London zone 3 and beyond living

[BacktoBrisbane]

Hi, I am looking for real world opinions of living in outer zones of London for young families. My DH and DC1 are looking to move from our cramped central flat to a 3-4 bed which is spacious. We would need access to decent nature / parks / woods or green spaces, plus excellent transport into the City, and West End.

We have previously rented in or looked around Kentish Town, Blackheath, Chiswick and so on. All of these would be right up our street, but we can't get room to swing a cat in those areas for our budget! (750-850).

We are both very tall and appreciate large proportions in properties!

So we are reluctantly looking to further out zones but we really don't enjoy the suburban vibe, so want it to still feel like London! We've never lived outside of central so don't want to feel too far out of that makes sense. Does anyone live in a place like this or have you made this move? Where can 750-850 get you a spacious 3 or 4 bed?

Beckenham? www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78269190#/

Beckenham has good cafes and yoga, Waitrose, M&S, some beautiful parks

@Redskyyy

Sydenham/ Forest Hill get my vote, but depends where you need to get to for work.

I agree

I'm near forest hill and can be in victoria in 20 mins and the museum's in 40 mins (half of that is fannying about), still zone 3 definitely not the boonies

Lots of good options on this thread, OP!
Personally, having moved from WC1 to Greenwich 10 years ago, I’d say that the houses in Lee would give you what you’re looking for - good transport links, near decent independent shops, cafes and restaurants. Although you can get way more for your money in Eltham or Mottingham, these areas are def more suburban.
Mottingham has nice ‘pockets’ like Mottingham Lane as a previous poster linked to, but no decent pubs, shops or restaurants to speak of.

Mill Hill. Very family friendly. Easy to get into town on the Thames link, loads of green spaces and nice high street. Plus the fab RAF museum.

Thanks these are great ideas! Sorry I haven't got time to reply to them all but I am looking up everything.

Re Walthamstow @Lozza70 this is also an area I've looked into. Do you know which areas or roads are the nicest / most leafy feeling?

Sydenham/Forest Hill

Lots going on, great green spaces, woods, Horniman. Can walk to dulwich village for one sort of London and Peckham Rye for another

That's helpful to know @tigerbear thank you. You are right that we are looking forward a nice villagey vibe with good shops and restaurants too.

OP, literally 2 min walk from the houses I linked to, there’s a fabulous independent clothes shop (Laboo), independent cafe that does great brunches (waffles and bacon, that kind of thing), excellent high end fish and chip shop, independent Italian pizza place, etc.

If you run out of options on here, I may be looking to sell my 3 bed house in Greenwich for around £680k
High ceilings too!

Again lol at Leytonstone being too rough.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86538967#/ - on the edge of Wanstead flats, close to the central line.
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/84807224#/ -130sqm near the other edge of Wanstead flats in Forest Gate, close to Crossrail.

There is no way you would get a 3-4 bed house to rent for 850/month anywhere in London. 6 years ago I paid £800/month for a one bedroom flat. Looking back it was a stupid waste of money and I should have lived elsewhere. You probably want to look far out into the Home Counties and commute into London. Although in lots of these areas you are still likely looking at £1100/month.

@Pepperminttea16 I believe the OP is looking to buy a place for £850k+++ not rent at 850 a month!

@MargosKaftan

I am the wrong person to be on this thread, as I'm of the opinion if you are going further out than zone 3, you might as well leave London and be on a quick train in. You'll be too far out to get the benefit of being in London but still paying London prices.

Which main station do you need for work?

This isn’t always true. I have a much smaller budget than you admittedly OP and I’m looking for a flat in zone 3/4. In my hometown which is pleasant and leafy I could get a 2 bed house for the price of a London flat, but the train, which is a convenient hour to London, is £800 a month! That’s more than the mortgage would be! So I disagree that it’s cost effective to move out unless you don’t have commuting costs.

I lived in tooting and loved it - for your budget I’m sure you could get a 2/3 bed house especially if you look towards Mitcham and Streatham Vale. Also second the suggestions for Catford, Forest Hill and Sydenham but also West/South Norwood, Anerley and Crystal Palace, or Tulse Hill/Herne Hill which are very near Brixton but more expensive so not sure whether you’d get all the space you want there.

How about West Dulwich? No tube, but the train would get you to Victoria in about 15 mins. Here’s an option: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78270627#/

Don’t be put off by the CR postcode - I lived very near here and loved the busy London feel of Tooting Broadway which is a 10/15 min walk away. This is also 5 mins from the tooting thameslink which goes straight into City

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/74313846#/

If you found Leytonstone a bit rough, the same would apply to Walthamstow.

I don't understand the LOLs - it IS a bit rough here, much as I love it.

Forest Hill, Brockley, Catford, all good

We made the move from zone 1/2 where we’d lived for many years to zone three Leytonstone a few years ago. I’m not going to lie to you, it was TOUGH. It just isn’t possible to have the same buzz you have living in central London in zone three- it’s very different, in an almost intangible way, even in some of the lovely areas suggested by previous posters. I struggled with the height of buildings being so low here FFS 😂

However, I am so, so glad we made the move- what we’ve gained far outweighs what we’ve lost. You need to be really honest with yourself about your priorities, and work out how you’ll manage the change, because there WILL be change.

For me, what helped was walking- back to our old area, out across the amazing Wanstead Flats up to Epping Forest or down to Forest Gate, over to the Olympic Park. Getting the kids’ schools right also made a big difference, and Leytonstone is the friendliest area I’ve ever lived, our neighbours are brilliant.

Moving to even the loveliest part of zone 3/4 might feel like second best for a good while, so factor that in and make sure you leave space for the benefits of it. There really are some good ones, and I NEVER thought I’d say that three years ago!

Crystal Palace, Streatham, West Norwood, Tooting all good options.

Rotherhithe also worth a look

Thanks @Usernamenotavailabletryanother and @TheYearOfSmallThings for your honesty!

Yes I think it feels like a scary culture shock. I need to get my head around if it feels right! Again, I really don't like the suburban vibe and my DH feels the same. I know others enjoy it and that's fine, it's horses for courses. Personally I'd rather live in a lighthouse on a rock than in a cardboard box in the suburbs.

I think the lol about the “roughness” of Leytonstone is that the OP has that classic London property list - decent sized family home (ideally 4 bed) in an area that is well along the path of gentrification, leafy street but not too suburban, must feel like proper london - oh, and people need to be so unaware of it that it’s house prices are comfortably below a million!

I’m one of the countless people over the last few years who moved from Hackney to Leytonstone for more space. I think it feels safer than the (much more expensive) part of Zone 2 I moved from, but for me it ticked a load of those boxes above.

If it wasn’t a bit rough around the edges then it wouldn’t feel like London, but as someone else said, it is very friendly.