I really need some advice on south west London..

[MushroomMagee]

DH will be working in Norbiton from September, which necessitates a house move. We quite like the idea of south west London as its a shorter commute than Woking/Guildford etc.

We need a bit of advice about which area's to look at. We have a budget of 350k and want a 4 bed in a good school catchment. Which rules out Kingston I've already found out! To be honest I'm starting completely at the beginning here and any info you can give me at all would be very helpful!

How true is it that you have to live next door to the school to get in?! Is that everywhere or only in certain areas that are more prone to over crowding?

What is the market like? A couple of estate agents have said it moves very quickly and there is a lot of competition, obviously this will differ town to town but is there a general trend or areas where it is competitive or is this just estate agents doing their thing?!

Are there any areas which are particularly undesirable or places to avoid?

I am going to go for a look around on tuesday and just want to know where to start!

I second New Malden. Lovely area and good schools. If you are willing to compromise a bit by looking at a house near the A3 you should find something in budget.

I'm about a couple of miles from Morden and while they have good (towards Merton Park I think) and bad bits, I'm not sure I'd want to live there (bit bleak around the tube station and main drag, although you're close enough to Wimbledon for naice things and the Common). It's also right on the edge of a National Trust park-y area (Morden Hall) so you could potentially have green space nearly on your doorstep.

No idea about schools but would suggest you look at Raynes Park (as suggested by Bicnod), some nice streets there but still, £350k won't buy you much I'm afraid.

Another vote for New Malden / Raynes Park and also if you look around the Hillcross Primary School area of Morden, there are nice big family houses and I think the school just got rated Outstanding.

I really don't like Tolworth and Chessington gives me the willies.

I like Whitton. My friend's house backs onto Crane's park and he has wild parakeets in his garden.

at Chessington giving you the willies. It's not somewhere I'd particularly go for either! I don't like the Broadway in Tolworth much but you can get to Surbiton and Kingston so easily I sort of forgive it its crapness! And I love the parakeets round here.

I used to live in Tolworth, out of that list it's definitely the nicest. Really easy to live there but you'd have to be quite near the A3 side on your budget. We sold our Victorian 3 bed there for not much shy of 400,000 but the newer houses are cheaper. Not Feltham!

If you could compromise on the number of bedrooms, this is in catchment for excellent secondary schools and a good through primary, and is reasonably near hinchley wood train station:

house in hinchley wood

I think if you look really carefully you might find an ex-council house within your budget.

Hounslow is awful awful awful, as is feltham. Tolworth is fine, very handy. Chessington is really not that bad, but not lovely either. Worcester park is fine, very surburban though and has senior school issues - e.g., there isn't one.

You could try looking at the area around Stoneleigh. Also nice, good primaries but have to look carefully and check catchments for senior school.

I think New Malden is going to be too pricey unless you go to the much less nice bit, and there you also get into trouble with school catchment areas.

Also, epsom, ewell, leatherhead, ashtead

Agree, avoid Feltham and Hounslow. Beware of being north of the river as it severely limits your driving options - traffic can be awful getting over Hampton Court or Kingston bridges. If you do want north, check out Whitton, Ashford, Shepperton, Sunbury (both on Kingston train line) or Staines.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-20226804.html?premiumA=true good primary schools

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36499664.html house looks unpromising but this is a decent road

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36048728.html?premiumA=true good value

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34860881.html Sunbury

Friends in New Malden love it, schools are good because it is in LB Kingston. They are in the Malden Hill area on the east side of the high street.

South Sutton/Carshalton is nice but pricey

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31977007.html

Flightpaths - find the runways on a map and avoid anything to the east or west, as they will be under the flightpath at varying times of day. Beware of thinking properties are not affected because there's not noise at the time. The runways and directions for take-off and landing have a complicated pattern depending on the time of day and the prevailing wind.

Immediately south of the airport is generally not too bad.

Near West Molesey you have Hersham and Walton on Thames. Excellent secondary school (Heathside) in Walton.
Claygate, Chesington and Hook are also possibilities. Claygate primary is outstanding.

Chessington is awful. Ashtead would be out of your price range I think. Epsom or Leatherhead would be worth looking at.

Make sure you live close to your chosen primary. Catchments are reducing in many London boroughs (and elsewhere) due to a combination of factors (birth rate, less people moving from London due to recession and general migration).

We live in Sutton and if you consider this area and you are considering the girls grammars then make sure you are close enough as they have an element of local catchment (no local catchment for boys). Do not come to Sutton thinking it will be easy to get a grammar place though, it is incredibly competitive.

I agree about catchments. At DD's school last year the furthest child to get in lives 150 metres from the school. Things are very bad because of the huge shortage of primary places in London.

second the suggestion about epsom/ewell/leatrherhead area. Also don't discount Guildford area - my DH commuted Norbiton / Guildford for years and it was very do-able