Moving out of London - I know, another thread!

[three2four]

Hello,

My husband and want to move out of London for more space and a garden. Our budget £550-600k and we would like 4 bedrooms, two receptions and a nice garden. Only problem is we have yet to narrow down the area from the following:
Essex - Chelmsford, Colchester,
Reading
Surrey
Kent - Canterbury...
As it's so wide and we have absolutely zero idea of these areas it's proving to be really hard.

We're a family of soon to be 4 so areas good for young kids (eldest is 18 months), great state schools like proximity to a good high street. A nice mix of people (I know this won't be a diverse of London, but at least something! I don't want to turn up to a hostile area where it's clear me and the babes won't be welcome) as I am black and husband is white.

Our jobs are in Hammersmith and central London (Leicester sq) but we won't have to commute everyday. So good transport links to London.

I know this post is quite chaotic but imagine being in my head with my late night Zoopla binges!

Does anyone have suggestions of areas to look at within the above locations? Any property links would be fab. I'm hoping your collective hive brain can help. Thanks in advance guys.

I would agree the commute to Hammersmith would be long and annoying. It would be Greater Anglia to Stratford, then the Jubilee line and then the District line. Probably 80-90 minutes if it all lines up.

A PP mentioned Bourne End, I know it's a long way off but also think about secondary schools - is there a wide choice and / or 11+ system?

One good thing about Reading is their 2 good grammar schools, but lots of children train it in from the surrounding villages and small towns. The boys grammar also has a few weekly boarding spaces. There are less applications for the boarding places and I've only heard really good experiences about it. I know a few boys that wish they had been part of it...

Thanks for all your responses, really appreciate the advice as I'm feeling quite overwhelmed with how wide our search is. I'm about to go on mat leave with my second and I'm not sure about the security of my role so I'm not 100% tied to Hammersmith, so still flexible in that respect. I take it on board that commuting time/cost is an important consideration too. Any areas of Reading that people have knowledge of? What are the "nice" areas?

Does anyone have knowledge of nice areas of Milton Keynes and Leighton Buzzard? DH has thrown this into the mix too and I forgot to mention them. As if we needed a wider search

Hey, just found this thread we are almost in exactly the same place now, where did you end up we are thinking Chelmsford