Looking to move to SE london

[Roseharris]

Hello,

We currently live in hertfordshire with our Little one whos 2 and are both commuiting into London which is super pricey living this far out.

Looking to move closer to london but don't want to be surrounded by concrete and would love to find nice quiet family area's. Beckenham, penge, bromley seem to look nice but if anyone can offer any advice on other locations or be able to tell me more about the areas i've listed that would be great!

Also our childcare fee's are roughly 5.50ph here is it the same there?

Any help/advice would be amazing!

I live in that area. I love it, we can commute into central London by two train lines and also overground. Penge is now fairly nice, lots of families and a community feel. Schools are mostly good as well, Beckenham schools are also mostly very good with some outstanding schools. Secondary is not quite as good but the girls Harris school recently did well with GCSEs. Lots of nice parks and green spaces.

Childcare costs can vary, around £5-6 an hour for childminders and £12 gross for nanny. I was paying £15 a half day for preschool but a full time nursery is more like £25-30 a half day.

I live in Beckenham with 2 primary ages children. Love it!
Good schools, great parks, bars & restaurants. Lots of community activities like a food market in the park, fireworks, open air cinema.
Great transport links to London from the multiple stations around the town and a good range of house types.

New Eltham may be an area you could consider as relatively cheap for London . Friends recently bought a 3 bed terrace for £275,000

Beckenham s quite expensive though. Buying or renting?

Shirley, West Wickham, Hayes and Bromley are all great areas to live in. Good transport links and lots of fab green open spaces.

My dniece lives in West Wickham. Very nice but expensive

Beckenham, Penge, has the most train transport options, both have lots of lovely parks, good leisure facilities & some very good schools.
Eden Park, Elmers End, West Wickham again really nice areas train options slightly less than previous areas, good schools/parks etc good shopping facilities in Beckenham/Penge/West Wickham.
Shirley is cheaper, but has no rail station but again is very nice houses usually have big gardens.
Depends on your budget, where you need to travel too all the areas are safe & are very family friendly, with varied housing stock.

Thanks for all the reply’s. Looking to rent for about 1200 a month?

you wont get a house in that area for 1200 pm, how many bedrooms are you looking for?

Not looking for a house flat is fine

the places you mention are pretty much the same, in that they were all developed in the late 19th century around existing villages - so Penge, for example, has 17th century Almshouses and you can just about make out the layout of the original town.
With the coming of the railways (preceded by a canal to Croydon), they rapidly built up, so you'll get a mixture of larger properties (mostly turned into flats), lots of streets with the standard 3 bed terrace houses, council flats & houses, and blocks of flats.
Distance from the centre of London is the main factor, especially how close to the stations, that will affect price, along with local variations such as places near to good schools.
There's a lot of greenery around, from the formal like Crystal Palace park, through South Norwood County park, Kelsey park etc etc, google earth is a help to find them as there are 10s of them dotted around.
Trains will either run into Victoria, Blackfriars or London Bridge, plus you have the Overground from Croydon into east London etc. Trams run from Croydon to Beckton or Elmers end. Plus the usual network of buses.
You are describing quite a large area, Bromley for example has a population of 330,000. If you can visit to get the feel of the area. It's not like central London, obviously, but it's definitely part of London.

A final benefit is you are not far from the kent countryside & from Orpington you can get trains to the coast (e.g. Hastings) or Croydon to Brighton.

You will find property in each ofthose areas within budget, but they are all quite idfferent in vibe.

Penge is the most urban and has a London feel to it. Ex. Excellent transport links into other busy hubs in London, but not necessarily an area you would want to spend a whole weekend in.

Beckenham is the most villagey. Definitely has a more self contained feel and many people happily spend the whole weekend there with parks,oubs, restaurants, cinema, eateries with pleasant outdoor seating. It's quite naice.

Bromley has an out of London townie feel. I'm not personally a fan, but it has the most amenities compared to the other areas, but they are centralised in a big shopping centre

Thank you that’s super helpful

Where are you both commuting to? If you're moving further in would be good to get a single train commute if possible rather than train + tube. Or if close enough you could cycle.

We’re freelancers so it varies all over London