Any rightmove addicts out there? I need your help!

[TheVeryHungryPreggo]

Inspired by a poster on an earlier thread of mine, I've decided to ask the power of Mumsnet to find me a new home!

Criteria:
1700 sqft or more

4 bedrooms

A garden big enough for a bbq, outdoor dining and a trampoline

Near good primary schools AND a good nursery

On the DLR or overground as DH and I work in the city and Canary Wharf

Zone 3 or 4, areas of interest include Sydenham, Penge, Lewisham, Greenwich, Forest Hill, Brockley etc.

Modern finish, not a fixer-upper - we are both crap at handy stuff and projects ourselves so wouldn't do anything more than paint a wall or put up shelves.

Ideally no more than 1km from a station because we will have to run about like blue arsed flies doing drop offs in two directions before heading in to work for about 8.45am at our desks, and DH has early meetings so it's just as likely to be me doing two different drop offs before I get to the station.

Budget about £1.1million max. Most of that will probably come from selling our own zone 1 flat which was honestly just a very well-timed purchase in an area that sort of exploded; we are not likely to ever have that kind of windfall again! I'd like off-street parking but it's not a necessity.

A useful high street close by. Doesn't have to be leafy and naice. I want to be able to dash out for a pint of milk if we've had a glass of wine and not have to drive. M

What do you think? Am I asking for the moon on a string? Are any of you up for the challenge?! So far I've found one stunning house in Penge that ticks all my boxes - but I called up today and they are on a deadline with their chain so they want a buyer who's chain-free only, sob! Penge is also about as far out as we want to go, I still want to feel like a Londoner!

If you've made it this far and are still prepared to give it a whirl

Good luck with your property search OP - all the houses look lovely

Yy, Luckystar!

Thanks, and thank you everyone for some very helpful suggestions.

Seems to be the case that great houses in the catchment area for great schools don't come up very often. I know we have a big budget, but prices have gone up so much, I'm still looking to be really wowed by something before parting with my cash. A million pounds still seems like a stupidly large amount of money. I want to feel like I'm living somewhere very special for that! I already do, though...

...and that's the problem! Part of the reason I am being very picky about houses is that I don't really want to move out of SE1, even if the walls of our flat are closing in on us a bit. I love being close to work (I can pop home, do the nursery pick up, make tea for DS, handover to a babysitter and still meet DH in central London at 7.30 for a gig or dinner or friends) and I love Borough Market and our nursery is Ofsted outstanding. My NCT friends live locally and we sometimes go to the parks together after work or hang out for a couple of hours in the afternoon on weekends so the kids can play - 6 of us had a girls' night out last week! I'm not British myself and nor is DH, so we have no family nearby, and I'm desperately worried that I will be isolated moving further out and leaving all the friends I have made in the last 10 years behind me, in a city I no longer live in but I don't how much of an impact pregnancy hormones are having on me when I get all sentimental! I'm facing nearly a year of mat leave and I don't know where I will be living, it's frightening...

This is close to Gipsy Hill station (one stop to change to the Overground at CP), in catchment for the sought after Kingswood Primary, and Kingsdale secondary (plus the Dulwich schools, it has a good Teddies nursery at the end of the road, a park around the corner and close to Crystal Palace for great shops and restaurants, as well as having closer local shops and some v nice pubs (Paxton, Beer Rebellion etc). It needs doing up but there'd be lots of room left in your budget.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31231986.html

Sorry - typos implied Kingsdale has a catchment but it's lottery intake. Still v close tho and several other secondary options nearby.

Ah, also sorry - just saw you don't want a fixer-upper. But maybe that's a better compromise than location / schools / transport links etc. If it ticks all the other boxes and the budget means you can pay for all the work then it could be worth a shot. GH/CP has a really great community too, as that's obviously a big concern you mention. Lots of families but the kind who still hang out at good pubs, not suburban death! Worth checking out...

Wanstead is Zone 4 and naice - and leafy. Small High St, park etc. Sure you will find something on Rightmove in that price range. Bit quiet for singles but perfect for family and 35mins to Canary Wharf via central and jubilee lines.

Places in east London such as Walthamstow Village are probably a lot more accessible to Canary Wharf and the City than those you list in the OP. You could get something spectacular under budget with excellent school/leisure options

See Mintty's thread about a 'fugly house'

Sydenham, big garden, a few more bedrooms than you need but in your budget.

The one in Forest Hill Tremolo posted is lovely - long garden rather than pokey I'd say.

I sympathise with your sentiments and attachment to SE1 OP. We are going through the same thing at the moment, leaving our flat in SE1 and house hunting in SE London. I think unless you have lived in the area, you can't quite appreciate how special and unique it is. There is nowhere else in London I can think of that offers the same level of accessibility to the City, the same quality of world class cultural venues, and foodie joints. Best kept secret in Central London I would say.

I don't really have the answer, the only thing I would suggest is look around Bermondsey and Old Kent Road areas, as I have previously seen beautiful Georgian villas for sale for within your budget. Can't speak for schools and catchment areas, but you can certainly get more of a family feel in a house. If you did end up in some of the areas suggested above in SE London, unluckily the journey back to London Bridge/Bermondsey is quite bus-able/swift.

I meant "luckily"!

What about this?

You might overwhelm the garden with a trampoline, although you could get one of those in-ground trampolines

Trains from Ladywell into Cannon Street (about 10/15 mins to London Bridge) and you can pick up the DLR at Lewisham (short walk or trains from Ladywell stop there). It's a very nice area for families and lots of green space. There are interesting things popping up like this.

Oh, that's interesting BoBoo, thank you! DH actually works closer to Cannon St than London Bridge, that would be perfect for him. I think I should look into that area a bit more.

To the PP who suggested Wanstead and East London, they are great and we lived in East London for years when we first arrived in the UK, but we have close friends of many years with small children who we see reasonably frequently who live more to the south west, even though that's an hour's drive from here now. It would be good to see them more and not less! We both have maternity leave coming up, and it would be nice to be able to do baby stuff together if we lived closer.

Also heathrow and Gatwick are better for us to see family than stansted..!

Here's another FH one which should get you into Horniman. Probably too far for Eliot Bank.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50364308.html

Slightly weird location in that it is technically right off the A205 but it's up a long, long drive with lots of trees so that should block the noise. I always wondered what was up there until this house came up for sale. Lovely views of the Museum…

m.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35867641?search_identifier=22ef633e72836c6ea90dc036a027f930

This? Lots of other similar around. Much further in. I live around here and can get the 42 to the bottom of Bermondsey/Maltby street and 343 to London bridge really quick. We spend most of our weekends there.

Also around the old Kent road side of burgess park. Brunswick park primary is ofsted outstanding.

I don't think you should move out much if you don't want to, just move to outwith the ten streets closest to Bermondsey street!

Also this is right next to a bus stop for the 42 and on an amazing square with a foodie wee cafe that buys in sausage rolls from Maltby street. I would absolutely buy this with your budget...

m.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35832658?search_identifier=22ef633e72836c6ea90dc036a027f930

That Forest Hill property has potential, I'm going to send that to DH for a look!

The Camberwell ones are nice, but the first is too pokey for the money (we live in a warehouse conversion, so very high ceilings and open plan living area of about 2000sq ft, losing a quarter of that space would hurt!) and the second house is beautiful but the garden is too small...