Safe family friendly commuter town within 30 min train from London (first time buyers, £450K budget)

[Marghe87]

Not in the process of buying yet but hopefully close enough and we are starting to consider a few options. We have a relatively limited budget of £450K (hoping that prices will also decrease in the upcoming months) and we’d be looking for either a decent sized 2 bed or a 3 bed house. We live in zone 5 in a lovely place and are aware of the fact that we’d have to compromise on location but there are a few main things we need to consider:

• we both work in London so need somewhere with an easy commute and fast enough (we don’t have family supporting with drop off, pick up etc so we need to be able to be in and out fast); I am in central London, DH in West London
• Have a DD who is a toddler and we want to settle somehwere safe and with good state schools, both primary and secondary

In our list of options there are a few places, each with their pros and cons and honestly, feeling a bit stuck as we either go live in a decent area but in a shoebox house or in a nicer house but in a less nice area or somewhere more remote, none of these ideal (when I say less nice I also mean potentially less safe).
Do you have recommendations based on where you live?
So far we have:
Weybridge/Walton on T (fav choice but too expensive, can barely afford a 2 bed house)
Guildford (would need to be very close to the station as commute would take longer and issues with schools pick ups etc… properties also quite pricey and not sure it’s worth the longer and more expensive commute for what we’d get)
Woking (was keen but I keep reading how there is some crime in the town at night, with armes police etc and a few dodgy areas. I want my DD to grow in a safe place, especially in the teenage years and I am a bit concerned with what I read - never been though so will check it out)
Tonbridge/Sevenoaks (good train links, for me especially, but am a bit put off by the grammar schools system and I don’t want our house buying decision to penalise DD in years to come)
Maidenhead (expensive, especially properties near the station)

Where else to look?…

Where in W London does your DH need to get to?

I used to live in Wokingham and remember the Sainsbury's in Lower Early having Asbo posters in the windows for, presumably, local youths. I assumed the local schools were a bit rough, based upon that.

Is Early different to Lower Early? Does the antisocial behaviour spill over?

I guess wherever you go there is rough parts 🤷🏻‍♀️. Even the "posher" towns of Hitchin and Letchworth have them. I've lived here for 22 years, moving out of North London after leaving home. I love where I live, good houses, good schools nearby, miles and miles of countryside on my doorstep. Beautiful outlying villages. The town centre is what I would describe as "adequate" and not pretty to look at but is about to undergo a multi million pound regeneration. There is a good retail park with an M&S and all the major supermarkets surround the town. Also a massive Costco. Stevenage is home to several aerospace companies too so that brings people in. It's near the A1M and train links are excellent. You can even get a direct to Brighton train. We have Knebworth House on the edge of the town! Perhaps have a visit?

@lenalove never thought of Sutton, please tell me more! :) Is it nice/safe?

Sutton has some very nice bits within the borough, but also some quite rough bits.

Cheam Village is nice, but might be out of your price range. North Cheam borders Worcester Park, which is also nice, but is a bit of a walk to Worcester Park station.

Welwyn Garden City

Yes it is - Earley is more pricey because a) the houses tend to be larger and more period-style whereas Lower Earley is a bigger housing estate mainly built in the 80s and b) there are very good schools (although Lower Earley also has good ones, just not Aldryngton which people seem to pay and arm and a leg to be in catchment for). There's the odd road in Lower Earley that I wouldn't like to live on but overall it's really not bad at all and there's lot of very MC roads and quite a few roads with mini-mansions! Earley is a bit naicer but LE has excellent links to the M4. I went to that Asda every week for about 5 years and it was always fine.

3 bed terraced house in Cheam. It's fairly close to (backing onto?) the railway tracks, which might be why it's cheaper than other houses nearby (there is semi on the same street that is advertised at £850k).

www.rightmove dot co dot uk/properties/130723943

Sorry @ThisGirlNever just saw that you said Sainsbury's. The posters were probably there because there is a park round the corner and groups of bored, but essentially harmless teenagers occasionally hang around and smoke weed or go and try to nick sweets from the shops. It's not a 'avoid this park cos you'll get stabbed' kind of area at all. Every primary school in Lower earley is rated Ofsted good AFAIK and most kids go onto Maiden Erleigh for secondary which is consistently good/outstanding and has very good results. It's not like Whitley!

Stevenage is no rougher than plenty of places in London. The issue is that the centre was built in the mid twentieth century and as it's degraded, it's all done it at the same time. So you end up with something that looks dated and scruffy. Compared to the market towns it's surrounded by anyway.

The council has secured a huge chunk of money and they are redeveloping it, piece by piece.

The train station is due to open a big new park and I think a lot of people will start using it more, Hitchin train station parking is a joke.

The big box shopping is pretty good there too. You could do much worse than look at Stevenage adjacent village. If you want cutesy there are plenty of options away from the Stevenage roundabouts.

Definitely agree with the others saying Hitchin, Welwyn, Letchworth, Baldock etc.
Depending on how rural you want you could also go Harlington or Flitwick or the surrounding villages, Greenfield, Ampthill, Maulden, Toddington, Westoning, Barton, Silsoe? Same line as St Alban's but considerably cheaper and in the countryside. The villages are lovely and the money you potentially save on the house could go on a childminder to help with wrap around care. They make beautiful places to bring kids up, I grew up in one of the villages myself!

Billericay in Essex had brilliant primary and secondary schools and is around 20 mins to Stratford and 25 to Liverpool st. If you change the next stop down the line at Shenfield you can now hop on the Elizabeth line. A brief look on Rightmove shows there are quite a few 2 and 3 bed places for sale within your price range.

I think I'm Sutton Borough carshalton possibly has quickest links to London. You are also not that far from Morden for northern line and can bus it there - useful if train issues.

Lovely village feel, local theatre and lovely parks and ponds.

I'd say very safe area, in the village area anyway.

Another vote for Coulsdon. Fabulous primary schools, not bad secondaries (and you're a long way from worrying about that). Lots of green open spaces and the high street is gradually getting better - some decent restaurants now. Could do with a decent pub but there are some lovely ones not far away.

Coulsdon South is 23 min into London Bridge and then you have the bonus of another train line if there's issues .... Tattenham Corner line. Not far from M25 and Gatwick.

Carshalton is nice with the pond etc but it is very very congested, always a traffic jam.

@Whycanineverever thank you, will have a look. I find MN a bit confusing sometimes... people have different opinions I guess but when I read through old threads, lots of people say how bad Sutton is and then in others I read it's a great place...

I have friends from Sutton growing up & some live there now. There have always been nice pockets eg Cheam, Carshalton village etc, the bits bordering Kingston.

Although I'm not sure your budget would stretch to a house in those parts. Crime is pretty low & schools are very good, lots of parks. It's not hip or cool though & the centre is a bit grotty (not been in yrs though). I'm sure I've read it's attracted a lot of Hong Kongers recently which is pushing prices up. I think it's far nicer than Croydon.

One advantage of staying in London as pp said is alternative modes of transport if train is delayed.

Oh & it probably won't happen until your dc are adults but crossrail 2 is meant to be going out towards Sutton/Kingston/Epsom.

@Marghe87 , The lovely properties show up in a search on Windsor but might not actually be in Windsor. They might be in somewhere like Old Windsor, which isn't the old part of Windsor, but a village about 3 miles away.
Somewhere like Datchet or Runnymede are on the Waterloo like from Windsor. Both nice villages. Datchet is walkable to Slough.
The thing with Windsor is that it is very close to Slough, which has a fast train to Paddington and is on the Elizabeth line. The fast train from Slough to Paddington is about 17 mins. Add to that the 9 minutes train from Windsor to Slough.
The trains from Windsor to Waterloo aren't fast.

@Marghe87 we've moved from Windsor back to Bath. Personally I think it looks nicer than it is to live. It has sod all going on that's not connected to the odd royal thing and the planes are a nightmare. We got little sleep between 4.45am and midnight and you have to hang around and change at Slough. I also think Maidenhead is bloody horrible. A dead high street and very expensive for what it is. I think you are going to have to compromise somewhat on either a flat or more than 30 mins or maybe a shared ownership but in a nicer area - do you earn over£100k though between you, as that's usually the criteria in London and £90k outside London.

That's a bit harsh @Crikeyalmighty , Maidenhead high street has had a makeover fairly recently and the riverside is delightful. Windsor is lovely - all those tourists can't be wrong.
Both towns have rough areas but these aren't in the town centres.

I agree that Windsor is under the flight path. Not something I lost sleep over. You get used to the noise, or at least I did.

Have you considered Staines, @Marghe87 ?

Yes I agree about the riverfront at Maidenhead but the town centre still looked a bit poor to me. I guess though it's maybe me being fussy. I've lived in Windsor twice, first time we didn't mind it but couldn't hack the planes, second time coming back from abroad we had trouble finding a suitable rental house in Bath so thought maybe Windsor would have improved noise wise- it was a bit better but we had to live a fair way out and even then it was only marginally better - I do think some people get used to it but we didn't and it's different as a tourist, as it's day trips or a couple of days and not day in day out. It's a nice looking place but I guess not for us- although I do miss the lovely Italian cafe near Riverside station!! it's not great if you are commuting either unless you are driving as you can end up hanging around at Slough or the other way it's 50 minutes.

How about something like this OP in Bromley

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128475398#/?channel=RES_BUY

Wickford in Essex?