Moving to Bucks along Crossrail - £1.5m budget. Help please!

[CKQC]

Hi All

Our first post here.

We are a young family with a 20 month year old boy. We live in central London, but are ready to move.

We're looking for a house with about 0.4 acres of land, a double garage and about 3000 square feet. Critically, proximity to Crossrail is important.

We both work in Mayfair, so Bond Street would be the station that work revolves around.

We have a budget of about £1.5m and want to get some local knowledge to see where the best value pockets are. We have looked at Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross, but you get a lot less for your money there and it's on the Chiltern which isn't ideal for work.

My mind has been opened to Stoke Poges, Iver, Farnham Common, etc. What are these place like to live?

What do I need to be aware of?

I understand the schools in Bucks are generally brilliant so I could live almost anywhere and be ok.

What I want to understand is where I should live that is within 40 minutes of Bond street.

I know that I'll probably need to drive to a station, but what is the traffic like in the morning during rush hour? Will I be sitting in traffic?

Who are the best agents to use? A company that isn't just going to send you email, but actually engage to understand what is best for you?

What is the market like for prices?

I'd love some inside knowledge and help.

Thank you all.

West like Maidenhead may be better. It's on the crossrail line and the schools are good.

The three places you mentioned are overspills of Slough which is not pretty.

Given your budget why not engage a professional property finder?

Anywhere which is on crossrail is going to be expensive! As a pp said, Maidenhead and surrounding area has some nice parts. Some of the surrounding villages (cookham, marlow) have a train into maidenhead, or you could drive from there or others (bray, holyport). Windsor links to Slough on the train. Crossrail isn't running yet from Reading to London but will be.

Bucks has grammar schools, Berks doesn't so that could be a consideration.

Beaconafield and Gerrards Cross both nice areas, further out and as you said different train line.

Farnham Common is not all that and the A355 can be gridlocked. You'd not be able to use a school north of the M40 (if you were looking at Independents).

Cookham is nice and a reasonable run to Taplow (which will be Crossrail when it gets there).

The location of this is really good because it's the right side of the river for Taplow.

Scratch that- I was looking at the wrong property's map! However, the run down the back roads from Cookham area to Taplow is OK (not the Bath Road though- that is to be avoided!).

Stoke Poges is not Slough over spill! Stoke Poges is mentioned in the Domesday Book! There are lots of decent houses there and it’s worth a look in my view. Iver less so. Farnham Common is ok in parts. Marlow is a great place and it’s possible to commute from there to Maidenhead. Or look at Maidenhead but in my view, Marlow is nicer overall.

GX to Marylebone is a quick commute and then it’s Baker St to Bond Street. Not as quick as crossrail but less of a commute to the station in the first place if you are not in Maidenhead.

From Wiki “Stoke Poges is a green-buffered scattered village and civil parish in the South Bucks district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is centred 2.7 miles north-north-east of Slough, its post town.”

Really nothing in SP - only a single convenience store in the centre of a new build estate - no cafes, shops, pubs, restaurants or community amenities. Nearest are in Slough - grim.

Erm apart from the three pubs, two coffee shops including Costa, post office, supermarket and pharmacy, you mean? No - other than that Stoke Poges has nothing, apart from the village centr club, sports centre at the rec ground and a really good playground plus massively engaged parish council who put on outdoor cinema, nothing. Except for the farm shop. Bugger all apart from that so thank goodness you can walk through the woodland to Farnham common for the hardware store. Or drive to GErrards Cross with four supermarkets and an Everyman cinema.
Some lovely houses in FC but for your budget you’d get something lovely in SP. Personally not at all keen on Iver though.
NB Berks does also have grammar schools in / around Slough so it’s a different test but they’re mixed unlike the catchment Bucks ones which I think are all single sex.

(God I didn’t even get as far as the stoke park club or the gin bar at stoke place. Plus an extra pub down there. Quite a lot, really for a small village)

Sorry Supermarket I didn’t know that they had put all those shops into the new precinct - thought it was just the small Co-Op. Apologies

Make sure you're looking at Bucks and also Berks so you don't limit your search too much if you're briefing estate agents or looking online.

I grew up in Marlow and it's where I'd like to end up living for sure, it's a really gorgeous place and has a village feel with mostly town facilities and services.

Cookham, bray and stoke poges are all lovely with great pubs but don't have as much to do or as wide a mix of ages as Marlow in my experience.

Good luck with your search!

Of course Berkshire has Grammar Schools - I went to one!

Why do people quote Wikipedia? It’s not remotely reliable when advising about where to live. Thank goodness for SupermarketSweeper!

Everyone always thinks schools are good in Bucks. They are if you get into a grammar school, but the upper schools can be grim (not all, but check very carefully). Personally I wouldn't move to a grammar school area if I didn't have to, I'd move somewhere with good comprehensive schools. The private senior schools Clare also mixed. If people can get their kids into grammar schools they don't tend to bother with the private sector.
Farnham Common & Stoke Poges are fine but I would recommend Marlow, Cookham etc.
(Previous post posted itself somehow)

Oh no it didn't. Pardon my typos

I’d say both Farnham Common and Stoke Poges are lovely places to live. They have nice communities and some facilities (a few shops/cafes/pubs). It depends on what you want from life, but if it’s small village or rural living then there are loads of lovely places around Burnham Beeches, Hedgerley, Littleworth Common, Egypt etc that would also be worth looking at. I think those places are ideally positioned for cross rail, but also offer excellent links to London via the m40 and m4 and places like Beaconsfield for nights out and meals etc are only a few mins down the road. Taplow is also another place to consider, right on cross rail, there are also good pockets of Burnham - some roads near the Beeches look lovely. I’d disagree with the person above who says they are Slough overspill. Lots of them are very nice areas and Slough whilst it isn’t somewhere I’d like to live, is so convenient for the industrial estates and the many shops.

The great thing about these areas are that you are minutes from crossrail (when it eventually starts). It’s super easy to get to London and Westfield for shopping. High Wycombe is a short hop down the motorway for more shopping. There are tonnes of lovely restaurants around and people are generally very friendly and there is a good community feel. Happy to speak more if you want to PM me, I did the move out from London a few years back and honestly can’t think of another part of the world that I’d rather live!!

Estate agents are the agents for the buyer.

I think I'd second getting a property buyer working for you, particularly if you are time poor.

I mean house seller! Sorry.