Buying our first house - search area recommendations (SE)

[Flowerosa]

Hi all, first time posting here! :)

Husband and I are looking to buy our first house but we’re a little lost when it comes to picking a search area as we’ve only ever lived in London, and neither of us grew up in the UK.
We currently live in Greenwich which we really enjoy but want to move out of London to be able to afford more space and greenery.

Here are our top criteria:

• Budget around £500k
• Min. 3 beds semi-detached or detached, 4 would be ideal but not sure budget will allow
• Charming town/village with character - this is quite important, we have lived in rough areas before and this isn’t for us
• Preference for South / South East as a few of our close friends live in the area
• We don’t want a completely rural location miles away from everything but it would be lovely to open our windows and see green spaces instead of buildings
• I commute to central London 3 times a week (Hammersmith) and husband works in various parts of London on weekend evenings, so we need a decent train line that runs until late, without extortionate fares if possible!

Would love to hear your recommendations, thanks so much in advance 🙏🏻

Areas around Reading like Wokingham or Bracknell which have the trains?

I'll have a look at the area, I hadn't considered around Reading so thank you! Would you say they feel quite suburban or more countryside?

Reading is very urban but surrounding areas like Wokingham and Bracknell, Earley and Lower Earley are more suburban. Easy access to the countryside. And trains to Waterloo or Paddington via Reading.

My friend has a friend who comes from London and calls this area the countryside. I wouldn’t myself but it’s not like London :)

Crowborough (East Sussex) or East Grinstead (West Sussex). Also Crawley but I wouldn't recommend it. East Grinstead is a nice town with a station (hourly - more in rush hour - 1 hour Journey to London Bridge or Victoria). I don't live there but nearby and commuted for many years. Crowborough is more rural. The station (Jarvis Brook) is on the Uckfield line, trains are less frequent and the line does seem to suffer more with weather - related problems.

Sounds like a good compromise then :) Would you say house prices in this area are a little more reasonable than Surrey for example?

This is actually an area we were keen to look into, thanks for the recommendation! How would you say these two towns compare with Horsham and Haywards Heath?

Potentially- I think it’s quite town dependant though!

I don't know either Horsham or Haywards Heath very well but there's a lot of new builds around both of them. Horsham has a pleasant town centre. HH is on the Brighton main line. Neither are particularly rural although the South Downs are not far away.

Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, West Malling?

Guildford, Horsham, Haywards Heath

And Godalming

Thanks @GenerousGardener and @mumma24 !
We had considered the villages around Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells but it seems like our budget won't stretch very far in these areas... We hadn't thought of West Malling though so will investigate!
Godalming looks very charming so this might also be a good option for us :)