Conundrum - move from London to Bedford?

[Cris1976]

Hello there people! I could do with your advice as I am a bit confused on whether Bedford is a decent place or not to move to in order to get a proper house and garden with decent amenities.

I have been a few times just to view properties and it seems fine, more of a third tier town. But parts of the town centre look pretty dire and it looks like most shops are shutting down. I have seen a house I really like which is just south of the river (probably 20mins walk to the station). But now I'm getting second thoughts if the commute to London would take it's toll (on the OH, I am stay at home) if there is a massive trade-off with Bedford not being a decent enough place to live and bring up my young daughter. He will be commuting and I hope we can find her a pretty good school.

Seeing we have no network in the area, we are flying a bit blind and don't want to make a big mistake.

So would those in the know suggest it as a family place which is improving and will be a good place to settle? Many many thanks.

I may be getting a bit defensive here but am not clear why Bexley or Eltham are necessarily better than Bedford for living in and certainty not for house prices.

If OP can push out to, for example, parts of Brickhill, Castle, Goldington, Putnoe,Renhold,Biddenham or Bromham or stretch budget to Ampthill/Flitwick she could get a lovely house in a lovely area.

I may be getting a bit defensive here but am not clear why Bexley or Eltham are necessarily better than Bedford for living in and certainty not for house prices.

Sorry, that did sound rude! It's really the distance I'm thinking of - it only makes sense to move that far if you really WANT to live where you're moving. It's not that Eltham or Bexley are better, just that they are closer and (I think) affordable.

Ah, OK!

I don't know Eltham or Bexley, apart from ON Location, Location and they both look more built up than Bedford. But I agree the commute could be a pain. Bedford is ideal if the commute is down the BedPan line.

Bedford used to be lovely, particularly the bits near the river but the town centre’s decimated now. St Neots is nice. The train goes into St Pancras then it’s a quick swoop down to Victoria.

For me it's the commute to Victoria that totally kills it. Bedford to City (plus Liverpool Street) or London Bridge (possibly onwards on foot to Waterloo) would be a fairly robust commute with a good chance of a seat in the morning. From experience I'd rather commute from Bedford to the City than from not Northern Line bits of South London as the convenience of 1 means of transport outweighs the extra time for a faffy commute from closer.

Commuting to Victoria from the north eastern commuter belt without good reason (family help/balance between 2 job locations) seems like madness to me. I'd have the same objection to Milton Keynes and would be looking at lines into Victoria Waterloo or possibly Paddington.

Bedford is nice enough for the price if it's convenient, it's not nice enough to justify a PITA commute regardless of how cheap property feels.

The commute’s not that bad. I did Huntingdon to Kings Cross then to Pimlico on the Victoria line for a long time. The tube’s nearly empty after Oxford Street.

Well, IME of commuting to Pimlico for more than a decade, the tube empties after Victoria rather than Oxford Circus... but I used to have to let 3 trains go by before being able to get onto a Victoria Line at KX. All pre-Covid, of course!

I lived in Bedford for a short time several years ago and didn't like it at all, sorry OP. Also loathed the commute. But this was a good while back and I don't really feel qualified to comment on what it's like these days.

I'd also consider looking at St Neots rather than Bedford. I live in a village between the two and go into St Neots rather than Bedford. St Neots is on the river, lovely market town and definitely commutable to London.

Yes, St Neots is nice as long as you avoid the bit that floods. I wouldn't mind living there.

Also the fact that 400k buys you a very nice home, whereas in London you would need at least 600k for the equivalent

Bear in mind that the London house will go up in price faster than the Bedford one, most probably.

The longer you hang on in London, the wealthier you become in terms of property prices.

I left London just over a decade ago, and bought a house in a costal town outright, no mortgage, with the money I'd made from owning a flat in London for 10 years. Which might sound great.

Only, the price of my house has barely risen, while the price of the flat we owned in London has nearly doubled in that time.

Now, we want to move to another city where we have family and friends but we're not sure if we could afford it. If we'd held on to the London flat, we'd now have an extra £250k cash to play with.

That’s a very valid point.

Jam today or Jam tmrw ? Even though it’s really tight on finances and might be more prudent to buy in a lower cost place … you can really stuff yourself if you ever wanted to buy back into the city.

On the basis of all these views we decided against Bedford for now. It actually represents more of a ‘risk’ unless we had a good network up there and decent paying jobs there. Going from no commute over the past year to a mega one will also be a shock to the system.

Back to the rat race… and the steeply priced commuter towns we must go. I think we need to start loving debt these days …

Wise choice OP.

I think we need to start loving debt these days …

We're just looking at renewing our mortgage, and if finances are a big part of the calculation (of course they are) bear in mind that mortgage rates are still monumentally cheap.

In terms of the interest on your loan, £6,000 pa (which you could easily be paying in commuting costs) supports mortgage borrowing of around £400,000. Or looked at another way, if you halve your commuting costs to £3,000 pa by moving closer to London you could justify spending an extra £200k on your house. (If both of you are working then living in London seems a bit of a no-brainer to me at current interest rates.)

From a financial POV yes commuting costs you could essentially offset with a higher or lower mortgage. That’s if there’s a full time commute into London. However it will only be him commuting.

It’s good to be able to justify spending more on the mortgage this way ! Also an hour saved a day adds up. I think think everyone probably factored this in a few years back… hence why most places up to 30miles from London are priced the way they are.

I’ve gained invaluable insights from every single post here. Thanks Once again 🙏🏽

@Cris1976 I do think a lot of what’s been said about property making money is a good thing to consider.
Although we bought a lovely house and did a massive refurbishment on our house (near Bedford) our old London house has gone up much more, I know currently out of London property is making more money, but the London house market is still really strong.(Flats not so much)
We are in the process of buying back in London and it’s been hard to find what we want with our money, moving from a massive house to something smaller and in a less desirable area than where we lived 8 years ago, but I’m so happy to be going back.

We made the move from London to Bedford three years ago and really like it. However, we live in Castle Quarter in a lovely house and outstanding school. My husband works locally and I commute into London near Victoria however pre pandemic I only went in three days a week. Not sure I could do five.

The town centre has lost lots of shops and the town does feel quite poor, with petty crime. There isn't the shootings and stabbings we had in our area of London but flowerpots and bikes get nicked! I think this is quite a common small town problem and not Bedford specific.

The town does feel quite diverse with a range of cultures and backgrounds which appealed to us.

There are loads of independent shops and a lot of young professionals from London and we love it but chose your location and do your research.

You must have read our minds.
We are now looking at the outskirts of London , more South West. It’s more of a stretch financially (budget creep up to 600k now).

Thanks for this link, will use this ! Greater London leads to flats … think we want to get out of those now with onerous service charges and leases.