Help - Moving to London - where to live?

[selby]

OK - it looks like we may be upping sticks yet again - this time from the NW to the SE at the end of the summer. DH only wants to commute 30 - 45 mins max door to door to office near Paddington. DS is currently in reception so have the headache of getting him into Y1 of a decent school so need to focus on school catchment after we narrow down potential areas to live. But first things first - where to live within said criteria with rental budget max of £2K pcm (preferably less)? Min 3/4 bed house + garage (we have 2 children + sports car). And please don't say Reading! We won't know for sure until July but I need to info gather so I can apply for late school admissions for Y1 as soon as it happens. Can you tell that I'm already stressing?

I would think you would need to look for something on a direct line to Paddington to keep the commute to that sort of time. Not many places on the mainline railway route appeal, unless you go a lot further out. In terms of the tune lines, Queens Park seems nice but don't know what rental rates are like....

West London tends to be expensive and the housing stock is generally Victorian/Edwardian for several miles following the tube/train from Paddington so a garage is a bit of an ask. You might end up with something very suburban in outer London or one of the commuter satellites if that size house with a garage is a must.

In terms of schools this website will list all the primary schools in any local authority with their SATs and Value Added scores and you can then cross-ref with Ofsted reports.

Good luck.

Try Barnes. Bus to Hammersmith then H&City line to Paddington. All the primaries in Barnes are good and it is lovely for families. Not too many garages but some do exist - or at least off street parking.

Thames Ditton or out that way? You're looking at quite far out if you want a 3/4 bed house for that price.

You may have to give up on garage. Honestly, when I moved to London I couldn't believe how small and poky so-called "posh" houses were compared to the equivalent areas in, say, Edinburgh, Glasgow etc.

Queens Park is lovely, but I suspect criminally expensive to rent in - plus borders on some really grotty areas so basically if you can afford it, you're not in the nice bit. I don't think it would be the kind of place newcomers to London should live, myself. Great for old hands like myself.... God I miss it!

Forget Queen's Park. I rented a one bed flat there for £900 pcm and that was years ago!

Ooh - I may have to eat my words. Check out Findaproperty.com's rental pages, you can search in very broad areas of London - North WEst and West are probably best for you, there are definitely options but I don't know about the schools...

What about the area around Perivale, Ealing Broadway, lots of lovely big houses with driveways and garages and you can rent for 2K

No way will you get a 3 bed house in Ealing for 2k a month. You might do in Acton but you are very unlikely to get off street parking.

Slough?

Ealing - direct line to Paddington. Almost certainly cheaper than Barnes - might still struggle for a garage though.

Oh sorry - thread has moved on. Fyi Spice some friends of mine have just rented an enormous five-bed (and they are proper bedrooms!) house opposite a lovely park in Ealing. Rents are really coming down.

For £2,100 - I forgot to add!

you can find if you search them out eg, this one and rents are often negotiable with the right tenants
here

If that's true about Ealing, that would be perfect for you. Nice, fairly leafy area with good schools and vibrant high street. 7 mins on fast train to Paddington from Ealing Broadway.

Gosh blimey! I take it all back! Go for Ealing then definitely. Schools are good I think and very leafy. There is a gorgeous conservation area around Perivale and it's about 15 mins to Paddington from Ealing Broadway station (and that's about 15 mins on a bus from Perivale).

Sorry but you are asking a bit too much. It might be a recession but prices in London (the parts where you actually want to live) are still expensive. If you actually find a 3/4 bed place with a garage within 45 minutes commute and space for your sports car for 2k/mo or less (ha!), I suggest you give up your day job(s) and instead place other MN'rs in such dreamy palaces.

Check out Findaproperty.com - I think you will be surprised how reasonable rents are at the moment. The reason my friends moved was because they were forking out a fortune on a property rented through Foxtons a couple of years ago (with the rent going up every year) when in fact rents have been falling. Their new house is less than they were paying for their 3-bed flat! I think there are good deals to be had - and if you know you'll be there for a while see if youi can fix the rent while it is so reasonable. By the way Selby, Ealing is lovely.

Thanks for all the replies so far - I feel a bit calmer now. I will definitely do some research into Ealing. I was looking on Rightmove at houses in Richmond & Kew and was getting so angst about what was in our budget. DH (being of a more laid back persona) has ordered me to chill since it's a few months away