Moving out of London - where are rail fares not extortionate?

[mumtosnchild]

Currently have a shared ownership property in London. Considering selling and moving out of London. Ideally looking for a 2 bed/3 bed but would like a garden. However a lot of areas are out of our price range due to season ticket prices.

Need a 1 hourish commute to Westminster/Waterloo where rail fares are not £500 a month.

House/Flat budget no more than £300k.

Any recommendations for areas to look at?

Hertfordshire - Welwyn maybe or St Albans? Bedfordshire - flitwick, Bedford, Luton perhaps

Essex?

Warwickshire!

Do you mean an hour door to door commute, or an hour on the train? Surely everywhere with an hour total commute of Westminster /Waterloo has horrendous train fares?! Think you will also struggle to find a decent house and garden for £300k within that radius, because everyone else has noticed it’s convenient too. Also suggest not Hertfordshire cos it’s the wrong side of London for Westminster/Waterloo, but if you are happy to cross London by tube, maybe Hemel, Watford, Stevenage, Luton?

£300k won’t go very far at all in St Albans, and the train fare will be ££££.

Bedford will be 1.5hrs absolute minimum to Waterloo/Westminster.

Have you looked at www.commutefrom.com?

Essex way - there are two lines going out to Shoeburyness/Southend (c2c and Greater Anglia). The C2C line is about £3,800pa to Shoeburyness and is a fairly ok service (roughly £300pm). Has gone downhill lately after being bought by Trenitalia but it's a quick line and goes from Fenchurch Street. The Greater Anglia line goes from Liv Street and goes through Stratford is a bit more expensive from what I recall.

You could almost certainly get a 3 bed flat for £250k in Westcliff (short walk from the station and to the beach) or a 3 bed house for £375k ish.

(oh and the commute from Westcliff into London is 48/52/56 mins into Fenchurch St depending which service you get).

Gah, it would help if I read your post correctly first time - 44 mins from Westcliff to West ham, then you could get Jubilee line from West Ham and be at Waterloo in 17 mins.

A few options in West Byfleet, one stop along from Woking on the stopper:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74126918.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-73356587.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74619545.html

Alternatively Basingstoke is 45mins to Waterloo and there's lots on offer in your price range, but commute is over £400.

Basingstoke options:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74471666.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64767034.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55360392.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54567369.html

Somewhere like Dartford/Sidcup? The Medway towns are cheap but the rail fares might be higher.

As MrsPatford says, look at Bexley borough (welling, bexleyheath, sidcup), Dartford. Trains into Waterloo east are around 170 per month, you can get a flat or small house in budget.

The borough of Bexley could be a good bet or Sutton as well. You're still in London so no extortionate fares but pleasant areas with good transport links. I think Sutton is marginally more expensive than Bexley but 300k should buy a 2 bed flat with outside space.

Try stations on the line from Victoria to Ashford, Kent. Kemsing, Borough Green and Wrotham, West Malling. All into Victoria in about 45/50 mins then 10 min tune to Westminster or a walk. On Southeastern and pretty reliable. Def less than £500/month train fare and still possible to find a property for just under £300,000. Otherwise, Rochester also worth a look.

Rail fares higher in Folkestone, but property far cheaper (and often for gorgeous period properties the like of which you tend to find in the ‘trendier’ enclaves of London) and the beach/countryside lifestyle more than makes up for the expense. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55867596.html Is one example of how your money will go far further down here 😁

Bromley (SE London or Kent to some people).

I run past here every day. This is a lovely private square. Like where the rich families live in Dickensian novels 😁 www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74469755.html