Relocating to Milton Keynes or surrounding areas

[MairyDilk]

I'm after suggestions of best areas to live in and around Milton Keynes for my little family.

• Would be looking at houses around the 400k mark,
• Ideally 4 bed but would settle for 3 in a nicer area,
• Have 2 DC so would prefer to be in a catchment for grammar schools if possible (have heard some from Aylesbury or Bucks take MK students?!).

Any help would be much appreciated. Overall, I want a friendly, non-deprived area with good primary schools and in the future good secondary too.
Thank you 😊

The big message is - live in Buckingham or near Aylesbury! Minimise costs!

Hopefully the OP has got this message - if she wants her DC to have a chance at a Bucks grammar (and I note that nobody has mentioned the need for a Plan B in case DC don't achieve the pass mark) then she would be better to actually live in Bucks. There is an outside chance of getting in from some areas in MK, but it gets vanishingly smaller every year due to new housing developments etc.

So if she wants to live in MK specifically, then probably grammar needs to be ruled out.

Personally, I think MK would be a nicer place to live than Aylesbury, but that "niceness" is also reflected in the cost of housing etc.

Lots to think about here! I completely understand realistically my DC may not even get into the grammars but as they're not at that age for a couple years to take the 11+ we wanted to make the move to our 'forever home' now, that in the event they do pass, we don't have to 'panic' then if that makes sense.

I will have a look at the grammars websites and the parts of MK/surrounding villages that will possibly accept admission as preferably we wouldn't want to live in Aylesbury either. I do know with time this will get smaller as houses develop closer but that's a risk we'll have to consider as a family.

Once again, thank you all for taking the time to contribute and helping me to make this big decision!

@shepherdsangeldelight

There needs to be a degree of pragmatism in all of this.

I'm not a fan of Aylesbury itself. However I did suggest Wing as a compromise. There are very nice villages around Aylesbury but they cost more than Aylesbury. There's also Winslow that has a secondary school, RLS at Buckingham and a new station. Road access to MK is quick too. The better secondaries are south of Aylesbury but houses cost more. So there has to be compromise somewhere.