Places to consider around London

[bobnl]

Hi everyone,
We are moving to Britain in July.
I will be travelling between Luton, London and Reading for work.

We are looking for a place with:

• Good schools ( primary and secondary ) for my 2kids
• within 45 mins Commute time to central London
• Things to do in the town, activities for children, playgrounds
• able to buy a 3 bedroom house for 325000 pounds

Can you please give me some advice on places to consider?

Thank you very much.

Hi, bobnl - I think you will have to readjust your expectation on either commute time, number of bedrooms or price.

If you need to travel between London, Luton and Reading, that means you need to be looking in an arc roughly between the M1 and the M4. Anywhere within that area that is also 45 mins from central London is going to be very pricey.

Places like Watford, High Wycombe or Egham would fit your location criteria, but there are very few 3 bed houses in your budget, and frankly, they don't look great.

Personally, if you can't stretch your budget, and you definitely need three bedrooms, I think you would be better actually looking at either Reading (more expensive, nicer) or Luton (cheaper, not as nice). Both are commutable to London, although it is a bit of a trek between the two.

However - don't forget to calculate the cost of travel into your budget. A season pass might not be the best thing for you if you're not in London 5 days a week, but to give you an idea, they can run to several thousand pounds per year.

I agree with Feezles that that may not be a realistic set of expectations for your budget.

If you can extend the commute time slightly then you might just find something in Bedford. Fast trains into St Pancras in 39min, slower trains in 55min.

And whereabouts is the central London office? You're likely to find somewhere with a 45-min or less train journey but you need to get into the right station. E.g. If your train gets into Kings Cross but the office is near Paddington, you'd be looking at another half an hour to change and travel on the tube.

Look at stations on Crossrail which opens later this year and which connects London and Reading. It goes through some cheaper parts of West London. Change at Farringdon for Thameslink to Luton if you don't want to drive.

Lots of people choose Aylesbury for commuting to these locations. You would get a 3 bed semi. No problems. It’s about 1 hour on the train to Marylebone, that’s the compromise. Anywhere south of Aylesbury is more expensive. You might find somewhere in Tring (nearer to Luton) or Thame (nearer to Reading). Bucks is grammar schools, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire are not.

Luton would fit your budget, many people commute from here. Trains can be 20 mins to St Pancras but there numbers at peak times have just been cut (for a trial of a couple of years apparently). For life with little kids, it’s great, lots of playgroups, playgrounds. You could look at Wigmore area.

Thank you all for your support..

We are considering following places ..

Hitchin
Bicester
Aylesbury
Buckingham
Milton Keynes

I will create a separate thread to get details about each area

Feezles : we can stretch our budget to 350k, but I am not sure if I will find a decent 3 room house in Watford, High Wycombe or Egham!
Milton Keynes seems to an option, I can see few outstanding primary schools there. Is it a good place to raise kids?

BubblesBuddy : I see Aylesbury has a couple of outstanding secondary schools, how are the primary schools in Aylesbury?

Thank you again

Hitchin is so so nice! I visit a friend there, it’s really lovely! Milton Keynes doesn’t have the same character but just my opinion. Good luck!

Hertford also nice.

Secondary school options in Aylesbury aren't great for those who don't pass the 11+ and qualify for the grammar schools. Aston Clinton or Wendover in catchment for the John Colet might be better.

Maybe look at Olney, OP. Just outside Milton Keynes and recently featured in the Sunday Times Great Places To Live. It's lovely.

I think your criteria might just about work for high Wycombe. Budget will be a little tight but the other things are easily done!

I noticed Bicester is on your list ... it might be worth considering Banbury which is a stop further along (55 minutes to Marleybone). A friend commutes on that line and says they'd rather commute from Banbury because they were guaranteed a seat - it seemed like a fair point to me. Also I think there are more frequent/direct trains between Marleybone and Banbury - all trains stop at Banbury but they don't all stop at Bicester.