Can any of you Birstolians help me out here please!! {hopeful emoticon}

[Flossam]

Do you know of any new builds in and around bristol where we might be able to get a nice little house? We are having to move out of our London flat sometime in the near future, it is rented and is being sold . I'd ideally like to get back to Bristol. We can apparently afford a mortgage of some description, and a house where the deposit etc was paid for us would be ideal (I've been on mat leave so the saving for a deposit has quite materialised yet!). If anyone knows of anywhere or any appropriate companies I'd be incredibly grateful! TIA.

bump.

Hi Flossam, do you have any idea of where you want to live in Bristol? That would be a start. And what's your budget, roughly? (I understand if you don't want to say).

Hi WWW, thanks for replying! We seem to be following each other round somewhat! We can live anywhere that is around half an hour bus journey from the centre, so most places really. Our budget is just under 130 k, although we may also be able to get some more under the key worker loan thing. We used to live in Bristol up until the year before last, so have a reasonable idea about areas. Think the only places DP would rule out (not me, but he is harder to please!) is Easton and St Pauls. There was a great chinese/malaysian etc restuarant in St Pauls that DP flat refused to go to, silly bugger! Do you think we can manage it?

You might find somewhere in the Yate/Emerson's Green/Longwell green for that - though maybe a bit more.... these 3 places are very close to each other and within easy reach of M32 and M4. Bradley Stoke = a possibility.. though the houses we looked at there (a few years ago now) and turned down were tiny - shoe-boxes!

Hopefully someone-else might have some ideas

Flossam, yes, I think you'd get something. I just did a quick search on the Besley Hill site and quite a few pages came up. OK, so some were Hartcliffe so maybe not! But others looked ok. here's an estate agent list Good luck, it's stressful, I know.

We have seen a bovis homes 3 bedroom house in hartcliffe which would be perfect, but right at the top of our budget. DP needs to pass his driving test before we could realistically move, he has his theory this sat. He's done it before, but failed practical. The instructor said on his first lesson that he was 70% happy with DP's driving, so might not take too many more lessons. He would also need to arrange for a transfer, which although he knows people in the police force down there, could take a good few months. And then we just don't know how long we have in this flat before it is sold. Nightmare, sorry for all the rambling.

I know hartcliffe may not be the nicest area, but we won't tell DP that, shhh!

Sorry, and thanks WWW. I thought late last night about looking up besley hill. A couple of people I used to know worked there, might be nice to have them on side!

What about Brislington? Totterdown? Both cheap and nearish the centre. Or you could move and rent while you're looking, I know it's not ideal but I reckon prices will drop a bit more, so I think you should look at places that are on for more than you want to pay and haggle. You've nothing to lose by trying anyway!

OMG, x posted, hope you weren't offended! You don't want to live there, surely? Sorry, but it's truly awful. I bet you'd get something for the same money in a nicer area.

Hi Flossam

Have you tried looking on rightmove.co.uk?

No, WWW not at all! I worked with the district nurse there when I did my training. The house we like (All so pie in the sky really!) is here . Is that so bad?

Sorry Hunkermunker, the little hair I have left is blonde would you believe! Thanks for that link, that will be useful, I was trying to remember the names of sites I looked at last time we moved, without much success.

WWW, I used to live near Brislington, I do like the area. B. Hill have given me plenty to be mulling over, the girl I know used to work in the Knowle office, said the area wasn't all that bad as I recall. Thanks for your help!

Flossam, Knowle is quite nice actually. I REALLY wouldn't recommend Hartcliffe - not good! Friends of mine are in Knowle, and really like it, but wouldn't recomend Knowle West!

This development is in Witehall, near St George Park:

www.newlandhomes.co.uk/development_viewdetails.aspx?id=21

Or try:

www.smartnewhomes.com/

I'm an ex-Bristolian and I have to say that unless Hartcliffe has undergone a huge change for the better it is really grim - I spent a few months doing home visits there as part of a big research project and some of the places I went in were really horrendous. I was talking to my brother the other day about him buying something. He's decided to wait as he reckons things are going down - a couple of his friends have put in very low offers on things recently and have had them accepted. WWW's point about renting is a very good one I think.

Flossam, I was amazed to come back to Bristol (after a 12 year absence in London and Devon) and find that Knowle is more expensive than neighbouring areas and is relatively expensive actually: I'd lumped Knowle together with Knowle West, but estate agents tell me that Knowle has good housing stock and that's why it's more expensive. Ho hum. Really, don't buy in Hartcliffe. Ok, do it if you really, really, really must but I think you have other options at the price you'll be paying. I also think if there's a crash you will never, never, never get out of there.

And you will want to get out of there, believe me!

I'm also (probably) moving to Bristol, depending on Uni acceptance, so I've been reading your advice with interest! DH works at Cribbs Causeway and we live in Bridgwater (ugh- IMHO) so we have decided that we will probably go to Bradley Stoke. But we now have a few more possibilities- thanks. Mind you, student loans etc- think we'll be renting for a bit!!!

How close is that new house to hartcliffe on the map though? I can't remember that well and was never very familiar with it in the first place. We are not keen to rent in Bristol, we are hoping that we may be able to get a mortgage on our london wages, fingers crossed. The house I like is a new build so in an estate of its own, near stockwell too, thats not so bad is it? I don't want to move in somewhere to want to move out any time soon. We are worried about any price crash/reduction, so want somewhere where we can happily be for x amount of time. Thanks for the links WCL. I love Bristol so much, I really want to come back but DP is perhaps being more realistic.

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Would it be awful of me to do this then?

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