Advice on Teddington/St Margaret’s

[BlindMelon123]

We’re hoping to buy in one of the above areas but currently struggling to find anywhere (market seems dead) and also unsure which area would suit us best. We would like to be in an outstanding school catchment (Collis/Orleans preferred) but our £1m budget isn’t going far in either location at the moment.

We recently missed out on a house in the Collis catchment in Teddington which stupidly I fell in love with although was not perfect, now we’re considering St Margaret’s which I’ve always loved due to proximity to Richmond, villagey feel, parks and schools, but our budget doesn’t get us close to Orleans unless we compromise and get a house that may only work for a short time (we have a toddler 2 years away from applying for school and hopefully another on the way this year and parents who live far away so need 4 beds to see us through the next 5 years ideally)

Anyway, I guess I’m just looking for advice on weighing up the two areas and where to focus our search. And any views on whether the property market might pick up soon would be welcome! Slightly panicking that we’ll soon be homeless after our landlord gave us notice!

Do you really need four bedrooms, if one is just for occasional overnight guests? You’re basically buying a very expensive hotel room - you could put your parents up in a very nice hotel regularly for years for far less than the extra bedroom would cost, and your budget would get you a very nice spacious three-bed in St Margaret’s.

I prefer St Margaret’s to Teddington. I expect the market will pick up in a couple of months when the general outlook is better. Both are affluent family areas where adults are likely to be home working and children currently being homeschooled, a lot of people are holding off the hassle of viewings and moving whilst all that’s going on.

Thanks for your reply! I do prefer St Margaret’s as a location, but good to know both are considered good family areas.

We would consider a 3 bed too but with my husband working from home and hopefully another baby on the way that additional bedroom would be invaluable. I’d also like for my mum to stay and be comfortable as I’ll need the help as/when baby 2 arrives, but totally agree that shouldn’t prevent us buying an otherwise good option. Saying that, I haven’t seen many 3 beds either to be honest, even those are hard to come by, we also don’t want to do any work in the short term either with another baby soon plus we probably wouldn’t be able to afford to rent elsewhere in the meantime.

Thanks for your views on the market, that makes sense and I totally agree that’s likely what’s happening. We have to be out of our current house in May so really hoping things pick up soon! Annoyingly now having to accept we’ve missed the stamp duty holiday deadline too.

Goodness it is expensive now, isn't it? I had a maisonette there back in the day.

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/56519906?search_identifier=cabe5a89a56922ff87e0c8fb32a59d38

There's a 4 bed here for under a million but I'm not sure about catchments.

Thank you! We had seen that one online actually and wondered about viewing it.

I think that’s outside of the Orleans catchment (our preferred primary) as it’s above the A316, but still close enough to enjoy the villagey feel of St Margs. It’s crazy isn’t it - you’d think £1m would get you more than 1,200 sq ft ! There’s also one for sale on Oak Lane - do you know if that’s a nice area? It’s in the catchment of the Orleans Primary so we’re considering viewing.