Moving to Cardiff: Houses, areas, transport, culture?

[monpetitlapin]

We're seriously considering a move to Cardiff to be closer to my PILs who just retired to Brecon (they've been retired for a while but now they're also "retiring"). I'm half-Welsh but my parents split when I was very young and I never saw that side of my family so this move will be interesting. We have visited a couple of times but some things can't be easily seen from a visit.

What do we need to know?

• Which areas are good? Are there any dodgy ones or is it all fine? We haven't seen any ropey areas but don't want to buy a house and find out it's terrible.
• Is public transport good? It looks good from maps etc but what's it like in reality? Do we need to find a house near a train station?
• Is there anything we need to know about the house-buying process or local laws that will make it different to English purchases?
• Are there any little towns on the coast around Cardiff that are easy-access to the city for work?
• Is it easy to commute to Bristol or not? I know the bridge gets closed in bad weather but is public transport any better?

Our budget is £350k and we need 3 beds minimum, ideally 4, and a nice-sized garden. No leasehold. My job can be WFH and DH is in a sector that's in demand and always recruiting everywhere. Feel free to suggest houses/areas to look at. I've seen a lot of nice townhouses in our budget.

Hi, Cardiff is lovely but like most cities there are some areas that aren't so good. Do you need to be in school catchment areas?
Penarth is nice but may be outside of your budget, further along the coast is Barry which is very commutable to Cardiff.
Public transport is ok, it's quite a walkable city though with lots of parks.
We have land transaction tax here, which is the same as stamp duty but the thresholds are different.

Thank you! I have seen loads of very nice looking properties within my budget all over Cardiff so wasn't sure if we should be looking at specific areas (in our current town in the SE our budget doesn't even stretch to a 3-bed flat let alone a house).

I will look up land transaction tax.

DH doesn't drive so will need public transport from and to wherever he's going, and it would be good if he could do the school run sometimes as well. We just need a primary school at the moment, but does the local authority just allocate you a school or do you get to pick?

Area wise for a family Rhiwbina, Whitchurch, Heath are all good with train and bus links, quieter but nice parks and cafes. Roath / Penylan / Whitchurch Rd are also good, but busier, potentially more students, smaller gardens etc. Cyncoed / Lakeside, quiet, lots of space excellent schools.

I'm from Pontcanna in Cardiff - although we moved away 20 years ago. Lovely area, lots of parks and walkable into town

Rhiwbina, Whitchurch, Heath, Thornhill. The budget may be a problem, not sure, it’s a while since I was living there. The lifestyle for families seemed very nice in these areas (we were “young professionals” at the time, having graduated from the uni, but we talked about these areas whenever we talked about starting a family). Older colleagues with families seemed very content with their lives to me.

It’s a great city, I’d have no qualms about moving back. We only moved away due to circumstances.

Lots of nice family areas in north Cardiff. Places like Birchgrove, Rhiwbina and Whitchurch have local shops, restaurants and cafes. Bascially, I'd look to buy in walking distance of a branch of Coffee Lab: Llandaff, Whitchurch, Rhiwbina, Llanishen and (with a slightly more city feel, but still lovely in the right streets) Penylan.

The best bet for public transport is probably to be around Llandaf station (which isn't really in Llandaff at all, it's between Whitchurch and "Llandaff North" which is quite a separate neighbourhood from the old Llandaff "village" where the cathedral is). The services from there are much more frequent than the other suburban stations as all the valley lines services up to Merthyr and Aberdare go through. Whitchurch is also a good location for cycling into the city along the Taff Trail, and for getting onto the motorway if you're driving.

Budget-wise, £350,000 will get you a 3-bed semi there. Inevitably, if you can stretch a little you'll get a nicer street, better garden or a house in better condition.

You didn't mention about children, but if you have nay and can give an idea of ages - and whether you'd consider Welsh medium schools - I'm sure people will be able to offer guidance there.

Sorry, just saw your update about children. For primary schools there's an element of choice in that you're usually asked to rank your five preferences, then various criteria are used to allocate places. If you're moving to the area mid-year or with children of school age, your preferred schools may well have waiting lists and you may have a limited choice of nearby schools with capacity.

The Welsh medium schools sometimes act as a means for parents to avoid a primary they're not keen on, as the authority has to find you a place in a Welsh school if you choose Welsh medium education. The schools are very welcoming of parents who don't speak Welsh themselves - in most if not all schools, Welsh-speaking parents will be in a minority. It could prove challenging for children starting in later years of primary school though, once other pupils all speak Welsh at a reasonable level.

I live in Barry. I love it. I live close to a train station which gets me to my Cardiff centre job within half an hour, with trains every 15 minutes. We have the beach, country park and other parks in walking distance and a good primary school. There are Welsh medium primaries and secondaries within walking distance too.

If you do look at Barry you will easily get a 4 bed for your budget, but you’d probably want to stick to the west side of Barry (anywhere around Romilly park, high street, park crescent).

Cardiff wise, I’d avoid Splott, Tremorfa, Adamsdown, St Mellon’s….anything East really! Personal opinion.

If your husband has to travel to Bristol you need to either be close to a junction of the M4 or close to Cardiff Central train station. Anything else is going to make his commute really difficult, other Cardiff train stations require you to change to get to Bristol. The Severn bridges (there are two) rarely both close only the old one is adversely affected by bad weather the new one is rarely closed.

With your budget I think you might struggle to find much in central Cardiff so if you don't want to drive look for something on the main train line, Chepstow, Newport, Bridgend etc all easy commutes into Bristol and just as easy to get to Brecon.

Thanks everyone, sorry I didn't reply, I thought this thread had died a death with no further responses as MN doesn't seem to notify me of things the way it used to before that "like" button came in!

You didn't mention about children, but if you have nay and can give an idea of ages - and whether you'd consider Welsh medium schools - I'm sure people will be able to offer guidance there.
I know you've added some advice in a further post @CasperGutman but I just wanted to give more detail in case it helped. We have 2 children, age 1 (almost 2) and 4. The 4 year old is in reception and was brought up bilingual Irish and English so isn't a stranger to other languages, Welsh-medium is a possibility and I'm willing to learn it as well as we've lived all over the world before kids and I always see learning the local language as par for the course. I'm worried as reception places will have just been given out that it might be hard for him to get into a new school.

@AGreatUsername Thanks, we had seen Barry but didn't know how convenient it would be, that's really helpful to know you can get into Cardiff so quickly and frequently!

@Lavendersquare good to know, sorry if my post was confusing, DH doesn't currently have to travel to Bristol, it was just whether he could consider job offers from there or whether he would be better sticking closer to home, so to speak! Sounds like he'd be much better taking a job that was closer.

We've seen lots of 3 bed houses all over Cardiff in our budget, not so many 4 beds but that's a "nice to have" so I could have a home office, rather than an essential.

We are planning to do a fact-finding mission in December to look at areas/houses, so it's really helpful to have areas to consider/avoid.

I know Cardiff well but haven't lived there since about 7 years, so things might have changed......or they might not.

Are there any dodgy ones or is it all fine?

Emphatically yes - there are definitely dodgy areas. I wouldn't live in Ely or Tremorfa. Splott is a bit mixed but a bit rough around the areas.

Cardiff Bay (aka Tiger Bay) is an odd place. There is a very deprived area right next to swanky flats. The swanky bit feels very soulless, artificial and bland. It didn't feel like a community to me and I think it's do with the newness and design of the place, of the architecture. The whole are can be dodgy at night for women, especially if you walk up that large avenue to the city centre.

Cathays is studentville, and safer, but also dirtier and noisier due to students having houseparties. Seeing vomit in the middle of the road, dog shit and rubbish blowing around was a common occurrence there.

Canton used to be a bit creative, a bit hipster due to the presence of Chapter Arts centre but I'm not sure if it's still like that. When I used to live there, there did used to be higher proportion of men than women, like 60 / 40....and strange men too! I don't know why Canton, and where they came from, but it was noticeable. I got the most sexual harassment when I lived in Canton and my housemates had the same experience.

Roath is mixed - some bits are a bit nicer than others.

Riverside feels a bit rough - I saw several prostitutes there once during the day when I went to see a house to rent.

I agree with @Reddog1 that Rhiwbina, Whitchurch and Heath are nicer places to live. I'm not familiar with Thornhill. I would add Pontcanna and maybe Llandaff North as desirable as well (I think BBC staff live in those areas). Tongwynlais is on the edges, but I'd add that too.

I don't live in Cardiff myself, but my best friend lives in Dinas Powys and it's a lovely area. Her husband grew up there and they've moved back.

There's a train station (Eastbrook?) which takes about 10 minutes to get into Cardiff and is pretty regular. Neither my friend nor her husband work, but never have any issues getting around.

Can't comment on schools personally, but I'm told that it's a nice village school still.