areas of the UK that are cheap-ish for houses now but bound to go up in value? + why is Nottingham so cheap?

[allaflutter]

This would have to exclude South coast (Hastings and so on), and also the North proper, as I need easy access to London and other parts of the country.
Just find myself really hankering after space and a house or large maisonette, without other people living on top of you or on both sides (3 good size beds semi-detached ideally, or a flat on two top floors with loft space), having only lived and looked at flats in London and SW - I'm increasingly finding that a nice area doesn't compensate for the lack of space anymore. I think the older you get the more space you want!

The area has to be reasonably nice but not chi-chi, i.e. low crime levels and must have a train station with access to london ideally in 1hr but could stretch a bit. It also has to be quite green with nice surrounding country. Town or city. I can't do cottages or modern boxes, used to live in high ceilinged London flats.

So far I found a couple of nice looking places with cheap houses, but usually too far from London (i.e. around Harrogate - just great old houses there, small towns in SW). Or places like Abingdon in Oxon but no train station.

Well, there is Nottingham - some nice spacious period houses on rightmove, MUCH bigger than what you can get in many places. What I don't understand is why it takes so long on the train - are there plans for faster trains there? York is much faster even though further out. What's Nottingham really like? Is it likely to go up in value? Is it better than Sheffield which I know a little?

What about Stamford/Northampton to compare with Nott? In sw there is Chippenham and Swindon that are cheap but not attractive, are these places better in comparison?

I need to buy somewhere where prices are not going to drop and ideally rise as my cash income is low atm and it's important to invest well. My mum may well need to move in with me when a bit older too, so somewhere with buses a bonus. Oh and reasonably nice, friendly people a big bonus. School cattchments are not important.

If anyone is selling something like this, PM me - and maybe introduce me to a new area!
Sorry for the long saga...I'd be grateful for someone to help put an end to this frustration!

Normally about 3 direct trains per hour (although not evenly spaced)

e.g. 8:01, 8:32, 8:39 Fastest 1 hour 28

Chilwell, Beeston, Long Eaton are imo the best areas in Nottingham, though LE is technically in Derbyshire. West Bridgford very overrated IMO, although close to the river, which is lovely. I have lived in all these places. Avoid Forest Fields, St Anne's, Carlton, Bestwood, Sneinton, the NEW Meadows. The OLD Meadows next to the river is fine and literally only different from West Bridgford in that the river divides them. All the ones I mentioned are on the outskirts of Notts so quickly into the country side. Attenborough Lakes is right next to Chilwell, Beeston and LE and it's beautiful there. Lovely big park in LE too and great walks along the canal to smaller towns Stapleford and Sandiacre. Nice there too.

I feel quite homesick now, reading this thread.

We moved to Nottingham form East Anglia and were so surprised by the cheapness of property.

I agree with Beeston. We live in Arnold which we love. Nice little town centre, good transport links to the city and really good schools.

Don't like long eaton but sawley is ok.
Beeston is nice.
West bridgford is vastly overrated IMO.
What about saniacre or risley?

Yes I'd definitely say Huntingdon/St Neots fits your criteria.

I certainly wouldn't live anywhere with a student population again. Nightmare!

Sandiacre is nice, good schools and a nice community feel. Stapleford is OK but could do with some nice cafe's. The library is sweet and there's a good bus service into Nottingham from both. Beeston is better for the train though and has more shops.

Why do you Nottingham people not use the local site? Stop by and say hello.

I am actually seriously considering moving back at the moment and was going to start a thread to see if there would be many MNetters about if I did. A very timely thread .

I know there's some here, Machli, I've been trying to get them onto the local site.

Whats wrong with Carlton [shocked]

oh b**er! just typed a long post and got logged out - MN is so last century with its forum!

spotty I just looked at bedford - good prices there! just wanted to ask what's wrong with it, as commuting time is good!?can you tell ne a bit more (thanks for park info) - what's shopping like, food places, people? general vibe? traditional or quite 'open' and are there many ex londoners?

turkey, I go past swindon but never get off there, surprised that it's same 40 pounds as even Bath and further away! I do like the look of Old town victorian houses and it's surprisingly green! my question is, how do tou get to old town from station? it's a hill with very windy roads and no bus stops in sight so it looks like a very long hike! prices are not as low as they were btw so I think it's going up and will continue. It is well placed for many nice towns to visit as well as london.

Booyhoo well you can predict if you know about upcoming transport links (but I would invest in a place where they will open in a couple of years - not 15!)

Mrs T - yes, I did say cheap, so 250 max (asking can be higher of course).

BUSES FROM WOODTHOROPE every 5 mins into town from main rd ( Mansfield rd which runs through sherwood) also buses from Mapperly top regularly if you ate at the other end of Woodthorpe. Its not a huge area but if you are in certain parts buses are less frequent, between 10 & 20 mins at my nearest stop but it takes me 10 mins to walk to a stop where they are every 5 min.
No offense to the poster who mentioned Arnold but the shopping centre is far from nice.

allaflutter Stamford is very quiet by day. There are hardly any shops, really, other than a few small branches of some chainstores, and a few gifty type places, and some independent shops. There is a market on a Friday that closes off the main road at the top of town and it goes into the pedestrianised area, too. There is a Waitrose, Sainsburys, Morrisons and Lidl's and a small M&S food store.

As for places to eat, we think it is lacking TBH. One of DS1's friend's family has an Italian restaurant that we go to and there is a good Chinese, other than that we tend to go to the many good pubs in the villages surrounding Stamford. There is a very small cinema that gets films months after the bigger cinemas, but you have to book.

On a Thursday night it is full of students from the local schools and colleges taking up the offers of the cheap booze in the local pubs. There used to a music festival in the Summer which was great fun, but they seemed to have stopped that this year.

It is a nice enough place to live. We live about 10 miles away, but all the DC's friends live there and they go to school there. In an ideal world it wouldn't be my first choice because I have teenagers. I'll have a look on Rightmove and see if there are any houses. One of the most popular areas is the catchment area of Malcolm Sargents School, so you could avoid that.

HTH.

Machli, it sounds really nice - mention beauitful big park and great walks and I already feel happy! that means Long Eaton is top of list if I go to Nott'm. Proximity to Derby is good for me too, workwise. Although surprised Badvoc doesn't like LE (?)

I'm still looking for shorter commute times, so not stopping at Nott - I was hoping faster trains aer coming sooner.

I couldn't find Huntington - so it's with a 'd'! will look. Under an hour journey sounds bliss. Is it green there? anyone with more details? same for Bedford.

thanks Bugged, is the park good? I assume you would use main Nott station from there, unlike from L Eaton? to me LE has an edge now as has own station with direct trains and shorter journey (a little).

landof, thanks it does help. Sounds like it's not really for me, though I still want to visit! don't like that there are very few food places in town, I'm a bit of a foodie, even one good deli and a couple of good eve restaurants/cafes (apart from chinese) need to be there, for me. Is it near any bigger town with more on offer? I think it's too far from london to consider it as it sounds too quiet (or full of drunk teenagers!)

any more opinions on Newark?

Yes main Notts station. Park is good for me with the kids, play area, cafe, gardens & pitch & put small tropical house. Depends what you want.
Its s only about 30 min drive to places like Rufford country park, clumber park, Sherwood pines if you are wanting places to go for a 'proper walk' or bike ride.

Just remembered about Long Eaton, like i said the Borrowash Canal runs through it and if you turn one way it's a lovely walk to Sandiacre and Stapleford, then out into countryside. If you turn the other it takes you right out into the countryside also . There's little narrow boat villages along it with gardens on the bank (used to be anyway) and a couple of lovely pubs. Though they are quite a distance. Then like I said there's Attenborough lakes close by which are amongst my favourite places I have ever been. Loads of lovely country pubs round there too.

I live in Long Eaton, about 5 mins walk from the station. We relocated here from London and really like it. It has quite a few facilities of its own, and a big park in the middle, but it is also close to Derby and Nottingham if you want to go to bigger shops/restaurants/theatre/cinema etc. We have family in London so use the train there quite regularly and it is very reliable. I commute to Nottingham by train, and there are several commuters travelling to Nottingham/Derby/Leicester/London, but it is not usually overcrowded. I would say you could get one of the bigger houses here if you have a budget of 250k, majority of property here is less than that.

www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/18/lets-move-to-newark-nottinghamshire

Huntingdon definitely has nice houses, but it seems (from the map) there are no parks?

thanks MrsP - is it 90 min train? a bit much but not too bad if walkingfrom station. Definitely on the list. Do you know if people aer quite friendly there?
Ohhelp, do you know when these new train will appear to derby? that's not hs2, is it? I wonder how much faster they'll be. Derby is nice for houses but not sure how green is it? I think Darley was on property programmes once so I remembered it, I need to see derby centre though, never been - thought it was full of traffic.

'90 min by train'