Beckenham, Bromley or West Norwood??

[SerendipitousMe]

We’d love to move to a bigger house, a big garden would be amazing, with a view to potentially adding a summer house as an annex. Bromley looks great but I work in London (part time) and my kids are in their (very) early teens so I don’t want to saddle them with tricky transport options.

Which do you prefer between the three? Or is there some other area you would recommend? Currently living in Sydenham, where prices are quite high for what I’m looking for.

Any personal experience you may wish to share will be most welcome!

OP there's a property on the market on Uffington Road in West Norwood now that needs some cosmetic reno but could suit you as our the back it has the most ENORMOUS garage space that you could convert into a flat for your older relative. Check it out.

It will be in the Dunraven catchment,

Beckenham is just as expensive as Sydenham but further out, the nice bits very pricey.

Bromley South train is good. Not terribly exciting but has everything you need. But people are catching on so prices are going up there too

West Norwood has the worst crime rate of the 3 at area level, obviously there are pockets of differences

West Norwood is super expensive these days and I think you would pushed to find a house which meets your requirements/budget.

Bromley has great train links and is more affordable than Beckenham. There is lots of 1930s housing stock with large plots- opportunity to extend/build.

We moved from Streatham Hill to Bromley 4 years ago and love the area. We would have liked to live in Beckenham for its nice cafes/restaurants but it was slightly more pricey and we decided that whilst Bromley isn't as 'pretty', it is far more functional for families.

You might have posted this further up but are you looking to move schools for the children? If you can get into the Bullers catchment in Bromley that would be a good option if you have boys/girls.

I just moved to the Petts Wood area and got exactly what you want in a house for less than £700k. It's a 15 min walk or 4 min bus ride to either Petts Wood or Orpington stations so not super in the centre, but there are plenty near Petts Wood station for well under £1m with really big gardens. And the place is family central, teens everywhere, trains to London Bridge that are quick, and trains to Victoria via Bromley, Herne Hill, Brixton

To be honest in most of Bromley you'd be looking at 1m for a roomy semi or smaller detatched, but closer to 1.5m for detatched on good sized plot and garden. Unless you look further away from Bromley Town, Chislehurst or Beckenham stations (e.g. Hayes, West Wickham - slower trains, more villagey)

Orpington is more affordable but not really London.

Beckenham has more Victorian semi/terrace housing stock. Then the nice detatched (e.g. near Kelsey Park) are very expensive

Totally get where you're coming from on how ridiculous house prices are these days

Also there isn't a great deal of supply at the moment!

West Norwood.

Lived here for over 20 years, seen a lot of change and massive improvement in services/ things to do.

Never felt uneasy or nervous walking home at night, but the best thing for me is the amazing community spirit in the area.

Great schools, both primary and secondary, close to great parks, fabulous historical cemetery and lots of nice pubs and coffee shops

Good mix of period and modern housing stock.

Gets my vote.

Once again, thanks everybody for the amazingly helpful comments - so much to consider! I think we’ll have to do a fair bit of driving around all the areas above, hard to get a proper feel of a place via Google maps only…

Beckenham has good London connections (it’s on a rail line to Victoria and the city) and prices have short up, partly as a result! We were priced out a few years ago. It would have been great for the kids when teens as they would have been able to get into London easily.

You could get a semi detached house for under £1m, depends where you look. But definitely in main Beckenham.

Examples in Beckenham which are safe and near stations

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/113251751

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/103655021

But these house are snapped up so quickly!!

Hi there, we first looked at buying in West Norwood, then Honor Oak Park/Crofton Park and are now expanding our search to Kent House/Beckenham Junction to be near the trainline to Victoria/London Bridge.

Does anyone have any advice for our first family home (baby due April 2022) with 3 bedrooms + ? We are also looking at renting in the area first.

We are also keen on looking into NCT classes and were wondering whether you would recommend any locations (we may need to switch locations half-way through!)?

Many thanks in advance.

If you need London Bridge, look for properties near Grove Park station. There is the Lee side and the Bromley side. Grove Park to LB is 12 mins on the train.

Thanks, Hetyanni. We would be keen for the train to Victoria as an option, or anything with good transport links to West Dulwich.