Which house would you choose?

[rosedahlialily]

Pregnant with first baby, due in August. DH works in central London, I work from home but plan to take time off with the baby for the foreseeable.

We are relocating as DH currently commutes 2.5 hours to his office 3 days a week. It’s exhausting for him and he will miss out on so much when the baby is here.

We have seen two great houses in very different locations and we are struggling to make up our minds and don’t want our judgement to be clouded before the baby arrives. Our initial plan was to move as close as possible to the office, but we want a 3 bed house + a safe area so will have to compromise on commute still. It’s annoying cause the whole point of the move was to make sure he can be home more. He is the main breadwinner and doesn’t want to change jobs.

Which would you pick?

1 - In a beautiful part of SW London. On the river, desirable location, great amenities and buzzy community locally. House is very top of our budget, ticks every practical box but needs work and isn’t much of a looker. It could be great in the long run but will take time and we won’t have money to do it up right away. Transport links are annoyingly not great though - it will take DH 1 hour 15 minutes to the office door to door three days a week.
No friends locally, 2.5 hours drive from any family.

2 - In a beautiful Cotswolds village (our top choice village if we were to move there). House is stunning, ticks every box and wouldn’t need any work. Village has lovely pubs, shops, couple of cafes, nursery and primary school but no secondary. Nearest big city is 45 mins away. House 2 is 30K cheaper than house 1.
It would take DH 1 hour 45 minutes to the office door to door. We would be 1 hour 10 minutes from any family. No friends locally.

House 1 makes the most practical sense and would offer more to do locally/ chance of making friends.

House 2 is the dream house and closer to family but much quieter location

Neither, unless the commute isn't really an area of concern and you both want to live in the cotswolds. Why would you pay London prices for an area you don't really want and has poor transport links?

I’ve not read the full thread but I wonder if your family are in Worcestershire and husband works in London if somewhere like Oxford or reading would work, as it’s got the good train links both ways and being more accessible to family may be helpful?

Neither house. I don’t understand why you’re looking in LBRUT if you need to get to Oxford Circus. It didn’t even connect well to the M40. Makes no sense.

cotswold houses won’t appreciate at the same rate as London if that matters.

in your budget you have a huge amount of options.

Look along the Met line out towards Amersham or search in Taplow for Crossrail. Or the nicer bits of Maidenhead (crossrail station) or Marlow. Or Denham.

You need to restart the search using transport links to drive the search areas. Look along the train lines and tube lines searching around a radius from each station.

also look at Ealing Broadway (incredible transport links, lovely housing stock) and also west Ealing, both have crossrail stations, you’ll find something in budget in W13 west Ealing, it’s not as nice as Ealing Broadway but it’s cheaper.

Also look along the Piccadilly line - Northfields, Ealing Common, etc.

look around West Acton central line tube, there’s a conservation area - hangar hill estate, 4 bed houses with garages for around £900k.

around Acton Town tube there’s also a cons area, four bedrooms houses around £850k, a bit smaller than hangar hill but good transport links. 30 mins to Piccadilly Circus.

again …. when there’s all this to choose from I can’t understand why you were messing about in LBRUT, but really, look again elsewhere.

'cotswold houses won’t appreciate at the same rate as London if that matters.'

London won't appreciate, it has no where left to go as its hit its ceiling and plateaued. If you buy now you buy at peak price, advise to all investors is to avoid the London housing market like the plague.

Maybe look into Hertfordshire. Rickmansworth, Chorleywood or Amersham. Met line and Chiltern line into central London. Great schools and lovely countryside.