I have £700K to spend - please recommend somewhere to live?!!!

[needkirstyandphil]

I have £700K to spend (or about £1800 a month rental)- would you recommend where you live (or please recommend elsewhere you like!)?! The considerations are:

• detached house with off-street parking and garden, 4 bedrooms

• commuting distance to London (max of 45 mins on train) and preferably walking distance from house to mainline station

• good school for 2 DSs (one to start in Reception this September). Have money aside for private, but need to be able to get a place at late notice (hopefully easier in these bad financial times!)

• preferably a walk to local shops of some kind (so car is not needed for emergency milk/nappies etc!)

Just accepted an offer on our house and am totally confounded by where to move to! I need Kirsty and Phil!

What about Rickmansworth? Is on the metropolitan line. Bit still feels like a proper small town with sprawling countryside nearby. Several pubs. Waitrose. Grand UNion Canal. Good private and state schools. NIce houses (might be a bit pricey, but will do a search).

Ruislip would come under HA4 - i wasnt having a go about your budget, this thread wouldn't work without a budget. If people think its showy , stuff 'em!

You could def get somewher nive for that sort of money.

also Rickmansworth good and not too far away from here.

under budget

over budget but bet they'd take offers

POA but pretty good location

Is weird - my grandmother lives in pinner and my other grandmother lived in Rickmansworth (both of them since just after the war).

And yet am sarrf london myself.

Cookham is very hilly with lots of tracks for mountain bikes. You won't get a detached house in Beaconsfield for that sort of money. M'head has good and bad parts. Good - river area and Altwood as well as outlying areas. Henley is lovely but limited direct train service and incredibly packed. Twyford has good train service which I reckon is equal to Maidenhead. Marlow is lovely but train service is slower and you sometimes have to change at Bourne End as well as Maidenhead.

Amersham is nice and access to excellent state grammars.

How about berkhamsted or Leighton Buzzard. the Linslade side of LB is where the station is and is where the good schools are. There are 3 outstanding primary schools, good middle and an excellent secondary school.
Check this one out: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-23811527.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E6187 4&sortByPriceDescending=false&minBedrooms=4&minPrice=375000&pageNumber=1&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-f or-sale%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E61874%26sortByPriceDescending%3Dfalse%26minBed rooms%3D4%26minPrice%3D375000

Good luck with the move and the schools

MamaO is Leighton Buzzard 'nice'?! I just checked trains to London and they seem great, and am stunned at the kind of house we could afford there. Too good to be true so I am waiting for the catch...!!!

Amersham is a great place to check out - and yes, some of the best state schools in the country - plus if you've got boys - there is now access to the RGS in Wycombe too! You'll probably get something good for your money (stuff being 'showy'!) whereas Beaconsfield probably not.

KNow people in berkhamsted. They love it.

Leighton Buzzard is a smallish town, we looked there originally and everything detached was really overpriced. Have you checked out Hitchin? Check out those books, they do have commute times. I second Berkhamstead, I remember we liked it but it was too pricey for us.

thanks all. berkhamsted actually ticks lots of our boxes so we're heading there this weekend to scope it out and view a couple of rental properties. so, thanks for the heads up.

i've decided that oxted is too far south to be practical, esp for getting to in laws in the north west etc.

i missed delivery of 'guide to commuterland' today - darn!

it's not too late so do share any more ideas you might have!

I can highly, highly recommend where I live - Kingston upon Thames.
25 minutes by train to Waterloo
Fantastic primary schools - oversubscribed but easy to get into if you buy in the right place
Walking distance to big shopping centre with every shop you could ever want, plus bars, cafes, restaurants and our recently-opened theatre
Walking distance to Thames riverside parks - absolutely beautiful in summer
Walking distance to Richmond Park _ all 2,500 acres of it. Absolutely glorious at any time of year, full of deer and nature of all kinds.
Short driving distance to Hampton Court, with it's parklands, plus Bushey Park which must be another 2,000 acres. Green space in abundance in this neck of the woods.
For £700k you could easily get a 4-bed detached Victorian villa in the best parts of town.
I really, really love where we live and would recommend it to any family.

This one is in the same street as the best school in town so guaranteed a place in reception.

This one's not bad either.

This is a semi but has six bedrooms and is in the catchment for three outstanding schools.

Woking. Trains every 10 minutes to Waterloo.

Can walk from your front door for country walks.

Enjoy Berkhamstead - It's lovely AND you'd be near to the fabulous Rex cinema! Near to Amersham too and some lovely surrounding countryside.

Putney, east sheen, wimbledon, richmond are lovely.

You also have two private schools around there, the Putney Park Lane and the Ibstock Place. In addition to this you have a plethora of good faith schools, both RC and CE in the area.

It is close to Wimbledon Common, the river Thames, Richmond Park (so has a very nice and leafy feel), and good local shopping, and within easy rich of London though the district line, and mainline trains.

It is a lovely area, which I miss very much.

4 bed east sheen I know this road, it backs onto Richmond Park. If I could, I would snap it up.

I love Kew. You would probably get a four bed at that price at the moment. On distcrict line tube about 30-45 mins to central London.

Local primaries excellent (both state and private).

Kew village itself has Tesco metro and a few nice localshops (butcher, rstaurants, newsagaents etc)

But not detatached probably and smallish gardens here.

Around here were I live is lovely, Thames Ditton, nice villagey feel, short drive to Kingston for major shops, some local shops (butcher, baker, etc) and Surbiton for supermarkets. Good schools both state and private, fast train 30 mins into Waterloo.

Example of property here

I agree with MadameCastafiore (who obviously lives down the road from me!) NE Essex is fab. Quiet, very pretty, great for young families, excellent schools, but near to all things cultural and civilised, and not a white stilleto in sight - honestly. I came her from Kent and I'm converted for life. Deeply misunderstood county if you ask me, and therefore brilliant value for money. Obviously you have to know which bits NOT to go to, but isn't that just the same in every county? Besides, I think having the PILs a bit further away can only be a good thing?!

bless you all for trying to sort me out!!! thank you!

Jeanjeannie we went to Berkhamsted today and i got such a good feeling. i had felt so churned up having accepted the offer on our house and yet not feeling 100% certain about our eventual destination.

Calculus - had seriously looked at kingston and had even seen that latchmere house! amazing to get detached and off street parking for that price.

I'm glad you liked Berkhamsted. Did you get a good look around? Great place for a young family. Forest on your doorstep, lovely cinema, good schools etc.

Needkirstyandphil I'm so pleased you got a good feeling!

I noticed over on the Education message board there is a whole thread about schools in Berkhamsted - could be worth a look!