Moving to Kent - Our First Home!

[jchizzle]

Hi everyone! My boyfriend and I are looking at purchasing our first home in Kent. We currently live in a small one bed in South East London (Greenwich) and are wanting space for our families to come visit and a small garden for our 3 dogs! Looking for a 2 - 3 bed with a small garden in the £400K range.

My job is fully remote but bf has a hybrid working pattern which requires commute into London approx 3 days a week. After the stress and pace of London living for the Just looking for some peace and quiet, good walks for dogs, a nice pub and a decent (max. 1 hour) commute into London! (Quite a list I know! 😅)

So far, we've looked at the St John's Hill area in Sevenoaks and Tonbridge which hasn't been too successful! However, we are thinking of exploring towards Dunton Green, Otford and Paddock Wood? Any advice at all on the areas or suggestions for lesser known gems would be soooooo greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you!!! 😀

I’m tonbridge. Some properties on Zoopla

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/houses/tonbridge/?beds_max=3&beds_min=2&feature=has_garden&is_auction=false&is_retirement_home=false&is_shared_ownership=false&page_size=25&price_max=400000&property_sub_type=semi_detached&property_sub_type=detached&property_sub_type=terraced&view_type=list&q=Tonbridge%2C%20Kent&radius=0&results_sort=highest_price&search_source=refine#listing_62132066

below are with 3 beds

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/62664219/

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/62132066/

Sevenosks is lovely but more costly

Where do you work in London? Canterbury is lovely historic city less than an hour for kx. You can get your wishlist with period features less than a half a mile from the station. Faversham is also on the fast line it's a beautiful market town.

I think you'd be better off going further out if you can afford hs2 plus you always get a seat

And congratulations!!!

I used to live in Staplehurst. That's a nice place about an hour from ChX.

This is so helpful!!! Thank you so much for sharing. If you don’t mind me asking, how has living in Tonbridge been? We did some viewings both North and South of the station and found it to be very different!

Are there any no go areas from your perspective? Any walks you would recommend? 😀

@melmos he’s currently working at Blackfriars :) good shout on looking further towards Canterbury. We did have an eye on a lovely period property but it got snapped up before we had a chance to view!

@FuzzyPuffling We haven’t quite extended our search to staplehurst yet but it looks beautiful!!! We will have a look on right move and see what’s on offer! Thank you so much!

St johns hill- won’t it be flooded in 2030?

Have you had a walk around Canterbury high street recently? A very depressing sight...

Canterbury used to be one of my favourite places, especially as I went to Uni there!

I'm in Tonbridge too, moved to have our children here and it's now home. We love it, it's perfect for us.
Around the station is very convenient of course, for station and high st, houses and gardens smaller.
North of town is leafier, lots of bungalows with lovely gardens and semis and detracted too. Bigger plots, pricier, not as convenient but we live in the North and it's v easy to drive, cycle or walk to the high st.
Great walks accessible from both ends!
Message me if you like. Honestly, I can't recommend the town enough but I know everyone's different so depends what you want.

I’ve lived here 23yrs. Born in sevenoaks - couldn’t afford sev prices so brought Tonbridge

im north

waves to @CautiousOptimist

peers do I know you 😂

north has better parking as no permits as not near station

bigger houses /gardens - more ex council

south many smaller terraced /Victorian and smaller gardens

north has a fab bus route every 20m circling round Tonbridge down to town and back

good selection of basic shops north - coop - baker - hairdressers - pet - library - Chinese Indian Kebab

Nice dog walks north with Dene park and one tree hill few mins drive

Very good school woodlands north

south doesn’t have such good schools imo and if live say south Tonbridge top of st Mary’s road , then you aren’t technically in any school catchment area

message me if you want any more info

@Blondeshavemorefun almost certainly we know each other! Hi!

Everyone knows me 😂😂

Canterbury High Street suffered in the pandemic and lots of shops closed but in the meantime new places are opening and it is getting its mojo back.
It's a lovely place to live, very dog friendly (our dog meets his friends every morning in the field at the end of our road), easy to get around by walking (but often gridlocked at peak travel times), easy access to the countryside (ancient woodland, sea, open fields) and lovely villages, good schools, family friendly, excellent children performances at the Gulbenkian and lots of things to do for younger kids. Easy to get to the continent and to London. Relatively international community thanks to universities.
Moved here for work 15 years ago and really enjoy living here.

I think we found THE ONE! It’s a semi detached 2 bedroom on centenary close in Dunton Green.

Now to move into the scariest part - the offer stage! Before we put our cards on the table, I wanted to see what you lot thought of a £415k asking price in that part of town? It feels high to me but I could be completely off!

Honestly. 400k on a 2 bed house seems insane to me

especially for example in Tonbridge you are looking at 50/75k less than that

Ok. Just found it. Looks nicely decorated

garden to me is too steep. All those steps esp if kids using it , would drive me insane and not a safe place to play

so would be a no from me

@Blondeshavemorefun our thoughts exactly on the price, but we aren’t from the area so found it hard to justify our discomfort really. Re the garden, We aren’t planning kids anytime soon so the garden and office is perfect for us but totally take your point that should we look to grow our family, it’s not the best home suited for it!

If not anytime soon then maybe buy but still think it’s a lot for the area and 2 bed

if thinking maybe in next 3/5yrs then no I wouldn’t buy as will need to move again then to have extra bedooom for family plus a safe garden

Too much for Dunton Green imo. And wriong trainline. Otford goes direct to Blackfriars as do Shoreham and Eynsford and they both have more to offer than Dunton Green.