Open thread: If you moved out of London (to outskirts or commuter town) but still work centrally, where did you move and do you like it??

[sadlyrefreshingrightmove]

It's all in the title really! Have name changed due to potentially outing information.

Work in London (City) and looking to make a move. Impossible at the moment as the market is absolutely batshit crazy but hoping to do some research and visit places now in the hope that when (if) it cools down we have an idea of places to go.

Have sort of exhausted looking at all of the places we know, or near where we know, and am getting to the stage of just looking at a commuter map and trying to find dots on the map within a 1 hour commute of London that seems promising. So shamelessly asking for peoples' experiences. I don't think there's a perfect place that ticks all of our boxes so just want to know places to consider/rule out.

BUT if it helps the key things we're looking for are:

• Commute to city under 1 hr (any of bank/aldgate/liverpool street/cannon st)
• Good schools primary and secondary, ideally including state options but could do private for secondary. Kids currently primary age, have girls and boys.
• Safe and relatively green
• Enough of a town centre that you could spend half a day walking around, getting a meal, pottering around the shops, going to the park. A few good places to eat. Would love a cinema, theatre, buzz, great restaurants but these are nice to haves not essentials.
• min 5 bedroom detached house, with some character, within 1 mile of station and at least half acre plot. Budget £2-2.7m. Obviously would prefer to spend near the lower end of that.

Currently based around Petts Wood and I love the commute, the fact that it is green and feels very safe. Schools good too and the community is actually quite diverse for suburbia which I love. But the town centre is a teeny tiny bit dull and hard to find a larger house as the standard housing stock is 1930s semis and smaller 4 bed detatched.

Have considered moving a bit further out to Sevenoaks but prices are eye-watering and I don't love the town centre, it always feels a bit soulless to me. A few beautiful parks but just can't imagine being excited to get a massive mortgage to live there.

Please help! Just want to know some places which have generated happy commuters!

Buckinghamshire, specifically near the Crossrail route, so Burnham / Taplow (45min to Liverpool St) or further along between Maidenhead and Reading - Twyford will be 55 min to Liverpool St.
Obviously you can’t currently do the journey in one go, but it will come eventually! Hopefully in the next 1-2 years.
So many gorgeous properties available with your budget - especially if you are willing to be a short drive from the station.
Maidenhead is not great town centre wise, but they are doing a lot of redevelopment. Cookham / Marlow / Bourne End are more villagey but a lovely community feel.

I'm just puzzled as to why you are trying to maintain your position despite evidence to the contrary!

You haven't provided evidence to the contrary, that's my point!

Guildford average house prices are 643k
Sevenoaks 751k

The most expensive home for sale now

Guildford: 3.5m which is a farm with over 27 hectares & 20000sq ft of buildings so not your usual family home.
Sevenoaks: 10m for 6bed detached on 16 acres.

Gerrads Cross in Buckinghamshire - 20 minutes to Marylebone & then another 20 on the tube to the city. Grammar school system though for secondary.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109960466#/?channel=RES_BUY
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109943264#/?channel=RES_BUY

The fact that there are a larger number of cheaper properties which bring the average price down doesn't mean that a big expensive house in Guildford is cheaper than a big expensive house in Sevenoaks.

A smaller house in Guildford may be more expensive than one in Sevenoaks because exact location is important but Guildford isn't more expensive then Sevenoaks which is all I said.
Plus its irrelevant because with the OPs budget the vast majority of homes for sale in both areas are well within her budget so the struggle she will have is not that she can't afford what she wants more that it don't exist.

exact location is important but Guildford isn't more expensive then Sevenoaks which is all I said

An opinion which I disagree with, as when you compare similar properties on a £/sq ft basis, there is no significant price difference between the two areas.

Outskirts of Sevenoaks:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/81011343#/?channel=RES_BUY - £1087/sq ft

Outskirts of Guildford:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/108356138#/?channel=RES_BUY - £1267/sq ft.

I thought you'd gone home for wine?! 😆

Oxted is worth a look (Thameslink) as is the spur lines near to the Maidenhead line - Wargrave etc.

We have struggled with viewings in Gerrard’s Cross, quite a lot of homes close to the train have noticeable traffic noise. Beaconsfield might be suitable?

Funny I’ve just ben looking at Oxted Porridge, it is very well connected rail wise isn’t it. And a sensible size. What are the downsides?

at the Guildford/Sevenoaks spat going on upthread. Let’s just say both are eye wateringly expensive compared with most of the country.

Ooh. Just wondering about Blackheath?

No, definitely not Blackheath for detached and 0.5 acres. (Talking to myself here)

Why do you need to be a mile to the station?

Brentwood? 40 minutes to Liverpool Street, it has large detached houses within a mile of the station with a large garden (0.5 acre, or close) within budget.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/106011494#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/100273412#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110179565#/?channel=RES_BUY

I think you might have fallen into the trap of thinking that because you have a great budget, you can get everything on your list. The reality is that there are very few houses with half an acre where you can walk to the station and be near a buzzy town. I think you need to accept that if you want the lovely house with grounds you might need to compromise on other aspects, such as driving to the station and a slightly longer commute. Equally if you want to be in a buzzy town with a walk to the station you may not get the grounds, garages etc (you’d still get a great house). I think you’re doing the right thing in getting to know areas- what I would do in your position is get to know a few areas and keep an eye on the top 3 or 4 and then look at every house which fits most of the criteria.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/79888242#/?channel=RES_BUY

I agree with heron the main issue isn’t the budget but the garden space within walking distance of the station in amongst the buzz of a great town. Plus the commute time.

Lots of 5 bed detached properties with 0.5 acres are just not walking distance to the station.

But in answer to your question I moved out to Bedfordshire not far from the house I linked to above, so far I really like it and it has many of the things you list as being important. The house above for example has beautiful countryside all around it, plus interesting places to visit (Woburn/ Woburn Sands and Leighton Buzzard are nice small towns and Milton Keynes and Bedford have brilliant amenities). But you couldn’t walk to a station and the commute might be slightly over an hour.

[quote Heronwatcher]www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/79888242#/?channel=RES_BUY[/quote]
ARGUABLY THE BEST NEWLY CONSTRUCTED ARCHITECT DESIGNED HOUSE ....

Why are expensive houses always "architect designed"? Who designs cheaper houses; a postman, a nurse, an actor ...?

I know this isn’t near London however have you thought of Solihull? I live here (well in Dorridge) and HS2’s first stop will be Interchange which is actually Solihull and that journey will take just 38 minutes (I know that isn’t until a while but just a consideration). Solihull town centre is full of unique shops and has a John Lewis.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E96987&minPrice=1500000&propertyTypes=&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

Oh and the schools here are excellent. Arden is our local school and nearly 90% of children got at least a Grade 4 at all GCSEs and nearly 60% of students at Sixth Form got at least a B at A Level.

www.arden.solihull.sch.uk/information/2019-examination-results/

I recently moved to Oxhey Village 5 min walk to Bushey Station. We are in a small cottage typical of a lot of the houses here. But towards Watford heath are bigger detached houses that would still be around 10/15 min walk to the station, and half an hour to Watford town centre for pretty much everything on your list or half an hour prettier walk to Bushey High Street which has a lot of nice restaurants altho not a lot of practical shops!
I also know people I regularly visit in Harpenden. There are a lot of big detached houses there - even near to the station. The town might be too small but its not far from St Albans which might be another option?

With your budget I would be looking at:

• Ingatestone / Shenfield / Chelmsford (compromise: high streets - not somewhere you can spend half a day browsing, except maybe Chelmsford)
• Cambridge (compromise: commute)
• St Albans / Harpenden (you’d use St Albans high street for more significant shopping if living in Harpenden)

Not sure on commute times to the city for these:

• Sevenoaks
• Esher
• Berkhamsted

Agree with pp regarding a few contradictory things on the wish list. To have a large house with half an acre of land suggests somewhere rural/semi rural...but that's unlikely to be walkable to a busy town or train station. I can think of a few stations where you might get a half acre garden within walking distance but they are normally villages, where you would need to drive for more expansive shopping needs.

Someone linked a gorgeous house in St Albans but I'm pretty sure it wouldnt have half an acre that close to the station. Most of the houses close to the station there are quite densely packed.

Bit of a wildcard option but I love Leigh on Sea. Great buzzy town centre and excellent schools (state and private). There are some lovely houses on the outskirts but you're not likely to get much land. Frequent, fast, air conditioned and not too expensive trains into London too.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109173608#/?channel=RES_BUY

Would a Property Sourcer be useful? They would cost, but might have knowledge of which locations are most likely to have properties which meet the OP's requirements and be able to find such a property.

Hitichin, Harpenden and St Albans would all seem possible.
Although you may need to do some prioritizing on your list.