Freehold 1 bedroom house Northampton area 165k

[AndrewMVP]

Hello, I am planning to buy a semi-detached or terraced One-bedroom house freehold in the Northampton area because, with £165k, I am unable to get something in Milton Keynes. Northampton seems to be a really cheap area. I own a car and work in IT in Milton Keynes; I am not too bothered to travel to Milton Keynes 3 times a week. I have a 6-year-old son, and my sole concern is to buy a property in a safe area. Even in Milton Keynes, where the property prices are so high, we have issues with the crime rate in certain areas. Please tell me which areas to avoid when buying a property in Northampton. I have never been to Northampton, and if you also have some suggestions on what areas are considered safe, your advice will be much appreciated.

Kind regards,
Andrew

Wootton, West Hunsbury and Hardingstone are my best areas for a commute to MK.
100% this is my best bet as things stand at this moment in time. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148250933#/?channel=RES_BUY
This property was sold for 170k really nice and close to the motorway. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142820162#/?channel=RES_BUY

I'd choose East Hunsbury over West Hunsbury based in an MK commute (although not much in it really but East Hunsbury is closer to the back roads).
Hardingstone and Grange Park are good. Latter is all new-ish housing estate but fine for a commute - and closest to J15.

Also, in case you go further into Northampton, avoid the Eastern district (esp Lumbertubs, Lings, Blackthorn, Bellinge), St James, Semilong, The Mounts. That's not to say that they are all entirely bad but if you don't know those areas, you could end up making an unfortunate mistake.

The bungalows in the following area seem really nice around 133 Sherwood Ave Northampton, the commute is 40 minutes with no traffic looking at Waze.

Kingsthorpe is fine but it will easily take 20mins+ on top to cross Northampton in rush hour, even if you try and circumvent it by going down Bants Lane.

With that said, it would not be as bad if you were doing it before 8am, which you presumably would be if you were trying to get to an MK school before 8.30am and then onto work for 9am.

That braemar crescent one is in a really lovely location. If that sold for 170k only a few months ago and it’s in much better condition than the woodpecker one, then you’ve got a good chance of getting woodpecker for £165k. Have you arranged to view it?

Thank you so much for your help, your input and advice are invaluable to me especially when I have never been in Northampton and surrounding areas. This property looks lovely https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145268300#/?channel=RESBUY is Duston a nice area to live? If it is a good opportunity, I would like to go for a property of 170k or 175k even if I will go over my set budget of 165k.

Sherwood ave is good but it will probably take a good 30 minutes to get to the motorway in the morning.

That’s a nice bungalow and not too far from junction 15a

Duston is fine

Born and raised in central Northampton.
plenty of areas to avoid I’m afraid (in my opinion)
I would avoid Thorplands, Goldings, Southfields, Blackthorn, Lings, The new estate parts of Duston, Semi-long, Spring boroughs. kingsthorpe.

nicer areas include
moulton, overstone/sywell, boothville, Abington (bits are nice enough) Weston favell (the village bit)
headlands is ok in bits
derngate
parklands

To be honest though you may struggle to get what you want in your budget in a nicer area. Even the rough parts of Northampton are better than other places I suppose? (Thinking like compared to bigger cities!)

Would you consider Leighton Buzzard?

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144415811

I want to buy a freehold property; therefore, I am not interested in leasehold or shared ownership properties. Without a doubt, I will buy something in the Northampton area.

Can you please provide more details on why I should avoid buying a property in those areas? Thanks.

What postcode is Southfields is NN3 5JA or NN5 6HN? Thanks

Southfields is in NN3.

It sounds snobbish but it’s not (lived in several of the areas myself through the years and we’re a normal working class family that keeps to ourselves)
basically (especially the mounts/thorplands areas) have high crime rates.
for instance we lived in thorplands, there are mattresses and furniture dumped everywhere in the roads, rubbish bags strewn everywhere meaning an abundance of rats the size of cats. Sofas and fridges in every 3rd garden, High levels of drug use, prostitution, anti-social behaviour, alcoholism, drug dealing, general crime. Boarded up windows and doors. Regular stabbings and we had a shooting of a 15 year old boy outside our child’s bedroom window on a nice summers evening (one stray bullet lodged in our window sil) due to county lines behaviour.

The play parks regularly had needles left around and broken bottles, condoms, and one summer they had razor blades deliberately pushed into the children’s slides.

Again, if you keep your head down and keep to yourself a lot of it is avoidable but it’s not nice to be surrounded by drama and depravation constantly. If I was purchasing a house I would just avoid if I could.

Also it’s not the immigrant families at all in my experience, and there are plenty of nice normal families of all nationalities including white British just trying their best in a bad area (like we were) but it would be naive to say that a minority of people with problems don’t impact an area negatively, and in my experience the ones I listed make the areas unpleasant.

The mounts specifically (again I’ve lived there) has a very high level of drug use, prostitution and homelessness.

I live in MK and the market is dead, prices constantly being reduced. I'd offer on the Two Mile Ash house I used to live near there it's a good area

I will have to wait and see if my offer will be accepted for Two Mile Ash. As I mentioned previously, my past offers were rejected for various properties, and the sellers eventually found people willing to pay the asking price. Milton Keynes is way more expensive than Northampton. Even if you add the cost of fuel and car maintenance, it is still a better deal to commute from Northampton. In Northampton, you can get a property with a small garden and, if you are lucky, a parking space in front of the house. In MK, you can't get those things for the same amount of money.

Unless you move to the old towns like Stony Stratford, Wolverton and Woburn Sands or somewhere very close to the centre then on street parking isn't an issue at all on MK estates. Which you would know.

You seem very set on moving to somewhere you've never visited. Is this the first time you've bought property?

Also, sorry, have you been arranging viewings for the places you're offering on? Because you're saying you're going to offer on the Two Mile Ash house but you haven't even viewed it.

If your making offers without viewing buyers won't take you seriously.

But as I said earlier, many, many buyers in MK are dropping their prices at the moment. Do you have a knowledgeable friend who can help you to understand the buying process?

YIKES! DO NOT OFFER on the Two Mile Ash house it has a tenant in situ, just looked at it.

Okay, thanks.

"You seem very set on moving to somewhere you've never visited."
I am trying to get a freehold one-bedroom property with a parking space in front of the house and a small garden in a safe area. In MK, I will not be able to find a property like this. That's why I believe that Northampton is a better option. I am restricted in terms of the maximum amount I want to pay—£165k or £170k if the property is near the motorway.

The first postcode is in Southfields The second postcode is Duston.

There are parts of Northampton that are quite deprived and others that are quite affluent.
The most deprived being the areas that people have advised you to avoid (broadly, the Eastern district and some areas near the town centre) and the most affluent being the southern edge nearest MK (Wootton, Grange Park, Collingtree, East Hunsbury) plus Abington Vale.
And this is reflected in the property prices.
There are also some areas where the good bits and the bad bits are pretty much right beside each other (eg Headlands) and you probably need a friend who knows the area (that isn't an estate agent).

Obviously, there's always going to be a trade off between what you can afford and where you want to live.

Also, I'd advise you to visit Northampton and get a feel for the town yourself.

Why not visit Northampton and see what you think of it? It's hardly far.

Thank you so much for your message. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends living in Northampton. I will definitely visit all the decent areas that you recommended. I have put together an Excel sheet with all the areas you mentioned, and I will go and visit them to get a feel for the city as well.