I am in Christchurch, New Zealand and we need to find a new rental house. Rentals are quite hard to get here, so have been looking further away from DD's school than normally would have and have narrowed it down to two areas... It's between property like this www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-to-rent/auction-675802873.htm near a lovely park and within walking distance (about 20 mins) of DD's school, near to preschool etc, but old houses here do tend to be very cold (no central heating), and this area is mostly old houses (most of the ones we've seen around here haven't had their earthquake repairs yet and have cracks, are damp etc). This house is quite nice. Any nicer, modern houses would be way out of our budget.
Or, do we move to a beach suburb, lovely houses, 5 minute walk to a sandy beach, sand dunes, big forest to cycle in... and live in a house like this www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-to-rent/auction-673909329.htm. If you google earth them you get a better idea of location). It would mean a 15/20 min drive to school each day though... One of the other children in DD's class does the commute, so we could lift share.
And yes, those prices are per week (halve it to get in pounds) 
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What would you do? I think we are leaning towards the lifestyle choice at the beach...