Where to move house Kent or Buckinghamshire

[Siri83]

Please advise me on whether to move to Buckinghamshire or Kent, all you great mums out there. DH works from home one day a week, while I work from home. For DD Year 3, as well as later for grammar schools, we are hoping to purchase a home close to good primary schools. We prefer to move to Kent since we have more friends than in Buckinghamshire, and I am really concerned about crime in the area of Kent after looking at websites.

im Kent

where about are you thinking of

Sevenoaks v Medway v Margate are all very different

@SunnySundie If Bucks, could you please recommend towns where I should look if my DD does not get into grammar school and which towns have good secondary schools?

Oh crossed posts. Duh

thsts my part. Some fab school sevenoaks /Tunbridge/Tunbridge wells area

@Blondeshavemorefun ok thanks, how about Dartford, Swanley, Swanscombe, or Tunbridge Wells.

I would avoid Swanley and Dartford

Tunbridge wells is lovely

Have you considered Beds OP? Breathtakingly posh but some really nice little villages - easy access to M1 and M25 etc, 40 mins car journey to London, 20 mins to St Pancras...

Worth a look

Avoid Dartford, Swanley, Swanscombe or any of the Medway towns. There will also be private options near Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells.

I would agree about avoiding Dartford and Swanley. Tunbridge Wells is lovely but a lot of the big houses have been turned into flats/bedsits and when I lived there I was surprised by the amount of drug crime. There are some beautiful villages around Tunbridge Wells which might be worth looking at.

I personally love Kent.

I don’t know about Bucks, but I have lived in Tunbridge Wells (Gorgeous area but congested and very expensive) Medway(hated it, dirty, noisy and so so busy with traffic, but cheaper) Canterbury (very congested but I love it, gorgeous villages) I now live much further north and love the fact that all journeys north do not involve the M25. I would never go back to Kent and I lived there for 48 years!

We are in Bucks - moved post reception application dates so DD isn’t at our village school but at a gorgeous tiny infant school. It’s fairly mixed socially. It depends a bit what you want - we are in a village and I regret a bit not going for Amersham or Chesham where more would be in walking distance.

Bucks no contest. Best overall for family, travel and schools.
The Buck(s) stops here.
Sorry couldn't help myself.

Idk why I feel so strongly about this. I do not live in Bucks and have no current plans to 😂

Look at Wing and the Cottesloe school.

Lots of villages in Beds and Bucks that are in catchment for that.

I have also heard lots of positivity about The Buckingham School.

Dartford had super selective grammar which is very difficult to get into. The other non selective schools are mix of good and awful (ebbsfleet academy). Did you mean Swanscombe or ebbsfleet?
lots of people have moved out of london to ebbsfleet to afford homes but seem surprised there is crime here too. 😂
Traffic is murder if the dartford tunnel gets blocked.
There are some really good primary schools and good community. If ebbsfleet though there are not many spaces in the schools.

From Kent, anywhere you want to go involves the M25. We were very glad to leave and have not regretted it.

I'm torn between West Milton Keynes or Chesham or Swanscombe or Ebbsfleet in Kent ,because I'm mostly looking near good schools because if DD doesn't get into Grammar, she should at least get into good secondary schools. I'm concerned about the size of the house because my budget is only 550k. We're looking for houses with garages, but it appears that there aren't many in Kent that fit our budget.

Have a look at the outskirts of Maidstone ( Bearstead, weavering , hollingbourne etc ) good Grammars and good secondary schools .

How about Canterbury?

I think for that budget you could look at DA14 and DA15 postcodes - Sidcup/Bexley. Access to excellent grammar schools in several Boroughs (Bexley, Bromley and Dartford). Green, easy to get to the countryside, seaside and London (zone 5). Primary schools are very good too.

I worked in Kent. Gorgeous villages but difficult commute to London and that was pre-Brexit and the ensuing extra traffic difficulties.

Trains to London Bridge from Sidcup take around 20-25 minutes.

Not Bucks. Stupidly expensive housing, about as Conservative as you can get, stupid grammar school system which tells around 80% of children that they are failures at 10 years old. Pass your 11+ and you have to pay thousands for a coach to schlepp half way across the county to attend school. Yes it is beautiful but I’d rather my children could just go to secondary school together, walking, with all their primary school friends and not be split far and wide. Currently in the process of crossing the border to avoid the crazy elitism.

Kent is lovely and so varied. This morning I took pup for a walk in nearby woods, and tomorrow we plan to go to the coast. Bluewater and lakeside are not too far away in one direction, and the tunnel/France easy to get to in the other direction.

Lots of gorgeous villages as well as towns. I’m surprised you can’t find much for your budget, although Tunbridge sells could be one of the more pricey areas.

Tunbridge wells is lovely

Im not so sure. Prefer Sevenaks by a country mile, but £550 k won't go far. People on here rave about Folkstone...

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/125938580#/?channel=RES_BUY

Any good ?