Town/village with decent rail link to both Margate and Birmingham.

[dyslexicdespot]

Friends of mine are moving back to the UK and are looking for a place to live.

They would spend part of the week in Margate and the rest of the working week in Birmingham. They are not opposed to living in either city, but would appreciate some advice on nice areas in or around them.

They would like to buy a house in a town or village with the usual: good schools, sense of community, and cultural activities, and most importantly diverse and/or accepting of diversity.

Budget would probably be around £3-380,000, for a 3 bed house.

London kind of gets in the way of any Birmingham/Margate route so I'm not sure it's possible to find somewhere convenient for both. Unless they just move to London...
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Margate to London is pretty slow IIRC. It would probably be quicker by car, despite the M25/M6. Not a good combination unless they want to live in London.

I really can't see how it would work - you'd always have to go through London either way, and driving would be horrid as well as lengthy

Thanks so much for the responses. I know it is not ideal!

The person doing all the travelling would spend part of the week in each city, so the daily commute should not be too bad.

They would love to live in London, but could not afford to buy a house here. At the moment they live abroad but have to be in the UK every month. Any place in the UK would be better!

They could buy in Bromley or Orpington in that price range I think so they'd be close to the motorways to Margste and the M25 to drive roud to M40 for Birmingham.

depends if they're driving or rail.

I live in Orpington and you can do margate in about 1.5/2 hours or slightly less if you go from Bromley.

to get to Birmingham though involves travelling across London to Euston, but equally I can do that in about 2.5 hours on a good day.

no idea about driving though as I don't drive, sorry.

Thanks so much-both of you! Your comments are really helpful.

They will travel by train, so it looks like Orpington would work very well.

How are the schools?