Help with choosing house in West London please!

[ameliacampbell]

Hello!
We (my DH, 3 year old DD and 6 year old DS) are currently living in Chelsea in a very small flat which we will soon grow out of. We still want to live relatively centrally as DS goes to a prep school in Kensington, and DH works in the city. Our budget is around £3 or 4 million, and we've been looking at the areas of Brook Green, Kensington, Holland Park, Notting Hill and Bayswater. We would like to get a 4 bedroom house with garden in any of these places - and if you have any ideas of other suitable areas please say!
We particularly liked Brook Green, very upper middle class, leafy and particularly quiet, however the houses aren't as big there as in Kensington or Holland Park (even though they are only 10 minutes walk from Brook Green!). We love the community feel of Chelsea, do any of these areas have this?
Thanks so much, and a happy new year!

Looks like there are loads of gorgeous properties in Brook Green for your budget just by googling!

There are some that rival those of W8 - do you have any experience of BG?

nice garden for location I am super envious of your chosen areas

lovely family house

Gosh those are lovely! Especially the BG one - does anyone know about the area?

My best and oldest friend lived in Notting hill for years and loved it(as did I when I visited) but has moved to ealing to get a bigger house.

I grew up in Notting Hill, beautiful area, however you can either get a mews house or a huge mansion-type, mews is too small and evidently the mansions will cost £5 million upwards. Ealing probably not right for us - is it not rather rough?

I don't think so! Her 4 kids are lovely and the area is very family friendly They are as far from rough as you can imagine in every way

What could we get there for £3 million?

of course there are parts of Ealing that are 'rather rough' but no more than the council estates in parts of Brook Green. comes with living in London in 2012 i'm afraid.

well yes of course

FGS try rightmove. I honestly don't think you will have too much difficulty.

would you consider crossing the river into Battersea? Houses close to the park/river are beautiful and you can walk to the Kings Road in 15 mins. These two properties are gorgeous in your price range. I work in High St Kensington and it's about a 45 min walk or a 15 min bus ride.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39957473.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36028771.html

sorry - converted links

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39957473.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36028771.html

You could try something called an estate agent's. They would be delighted to see you come through their door. You will find them all over the areas you have mentioned.

MN never fails

Ah but bamboostalks estate agents don't mention the cons of the area

Your budgets seems good the areas -there are lots to choose from. I think you need to decide what is important to your family - do you want to be able to walk DC to school, what is the next school they are going to? Do you want to be walking distance to a park/ museum? What size garden you need. That will narrow things down considerably I reckon.

For me being able to walk to school and a park and having a south facing garden were deal breakers - and I got them!

With that sort of budget I would think of your ideal lifestyle and draw a circle on a map - then research the areas that are there.

I did it on a budget of a 1/10 of yours - had to pick a school as well, but narrowed, narrowed and narrowed it down and ended up with great state school, south facing garden, detached, 85ft garden. Took 18 months but I stuck to my guns!

That house in Luxembourg Gardens is worth £2.5m tops. I've shown it to a client who felt the quality of finish wasn't in any way commensurate with the asking price, and I agree.

You're looking in my patch but sadly out of my cient market positioning (which stops at £1.5m). If you want to use a buying agent, I usually recommend Tracy Kellett or Henry Prior. Though, to be frank, the market above £2m is dead in Brook Green and you could make some silly offers by yourself, and get them accepted.

Brook Green environs is rougher than you'd think; Hammersmith isn't pretty; Westfield is awesome; if you have little girls there's probably nowhere more convenient to live from a schooling point of view.

"Ealing probably not right for us - is it not rather rough?"

You realise that there will be kind and helpful MNers who come on this thread, attracted by your title, wanting to help because they live in W London.... kind, respectable, nice Mners, who may live in council housing, small terraces, in areas that you seem to call rough, like Ealing?

Hopefully they will be generous enough not to take in the stereotype of people who work in the city and pay up to £4m for a house, but you need to think about this being Mumsnet. All kinds of Mums.

And is somewhere that is actually rough right for anyone?

I had to laugh at your budget being "3 or 4 million" - wish I had an extra million (or indeed 100k) to play with when buying a house!! :)

Sorry can't help with any areas as I'm a northerner, but good luck with your search.

OP I am afraid I agree with Carling, I do think you are genuine, but when I first read your OP I thought you were taking the jolly piss!! This may not be the place for you to ask your question.

Amelia - I think you're telling porkies.

Prepare yourself, is all I will say