If I have a £500-600k budget, can I buy a nice 4 bed house anywhere in the South East?

[frnf]

Inspired by a thread I made today - I need to move from my current house.

I'm currently 25 mins max from London Bridge. I need to get away from horrible neighbours but remain within an hour/less (ideally 30 mins but I think that's unrealistic) of London by train for work reasons.

I have a fairly big house but in the cheapest area - 3 reception rooms, 5 beds (4 doubles, 1 single), a decent garden (60ft x 30ft). Worth maybe £550k, maybe up to £600k if I did some renovations. I'd like to reduce my expenses when moving if possible, so £600k would be the very max for new house, ideally closer to £500k.

As one of the big reasons to move is my neighbours, I'd want ideally to be detached, and 10-12ft minimum away from the neighbouring house, but still with a similar garden (or bigger) to now.

Is it possible? Or do I just need to stay put?

This may be of use.

My house is on an ex council estate, on the less desirable side of town which makes a massive difference in the price. One of my friends is a 5 min walk from me, but because her house is not on the estate (even though in my road it's probably only 10-25% that are still local authority owned, most of them were sold off years ago) it's worth £250k more.

The issue I have with my neighbours and noise volume is despite us not being attached. There's about 6ft between our houses actually I think it's less - basically the width of 2 smallish garden gates, the gap between acts like a noise tunnel. I feel like more of a gap would make it less intrusive. Thing is I'm actually hard of hearing and even so the constant screeching, shouting, door banging, plus the thump of footballs against my fence, or 20 kids congregating in the front garden is really irritating, even with windows closed and TV on. And if they're not making a noise they're climbing the fence or looking over it, or climbing on my front wall. I've lived in a number of houses over the years and this is the only one where I've felt so oppressed, if that's the right word, by neighbours. In other places I barely knew if my neighbours were in or not, even in a terrace.

If I really needed to move to a different location whether for work, or to get more space, or if my neighbours were truly awful, then I would take anything to get away. As it is, I look at what I can afford and think of all the downsides - it's further out of London, either detached (but not very) or a semi which is what I have now, and smaller than my house too, and think is it worth it,? will the cost of moving, stamp duty and so on which could add up to quite a lot be worth it if I end up with a smaller house thats in many ways not much better than what I have.

SE18 with Crossrail?

will the cost of moving, stamp duty and so on which could add up to quite a lot be worth it if I end up with a smaller house thats in many ways not much better than what I have.

But the bricks and mortar aren't what's making your current house so awful. It's the neighbours. So surely anything you buy is going to be better just for being away from them?

I don't think being detached makes a difference. I'm end of terrace but the only neighbours I ever really hear are at the end of the road, a good 8 houses away. They like to throw a loud party (thankfully a loud happy party rather than the types that descend into screaming and fighting).

I'll be honest with you, 12ft is of no consequence if you have nightmare neighbours! Unless you can afford to live rurally in for instance an isolated farm house, you need to deal with neighbours.

I would suggest instead focussing on you and your family's needs from a house and consider the noise insulation and the parking arrangements as this are the two main issues with neighbours. I used to live in a detached house that would meet your specifications except price was over £500k when I sold earlier in the year, but had very noisy neighbours - my new house is a modern town house with triple glazing, we never hear the neighbours, not even the baby

How about this one in village lots of greenspace around house, within 10 minutes drive of Dover station.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114179720#/?channel=RES_NEW

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123426350

High speed train in from Kent is all very well, but an annual travel card from Ashford is over seven thousand a year - that would make a big difference to your mortgage.

I have parking currently, and would never move anywhere without parking tbh. Shared driveways are also a no for me, I know too many people who have had issues with them!

Insulation doesn't help really as the noise isn't coming from an adjoining wall, it's mainly when they are outside. I like to open my windows in warmer months but their noise makes it difficult. It is very irritating, and it's not just the noise it's actually more the sort of ignorant people they are with no regard for anyone else. If it was just the vocal noise without them smashing my fence or other stuff they do, I'd find it easier to put up with. Oppressive is the only way I can describe it.

There's no guarantee on neighbours in another house. When I moved in, a different family were living there who were fine. Rarely saw them to be honest. Much like my current neighbours on the other side, who've also changed since I've lived here.

I know I'd be happier if the neighbours weren't here, so the answer is to move. But if the price of that was moving to a house that was quite a bit smaller, and a fair bit further from London (plus moving costs) I don't know how happy I would be with that as a deal iyswim?

You could get a 3 bed in bromley and the surrounding area for your budget and the occasional 4 bed comes up

I couldn't move to a 3 bed. Moving to a 4 bed already means losing quite a bit of space.