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 !

Thanks all

For reference we currently live in SW London on the zone 2/3 border and it takes me just over an hour to get to the office and DP around forty mins which is partly what makes as think we might as well get more for our money .

We will look again at Wimbledon etc but originally felt that even with our budget you couldn't get very much

How about Chiswick or Acton? For example:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154780310#/?channel=RES_BUY

My advice would be find somewhere with more than one option for the journey: eg Rickmansworh is on the tube but you can also get the overground train to nearby.

You can get a nice house within 10 min walk of the train station in St Albans if you look in the Fleetville area. The trains had a tough time with the strikes but are pretty good right now and frequent.

schools and nurseries are outstanding (mostly state not grammar) because it’s so expensive we’ve had a dip in young families so it’s not too tricky to get into the primary schools now. It was a nightmare 10 years ago.

excellent place to raise children with good leisure centres, sports clubs, music, drama, scouts, parks etc

shops are pretty good compared to a lot of places - very similar to Guildford. 20 min to St Pancras / Farringdon and easy to walk onto the Elizabeth line which might help the commute.

Also, I know it’s a very unpopular suggestion on MN, but Watford would be a good place to look. Cassiobury has some lovely big houses with gardens, you’re near the Met line and the train into Olympia, and the state schools are excellent. It’s not as picturesque as St Albans but it’s a much better commute and cheaper.

This for example.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154865870

I'd also have a good chat with DP about expectations for the both of you when you have children. With you saying you work fewer days in the office and are more likely to change your job, you may become default parent. Will DP be able to leave work to collect DC if they're ill or will all this fall to you? Drop offs, pick ups, bedtimes, housework etc etc It's going to be difficult for DP to do these things if he's commuting every single working day. What impact will this have on your career?

This is an excellent piece of advice

In Chiswick you should be able to find something - https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/68758616/

This is 0.4m from Turnham Green so excellent location. Two district lines (Richmond and Ealing Broadway) and Piccadilly line after 10pm. Or outstanding state school and one great independent school on doorstep. Close to high street and all the shops.

Towards Chiswick Park station / Gunnersbury station prices should be lower.

We live in Chiswick - I work in the city (45min door to door) and my husband WFH. Currently expecting our first child.

The villages around St. Alban's. My sister used to live in Redbourne and that had a nice community feel to it.

For 1.3 you can buy a large house in Wimbledon with garden, not Wimbledon village but in surrounds. Eg Hayden Park Road.
i mentioned this as friends who have moved out (to all these places above) have had huge problems with: reliable commuting, nightmare childcare, dead nightlife, getting cleaners etc etc. The only couple I know who have made it really work without having to sacrifice careerstook their nanny from London with them. Said nanny actually wanted to move to the countryside anyway but they still had to pay her an extra 20 grand a year (80k nanny) and are providing her with free accommodation.

80k nanny??

<Falls off the chair>

I hope your friend has at least 4 children.

Thank you! I've enquired about a viewing on this property, do you find you still feel connected to nature / do you get out to the countryside much?

Full time 7:30am to 7pm, employers tax on top. It quickly racks up if you have a nanny dedicated to your child. Neither parent, with the demands of their careers, could afford to not be available for work because they have to do something like a nursery drop off or pick up, or the child can’t go in for 48 hours because it’s been sick. Usual shit that the rest of us still with in different ways, usually with a great deal of stress.

For a live-in nanny, £80k is off the scale.

It is.

Better to pay 2 live-in nannies around the clock if the parents' lifestyle is as 'high octane' as described.

This is definitely not in our budget 😂

Curious if anyone has any experience with Oxted specifically?

This thread has definitely made me rethink the commute and Oxted looks like it'll give us a decently short/manageable one

Oxted is charming, but it is pretty small compared to most of the other places you've mentioned - a bit more villagey than Reigate for example. So you might find you're constantly leaving Oxted to find activities elsewhere! Only really one row of shops and restaurants. It has The Barn Theatre and an Everyman cinema.
I think there might be fewer school choices, but someone might have better information on that than me!

I know it's a bit of a boring suggestion but how about the posher leafier bits of Woking - it's got a lot of practical stuff on doorstep and very easy to pop into Guildford at weekends or in an evening too too if you want somewhere a bit more scenic and it has a fantastically quick commute . You get a lot for your money too .

These are both within half a mile of station too

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152811956#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154866719#/?channel=RES_BUY

I'd agree that it's very hard to have both parents commuting with young children. I live in SW London and everyone who did the max exodus to Surrey had one SAHP.
My niece is in Tunbridge Wells and her and her husband both commute into Central London. The only way they can make it work is having his parents living nearish. They seem to have collect their child from nursery at least once a week due to illness, late trains etc. Everyone is finding it stressful!

Rochester is lovely.
Great commute time but it’s a grammar school area.
You’ll get a big house with a large garden for less than your budget.
ps…there’s a great nursery that look after kids am before school and then drop them off then the same after school.

Probably not what you want to hear but I would avoid leaving London if you both intend to work (commute) and have children. Otherwise you will most likely be beholden to one train line to get you home to the children.
There are many areas in London that are family friendly, within your budget, doesn’t feel like the city and has a community feel.
Good luck!

I think we both feel ready to be out of London but appreciate it may be hard to get that feeling when we are tied to it workwise

Look at the Merton Park area of Wimbledon as it is a bit cheaper and depending on where you are is close to Sth Wimbledon tube or Morden on the Northern line and not too far from Wimbledon station - either can walk or get a tram.

Leave only if you intend to row back on your career after kids (not advisable IMO but you can figure that out as a couple) or you are moving near parents or relatives who can help out with childcare.

Dh and I felt we have to leave for better schools outside London. I was going to go part time and we were going to use state/grammar schools. However, the house selling/buying process fell through so many times we had no choice but to stay put in London. In hindsight, that was lucky because although the children are in private schools in London and I kept up my career to fund it, we are so glad to have our house in London and the dcs (now 18+) are independent getting around by themselves with a wide selection of friends from different schools. You cannot beat the diversity in London. It may not be that important to you at this stage but it is another factor if you are going to move out.