoid the North of the Borough

I'd also avoid Castle Bromwich these days...

Solihull is safe, relatively good amenities but frighteningly dull… what kind of things do you like to do in your spare time? There might be somewhere else near by for you to also consider

Thanks a lot for the responses. I will avoid looking at these areas then. Is it more boring that Warwick? Because i found it very small too.

Solihull is very expensive to buy (and rent!) property, if you see anything that seems reasonably priced it’s probably in a ‘less desirable’ area that has been recently boundary shifted into Solihull.
Living in the area will make the commute to Birmingham much easier though (unless you are currently getting the train from Cov) and make little difference to the commute to Warwick.
In general there’s quite a lot to do and it’s very ‘naice’ (recently got a Gail’s) although the McDonald’s in the town centre is one of the roughest places I’ve been to 🤣
What’s your housing budget @glika?

We recently got a pair of twins so we need a 4 bed good size house. We looked at right move and the cheapest options in the better areas are over 580000 which is a stretch for us. But housing is expensive in general. Even in Coventry the prices in the nice areas are very similar to Solihull. Its mad really.

Have you considered living in one of the Birmingham suburbs? Moseley village is lovely and buzzy and will have a train station opening soon so easy access to town for train changes to Warwick etc.
Then you have access to all the amenities of Birmingham + local bars and restaurants.
Harborne and edgbaston are also nice but will be less connected.

That would be ideal for me but my husband works in Warwick. So driving will be quite a lot.. :-(
..

Olton is very handy for a train station into Birmingham or Solihull centre, and I think it's still an OK reasonably priced area.