Anywhere you can buy a 2 bed house with garden with less than an hour commute to London Waterloo for £400k?

[Nextphonewontbesamsung]

Asking for a friend. Tia.

Grove Park (SE London) maybe? Zone 4 (and direct trains to Waterloo East).

3 bedrooms here for £389,500

Needs a lot of work, but it's at the end of the Northern Line (so you'll always get a seat in the morning!) and will get you into Waterloo in about 30 minutes

Woking

Guildford

Abbey wood

Beckenham

Woking
Camberley
Guildford
Dorking
Godalming

Horsell, in Woking.

Lots of places in SE London can do that, except for the priciest ones like Greenwich, Blackheath or Chislehurst. Most of SE London has trains into Waterloo East. For example, 2 bed pretty house with garden, walking distance from Eltham Station which is 25 mins to Waterloo East. In Greenwich Borough but within catchment area for the Bexley and Kent schools (grammar school system) too. Loads of green space nearby.

I love fantasy house shopping!

Farnborough

Your budget goes further in the wilds of SE London - 3 bed house with lovely garden, walking distance from station with 25 min train to Waterloo East.

Bracknell

Sidcup, New Eltham, Eltham, Welling, Plumstead, Dartford.

I would suggest the following:
Worcester Park (suburban, zone 4)
Stoneleigh (suburban, zone 5, in Surrey)
Ewell (pretty village in Surrey, zone 6)
Epsom (bigger town with town centre outside London zones)

All these locations are on a direct train, great schools, not deprived, very safe etc nice places to live. Cheap commuting.

Staines Upon Thames

Lots in East Ham and Forest Gate

Thank you for all the suggestions. I should have said my friends want to be outside of London itself, in a small town ideally. So the commute into Waterloo would be on an overground train. They can't afford Winchester plus Winchester is just a bit too far away. Are there any places in north Hampshire or Surrey maybe?

So Epsom would work (actually I just realised it's been added to zone 9 for travel but it's definitely Surrey). Ewell has more or a village centre. Guildford is quite big and commute gets expensive. Dorking is lovely but again, the commute a little longer and pricier.

Chessington. I think its the unsung hero of commuterville. The houses are quite plain but there's good shops, great facilities: gym, sports, swimming, bowling, the zoo and amusement park, a great pub, good primary (choice) and newly built secondary with the absolutely gorgeous Ashtead Common on the doorstep for rambles and den building and country life. And it's a much cheaper commute than the towns further out because it's still in zone 6.

Guildford is expensive. I certainly wouldn;t look there for a cheaper house than you;d get in central London. Once you add the very high cost of the long commute then you're better off nearer with a bigger mortgage.

I think Reigate might suit too. Commuting will be a compromise but it isn’t far out and a pretty little market town if that’s the main criterion.

Bracknell or Basingrad?

Martin's Heron in Bracknell 3 bed

new build

Personally wouldn't live in either area but they are cheap (comparatively) and on direct train routes to Waterloo

Sevenoaks to Waterloo east. Couple of minutes walk under cover to Waterloo.

There are lots of gorgeous places in Sevenoaks, including a newly refurbished 4 bed near a nature reserve, walking distance from the train station. If you don't buy it, I want to!

Reading?
Basingstoke?