Where to move out of london

[Londonescape]

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are in our late twenties and looking to move out of London in anticipation of having kids in the next few years.

We've viewed houses in Godalming, Reigate, St Albans, Guildford and are also considering Oxted, and Hitchin.

Our budget is up to £1.3m and the most important things for us are

• commute to London (one of us is in the office everyday )
• good place to raise a family
• access to green space/countryside
• ideally we'd like somewhere with a bit going on

Does anyone have any experience with the above places ? Would you recommend/not?

Thanks so much !

This. 100%.

And on top, when you have kids they will be in nursery close to where you live, so you will be tied to commuting in rush hour (and at the mercy of everything working, which it often doesn’t and is mega stressful) to get back in time to pick them up, and they’ll be in childcare for the longest possible days in order to accommodate your commute.

We have a similar budget but chose to live within 20 mins of my office so that I can maximise the time with my children, 7 days a week.

It won’t be a change of pace for the better - you will be committing yourself/your DP to hours of stress every day for the sake of a possibly slightly bigger house.

edited to add - it would be different if one of you was full time wfh, or you were both doing 2-3 days a week, as you could tag team. But x2 commuting on 3/5 days is a lot.

@MisoSalmonForLunch I totally agree- OP I've lived all over, St Albans, Oxford, Canterbury, Bristol, Bath, Windsor and yes south west London-

Now I really like living in Bath I admit but if I was in your position I would think twice about this- places like Wimbledon, Kingston, Thames Ditton, Teddington are lovely places to live with London on hand when needed. Moving out won't suddenly give you a massive place unless you move 'a lot out' or a change of pace unless you live quite rural- you are talking about being handy for the station- as an example handy for the station in stAlbans isn't the type of thing you are necessarily looking for, same issue in Guildford and lots of other places- it often can be15 to 20 mins to station plus commute and ones out of zones those commutes get really pricey

Do you have a plan for when public transport fails, it's snowing, child is sick etc? With one of you doing a long commute five days a week and the other three, you're going to be poor, knackered and I expect one person will end up taking the bulk of the childcare responsibility which can lead to resentment.

If cost of commute is a factor, may also be worth looking at Amersham/Chesham in Buckinghamshire and Chilterns in general.
Zone 9 on tube Metropolitan line - generally between 40-50 mins into Baker Street / Marylebone. One walk across platform change for London bridge (Jubilee Line) but Chelsea will require more effort....
Decent school options in primary, seconday and grammar and plenty of green spaces.

I'd second southwest London if your DP works f/t in Chelsea. District line from Richmond or Ealing or Wimbledon go to Fulham Broadway, Sloane Square, South Kensington and Gloucester Road, all a stones throw from Chelsea.

Is Richmond / Teddington far enough out, that's where I'd move to with an easy to commute in, some lovely HK especially with gardens between £1 mill and £1.3, Kew Gardens on your doorstep, that whole area is lovely and always feels safe when we've stayed there. Admittedly we go for the rugby so you have to deal with road closures on a Sunday which must get a bit annoying.

I would consider joining the Life After London Facebook group as well. It's full of people with similar dilemmas who need to commute back into London each week. You'll get lots of suggestions on there. Not that this group isn't also excellent :-) but the FB one is very targeted.

@YellowRoom yes - it can be an awful lot easier to have several ways of getting home when you have a young child at nursery including a cab at an absolute ( and expensive) push and if you don't fully WFH - when we lived in St Albans and both were commuting - had a fair few panic days with issues on the line etc -

Definitely reconsidering the commute given everyone's advice, particularly with how things might change once we have kids. Is there a max commute people would suggest with young children?

There's a possibility I'd change job but not my DP

I would go for somewhere like Chorleywood Rickmansworth, you still have the tube.
St Albans is long to get into central.

I'm in Radlett, used to be in Pinner.
I find where I am still far.
I've got a 2.5 year old and would be shattered if I had to do a commute from here to central and then have a baby to look after on evenings plus house maintainence and everything life throws at you!

London (west) is such a great place for young children. Ours were there until they were 8/10/13 and honestly I didn’t realise how easy things were. Yes limited for living space but we had a lovely community / good schools / everything we needed. I’d consider this very carefully because children need a parent either side of the school day and that’s easier if you aren’t travelling far for work.

We both wfh everyday and got so used to it that even when DH has to go to the office (30 mins commute) very occasionally it makes the day so much more difficult- I’m alone with the kids for dinner/bedtime which can be hard when you have more than 1 little ones! So my advice would be to try switching to more home based jobs if at all possible before having kids. Now that I have kids, I would never work in a job that requires a regular commute. I used to have a job where I had to commute about 1 hour door to door each way 2-3 days a week and it was utterly exhausting. And that was before kids!

I would go for Wimbledon/ surbiton/kingston/richmond or even Putney kind of areas -

Basically within zones, and multiple ways to get back if usual route is up the spout - it makes a massive difference if commuting is in the mix , even if not every day - we actually moved back from St Albans to south west London at one point -there was little in it housing cost wise too

You may get a slightly bigger/ better house further out but higher commuting costs and to be frank for that budget you can get a perfectly nice family house in a good area like Southfields or north Kingston or Surbiton -

Definitely do not even consider a 1h 20mim commute if you are planning on having children!! Unless you have significant family help where you are moving to, or are planning on/comfortable with a nanny working extremely long hours with your baby whilst you travel and work. It sounds like you are able to WFH more, but this will mean the bulk of childcare will be on you, on your own. As a working mum of two toddlers, I would honestly rather we all lived in a skip in the work car park than face such a long daily commute for either parent.

Our budget was smaller than yours and we sadly had to come to terms with the reality that staying in London was not workable. Moving further out for affordability would have extended commute times and required longer hours of nursery than are actually available, and school would have been impossible. So we have relocated life and work to a different area. It sounds like you could afford to buy within a reasonable distance if you sacrifice some space.

If you’re serious about having kids, I’d advise researching childcare options for both the nursery and primary years before you commit to a a big move. I definitely underestimated how much of an impact this would have on our careers and life choices in general.

The rule of thumb is if both parties have to commute heavily, as in your case, live in London. Only move out if one person commutes. If 2 people are commuting, multiply the extra time by the number of days x 2 (return). Time is money. Train fare is money. Extra stress for a bigger garden and bigger house with more maintenance.

No live in London. London is a fantastic place to bring up children (if you got the schools sorted). Your teenagers will thank you.

Wimbledon and surrounding areas are the sweet spot. The advantages of London in terms of transport etc , but without the London feel. Lovely parks.and open spaces, mostly very safe a d good schools. My DCs had a lovely childhood there.

I was coming on to say this!

Godalming lovely, but definitely need to both drive or you'll struggle. It feels far more spread out/rural than it should on paper.

I hope that makes sense?

Guildford brilliant.

What will you do for childcare? Small none napping children tend to sleep from 7 to 7. I would go for shortest communte so you can spend the most time with them rather than wasting potential family time travelling on a train.

Is there a max commute people would suggest with young children?

We are in SW London in places mentioned above. DHs commute is still an hr door to door really but he wfhs 2-3 days a week. My commute is 30 mins and I’m p/t. Juggling dc particularly once in primary school and work is hard. Even with a 30 min commute I would struggle to work full time.

We also looked at moving further out for more space but it wouldn’t work plus we are locals so wanted to stay closer to family.

I think the advice about commute is spot on. I grew up in St Albans and it was a lovely place to live but any reliance on the trains into London 5 days a week is a miserable existence. It’s also really busy - compared to my childhood it always feels so trafficky these days - and poor local bus infrastructure so a challenge to get into the station etc. if you’re further out.

Nursery places are not far off London prices and the train is £££ too. A few years back there was a list of places with the most sahms and St Albans and places in Surrey like Reigate topped the list. Not sure if that’s changed much over the years but you can see why it happens!

Also in the really popular commuter towns you don’t even get more for your money than you would in London, but you’re adding the season ticket and probably parking on top of that.

As I said upthread we made the decision to stay in London. I’d consider moving out for more space when the kids are in secondary as at least they can get to and from school by themselves at that point, but also suspect that by then they’ll be keen to enjoy more of London life!

I’d really keep the commute down to 40/45 mins. 1hr 20 every day would be draining.

For Chelsea anywhere that gets into Clapham would work. Could hop on a bus to get over the river or could walk in the summer. Woking has a fast line, less than 20 mins or Surbiton is only
a couple of stops to Clapham. You won’t get as much for £1.3 but you’d find a house.

Don’t leave London with that amount of commuting between you! It is not even the time it takes, it is the lack of “options” if e.g your planned train is cancelled and the clock is ticking to get to nursery/after school club.

I used to live in SW London and had multiple options - tube, train, bus, taxi - took a lot of stress out of juggling pick ups. And even with that in place I had plenty of frantic afternoons trying to get home.

Reigate lovely but for 30 min train into London you need Redhill - so suddenly quite complicated around car parking, driving, allowing time to get to the station…..

I would look to stay in London - it’s a great place to have a baby and small children. Move later if you want a change of pace