Where to live in Birmingham

[Busybuzzybees]

Hi!

My family and I are likely to need to move to Birmingham soon for work. Can anyone advise on which areas we might consider? We have a son and daughter, currently both under two. Ideally, we would like a 3-4 bed place for less than £700k.

The top priority is proximity to a good (state) primary school. Secondary seems a long way off and could probably move again by then. Private secondary may be an option.

Needs to be in close-ish proximity to QE Hospital (ideally walking/cycling distance) and accessible to the city centre by bike or public transport for a weekly commute to London.

We are moving from London where we don’t have a car, so are reluctant to live somewhere where we’d need to drive everywhere. Also used to having lots of stuff very nearby, so it would be nice (but not a total deal breaker) to be able to walk to a local shop/cafe/park…

I’d be really grateful to hear from anyone who lives locally or knows the area well!

Thank you 😊

Kings Heath,Moseley-great schools,nice houses ,parks,sense of community. Edgbaston,Harborne a bit closer to QE and very popular ( but more expensive, I am personally not a huge fan, but that view is subjective )

For £700k and within close proximity of QE, I'd look at Bournville (The home of Cadbury's, beautiful location and very family-friendly) or as the previous poster suggested, Harborne. Moseley is beautiful but further away from QE.

Harborne, Edgbaston (but no high street), Bournville. Harborne is probably your best bet as you can be super near the QE and there's a good variety of housing. A 4 bed Victorian terraces are £500k-£750k. There are good primary schools round there although secondary is a bit hit or miss as a lot of people use grammar and private schools. Kings Heath, Moseley, or (miles the other way but on the same trainline) Sutton Coldfield are probably the other obvious choices.

Edgbaston is nice. Not too far to QE hospital and bus services are good. Buses onto city centre from all regions. Solihull has good schools including secondary and there will be busses to hospital but you might need to change buses to get there. Moseley a nice area with high street, chemist, bank ett, good schools and I'm sure buses too.

Anywhere along the Bristol Road really (there’s a dedicated cycle lane on that road) Brum is pretty well connected via public transport especially the Hospitals.

Thanks so much everyone! I’m planning to visit so will plan a mooch around Harborne, Bournville and Moseley to try and get a feel for them. Does anyone have any experience of the primary schools in those places?

Depends what you want, inner city schools are generally exactly that. Rough and ready, very mixed.

I wouldn’t say that Harborne or Bournville or Moseley are inner city, though!
Bournville Village Primary School very good, lovely sense of village community and rated outstanding. In fact there are quite a few good options around Bournville and indeed Harborne and Moseley. Parents whose children go to those local primary schools are really happy.
How did you get on, OP? Did you take a look around the areas?

Thanks @SpringBourn! We are slowly getting there and have managed flying visits to all three areas, with more visits planned over the next few weeks (hard to do any nice leisurely pottering around with the little ones 😂). They all seem nice though very different. Bournville is lovely and I like what you say about sense of community, but I wonder whether it might be too much of a departure from London? I’m waiting for the schools to advertise their open days so that I can visit and get more of a feel for them.

Did you move? How did it go? 🙂

Harborne.