help! Need to move out of the city, can't afford Walthamstow/Highams Park but want to stay in London in a fun/vibey/friendly community if poss. Where should we move?

[freelancemum1]

My partner, our nearly 2 year old daughter and I live in Bethnal Green in an increasingly too small flat. We love our life in East London and all our friends are near here... we also have mates in Walthamstow, where we want to relocate to. But we are two freelancers in TV who can't afford the increasingly insane property prices there, it seems like a similar story in Highams Park/Leytonstone/Wanstead. We're after a modest terrace-with-garden for maybe 500-550k. We don't want to go totally surburban ideally... Surely there are other fun up and coming places we could go? We are open to anything as long as it has a bit of vibe and life... this must be a very common problem. We have wildly talked about moving to Folkestone but would rather stay London if at all possible. Any advice/ideas much appreciated!

You can get that in the Highams Park area .

@bumblebee1000 well you are going to have to compromise if you want a3 bed house on this budget - so personally I would take dull or a bit white van man over lots of HMO or really druggy grim areas- I would say similar issues in south east London too - unless you move out a fair bit further these will be the compromises I feel.

Few more here OP in haringey, winchmore hill and Wood Green

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/155948120#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154917137#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/157926287#/?channel=RES_BUY

North Chingford definitely has a cafe culture it used to be a standing joke that you could almost eat out every day for a month in a different place. Schools not bad.

@freelancemum1
You could consider a flat in a lively area.

OP, did you end up making a decision? If not, this is a vote for maybe giving some more thought to Folkestone. We have a 1 year old and are planning a move from around Wood Street to there next year. We kind of stumbled on it by accident a few years ago and have been exploring it since and it's pretty amazing. So much investment still to come, very creative and the coastline there has something special about it (I think something to do with the harbour, no arcade pier, and backed by coastal walks/cliffs). You could get a decent house for that budget and it's so close to London on the high speed. E17 and around is lovely, but as someone who was born in (and loves) more central London, the further I've moved out zone-wise the more I've questioned my rational for staying.

@Aceofcups82 this is such interesting intel! My partner is def v keen on Folkestone… but we’re not quite ready to make the plunge. Would you mind keeping in touch and letting me know how it goes? We have moved our search to Forest Gate as the lovely wood street was out of our price range… we also cobbled together a bit more money through a small inheritance (hugely lucky!) and are now looking at places around the 570-590 mark. Waiting to hear back about a place that we offered on at the weekend 🤞🤞🤞 but Folkestone def feels possible for a few years’ time!