Holiday house? 4 beds and 2 baths? 100 miles' radius of London? Can it be done for £500k?

[thisoldgirl]

I've got a property query of my own today.

DH and I are fed up of London but need to remain here for work. We've looked at various options within London but just aren't feeling the love.

We're now wondering about staying put but buying a holiday house instead. I work from home and DH should be able to get Fridays as work at home days, so the plan would be to leave London on Thursday evening and return very early on Monday morning. We'd probably prefer the train but driving is also acceptable.

My idea of holiday house - a low maintenance but lovely garden, a fabulous view, a really great village pub, a few local shops, and local walks. And ideally, no hostility towards Londoners .

Have any of you spotted something in your travels on Rightmove that might answer this brief? I'd love some help to get me started. Thanks in advance ladies.

What about the Isle Of Wight? I'm biased I live here and 500 will buy you quite a lot.

Seaview, Bembridge, St Helen's are coastal villages Ryde is a busier town. They are all popular second homes. IMO there is no ill feeling towards Londoners, transport links are good but pricey my DH and I both commute via the hovercraft ( 10 mins ) to our second car kept in the carpark there. I will have a look and try and link but am a bit rubbish at that. Hth

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-38275361.html

I quite liked this one :)

I love this one

Swimming pool?

west sussex. The downs on one side and the beach on the other.

£500k will buy you
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32916883.html

I think you do not want a holiday home, but a second home. I think they are two different things entirely.

To my mind A holiday home would be in a holiday/scenic location with sea views, perhaps coastal style decor etc. you would use it for holidays and long weekends. A second home is somewhere you live for a proportion of the week, every week, year in year out.

We have a property that started out being a second home, but due to circumstances is used as a holiday home.

We started off spending to every weekend and most holidays there. Infact we loved the location so much at one point we considered I should live there with the children and dh would come at weekends or as often as his schedule allowed.
But it has not worked out that way. Our parents got ill and needed us at the weekends. Our children got older and developed independent social lives and took on other commitments. Suddenly spending the weekend crabbing and going for coastal walks did not appeal to DS1. (he is now 14 he was 10 when we bought it). Not surprisingly most friends and colleagues tend to socialise at weekends. You can only turn down so many invitations before you start to offend people. Sometimes bad weather makes the journey seem rather daunting after a hard week at work.

At the moment we manage to get there every second weekend. I still love that feeling of getting away and once both boys are off to uni I will definitely be spending a greater proportion of my time there. We get on well with our neighbours and have been accepted into the community without any problems. Just saying that although in theory it sounds perfectly reasonable and doable, in reality having two homes is not that easy.

Thanks everyone for the pointers.

Jacaqueen your post raises a lot questions which I hadn't even considered, and even though some of what you're telling me is a real downer, I'm going to have to take it all on board.

We don't have children, so that's one issue we don't have to worry about, and one of the reasons we're only looking within 100 miles radius' and ideally on rail network is so we can come and go without much hassle.

But the point about ageing parents and turning down invitations is an important one. We have a very busy social life, for work and pleasure, and I'd be reluctant to let that go. One of the reasons we want such a big place for just two of us is so we can have friends stay, but now I think about it, I grumble having to see friends south of the river, never mind at their holiday houses two hours away .

Do people think I'd be nuts to buy a place jointly with my parents? This would mean we'd have it for two weekends a month. I would adore West Sussex two weekends a month

Portofino Is your name meant to be a clue? [Grin] The moment my lotto numbers come up, Portofino or Ischia is where I'm buying.

We did the second home (BC) and it was a great success.
The lovely friday night feeling coming out of London & seeing the countryside was heavenly.
I would advise that 100 miles is far enough, any further & the journey becomes a chore.
I'd also suggest choosing somewhere with a station nearby. Friends often decide to train it & it can be tedious driving miles to collect & waiting for delayed trains.
A manageable garden is essential, otherwise whole weekends (when you should be propping up the bar of your local/having a picnic in wildflower meadow) will be spend mowing & weeding.
We chose a real second home that eventually became our main residence. Be aware that it's possible you will spend ages wondering how you can manage to live in the country full time.
If you wanted a lock up & leave, how about one of those posh estates like the Cotswold Water Park? All the maintenance would be done.

Mum of 2 Would you be prepared to divulge where you bought your own place?

I do love the Cotswolds, but not those park houses with Kelly Hoppen interiors. A friend of a friend has one and I've been to a party there. It's all very glitzy WAGtastic and our taste is more good plain Landmark Trust IYKWIM. Tina Hobley has a holiday house there and that was enough to put us off .

Sorry I did not mean to rain on your parade. Don't get me wrong I don't regret buying our place for a minute. It really is a second home and we keep clothes, toiletries, toys and sports equipment there so we can just get in the car and go.

Dh and I intend to retire to the area, though not necessarily to the house we have at the moment.

It just hasn't worked out the way we thought it would. It is still a fantastic feeling knowing that it is there, and in theory we can go whenever we want, even if it doesn't work out like that in reality.

You haven't rained on my parade at all, just forced me to think things through before I dive in which I really need as I'm definitely in Kirstie Allsop mode here.

Keep the rightmove links coming please, lovers of Rightmove .

You can - that's what we started looking for. 2 years later we realised we preferred the wilder areas and were prepared to travel so we ended up on beautiful Dartmoor. Not every weekend though. More like one in three plus holidays. And we ended up extending our budget, and we have to do building works, but the long term plan is to spend 60% of the year there once DC have grown up and left... :)

[[oom detached house for saleGuide Price£500,000
High Street, Market Lavington, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10]]
Hope this works, low maintaince?

i love Ischia! My dd was conceived there! TMI sorry. Dh blamed the thermal waters and the Barolo.

The villages around haywards Heath in west sussex are lovely. Not cheap but I think you would still get there on your budget. HH is the main stop on the brighton line to London so commuting is super easy. It's about 45 mins on the train.

BieneMaja Do you know of any villages that may be particularly picturesque or suitable? I do like that neck of the woods and the train and plane connections are great for DH's work.

Mum of 2 That's a fab house, love how they've managed to incorporate the old features into the new renovation without butchering it all. But the nearest station is 10 miles away and on a little branch line, which will go down like a long drink of sick with DH. I expect this downside is why we can afford it .

liking the isle of wight.

The Isle of Wight is gorgeous but DH would insist living near the hovercraft terminal, and we'd not be able to do that and afford a proper sea view.

Knowing my richer neighbours had a sea view would practically kill me with envy.

I'm rather fond of this little baby www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34903042.html

Well I can vouch for Lindfield - I grew up there and its really lovely, but its a large village so not massively rural. However there are lovely pubs, schools etc and of course you can be in Victoria door to door in under an hour.

Cuckfield is also lovely - again quite large.

Horstead Keynes is nice, though that is far more rural, no real high street as such.

Ardingly is very sweet too. They host the South of England show.

Balcombe is very nice too and even has its own train station.

Newick and Chailey, though they are a little further from a station...

Wow, thanks for the heads-up Biene, fabulous info

I like this one www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35068171.html. lovely area near chichester.