Where to buy near London and France

[Almondmilk]

We are looking for a city or even rural area to settle down. We would like to have access to London and be able to go to France easily. Our budget is K300-320 and we would hope to get a house. Being both non-british we would ideally move to a multi-cultural area but safe. We both are freelancers and need access to London maybe once or twice a week. Hove seemed like a good option to me. Other ideas?

kent has a high speed railway into london that im sure would be fine if it was only twice a week. Otherwise anywhere near an airport that flies to where you want to go in france I guess

hi Branleuse, thanks.
Any idea in Kent? We don't need to access France more than once a month. So I wouldn't choose to live near an airport for it.

Have a look at places within reach of Ebbsfleet or Gatwick with decent London commuter links. Your budget might go further I. Parts of Kent than in Surrey or Sussex.

obvious check - are you able to settle in the UK?

And bear in mind that if Hard Brexit happens it will significantly add to journey times both ways for everybody ... no more bringing wine and cheese back ....

Ebbsfleet or Ashford (Kent) are probably best placed for easy rail access to both London and the Tunnel. Depending on where you want to go in France, Tunnel is probably as quick as flying, from Kent.

Canterbury is easy rail or driving distance to Dover for crossing the Channel and also has good rail connections to London. It's a university city, so plenty going on. Kent also has lots of attractive villages, if you don't mind driving to a railway station.

Look at www.rightmove.co.uk to get an idea of what might be available within your budget.

Canterbury if you want a city and villages around Ashford for rural. If you spread out towards Folkestone and Dover you will get more for your money but longer and more expensive commute.

I'd go for Kent rather than Sussex.

If you want the seaside then Broadstairs is nice but commute a bit long probably.

Check the train times - since Ebbsfleet opened, fewer Eurostars stop at Ashford. In practice what people do if they need to get it from Ashford is take the high speed to Ebbsfleet which is about twenty minutes from Ashford and change.

If you are driving to France, then the tunnel is (currently - God knows what they'll do if a hard Brexit happens) a good option. Very easy to access off the M20 and you drive straight onto the autoroute when you get to France. Going the other way, when we lived in Hythe we could be home within ten minutes of getting off the train. Fabulous.

If you're only going to London once or twice a week, I'd look at Folkestone. On the high speed it's an hour to St Pancras. It's so close to France you can see it. You'd get plenty for your money there.

A left field suggestion - what about Lille? Direct Eurostars. Nice city. Lower property prices. And if you're earning in pounds and converting to Euros, it could be quite a good exchange rate....