Moving areas in Surrey/Sutton

[Daisysweetcandy]

Hi all,

DH & I have a 2yo and a newborn and currently live in East Croydon. We want to move further out of London to Sanderstead, selason, Banstead or an area where there are good schools and lots of young families. Can anyone in that area shed some light? Appreciate in adv

All quite different areas. If you could share budget and what you are looking for, I could give more pointed insights.

Selsdon and Sanderstead are neighbours, but they are quite different. Housing stock and schooling generally better in Sanderstead.

Banstead, in my opinion, is a lot better. It has a much more rural feel, some lovely affordable housing, and you are close to all the very good Sutton schools which means lot's of families are drawn to the area.

Banstead is nice but very expensive. You may get more for your money in carshalton beeches/neighbouring areas of tadworth/kingswood/nork

Budget would be helpful. Prices can vary quite a bit across those areas.

Hi all, thanks so much. Our budget is about 500:600k. Also Epsom is an option

Do either of you commute into London. Banstead is nice but not great for that. You'd get a 3 or 4 bed in Cheam towards the top of that budget. Good choice of Primary and secondary schools and Nonsuch Park is lovely.
Also, if you do commute into London much, check the Zones of the areas you are looking at, as this can make a difference to the cost of travel.

500k/600k is fine for Banstead. You can get a very nice 3/4 bed semi detached for that price.

But I agree with the previous poster, Banstead is not the greatest for commuting to London, I would look at the areas surrounding Sutton, and maybe even also Wallington.

We've lived in both Selsdon and Sanderstead. I would say that actually, the community and high street are better in Selsdon, but Sanderstead has a lot more of a villagey feel (and is more expensive accordingly). Neither of them have stations within easy distance although for my commute for both (either) I've driven to Sanderstead station and parked there with no trouble. The 64 running through Selsdon is more frequent and runs overnight, plus it goes to East Croydon Station. The 403 (through sanderstead) doesn't go to East Croydon and runs less frequently.

Selsdon Baptist Preschool is excellent, but has a waiting list. Selsdon primary has vastly improved over the past few years, and is now rated 'good' by OFSTED, whereas if you live in Sanderstead village you have access to Atwood and Gresham. If you live closer to the station then Ridgeway is where you want to be close to. Riddlesdown college has recently stopped having feeder primary schools, so if that's a concern then you probably want to live Sanderstead end - depending on what happens to the catchment areas without the feeders, I think it's possible that Selsdon will become a bit of a dead zone for secondary admissions (or everyone will end up at Quest, which isn't rated very highly at the moment).

The problem we found is that there's very little variation in housing stock in Selsdon, depending on what you're after - we were looking to upsize and get extra bedroom(s) and living space, and there just wasn't very much around. Sanderstead has more variety of properties which are larger but they're also more expensive.

Happy to answer questions on either/both - we've been in the area for ten years and raised primary age children there so we've got quite a good idea of what's available.

We live in Stoneleigh - right by Nonsuch Park and we really like it.Very community feel and good schools

Thank you all so much for your messages. Definitely so much to consider. I’ll start another thread to include wider areas around Sutton and Surrey to hear thoughts. Happy Easter all xx

Sutton has lots of good schools, but you wont necessarily get the school you want as there are so many children wanting to come here, including ones from out of borough.

Get a house very close to the school you want to increase your chances.

hi folks,
Stumbled upon this thread so wanted to ask a similar question, hoping to get a more up to date information. We are looking to move to Selsdon close to the high street (Foxearth road). Much better value for a 4 bed semi compared to Sandestead or Purley. DD goes to Wallington Girls and DS is primary so big plus is there's a 612 school bus that goes from Selsdon library to Wally girls every morning (looks like it takes 30-35 mins). Selsdon primary is round the corner which may be an option to DS but not sure how's the school and general quality of students. Also 64 bus gets you into E Croydon for fast traint to London, so a lot of pluses.. however not sure about the Selsdon primary school..Does anyone have any suggestions if this is good, given it was Needs improvement a few years back? Also I'm told the traffic can be quite bad on Addington road in the mornings and afternoon.. is that likely to make the school bus trip quite long?
@LBOCS2 LBOCS2 if you can please give your inputs having lived there!

Hello! My input is as follows:

We moved our children away from Selsdon some time ago, as we weren't happy with how the school was run, particularly the disciplinary policies. We were not the only ones and I know that some years where there were 3 forms they had to amalgamate into 2 as so many people left. However there has been a change in Head since then, and I don't really know much about it since then. I would also say that my concerns about secondary provision in that area still stand - given how competitive the grammars are, I'd want a backup if it was my DS, so I'd personally look to try and get a place at somewhere like St Peter's down in South Croydon which is a feeder for Coombe Wood.

Addington Rd does get busy but on Foxearth you can cut through to Farley Rd at the top, so bypass a lot of it if you're driving. I find the stretch from the Sanderstead roundabout down to Sainsburys is the worst and slowest section in the morning, as there's no cut through - the rest move quickly and you're not sitting in traffic for too long so I wouldn't think the school bus would be too bad as it comes up the hill against the traffic (I think!).

Hope that helps :)

Thanks @LBOCS2 very valid points. I do agree that this area though good value for money does suffer from a lack of good secondaries.. Coombe wood out of catchment , seems most intake happens from the 2 feeders as you mention and Riddlesdown collegiate out of range too. Quest academy seems to have very mixed reviews so really holding off from making an offer...shame because there's so many positives otherwise to the area! We'll continue looking between Purley and Sanderstead for now.. thanks a ton!