The moon on a stick?

[DannyGary]

Hoping for some general advice from people with knowledge of the SW of England.

We are planning to return to the UK after 10 years abroad and we want to be within an hour (or so) of Bristol.

We are looking for a 4 bedroom detached property and have a budget of around 500 000.

We have lived very rurally for the past 10 years and would be looking for something similar. There are plenty of lovely places within our budget, but we would prefer to be without immediate neighbours so that rules out 90% of the properties which are executive homes on developments with other properties overlooking. (nothing against these in principle - just not for us at this point in our lives). We also don't want anything that is "ideal for the keen DIYer".

We both drive and are old enough that schools/colleges are not part of the equation. A local pub would be a plus though :-)

Any suggestions for areas that might fit the bill? I'm absolutely not asking anyone to do my googling for me, but would just like some pointers about where to look (or where not to look). Are there UK estate agents who specialise in this type of property? I have gone cross-eyed looking at RightMove but there doesn't seem to be any way to filter out the types of property that we know we absolutely do not want.

TIA for any advice.

Your budget is low for a detached property of that size in the SW in a nice village also with no close by neighbours. Would you compromise on the neighbours aspect and accept a cottage or semi in an otherwise quiet location? It wouldn’t have to mean a built up estate, just an ordinary village setting. There are some nice Gloucestershire villages not too far a drive off the M5 which might fit the bill.

Alternatively, have you considered / would you consider South Wales? Hay-on-Wye would probably be a little out of your budget still, but the surrounding area a little cheaper.

By “without immediate neighbours” on a scale of 1-10 (1 being this is rubbish, the house might as well be in the neighbour’s sitting room and 10 being this is exactly what I mean) where does this house sit?

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85598394#/?channel=RES_BUY

just to get an idea of how far away from neighbours you want to be

@ComtesseDeSpair

Funnily enough, I have just been looking at some near Hay-on Wye.

A lot more places seem to tick our boxes there so will do some further searching.

The Forest of Dean might be worth a look as property can be a bit cheaper than other areas in the sw.

The Stroud area linked to above is probably a nicer area, but I guess it depends on what you want to compromise on.

I hate to put a downer on your search but for that budget you are really going to struggle. There aren't many houses that close to Bristol with no near neighbours full stop, never mind on your budget, in a good area, in good condition. Why do you want to be within an hour or so of Bristol? Maybe we can think of good options if we know where you would compromise.

@buddhasbelly

I'd score that about a 7.5

It's so difficult as we have been spoilt by not having immediate neighbours for some time and I am sure we will have to compromise to a certain extent.

It's more about not being overlooked, so other houses nearby aren't a major problem but I don't want to sit in my garden and be overlooked by someone else's windows.

@Sprig1

Having had a browse on Rightmove we were pleasantly surprised that we can find something within budget without too much compromise.

We have family in Bristol and would like to be closer to them, but tbh we could live anywhere and there is no guarantee that in 5 years they might decide to upsticks and move elsewhere.

The UK is a big place and we had to start somewhere. SW seems as good a place as any.

Forest of Dean might work for you

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123572057

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85347072

You're in a funny bit of the price banding, would easily get a detached house on an estate for your budget, true isolation costs a bit more eg www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121632188 ( not strictly Forest of Dean but The Narth is lovely)

Llandogo, Tintern might be worth a look if you are happy with going into Wales www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127769975

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127849748

Super cute cottage bang on budget but might be a bit small www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128533859

Suggest you centre your search on Chepstow and move out, Penterry, Devauden and St Arvans are nice, Llanishen a bit further out

the Crickhowell/Brecon area is nice, but more like 1hr 20 from Bristol

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85882806#/?channel=RES_BUY

I don't think this is overlooked, and they roast coffee nearby

Crickhowell is a lovely town with a great community and the scenery is fabulous. Just watch out for flooding in some parts

Thanks everyone, and many thanks for going to the trouble to post links. I'll have a proper look in the morning.

@snowspider Crickhowell is indeed lovely, but wouldn't work for us. Sorry if that's a bit of a cryptic reply - nothing to do with the location!

@Defiantlynot41

Those are all nice, but 650 is way over budget and we do want 4 bedrooms.

Interestingly, I have the first one bookmarked already :-)

Powys has the type of property you're looking for.

Sorry, I misread your budget as £550 and thought as it's a buyer's market, some of those might fall into range

A few more

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/124823048

Over budget but rather lovely, has been on the market a while and reduced once 4 months ago, might be worth a cheeky offer www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120104015

Another Monmouth one www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123481526.

Monmouth is a lovely town, one of the nicest in the area but I'd say right at the edge of a 1- hour trip to Bristol

Thanks @Defiantlynot41

I had already seen a couple of those that you have posted.

The 1 hour limit is not set in stone so I think we will expand our search area a bit.

If you go one hour north of Bristol, you can do tewkesbury/ledbury area. A quick look at your budget has loads of 4+ bed houses in your budget.
I loved this one

If you’re regularly looking at Rightmove etc and nothing remote enough is coming up within your price range then yes, it may not exist. Bristol and the SW is an expensive area (especially post Covid), it’s relatively highly populated and I suspect that there will only be “pockets” (probably the less nice bits) where you can afford what you want. I would try South Wales, maybe Herefordshire or even Scotland/ Northumberland! Or have a think about whether you could buy a smaller remote place or project with the land/ setting (like a barn to convert or a tiny run down cottage) and do the work over a longer period. Or maybe make up your mind to live less remotely for a bit and see if you cope with it- there are some lovely areas near Bristol like Bath, Frome, maybe Wells and the Somerset levels- maybe living somewhere so lovely you don’t need to be quite so remote?

@Heronwatcher

I didn't mean to imply that nothing was coming up.
We have seen a few nice places within budget that fit the bill.
We don't need to be "remote", but we also don't want to live somewhere that is "detached" by a side alley.

We're absolutely not in the market for any sort of renovation project, but we have had quite a long discussion about how many bedrooms we realistically need and how much outside space we want and yes, there are compromises to be made.

Herefordshire looks interesting (and not where I thought it was!) We have seen a few nice places there that would fit the bill. Scotland/Northumberland are a little bit far though :-)

At @Englishrosegarden Already bookmarked that one :-) Pretty much ticks all the boxes.

Looking forward to bit of a road trip to scope out some areas.

Thanks everyone for their input so far. Definitely some food for thought.

Just thought I'd come back to update (actually this thread came up in my MN search today for the area we are moving to!)

We are just back from our road trip which was very interesting - lots of locations immediately crossed off the list! We had a very long "shortlist" of properties, and tweaked our original requirements quite a lot.

I have checked back through the thread and a few of the properties linked here by PPs were actually on our list. We absolutely weren't intending to do any viewings.....but have ended up having an offer accepted. Not any of the ones linked on this thread as it wasn't on the market when the thread was active, but we are looking forward to an exciting 2023.

Thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated.