Advice on where to live and buy house in scotland

[beatrix93]

Hello all, Me and my partner are both first time buyers in our mid 20s and are trying to get our first house currently we have a deadlock between a large house in Livingston and a new build townhouse in Carfin/Motherwell any advice would be appreciated. I work in Glasgow whilst he works in Edinburgh however I can switch offices to edinburgh very easily. We only need to go to the office 2 days a week so I dont think 1 hour commutes will be a big deal , my partner loves reading on the train anyway.

We have both moved here from london very recently so dont know a lot about all the areas

The houses themselves are similarly shaped 1200-1350 sqft. We would like to start a family at some point so any information about schools would be appreciated.

Yes, schools move up and down according to cohorts obviously, but the 40 places has to be taken in context - 56% of pupils that year in Linlithgow got 5 Highers or more compared to 43% at James Young. If a higher % are using tutors at Linlithgow then it could be less indicative of the quality of the school - these league tables are only one snapshot of the overall performance of the school.

An OP, my apologies I thought you didn't know scotland at all. 🥰 and tbh misread, I thought you were open to all suggestions. For a house, I agree with others,
Galashiels, portobello, south queens ferry, Linlithgow or perhaps troon ?

When I think shotts I always think of the prison . It’s a max security long term male prison. Could get busy round visiting hours. Not sure.

@Raininghard It doesn't - I live in Shotts & I actually couldn't tell you where the prison is. It's sign posted but it's not 'in' Shotts if that makes sense?
It's like in the middle of nowhere.
Honestly, if it wasn't signposted, you'd never know it was there.
Shotts itself - in my opinion is great. Sure there's some rough areas but like everywhere, there always is but I've found it's a fab central location.
I work in Glasgow & I have family in Edinburgh so I'm like a 30 minute commute either side.

@beatrix93 I sent you a wee PM :)

I’m so confused by this, I’ve been in Shotts many times and have a friend there, I don’t know how you think it is not in Shotts and don’t know where it is. It totally is and even the address shows it’s in Shotts. There are houses very close by. It’s very close to all main elements. Yes due to its scale it’s on a road on its own, but there are houses in the run up. The point to the op is not Shotts is a bad place, but to be aware of where she is buying . I don’t know how you could live there and never have seen it, it’s literally right there.

@Raininghard I mean it's not in the main part of Shotts. When you drive into Shotts off the M8, it's signposted but not visible. It's not like you go to the co-op & there's a prison right in front of you 😂
It's the same if you go through Allanton - it's signposted but not visible. It's not on a main road that people typically use when going to or through Shotts.
Unlike Edinburgh when you're in longstone & the prison is literally next to everyone's houses & the shops and is on a busy road 😂
There's literally one housing estate next to Shotts prison.
So if you live in the heart of Shotts I.e dykehead, Stane, torbothie - it's very much out of the way.

I don't know where it is because I literally have no reason to ever be that far into Shotts. Furthest I ever need to go is the chemist up in dykehead 😂

If you are going to Falkirk check out the village of Polmont and Brightons to the east and Bonnybridge to the west.

Polmont has a train station and Bonnybridge is a few miles from the train station at Camelon. Croy station is also fairly near Bonnybridge.

Going further west is Cumbernauld, a new town like Livingstone. I wouldn’t live there but plenty people do. Also in that area is Kilsyth. Easy bus to Glasgow or train to Glasgow/Edinburgh from Croy.

Actually, having read through the thread and responses, I strongly suggest you wait until Feb, meanwhile focusing your time getting to know all the new builds. There's something like 3000 houses planned for Queensferry right now, the advertising is saying starting prices of 400k but god knows who is going to be buying them in this climate at that price.

I think if you can hold on for a few months, there will be bargains to be had. Queensferry isn't the only place with a lot of building going on.