Hither Green or East Dulwich?

[caroallis]

I'm on maternity leave with a new 10 week old (first baby). We are currently in Finsbury Park/highbury but need to move SE for my husbands new job.
We have narrowed down to Hither Green or East Dulwich. Hither green seems to have more on offer on our budget but East Dulwich has a good feel (more like crouch end of the south!).
Does anyone have recommendations? Would love to hear from those of you who have made the move from north to south!
Looking for somewhere to live with a nice friendly family feel and good access to kings cross for visiting family in northern England!

Hi @caroallis! Jumping onto this old post to find out where you decided to move to…

We are currently in Finsbury Park, also with a 3 year old, and are looking to move to either SE or further North/East (South Tottenham/Walthamstow) to get more space. We’ve seen a house that looks promising in Hither Green (Charlton Estate), but know nothing about the area. So was interested to hear your experiences if you made the move from Finsbury Park!

Since your DH will be working in Kent and sometimes London, you should be looking at Zone 4/5 areas in London.

More value for money. With your budget, you could get a huge 4 bed house with huge garden around 30m+ length.

Big garden should be as important as you may have 2,3,4 kids down the line. Then you can install trampoline, swings, monkey bar etc.

Bexleyheath maybe another option for you as it is between Kent and London. Also, most houses have big gardens

So we ended up in Streatham hill! We did rent in east Dulwich for 6 months but it just wasn't well enough connected for us and prices there were escalating. Every property we viewed was young families moving out. Streatham isn't as 'pretty' but the community feel is amazing, so many young families like us and we're actually between tulse hill and Streatham hill so have the best of both.

@MegR33 I'd say definitely consider Streatham / tulse hill having come through the other side of our search. Still good value for money and all the surrounding areas have already come up (brixton, Dulwich, balham, Clapham, herne hill). The high street isn't the prettiest but it's ever so functional and the housing stock around it is really good.
Although we ended up in Streatham hill we do have friends who recently bought nearer to hither green. They are actually closer to Mountsfield Park so public transport from catford makes things more workable. They were already living in the area and have just upgraded to their house. After FP its good to have more than 1 train line in close proximity.
When we were looking around hither green the foodie scene was a bit disappointing compared to FP. Maybe better now but do try browsing the takeaway apps around the area at peak time. We focused our search around Manor House gardens, though it is a small park.
If you're also looking north east then do consider Wanstead. Other friends who lived there spoke highly of the community feel and the high street really came up whilst they were living there (ginger pig, M&S food, Gail's) though not sure whether there's still chance to catch the wave there.

I don’t think you’ll get 3 bed in ED for £900k

What about Forest Hill?

Oh just realised this is old and you’ve moved

Living in Yorkshire, I just can't fathom how people afford houses of 900k when typically you can only borrow around 3 x your salary.

I was allowed to borrow 4.75 x my salary. Not sure how anybody would be able to afford living in London if you could only borrow 3 x

@caroallis thanks so much for coming back to me and sharing your journey! You are right - we are so spoilt in FP with the great transport links, and also a fab foodie scene, both of which are important to us! And we also have schools to consider now…

I’ll have a look at the area around Streatham, and also Wanstead - thanks for the suggestion!