Renting after we sell and before we buy. Would you rent in the neighbourhood you might move to? Or stay in your current?

[Movingmoving1]

We’re under offer and the cash buyer wants to move quickly, which is great.

But we haven’t found anywhere to buy yet - and are deciding between two London neighbourhoods (our current neighbourhood and another).

We told the buyer we’d be happy to rent so they could move quickly (they upped their offer so they could move quickly).

The dilemma is, we can’t decide whether or not it’ll be sensible to rent in our current neighbourhood, or rent in the neighbourhood we might move to.

The complication is that we have kids in school in our current neighbourhood. (And lots of friends.)

In the car (although we don’t have a car! But would get an electric one), it is only about 30 mins between each neighbourhood. So driving back to school - though wouldn’t be fun - would be possible.

I’m very torn! If it weren’t for kids in school, i’d Think we should definitely “try before we buy”, but I’m trying to keep the disruption for the kids to a minimum - as all these moves will be so unsettling anyway.

What would you do?

Oh my God we're in the exact same position! Exchange is imminent. We have decided to stay in the local area as I cannot face the thought of adding 30-45 mins to my existing daily commute to drop the kids at school/nursery. We would be relying on public transport though, driving might make a difference. Also, our search area is a good 2 miles across so I'm not sure how much benefit we'd get from moving to one particular bit of it. Such a tough decision though.

Only thing I'd say is that the rental market where we are is very aggressive, we have had viewings cancelled on the day we booked them as the flat/house has already been let, so be prepared to move fast on securing a rental.

I'd go for the new area- very very useful to find out if it's not right for you! And if you can't face it maybe that means you should stay in your current area if you can...

FreiasBathtub - how funny that you’re in the same position! Ahh, it’s such a tough one! I find the mornings hard enough at the moment, and we have a 7 minute walk to school

Rentals in both areas seem to be a bit mad. I’m nervous about that, to be honest. Have you found a rental yet?

Dusty - haha you’re right! If I can’t face it, that’ll probably say a lot!

Movingmoving1 I'm so happy to hear someone else is having this dilemma (not happy, you know what I mean!).

No we haven't secured anywhere yet, despite offering on a few. Been looking for about a fortnight. Part of the problem is that we want a six month break clause and not all landlords are keen on that. Also want to stay within walking distance of DD's school, so our search area is pretty limited. My new approach is just to look desparate and pitiful at estate agents (this is not a stretch for me at present), I'm prepared to cry if necessary. Will let you know if it does the trick!

I presume that if you move areas you'll also move schools eventually? I felt like that was the only real reason to rent in the new area, to get a school place sorted sooner rather than later - but since our search area is so big it's not like we could rent next to the school we eventually want DD to go to, as we've no idea where that will be! But if you're not 100% settled on changing areas then I guess you won't want to change schools until you're certain. I think in your shoes I'd definitely stay put.

Do you mind saying where you are in London? We are East, zone 2, and thinking of going further east or north east towards zone 4. The market still seems pretty busy out there so we might be in our rental a bit longer than planned...

Yes the same!

And the same on wanting a 6-month breaking clause!

If we stay local and rent, i don’t mind being a 5 or 10 min bike-ride from school, but no more (The mornings are tough enough! ) as that’s the big advantage of staying.

We would definitely move schools if we go. And I felt exactly the same about getting on the lists sooner (all schools are so very oversubscribed!). We are North/east London border, zone 2, and are considering moving North, zone 3. Ahh! I wish I did this move before school!

Our search area is pretty narrow. We’ve decided we either remain here, or go to the other area. We’re being very indecisive, and I thought we’d know by now what felt right - but we don’t