Where to move SW London

[Rosasey]

Hi mums

We are a family of 3 looking to buy our first home in SW, W London area. Our first priority is to register our son (3yrs old) in a good school and also being only 30minutes train ride from Waterloo.

We've been looking in the Surbiton area due to the excellent schools and convenient train line but unable to fine a decent 3 bed house within our budget (850K).

I was wondering which town or areas would you recommend for London commuters ( work in the city)
Walton on Thames, Sunbury or further away Maiden Head. Open to hear any other towns...

Thanks 

Hi,

I don't know Walton/Hersham schools well but I do know Hampton/Sunbury. Sunbury primaries are good but Hampton are possibly better though your train journey into Waterloo will be at least 45 to 50 mins. You'd get a decent house for your budget there.

Teddington's got lovely primary schools and the commute is closer to 30-35 minutes but it depends what you mean by decent 3 bed for that amount?

this one is 850k in Teddington would that be ok or would you really want something bigger?

West Byfleet

@SollaSollew

Hi,

I don't know Walton/Hersham schools well but I do know Hampton/Sunbury. Sunbury primaries are good but Hampton are possibly better though your train journey into Waterloo will be at least 45 to 50 mins. You'd get a decent house for your budget there.

Teddington's got lovely primary schools and the commute is closer to 30-35 minutes but it depends what you mean by decent 3 bed for that amount?

this one is 850k in Teddington would that be ok or would you really want something bigger?

Thanks for your suggestions. Ideally we would like to get 3 double bedrooms ( min 135 sqm) with a nice garden.

Raynes Park seems to fit the bill for you

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120383759

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/117193022

@OttoMattik thank you, I will take a look. Its much closer to London than were are considering to move. Are you familiar with the area, have good schools and high street etc...?

[quote Rosasey]@OttoMattik thank you, I will take a look. Its much closer to London than were are considering to move. Are you familiar with the area, have good schools and high street etc...? [/quote]
Very familiar with the area and lived there for a number of years though now in the process of moving out to Surrey. Raynes Park is the little brother to Wimbledon, and the station is only about 1.5m away from Wimbledon High street which is much larger and more active.

RP does have a big Waitrose, Starbucks, Costa and a few cafes/restaurants/pubs but you'll mainly be heading to either Wimbledon or Kingston on the other side if you want lots of choice.

Area is very family friendly and lots of people (including us) move because of the proximity to some top notch schools in Wimbledon - if you consider private. The train service is also fantastic and runs every 5m or so (almost like a tube) and you get to Waterloo within 25m, which means that a door to door commute of 1hr to London is very easily doable.

For state schools, the catchment areas are very important and the closer you are to an outstanding school, the higher the prices get (same as everywhere really). For your budget, you can get houses that are much closer to RP station and would meet your space requirement but maybe not the schools and you'd need to move further away to the Morden end.

Another area worth looking at is Worcester Park which is a couple of stations along the line and another favourite amongst families priced out of Raynes Park/Wimbledon. No idea about schools in that area though.

Surbiton and Kingston are certainly nice areas but pricier and you'd need upwards of £1m to get a good sized house with garden and in the catchment of a good/outstanding school.

Epsom or Ewell. Within your budget and great schools. It was mentioned in Saturdays Telegraph as the best place to live in Surrey for good schools. 30 minutes to Waterloo.
Much nicer than rather grotty Raynes Park.

Springfield Ave isn't Raynes Park, it's Merton Park at best, although technically the wrong side of the railway. Probably a 20 minute walk to Raynes Park shops & centre. The local shops are Martin Way - look on Google Streets to see if they're what you're hoping for.

Don't know much about towns in London as I live more like an hour away, but I found these on rightmove:

Chessington seems to be a lot cheaper so you could even get 4 bedroom detached like this www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122328419#/?channel=RES_BUY

Same with Banstead, you seem to get a lot more for your money www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/119974661#/?channel=RES_BUY

Might be a bit closer to London than you wanted but really nice house www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122257136#/?channel=RES_BUY

This one in Twickenham www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121205627#/?channel=RES_BUY

Chessington isn’t very nice and the train journey is long, stopping everywhere. Banstead is nice but that property is on the main road and again the train journey is slow.

@SoosanCarter Thank you for your recommendations. I have just found this amazing house, the price is soo good to be true... I am wondering is it located on a not good road.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121635617

@Svalberg Thanks I will be keeping that in mind. We are currently living in a lovely area with lots of cafes and restaurants in NW London so we ideally would like somewhere similar.

@BigSandyBalls2015 thanks for the heads up. We need a fast train line as my husband prefers to be in the office at least 4 days a week.

I think that house is priced like that as it doesn’t really have a garden. Most people would probably expect a family home to have one

Lower sunbury and Hampton are both nice and you would get a nice house for your budget but the train line is slow, so you wouldn’t be in Waterloo in 30mins. Twickenham has faster train line but would struggle to find a three bed house for your budget.

The Twickenham house posted above is in Whitton rather than Twickenham. It is a lovely house and on a fast train line but not in great school catchments and Whittington isn’t lovely.

A benefit of living in London rather than Surrey (Walton/Sunbury) is that you can use oyster so your commute will be much cheaper.

What about this one in Wimbledon?

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114085940

Haydon's Road station takes you into Blackfriars and City Thameslink.

Actually that one above has a weird covered garden

State schools or private?

The Epsom house is next to the station which is very busy at the junction of two lines. The garden is tiny and in shadow.

I'd prefer a smaller place in Surbiton than a larger one in most of these areas. Surbiton is lovely, you've got a great selection of shops and restaurants/cafes, the river, fast trainline into Waterloo. Kingston very nearby for bigger shops, very walkable along the river.

Sounds like you’ve ruled out Berrylands as there are many houses there within your budget?
If so…. don’t. Berrylands is Surbiton, it’s where the vast majority of houses in surbiton are. There’s a bit of snobbery about it for some reason but you will find it’s quiet, clean, nice green spaces, full of lovely families and a very short journey to Surbiton for the station and all the amenities. There are no family homes in Surbiton proper to speak of except a few roads round the station, a few big houses on the river roads (the rest are cottages) and St James which I personally do not like. The families who live in Surbiton live in Berrylands!

This came on the market yesterday. It’s a great location, you can walk to the station. It’s a nice house

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122314649#/?channel=RES_BUY

@Timeforanewoneofthese I think the snobbery about Berrylands is more about the sewage treatment plant. Have they closed it down?

They did some work on it in 2018. You don’t smell it now and before then it was very occasional on one or two days a year within a very small area near the works!