Help!! how do I go about choosing where to buy a house in London?

[BeenieBaby]

Where do I even start? It's such a daunting task! Eeek!

We know we want to live fairly close to central London (zone 2/3), but what about schools? Should I use those as a criteria? Oldest dc is 2.5y- what if the school ratings have changed by the time he gets to secondary age? And should we choose to live closer to a grammar school and hope they're bright enough to get in (and hope grammar schools are still in operation)!

I'm not sure there are grammer schools in zone 2/3, are there? I only know of some in the outer boroughs (Bexley, Bromley, etc).

The first thing I would consider is commute. I am assuming at least one of the adults is working in central London. How would the person commute? Cycle, bus, train, tube? (E.g. I hate the tube so would avoid moving somewhere without an overland train.) Which routes are efficient? Then once you have a few options, look at schools and amenities.

Where are you working/likely to work? Start with the commute - it can be awful and expensive (usually both).

Think about what you want and what you will settle for (so want a 3 bed semi but would go for a 2 bed flat next to a royal park and in a nice area with low council tax and better amenities).

Schools can change and change again sadly, so maybe somewhere with a few choices?

Have you a budget in mind? Or are there areas that you have heard about that you think you may like? Also think about your lifestyle - if you fancy trendy places and fancy caffs, or somewhere 'family', or nightlife...

Don't cycle - you will get squished. Tubes are hell at the moment and have got so busy over the past few years. Walk where possible!

If you don't have a car/drive then consider shopping (Although you can get most things delivered) and also if you do have a car, parking.

Wiki says there are grammar schools in barnet (?) so presumably not too far from n/nw postcodes... And dh works in the city at the moment and takes the tube. I will be driving when I go back to work and I'm on a rotation so my place of work will change yearly anyway and there will be times when I have a short commute and other times when it's not so we can't really use those to base our decision on...

Budget and requirements then!

Money is the biggest factor in London, to be brutal. What hope to get, what's your budget? Barnet isn't too pricey really but isn't Zone 2 by any stretch.

Barnet's an outer borough too.

I agree with the last posters - it sounds like it will come down to budget.

I've heard it suggested that you should move with secondary schools in mind rather than primaries because the quality is so much more variable, but at 2.5yo that does seem a little premature.

Budget please!

Its tricky as schools change. If you are catholic and attend regularly/volunteer/have the priest over for dinner then you can look at the good catholic schools. Ditto cofe to a far lesser extent (other religions I don't really know about).

Who knows if grammers will be around in 11 years?

Why do you want to be so central?

Barnet is an outer borough but has many positives worth considering.....barnet enfield mill hill winchmore hill grange park totteridge....good schools good transport

I grew up in Barnet and went to the grammar, was and still is excellent but all girl and practising catholic with regular attendance at mass confirmed by parish priest. plus when I attended many moons ago was 300+ who met those requirements competing for 90 places. As a faith school and grammar has no catchment as such. Girls in my year were travelling from south London every day. Agree with other posters, look at travel first as that is the biggest daily pita about London. (Though Barnet at end of line so you always get a seat on tube)

Are you renting or buying and what's your budget for both?

That's the key at the moment because, depending on what you can afford, certain areas will be automatically ruled out.

Here's what I'd do:

Get on rightmove

Do a search for all of London, number of bedrooms you need, and your budget range.

Get it to show you the search results on a map, or listed by distance

You'll see clusters in certain areas. List those areas

Then get the tfl 'tube and train' map. (NB not just the tube map , you need the one with trains as well, train commutes are often better than tube commutes)

use that map, plus perhaps TFL Journey Planner, to work out which of the areas have a reasonable commute.

you now have a smaller areas list.

Then look at schools in those areas... bearing in mind that good state schools in London often are very difficult to get into, ie you need to live in the next door street or have attended the right church since birth of DC.

the Findaproperty website has some useful area descriptions (though they are a bit hard to find on the website)

Yes surely it has to be budget led? anywhere nice with a good community and good schools comes at a premium.
Re gammer schools in Barnet, you don't have to live on the doorstep to get in so don't only have to live in Barnet, but remember they are super selective with about 1500 sitting for 180 places so you need back-ups.
Personally I think your child is still to young to base the move on secondary, but try to avoid living in a secondary school black hole, things change and you have time on your hands.
I'd at least make a north/south decision to start with, then ask for more advice, many London Munsnetters on here who will be more than willing to share with you.
Good luck.

We need a budget and minimum requirements / wish list. Also if you would consider private primary.

Never mind secondary. You need to be careful with primary. Friends in Barnet found themselves in a schol black hole this year and only got a school they did not feel met their child's needs. They've had to go private.

We've sort of decided on north/northwest London. Stretching from?willesden to?islington. These should be commutable for all of us and some of the areas seem to have decent schools. Any thoughts on these areas?

That's a big area with about 20 different sub-districts with great differences in character and considerable range in prices. It includes extremely posh and leafy places, thirties suburbia and inner city bustle. What kind of character do you want in an area? Are there any places in particular you're drawn to?

Offhand it's difficult to think of truly nasty areas within that arc, though parts of Holloway are pretty workaday. I don't know the NW bit so well.

We started the house hunting yesterday and saw a couple of properties in cricklewood and a couple more close to arsenal/ finsbury park. The cricklewood house was so beautiful I fell in love with it but the area seemed very run down. Does anyone know the area??

Do you have friends in London? There are nice parts all over so my criteria would be (in no particular order):

• feel of neighbourhood, safety, friendliness, family activities etc
• area where I have friends already
• proximity to Tube (people visit you more if you are be the Tube, plus you will explore London more)
• length of DH's commute
• proximity to good schools, primary and secondary
• proximity to a park

I don't know NW London well but I agree Cricklewood looks run down. What about Crouch End? Lovely area near a very good state secondary (choose your street carefully), loads of good primaries, very family orientated.

Lots of great advice as usual on here.

My thoughts are exclusively related to schooling, because that's the thing that caused us the greatest headache.

As with other regions, but even more so in London, as Kirsty and Phil say 'location, location, location'.

If you cannot afford private schooling, then for primary, if you want an ofsted 'outstanding' rated you need to try to buy a property very very very very close to the school. Year on year, the catchment areas shrink, so that in many cases, it's just a few streets (sometimes just parts of those streets!) surrounding the school. This is because once one child is in, the sibling priority rule can take up the majority of places in a reception intake. This is hurdle 1 with schooling. Hurdle 2 is secondary education. You may find yourself in a brilliant primary catchment area, but the choice at secondary not good at all. Many people need to move again for that stage.

If you have managed to buy literally on top of a superb primary (which remains superb), your property will usually sell easily. Estate agents can have long lists of people waiting for these properties. This can affect property prices such that houses/flats close to the best schools are considerably more expensive than ones in say a street away, but out of a particular school's catchment.

With a 2.5 yr old dc, and reception intake at age 4, if you can't afford private, this would be a big consideration if it were me.

Crouch End is very safe for primary schools, lots are good, and fine for secondary. Muswell Hill/Ally Pally is great for primary and secondary within the right catchment. All areas are relatively pricey but nice.

Totally agree with previous posters. You would narrow down the area based on commute. Then affordability depends on location and whether you decide to go private or state. For state schooling, unless you live very very close to the school (the catchment of my good local was within 100m as the crow flies), it is not a given you will be able to get your children in, with young families moving into the area and many parents who would have gone private now seeking the state route because of economic uncertainties. Plus a previously good school could go into special measures. Real estate around a good school (state or private) will reflect its desirability.

If you want to live in zone 2/3, I think best to keep the private option open.

There are a couple of good state schools near us but they are rediculously oversubscribed and notoriously hard to get into. Even if you lived next door to the schools you would still be in line with the other - literally hundreds - of kids for the 30 or so places each year. The rest of the local schools are pretty bad - and that's from teachers, ex pupils and parents.

If London is going to be your long(ish) term home, then I'd set the budget, assume private and see what you can get and go as nice an area as you can afford. Then you can get a feel for the areas you think you might like. You will also get the lowdown from colleagues. Loads of people do that then end up moving out when the kids get the secondary school age as they have targeted a nice town not too far away and moved out of London for more space/garden/room for a pony etc.

If you don't know London well then you could be in for a shock as the very well off often sit cheek by jowel with the very poor. In our first flat we were in a lovely street... We didn't realise the just over the railway line was Bandit Country. We had 4 break ins in the block (8 flats) in the first year (plus random racist and other crap flung) so we ended up getting grills like Fort Knox and only driving at night. Effing awful. 'Up and coming' my backside. This was over 20 years ago and it 'aint 'upped or commed' yet!