Commute to King's Cross

[KateCookson]

I'm looking to buy a small property - flat or small house (up to £375,000 - a little less better) where I can commute to a new job in King's Cross in an hour or less. Preferably a direct line. Not too close to London but not so far that the train price is high. Safe-to-live areas, green & leafy ideal! Any suggestions, please?

What about Hitchin? Or somewhere on the Thameslink line? St Albans is lovely but not sure about the budget

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/69741697/?searchidentifier=a41cf93e0b3629760961118d3642c4f02678a6a81bda8c40dfd607094553622c&featured=1&utmcontent=featuredlisting&console=open&tab=images

Wimbledon, near to Colliers Wood tube station, on the Northern Line so a direct route to Kings Cross (in about 40-50 minutes). Offers over £300K

You could get to St Pancras on HS1 from a lot.of places in that time.

Baldock?

Harpenden, St Albans, anywhere on Thameslink north of London?

We have a house in Wellingborough near the train station. For that money you'd get a lovely property. You can get to St Pancras in 45 mins from Wellingborough.
They are currently building a lot of new homes within walking distance of the station - called Stanton Cross.
Or if you'd prefer an older property there is lots of nice Victorian terraces around the area - I previously had a 2 bed terrace Victorian and we now have a 4 bed within your budget. Both within 10 mins walk to the station.

Baldock/ Letchworth/ Hitchin are all lovely and less than an hour to King's Cross

Market Harborough

Thank you for all your suggestions. Will do some research on the areas.

Stevenage
Folkstone

Welwyn Garden City

Royston

Looks absolutely lovely and the trains are fast to King's Cross but would have to offset the price of housing (much cheaper than London) with the fact that an annual season ticket costs £10,000+. It's on the list, though, so thank you.

Letchworth/Royston have fast trains to Kings Cross. Hitchin and Welwyn are nicer but more expensive. Stevenage if you’re desperate!

Try Broxbourne - fast train to Tottenham Hale then Victoria line. There are lots of flats around the station ideal for commuting but it’s not a town, that would be Hoddesdon. Don’t be fooled by Turnford or Wormley though, if you’re not keen on Hoddesdon head further north to Ware or Hertford, they are market towns. But for speed and cost of commute I’d say Broxbourne.

£10.000 for a season ticket is shocking 😲

Bedfordshire / Cambs options will be better value than Hertfordshire - your budget won’t stretch far for Hitchin or Letchworth and defo not St Albans, but you would probably find something in Bedford (more urban but lots of green areas and huge potential growth with Universal studios), St Neots, Biggleswade / Sandy, Royston or even Arlesey - which is a village but with a direct line and close to Hitchin and Letchworth. These will be less expensive to commute than Market Harborough. Really depends what else you want and need from the area though.

Sutton/Carshalton/Hackbridge?

Nothing to contribute except to point out that it's a short walk from Euston to King's Cross so you could look at places on a direct line to Euston. Having said that, Euston is my least favourite station and I would find it dispiriting to go through it twice a day ... Maybe you're better sticking with King's Cross and St Pancras.

I never understand people looking for or suggesting cheap housing outside London, when the commuting costs are so high. And the chances of delays make commuting a nightmare. By the time you factor in the walk to the station, waiting a few minutes for the train, waddling out slowly in the commuter surge at the other end and then walking to work, that 1 hour commute is 1.5 hours or more. Three hours on top of work, day in day out, minimum. Often more when trains are delayed and cancelled.

If someone works in London, they are better off looking for a home on a tube or overground line with a direct link or single change to where they work, that takes less than 40mins in theory, so the overall real time is around an hour most days.

Loads of tube lines feed into Kings Cross. Just put your price range into Right Move with a 5 mile radius of Kings Cross, and then use the Rightmove map to check which homes are near a station/on the right tube line and make a short list from there.

Probably obvious but be careful choosing somewhere you are heavily reliant on one “great” station - I lived on a really good commuter line in Hampshire with four trains per hour into Waterloo but they’ve cut that down to three recently.
(My youngest chose Leatherhead because trains went to Victoria and Waterloo. Years ago I chose Hertford as there are two stations on different lines).

Yes, but the OP is perfectly clear that she doesn't want to live too close to London - i.e. she doesn't want to live in London - and wants somewhere safe, green and leafy. I happen to live in Inner London in what I consider a safe, green and leafy area, with very short commuting times (relatively) to almost anywhere central, but I know it wouldn't suit everybody.

Me too - I could walk to Kings Cross but unrealistic to buy (I rent). I had to go out to North Finchley the other day and it took nearly an hour on the bus! The reason I suggested Broxbourne for OP is my partner does that commute in reverse every day so I know it’s fast and reliable.

Folkestone.

As @IleftmybaginNewportPagnell says, some east Herts train lines go though Tottenham Hale and from there you can take the Victoria line for 4 stops to Kings Cross. It's worth looking into this, because these areas of Herts tend to be much cheaper than St Albans and similar.