Retiring TO Greater London, but where?

[TheAnnoyingSatsuma]

Musing about moving into a London Borough for our ‘golden years’. Where would you look with a £500k budget for a 2 bedroom house (not a flat)?

Obviously don't need schools, or good commuter links, but would like to be able to get into town by public transport off-peak.

Pinner village in Harrow fits the bill but you'd never find a house for £500k there. More like £650-700 onwards.

Pinner is nice but also expensive for what it is compared to similar areas in other parts of London.

@JoJoSM2 what would you say are areas comparable to Pinner? Genuine question.

@titnomatani

Outer London villagey: Cheam, Carshalton, Hayes, Chislehurst and Bexley(don’t know the last one much so not sure).

Oh, Ewell Village is also very nice. In Surrey but zone 6.

Chiselhurst, though it feels quite far out

Beckenham for links into London and you can be in countryside in 30 minutes by car, loads of restaurants and new wild swimming at Beckenham Place Park!

Bromley in general for loads of NT properties within reasonable distance

@JoJoSM2 price aside would you go for Ewell, cheam/carshalton, Hayes or Pinner (or any other villagey outer London)? You seem to know everywhere!

@BarbarianLaurie They all have their merits and charm. My local is Belmont Village - it's super tiny.

Thanks @JoJoSM2- have you lived in these areas yourself? We're in Pinner but I'm wondering where to go next since we're priced out of all the nice family houses 😭

I’m in Sutton so only 1-1.5 miles from Cheam and Carshalton so know those well. Both fab places for families and full of them.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74496586.html

Just outside a lovely borough but just 20 mins to kings cross, great location, lovely upmarket town.

You have plenty of choice of Victorian terraces or Edwardian semis in places like Walthamstow (which has a villagey centre, with William Morris House Musuem and lovely walks, parks and marshes as well as Victoria Line fast tube to central London.)
Streatham also has a fair bit of choice with period houses.
You can move right into the centre on that budget (Bethnal green area with gorgeous parks, canal, flower market, wlaking distance of the City), even have a small garden, if you don't mind ex-council.

I envy you. I'd LOVE to move to London for retirement but DH wants a cottage in the country.

Kingston on Thames has some cute cottages at £500k. It's a thriving place in its own right with lovely market, riverside restaurants, a theatre, cinema, swimming pool, library, museum, good shops, cafes and restaurants and river sports. But it's in zone 6 if you want to head into London. And Richmond Park is on the doorstep

Yes agreed! I think SearchSmartly is a great tool for the "where should I live" question - it helped me massively in my search, and their team also help with booking in viewings and so on.

Apologies, my last post was meant to be a reply to @sunshinesupermum!