Good places to buy house in London under £300K

[ivt03]

Hi there,

Due to personal change in our circumstances, me and my husband may have to relocate to London in a couple of months.

Rather than spending dead money in rents, we were thinking of buying a house (not flat/apartments) under £300K in a good locality that's safe to live in, commutable from central London under an hour and has good affinity for schools/shops, etc.

We stumbled upon areas like Tilbury and Gravesend and while the houses internally were wonderful for their price, the locality and people around didn't seem safe.

Would people living in and around London/Greater London advise of some good, safe, commutable areas to buy a house?

Many thanks!

I like Rainham. There's lovely walks along the Thames, the marshes, a bird sanctuary. It has the feel of a proper community with library, pub etc (or did when I visited a few years ago.

It's an hour and a half from St Neots to Waterloo - totally the wrong side of London.

That cottage in Wallington is on a v.busy road. You wopldn't want to live there.

Since work is near waterloo it’d save money and reduce commuting stress to commute directly by rail to waterloo and avoid the tube (or indeed changing trains, eg london bridge to waterloo east).

OP’s budget is small for property in London/commuterbelt so there will need to be big compromises, eg length of commute, size of property, flat vs house, main road.

That will be the case even if renting.

Move to Colchester, 3 stations with links to London and the most affordable. Plus they're going to be improving train times.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63641476.html

This house is newly built (no fixing needed), and in walking distance to the station. It has 3 beds and a garage.

But it’s a v v long commute to waterloo. Wrong central london stations

@Scribblegirl apologies I didn’t mean to offend, I know Norwood has some really lovely property & agree the lakes are lovely, just that I have had a few unpleasant incidents, whilst visiting a friend.
Also agree with pp that sometimes people’s perception of South London can be very dismissive, I have lived in south east London most of my life & love most of it & if you look hard enough definitely still pockets that have some reasonable prices.
@Turquoisedress have you ventured out by Elmers End/West Wickham? some nice two bed maisonettes down by cheston Ave, opposite the park with very small ground rent & no service charge, might be worth a look.

Sorry to you too @len, reading back I got a bit overexcited! I just feel very protective over SoNo haha, though it's definitely not perfect by any means though (where is?). We moved down here after renting in Balham/Clapham where I had a pretty awful experience walking home one night - I think with London a lot of it is down to luck TBH.

Genuinely aghast at the quality and size of property one can get for £300k around London.

It really is ridiculous

All over budget so get your 10-15% below offers in.
All on the waterloo line.
All these areas can quickly descend from nice to grim.

eg east molesey very nice, west molesey not so.

lower sunbury nice, north of the m3, less nice

340 in lower sunbury
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-61492498.html

350 in sunbury
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64068202.html

350 in walton
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52563861.html

a couple in west molesey (quite far from station)
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67235582.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71282420.html

@Scribblegirl totally agree, it’s down to luck a lot more than area💐

user1495492391

Thanks for the link!

We considered Abbey wood for a bit but it feels such a long way from where we are with family/friends etc. Also, places like Erith and Bexleyheath are places we're not familiar with at all.

We lived in zone 2 for a long time and recently moved out to zone 5, still renting as we look for something to buy and now the pressing matter of reception applications for LO!

dontcallmelen
Thank you
Yes we're looking a bit further out to places like West Wickham, don't know the area that well but it looks nice and family friendly with lots of schools.

We were keen on Beckenham for a long time, currently renting here, but to actually buy something seems pretty impossible. Even the ex-council properties here are way out of our budget!

@TurquoiseDress definitely have a look at West Wickham, my dd has just moved to West Wickham(she lived on Southend Rd opposite the park) it’s lovely really good high street & some lovely restaurants, schools are good to, as I said those maisonettes by Cheston ave, are pretty spacious & overlook the park.
Also sometimes you see ex local authority flats in small blocks, along the Eden Park Road & also some in WW.
Pm if I can be of any help.

@TurquoiseDress, I’m not stalking you honest😳 I remember you from another thread, when you were looking at a property near copers cope road, I have just remembered another place worth looking at.
The Lawson estate, which runs off Orchard Road (between Eden Park/West Wickham) they are really spacious with a large private patio & gated communal garden areas, the service charge is very reasonable, also only a few minutes from the primary school.
My dd missed out on a place, as she lost her buyer they would be worth investigating as well.

this is lovely, with a pretty garden, in great condition, and it's in Surbiton! That means it's a really short easy commute to pretty much everywhere in London. And once you get over the name Surbiton, it's a lovely area - great shops, cafes, good schools (Maple Infants, Hollyfield secondary)fantastic restaurants, loads of job prospects, pretty walks along the river, playparks, gym. It's a very safe, affluent, cosmopolitan area. I want that flat now!

Worth a look at this article in today's Evening Stabndard:

www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/house-prices-in-london-up-4000-in-a-month-but-annual-prices-skip-traditional-spring-surge-a118701.html

Which includes:

London’s best-performing borough was Bexley, where the average asking price was £409,400, up three per cent on the same period in 2017.

The south-east London borough stretches from part of Abbey Wood, where a Crossrail station is due to open this autumn, down to Sidcup, which has become a first-time buyer hotspot thanks to its relative affordability and half-hour commute to central London.

Really scratching my head at Ken & Chelsea going up... Otherwise, reasonably predictable results.

North Kensington? Crossrail will have having an impact there. The old BBC site?

My childhood home is literally on the road off Becontree station and sold for 215 in 2014, I don't think them standard Dagenham houses are 320k. Maybe the ones opposite parsloes park as they are bigger and some have garages

Sutton, Carshalton, Ewell, Epsom - expensive areas. You might get a flat but it will be a bit shite.

@Timefortea99 do you live in all or any of those areas to call them shite? Which one?

I think timefortea was saying you would only get something shite for £300k in those areas, not that the areas are shite.

if she lived in one of those areas she would have good idea what 300K buys you too, so my question kind of stands as people are very opinionated about areas they never even visited, let alone lived in