Moving to Manchester- where?

[riverbat]

Advice please? DH has accepted new job in central Manchester, we don't know where to start looking for a house. Have lived in Bristol for past 15 years and don't know Manchester at all.

Budget - £450k, poss £500k.
Min 4 bedrooms ideally.
DH needs to access central Manchester within 1 hour, can drive if needed.
Ideally in catchment of good/excellent state primary and secondary schools.

Ideas for where to start looking?

You havent said anything about Urban/suburban / rural wants. These areas are very much suburbia.
There have been a couple of recent threads re Timperley for more . Trafford is generally considered to have the best schools in Greater Manchester although be warned secondary schools are mostly oversubscribed and in year admissions can be difficult and a lottery. It is also a grammar school area for good or bad.
For your budget you would be looking at a post war semi in the South end of Sale / Timperley with 3/4 beds although you would be making some compromises for 4.
The tram gives frequent and fairly quick access to the city centre 30 mins or so depending where you start from. City centre parking is expensive generally.
In Cheadle / Gatley you would get a bit more house for your budget but schools are probably a bit worse and transport to the city less convenient.

Look at the Heatons - SK4 area. With your budget you could get a house in Heaton Mersey/Chapel - great local primary and secondary schools and lovely area. Only 30 mins to Central Manchester.

Didsbury is lovely but more expensive so I'm not sure you'd get 4 beds for £500K.

But South Manchester is probably where you want to start looking - Heatons/Gatley/Didsbury all fit the bill.

I would look at Romiley/Marple - easy train line (although crowded in the mornings pre-covid), about 20-30 mins into the city centre.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87826837#/
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/67048461#/
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78183613#/

As above, Trafford is accepted as having some of the best schools in the area (in fact the country) at primary / secondary so Sale, Timperley, Altrincham, Hale, possibly although its the most expensive part of Manchester too. Grammar school system - like it or loathe it. Big draw however so whole area is very family oriented, Altrincham Market has rejuvinated the town centre (pre lockdown). Dunham Massey / Cheshire countryside on your doorstep. Urmston worth a look (cheaper than the others) - has a good train service into Manchester City Centre but not on the tram line.

As others have said, driving into the city centre is ridiculous from almost every direction - so Altrincham for example is about 8 miles out and it would take you 1-1.5hrs at 8am to get in. The vast majority of city centre workers rely on the tram or train. The tram covers large parts of Greater Manchester now, so I'd look for something on the tram line (look up GMPTE Metrolink).

Didsbury as mentioned above is worth a look too - slightly cooler than the other places mentioned above, but doesn't come within Trafford for schools (and 2000 properties were evacuated last night due to flooding).

North Manchester is generally cheaper than South Manchester so if the 4 bed / budget are top priorities, your money will go further.

More urban- didsbury, timperley, sale, Urmston, Cheadle, Heaton's, Altrincham. Didsbury is a bit more expensive. Be careful with sale, some houses marketed as sale are in Manchester, not Trafford, which will affect which schools you apply for. Urmston is a bit cheaper but still nice, it has a train line but no tram.

Agree there's some nice Cheshire countryside near Dunham Massey as well.

Some lovely parts of north Manchester too... with a commute time of 35/40 mins. Whitefield/prestwich/ bury and surrounding areas. More affordable than south Manchester too... can get a lovely 4/5 bed for 500k.

Have a look at where has flooded atm as an idea of where to avoid!

@LooseMooseHoose

Have a look at where has flooded atm as an idea of where to avoid!

Haha, definitely! Maybe not didsbury then! It's overpriced imo anyway

An hour in rush hour traffic won’t see you that far out! Do you want urban/suburbs/small town/rural

@Timperleybell

You havent said anything about Urban/suburban / rural wants. These areas are very much suburbia. There have been a couple of recent threads re Timperley for more . Trafford is generally considered to have the best schools in Greater Manchester although be warned secondary schools are mostly oversubscribed and in year admissions can be difficult and a lottery. It is also a grammar school area for good or bad. For your budget you would be looking at a post war semi in the South end of Sale / Timperley with 3/4 beds although you would be making some compromises for 4. The tram gives frequent and fairly quick access to the city centre 30 mins or so depending where you start from. City centre parking is expensive generally. In Cheadle / Gatley you would get a bit more house for your budget but schools are probably a bit worse and transport to the city less convenient.

Thanks. Would prefer suburban/ rural but happy to compromise for good schools- that's definitely the priority. Did not think about grammars and would want to avoid I suppose. One DC who is preschool and another on the way so idea would be to move somewhere inside catchment for good primaries and secondaries before we need to actually register for a place (have a year before we need to do this). I know secondaries can change in quality... but that's the plan.

[quote bravotango]I would look at Romiley/Marple - easy train line (although crowded in the mornings pre-covid), about 20-30 mins into the city centre.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87826837#/
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/67048461#/
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78183613#/[/quote]
Thanks

Good call on flooding

Didn't realise Manchester had grammars so will need to look into this further. What are the schools like in those areas if you don't get into a grammar?

We have friends in Bramhall and Wilmslow. When we’ve visited the area looks lovely but no idea of house prices.

We live in Huddersfield and DH (usually works in Central Manchester) depending on traffic it takes him 35 minutes to an hour to get there.
You get a lot more for your money here and the North Huddersfield villages are nice such as Marsden, Lindley or Slaithwaite
You would get quite a lot for your money here

Its not all of Manchester, just Trafford.

The positive (depending on your stance) is that the grammars are so sought after that there are lots of families that move into the area to get places / tutoring / applications from "out of catchment" families, so there are never enough places. Children that would have got in years ago are not now getting places, and go to the "secondary modern" alternatives. As a result, those schools do exceptionally well too (better than comprehensives in other areas with no "creaming off" of the top tranche of pupils through grammar schools). You opt in to take the 11+ so you don't have to go through the testing process if you don't want to / feel its not right for your child.

@riverbat

Good call on flooding

Didn't realise Manchester had grammars so will need to look into this further. What are the schools like in those areas if you don't get into a grammar?

I think its only Trafford that has grammars. Almost all schools are good and most are OFSTED Outstanding or Good. There is maybe a bit of a curriculum gap if you wanted to do 3 separate sciences etc and post 16 there are fewer options but there are some excellent 6th form colleges out of borough. My daughter transferred from Scotland to a sec modern in the second term of Y10 and did well in her GCSEs.

@Africa2go

Its not all of Manchester, just Trafford.

The positive (depending on your stance) is that the grammars are so sought after that there are lots of families that move into the area to get places / tutoring / applications from "out of catchment" families, so there are never enough places. Children that would have got in years ago are not now getting places, and go to the "secondary modern" alternatives. As a result, those schools do exceptionally well too (better than comprehensives in other areas with no "creaming off" of the top tranche of pupils through grammar schools). You opt in to take the 11+ so you don't have to go through the testing process if you don't want to / feel its not right for your child.

This is a really good point, that I hadn't thought about but it is true. From what I understand, most of the secondaries in Trafford are pretty good.

I’m in trafford & am not putting my kids forward for Grammar. It’s a very pressurised environment and I don’t think it’s right for my 2. The other secondaries are excellent around here. They are allocated by catchment but you do have some choice depending on your child’s needs & skills. Lots of good options.

If you don't mind being a bit farther away, we're selling a lovely 4-bed detached just over the border into North Wales . Lovely countryside nearby, walking distance to good primary & secondary schools...

It's about an hour into central Manchester on the train from Chester, but you'd need to drive to the station as well. I know people locally who do commute. Not as convenient as some of the other places mentioned, though.

Trafford has the best schools. Sale and Altrincham are the most desired towns, Urmston is still in trafford and a bit cheaper.
If you’re willing to go a bit further out and want a more villagey town to live, I recommend Lymm, Hale and even Knutsford. Transport links aren’t as great though.

North Manchester worth a look, satellite towns too. Definitely get more for your money although Didsbury and Chorlton probably more like Bristol in some respects. Ramsbottom, Greenmount, Tottington, in and around Bury. Rammy particularly good for independent shops and great restaurants! Not sure re secondary schools. Parts of Bolton are ok, close to motorway and good rural/ town balance, you are never far from great walks/moors etc so Heaton, Egerton, Sharples, Lostock, even Belmont at a push. Both Bury and Bolton have good links with Manchester, theoretically can be in city centre within 25 mins. I know some who actually cycles from Bolton.
As far as town centres go Bury probably better than Bolton, both have decent private schools if that’s your thing.

If you want rural take a look at Hollins Green technically Warrington but very close to Salford. I can be at work in Media City in 17 mins by car. There is Glazebrook Train station nearby which is on the Manchester line.

@oneofthegiantsisme

If you don't mind being a bit farther away, we're selling a lovely 4-bed detached just over the border into North Wales . Lovely countryside nearby, walking distance to good primary & secondary schools...

It's about an hour into central Manchester on the train from Chester, but you'd need to drive to the station as well. I know people locally who do commute. Not as convenient as some of the other places mentioned, though.

Ooh North Wales would be an absolute dream! Don't think it will work unfortunately but at least we will be very close for visits

Thanks very much for all this information everyone - have lots to get started with now

I've recently relocated from Cheadle Hulme (Cheadle is cheaper, don't confuse the two) to Tottington in North Bury. To a significantly bigger house compared to the one I had in Cheadle Hulme, for 50k less.

Less traffic, semi-rural and excellent transport links into Manchester City Centre.

I wish I had moved sooner.