Family Friendly Areas with 30' commute to Central London?

[Sunnybee12]

Hi ladies,

We are a family of three, our baby is under one, and we are looking to relocate somewhere close to South West London, or London. Ideally we'd like a 3 bed house with a garden, we have a budget of 400K.

The problem I have is that I am a consultant and and I never know where my next project will be, so the location needs to have excellent transport links.

Any advice you could give me about family friendly locations in or near SW London with good schools will be very much appreciated /emo/te/1.gif

I think you may need to be quite far out from SW London with the budget. We are in Richmond which is fabulous for families / schools and great links to london or LHR but the cheapest I have seen 3 bed houses go for is about £540k and that was an ex-Council house. Tiny 2 bed cottages with postage stamp gardens and no parking are £500k.

Friends in Guildford (also lovely and well connected and further out) bought a lovely 3 bed w small garden near centre for £520k. Local schools were so oversubscribed they do not have a school place yet despite being 300m away from nearest.

I think you may need to play the size vs location game.

You'd get a fabulous house in Haslemere for your budget. This is at the top end: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-38954593.html
But it is 50 minutes from Waterloo...

Could it be SE London? Much more house for your money there.

How about NW? Pinner and surrounding areas are lovely, with tube connections straight to kings x on the met line.

Look at places along the Euston to Northampton train line - trains to Euston in 30 minutes and houses in really nice areas for less than half what they'd be inside the m25.

Motspur Park.

Oops pressed too soon.

25 mins to Waterloo, quiet residential area with day to day shops but Wimbledon/Kingston near by for more shops. Lovely park and playgroup. Schools are fine I believe (lived there before DCs but have a friend who lives there and sends her DS to the local primary that has an outstanding ofsted.)

I liked it as it had a milkman and a community feel.

Are you set on SW London? You will get a 3-bed in Motspur Park, Worcester Park, New Malden for that money, all pleasant enough suburban places with access to great town centres (Wimbledon, Kingston, Richmond) for shopping. But the trains themselves are 25-30 mins, so your whole commute will be longer, and they only go into Waterloo so not massively flexible.

In the SE there's loads of choice in Hither Green and Lee for that price and there are trains to 3/4 mainline stations (London Bridge, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, Waterloo East) from there, all 15-25 mins and you can live much nearer the station than would be affordable in SW London. I don't live (quite) there, so can't answer for the family friendliness, but those areas have the reputation of a regular choice for families priced out elsewhere.