Brighton areas and property market

[BucketofDinosaurs]

Hi all! Just some hypotheticals...

I don't know Brighton at all and need some guidance about areas .

If someone were hypothetically working in Falmer , are there any areas nearby which have properties in the £220-£235 sort of mark, have good schools, and don't require a car to get to Falmer?

Also! I am in Scotland and new to rightmove and the whole English sales system. How do we realistically find what houses are going for? Up here we look at the website and often have 'offers over' which can even now be ten percent over sometimes. I don't know the English system but suspect the advertised price is usually exceeded?

I don't live in Falmer/Brighton itself so can't comment on specific areas, but Falmer has frequent trains so there's a wide area you can look at depending on what length of commuting time you're happy with. You could easily commute towards Brighton/Worthing or Lewes/Eastbourne, or north towards Haywards Heath.

To see what houses have sold at, you can look on zoopla. This also gives an estimated value but I would take that with a large pinch of salt.

In my limited experience of buying and selling (now in third house), houses tend to go below asking price or at asking price. There are apparently signs the housing market is picking up so it's possible they may go for more but only if there was a bidding war or if a seller was accepting a gazumping offer.

That's very helpful, thank you . I know London's market has gone mad with offers over etc and fear that other south east areas will have that too. I do expect Brighton is hugely expensive...

Thanks also very much for the note about other commuteable places. I have found school league table saa and exam results and see that the schools in the Brighton and Hove authority around Falmer are really not great, but we could maybe look at the East Sussex local authority and see if options there? Obviously there are great schools in Brighton itself, but I suspect those catchments are v expensive for property. (Haven't admittedly checked yet)

What sort of property did you want for that budget? Central Brighton is expensive but you dont need to move that far out to find more reasonable prices. I live in Saltdean, which is about 5 miles out (although I don't think there's a bus to Falmer from here). Further down the coast you have Newhaven, which is on the train line to Falmer but isn't very pretty, or Seaford, which I haven't been to (not lived here long) but it's supposed to be nice.

Or if you want to live close to work, I've driven through Woodingdean a few times and it looks quite nice and very close. Falmer itself is a bit studenty I think.

If it helps, we bought a house at Christmas and paid £10k less than the asking (offer was accepted in September). Prices are rising, but nowhere near as crazily as in London, where we moved from.

Brighton operates on a lottery system for school places, or it certainly used to. I think this is in the city itself rather than the suburbs - I used to work with people talking about the absurdity of it all when it came in. It might not still be like that.

Some of the towns I mentioned (Haywards Heath and Worthing) are in West Sussex so might be worth looking at those too. I think properties on the Brighton to London line will be more expensive so you might get more for your money by avoiding that area seeing as you don't need those trains.

There are direct trains to Falmer from Lewes which is very different to Brighton.
The transport links to Falmer are geared towards student life but areas like Hanover would be in budget and good for the 25 bus to Falmer. Look at Elm Grove area on Rightmove

I know the area very well - used to work in Falmer. What size property are you after for that price range? Number of beds, off road parking, garden, etc?

If I assume you want a 3 bed house then you can rule out most of Brighton, Falmer village, Lewes, etc. For 250k (asking price) the only areas you can buy a 3 bed house are woodingdean, lower Bevendean and whitehawk. The latter is quite a socially deprived area. Bevendean is better and has a great school, not outstanding, but a lovely environment and v supportive.

Woodingdean is probably your best local bet. But we ruled it out because it doesn't really have much of a heart to it and the traffic in the main cross roads especially on match days (new stadium at falmer) is a nightmare. Not so bad for buses but there's no station there.

I'd start by looking at Seaford. It's quick by train - via Lewes.

PS it's not lottery anymore, it's catchment. Lots of info on the Brighton and Hove council site about which schools were oversubscribed. Don't know about Seaford but do know someone considering moving there from Lewes to get twice as big a house for same price! And also look at Eastbourne.

I live in brighton and for that budget you would be looking at a flat on the outskirts. It is crazy here ATM I sold a flat last week and we had 10 viewings on the first day. Falmer is student area so most houses are BTL there I would move further if I was you and commute maybe shore ham direction?