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!

Londoners are generally less fussy about so-called ‘safe’ areas. Very expensive housing exists right next to problem areas, much more mixed up than in many regional towns. Fairly run-down looking doesn’t necessarily mean unsafe.

Look at the train routes leaving Waterloo, and investigate the various destinations.

Our first property was a 2 bed ex-council maisonette with own garden. Our room sizes were huge in comparison to the houses we looked at. We eventually moved to a house as we needed more bedrooms, but it took us a long time to find something, as although the properties had the extra rooms we needed, it felt like we were downsizing.

With your budget, you are going to need to compromise on something. Location or property?

Another thing to consider, is the cost of commuting to/in London, particularly if you are regularly travelling before 930am. Any savings you make from buying further out, will be swallowed up by fares, or may even end up costing you more!

Hither Green flat
Hither Green Lane, Lewisham
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51842451.html
15 mins to Waterloo East

Put Norbury into Rightmove with a half mile radius: lots of good 2 beds for £300k and under. Lots are the Thornton Heath side, lots of S Londoners moving to T Heath as Brixton, Streatham etc become unaffordable.

Has anyone mentioned Woking? Looks like there are some houses in the price range and very quick into Waterloo.

Loads of 2 bed flat in Norbury in this price range but definitely not houses

I don’t think a house anywhere is realistic, is it?

OP, look at Ewell and chessington area.

I know some of the areas mentioned OP. I agree a two bed flat could be purchased in a nice area (outer London boroughs). In terms of a house, Rainham may be an option. A two bed house in Romford perhaps but houses in Romford (a nice part) would be at least £400,000. Unless you are prepared to do work. Collier Row would be an option- approx £350,000 for a decent house. In my experience of Barking and Dagenham, £300,000 would not buy you a house in a nice part of the borough. Many parts of the borough are widely considered very undesirable. As others have suggested, perhaps look at commuter towns in Essex, I.e Braintree, Colchester etc... Some nice houses there within your budget. Good luck.

Frankly, if someone was cool with living in Norbury or Thornton Heath, then they could as well move to a place where you can get a house in greater London on this budget. Also, someone has just mentioned a house is achievable for the money in places like Bexleyheath. Isn't it at least 20 times nicer than places like Norbury? Actually somewhere you'd live out of choice?

No recommendations to add, however, many areas previously thought as 'undesirable' are no longer thought so, through gentrification etc e.g. Battersea, Brixton. Bought a house in West Croydon 10 years ago for 80k, now worth 350k - ordinary/small 3 bed Vic cottage.

Agree with others, research, prioritise what's important to you, check out the area, talk to folk. What's undesirable today may be the next hotspot.

Good Luck!

Haz anybody mentioned Stevenage? Goes into Moorgate and fast I think.

Where do you currently live in Leeds? What you're used to/expect in Leeds will help give ideas of where to suggest in London. If you're living in Chapel Allerton/ Roundhay for example, you're going to get a helluva shock moving to some places suggested if you don't research properly.

Another one saying look carefully at how much your commute will actually cost you. My hour commute into London costs me over £6k per year. If both you and DH need to get into central it can obviously rack up pretty darn quickly (not to mansion all of those hours of your life that get sucked into a black hole).
We had a big excel spreadsheet with all the various house prices and commuting times and costs.
We also relocated from north to south (although we are southerners) and found it a huge shock house price wise and quality of life wise!

OP says work is near waterloo, so commuter towns north or east of london are unlikely to suit.

Even with travel costs it is usually cheaper to live in commuterville.

My commute is under £2k a year.

From Romford, you'll find the commute long unless you're slap bang near a station - and you probably wouldn't be. Places like Collier Row involve quite the bus journey to a station.

Someone mentioned areas near Shenfield upthread, but for under 300k you won't get a house of any kind for that money.

Harlow has some quite nice areas, including a big development walking distance from the station. Property is cheap there (for a reason...). You connect to the Victoria Line at Tottenham Hale and it's a quick journey.

magicalmimi nowhere did I say that people from Romford are less intelligent than people from anywhere else. You infered that all on your own. I did not even imply it.

Woking is 24 mins to Waterloo and you might just scratch a house for £300k. Season ticket is just under £3k.

Surrey/SE is probably not going to so as much property wise as Leeds in the next t years. Have you thought about buying in Leeds, and renting modestly here while you get a feel for different areas.

Raindrops. Surrey may not increase but somewhere like Erith, accessible to both Crossrail and Waterloo ought to. In am finding the constant plugs for expensive bits of Surrey quite odd.

We too did a spreadsheet and decided to put money into a mortgage rather than Southern Region. It paid off.

Needmore I agree. That's exactly why I syggested renting and buying in Leeds pro-tem. Taking a while to find the right place to put down roots. Many apols but I know this side rather than the East.

£300000 cannot get you a house in London. It's impossible even to get a flat for that amount even in a bad area.

This is cute....

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62326682.html

Most of the affordable places in London mentioned on this thread is similar to Chapeltown or Gipton in Leeds whereas £300K in Leeds would buy a 3 bed semi in far Headingly

Some of the areas mentioned are a lot better than others. Croydon/Caterham not a bad shout as relatively safe I believe. Parts of Croydon have always been nice & schools decent. Or Kent.

Personally I would rent & get to know an area first.