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)!

twostep out of interest, where was this up and coming area?

Brick Lane/Columbia st. Handy for the City though!

Ah yes - those "up and coming" areas!
They tend to be the red ones on this map here
We are aiming to move somewhere a lot more green/blue but it is difficult to avoid red/orange in our price bracket.....
When you have identified an area you can download the Ward Profile from the local authority website to get the facts on population profile, crime, health etc etc.

A friends boyfriend (ex army) bought in that other 'up and coming' area of Bermondsey. He was scared to walk out alone at night!

Have you been to Bermondsey lately? All trendy bars and delis.

I used to live on Bermondsey Street and walking home at night was the most spooky experience, usually only saw foxes and rubbish blowing around!

I would def say Bermondsey Street has come up but not sure about the surrounding roads.

Its a bit like notting hill!

When I first moved here it was a no-go area - especially around the back of portobello/ladbroke grove direction. My friends aunt had a house there about 20 years ago and it was like fort knox and they kept guard dogs (they weren't rich, so house not full of picassos and jewels!).

It's all fancy schamtzy now (americans have taken over - I blame that bloody film), but still quite sinister at night. And lots of break ins, robberies, muggings.

Aye, you can put a crown on a turd, but it doesn't make it king.

What a brilliant last line twostep! Never heard it said before.

tricot what's that map showing? is it crime stats or wealth or what?

ignore me, just saw it is 'deprivation indices' though no idea how they measure that.

No idea how it is actually "measured" as such because it is a big "fudge" based on levels of crime, educational attainment, income, health, access to good housing and some other things that I can't remember! Basically (I am led to believe) a shorthand way for government to identify problem areas which are in need of resources and initiatives.

Stats are weird.

If you know a ballpark of price, and minimim requirements - size, travel, schools, etc - why not post here and let people recommend places? You can't tell until you visit a place a few times.

I'd also keep an eye on house prices. A sharp rise in prices may well just be a 'trend' - so an area where a pop star has bought a house pushes up prices temporarily, but they can crash back down too. Somewhere that's had a steady rise, and the area is ok will be more stable. You don't want to get stuck with negative equity!

stats might be wierd but they can be more useful than random views from internet fora :)

it's more that london is wierd as it has such social extremes cheek by jowl.

on the deprivation map notting hill is covered with ward areas which are some of the most wealthy in the country, jammed up areas solidly covered by the most deprived. higher crime rates predictable.

for a quiet life op might want to look for the centre of a more uniformly green/blue area. of course the prices will be high..

I am an ex Londoner. For a 2-3 bed house we are surely looking at 400k plus and perhaps school fees. Yikes.....