With this budget and these requirements, would you stay in London or find somewhere else?

[Londonorout]

Currently live in Hackney and love it for its amazing community, lots of parks, diversity, liberal-minded people, and buzz.

But our budget is £850k. For that (which we can’t have in Hackney), we want 3/4 bedrooms with a big(ish) garden (big enough for pets / a trampoline / growing veg). Don’t care if it’s a flat or house. Next to great schools and in the heart of a great community.

We’re wondering if we should leave london because we can’t afford what we want in the area we’re currently in - or stay and find a new neighbourhood in the city that works.

Friends have moved to Leyton / Walthamstow, but I’m not in love with those areas. Am I missing something?

Where else?

Or, like I said, maybe we should go and find somewhere else we’d like to live. We both have jobs that don’t tie us to the city.

What would you do?

If you don't need to be in London for work and you're not bothered about having a multiculturally diverse area, then yes, I would definitely move out of London!

We considered it a few years ago. But decided against it due to the 2 main factors I mentioned above.

When I read these threads and see peoples' budgets I'm amazed what you can;t get in London compared to what you could get where I live:

224 Wells Road, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR14 4HD.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property/99527183

You sound like you love London so why not stay, just move areas. You're not really going to find multicultural, liberal minded, buzzy areas in the home counties.

For that budget I'd suggest south of the river. Penge / Sydenham would be good to look round.

Out of London always sounds good when you look at property prices. We considered it, but just felt that it wouldn't actually improve our day to day lives ... just give us a bigger house with more upkeep bills

8 bedroom 6 bathroom substantial property in a naice area of Nottinghamshire.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/105385121#/

If you like buzzy, diverse, multicultural, public transport friendly communities, then "naice" parts of rural areas, commuter towns, villages, small towns are not likely to meet those criteria. They are the opposite of those things. But you would get a big house and garden - depends how important those things are to you.

You'd need to look at actual cities - Bristol? Brighton? York? Manchester? Cambridge? Edinburgh?

They are all cheaper than London although not that cheap overall if you choose the most popular areas.

Why don't you like Leyton and Walthamstow?

I would stay in London but look south of the river. Crystal Palace has everything you describe and you could easily get a 3/4 bed for your budget.

You could get something like this in Furzedown (Tooting) which would tick all your boxes - www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/77042266#/

Or this (a bit bland but the garden's bigger and you could make it your own) www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/104182451

You can just move a bit further out - Crystal Palace?

Kensal Green (northwest London), Kilburn or possibly Kensal Rise

Brockley?
Specialise in interesting herbs and a crab apple tree?

or New Cross??
You could grow vegetables here.

[quote ladyinacampervan]When I read these threads and see peoples' budgets I'm amazed what you can;t get in London compared to what you could get where I live:

224 Wells Road, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR14 4HD.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property/99527183[/quote]
Flipping heck that house is amazing!! It’s like a tree house!

My suggestion for this brief would be Chorlton just outside Manchester. It has a very Hackney-esque vibe — independent shops and restaurants, strong localism, diverse population, good schools, everyone recycles everything, loads of electric cars etc — but it’s cheaper.

The weather in the north west would be wetter than south east England but if you don’t want to stick around Hackney you’ve got to compromise on something.

The other one to ponder might be Glasgow West End.

Gosh I need to take a closer look at SE london!

Leyton and Walthamstow: like very small bits of them, but both seem to be surrounded by huge busy roads, and lots pollution (outside Walthamstow village bubble). I don’t know if I’m missing something, to be honest as friends love it.

Other cities are a good shout, too! What is Bath like? I haven’t been before, but heard it’s pretty, and I often hear people talk about moving there.

Other than work are there other reasons you’d like to stay in London?

I mean you don’t need to for work but how about just general enjoyment

I’d recommend SE London too

You really really really need to come to south east London! Best choice we ever made and totally fits your brief....

www.rightmove.co.uk/property/79504887
www.rightmove.co.uk/property/104343698
www.rightmove.co.uk/property/106280066

What about further out but still in?

Furzedown is just not comparable to Hackney!

Or another city?

SE is the way.
Crystal palace sydenham forest hill all along there.
Cracking transport and loads of greenspace and nice neighbourhood restaurants.

How old are your kids? (Assuming you have kids as you mention trampoline) What are the catchment schools like? (Or will you go private)

We used to love living in East London (we lived in Bow, loved Hackney for going out) but once kids were 4 and 6 we moved to a village in Hants (mostly because of schools, esp secondary schools and kids having more space, being able to play village cricket etc)

Very very different

We love it though

But it sounds you don’t want to do this move to a more country life

Still worth looking around, as you may decide you like Hackney so much you are willing to forego some of your “list essentials “ (we used to live in a flat with lovely shared garden and that worked well for us/kids)

Loads in SE20 for that budget. Very strong community with a festival, arts trail etc, still multicultural, some good pubs and cafes. Bonus is the trains from Penge East are really fast and you have the East London line, which would get you back to Hackney with minimal hassle. If you look at the end towards crystal palace Park, you can also walk to Crystal Palace itself in less than 20 minutes for more restaurants etc. It's a fab area for families (also allotments with short waiting lists!). Also it has dinosaurs!

Crystal Palace is nice, but already expensive and the trains are worse. I find the triangle a bit traffic-y. Great views though.