Moving to Cambridge

[RooTwo]

I think there are always loads of threads about moving to Cambridge - it seems v popular! - but wanted a bit of advice anyway ... we are thinking about moving there from London with our two DCs aged 3.5 and 2, to get more space, a buzzy city without the hecticness of London. We can't really afford to buy a house in the area of London we want to be in, but I think £300k might get us something decent (3 bed) in Cambridge?

I would love any advice on good places to live in the city- we would like to be near some decent primary schools and in a friendly area with stuff going on - shops cafes etc - parks ideally I guess - but are not averse to a bit of grot too as we have lived in inner city London a long time! I know Cambridge is expensive property-wise but we do really want to be able to get a decent-sized house with a big garden or there is no point in us moving out of London ...

Also any advice on commute most welcome - DP will be commuting to Kings Cross three/four times a week so I guess we want to be not too far from station - or cyclable distance.

Many thanks in advance!

Not sure of the school situation but what about something like this in Royston?

It's a quick commute if you pick up the right train, not sure what the place is like to live as only ever used it to get train to and from in-laws who live in teeny village nearby.

We looked at moving to Cambridge about 2 years ago - but soon found that we would be swapping like-for-like with our London house (ie. victorian villa with not great size garden by station).
We ended up near Saffron Walden in big house, 0.25 acre of garden and a reasonable commute - and surrounded by other London escapees or London commuters. It is not a sleepy market town - so don't rule it out. Having said that, for 300k for a 3 bed you would need to look at a modern house or at villages which are some drive away from the station.

at sterile. If you want somewhere buzzy then Harpenden is probably not your best bet. I think it's an absolutely lovely place to live but I don't really do edgy.

Would be interesting go know what Cambride to London monthly ticket costs.

SORRY Swedey for 'sterile'! V. unfair. I am not exactly Miss Edgy myself but just want somewhere that still has lots going on.

RooToo No need to be sorry. I have 4 children and I'm really glad the teenagers can walk home at night without getting beaten up/mugged. I'm r v grateful to bring up my children in such a civilised place. DS1 (almost 18 and about to go to uni) told me v recently he will probably move back here to raise his own children - when he's tired of bachelor life in his flat overlooking the river. apparently. I think my 14 year old, 4 Yo and 2 yo love it too. And actually thres a lot going on.

Where in London do you live?

Season tickets:
I couldn't find the First Capital Connect season ticket prices for the Cambridge - Kings X line but the Liverpool St fares (which may be slightly lower) are:
Weekly - £94.10
Monthly - £361.40
Annual - £3764.00
If you purchase a season ticket with a Zone 1-6 travel card the prices are:
Weekly - £120.00
Monthly - £460.80
Annual - £4,800.00
(Yes, that is for standard class, not first class!)

Why are houses cheaper on the north side do you think? Is it simply because the station is on the south? or are schools/amenities better on the south side?

There are three things that make the houses on the south side more expensive, I think.

Firstly, the station's to the south, secondly the hospital is to the south (lots of well-paid doctors wanting to live close to the hospital) and thirdly the private schools are to the south. So are the 6th form colleges, to come to think of it.

The part of Cambridge which is sometimes described by locals as being slightly dodgy (I'm not sure there's much reason for this, but the reputation sticks) is to the north.

And the countryside is much more attractive to the south.

So there you are.

Thanks Lilymaid for looking all those prices up! I have found Kings X ones too - not much different - £373 for monthly or £476 with travelcard included (EEK!)

Just to chime in here to agree with others - in Cambridge you will pay London prices and have a far smaller selection of properties to choose from. For families with 2 kids, the competition for decent-sized houses with even small gardens and within striking distance of the city centre is truly insane - and the majority of houses big enough for a family are 1930s or later, so not exactly filled with charm. We live here (and rent, since we've been unable to find something to buy that meets our budget and requirements - also need a commutable place, south side of the city, etc.) - and we've actually considered moving back to London as it seems prices have come down a bit there at least in some areas, and there is much more choice on the property market. You have the additional challenge in Cambridge that many larger houses near and in the city centre are owned by the university or buy-to-let landlords, which reduces supply even more. We've put down roots here now and I do like it a lot, but - think hard. If you're looking for more for your money than in London, this is absolutely the wrong place to move to.

Mind you, things might change in the future with the plans for the development of North-West Cambridge - 3000 more homes off Huntingdon Road for people associated with the University. That might free up some of the squeeze in the town?

Walthamstow and Bromley, just two areas of London where prices have crashed. I'd be tempted to move back for the long-term investment value, but we are in Cambridge now.

Lenin, we are in CB4, renting a 1960 house and it's not too bad, I pushed in two tall antique wardrobes so ceilings are not that much lower than our ex 1880s house.

Having also lived in a 1930s semi for a spell, ceiling height is good in many and so in 1950s houses, which we have been viewing. My DP has threatened to burn my tall big furniture pieces but he does appreciate high ceilings.

Hoping things get better as so far I feel can't win: have compromised on age of house, position, number of rooms, size of garden and still we cannot afford what we like. That said there is a reasonably priced huge house in south Cambridge, very close to private school but it's 500K (a divorce, apparently). It's huge and was very tempted but then I don't want to be hampered by big mortage and having no money to refurbish.

The commute is not a pleasant one either. That's why we left. OH used to come home angry and stressed out after doing 3 hours every day. You often don't get a seat for your £400+ and it is pretty brutal. It may be doable if you work very close to Kings Cross but if you add on a tube journey it is a lot tougher.

Cycling to the station is a nice idea but in the winter if you get soaked through on the way to work it sucks.

I'm not sure what the schools are like for Romsey town now, but 2 years ago they weren't great. Might be worth checking.

My friend lives in Chesterton, NE Cambs, and has done for 8 years, in an end-of-terrace ex-council house, 2 roads away from the river.

The upside is it's a 30 min flat cycle ride to central Cambs; it's 10 mins to the Science Park where DH works, and the houses are affordable.

The downside is she, or rather her DH pays £11,000 pa per child to privately educate 2 x DCs as the local primary was considered so dire! The OFSTED says that up to 25% of the DCs are from traveller families. My friend says they frequently take their DCs out of school for up to 3 months at a time (to attend Irish horse fairs). This of course adversely affects all the DCs education. It's the sort of school that rewards mere attendance, not achievement! They also have problems with travellers hooning up and down Fen Rd at all hours and constant low level anti-social behaviour.

I am not going into the ins and outs of social responsibility, traveller culturalism etc etc, just telling you what makes her area of Chesterton a bit dodgy. She's 'put up' with it for 8 years quite happily so it obviously isn't that bad but can't do any renovations on her house coz of the education outlay!

I'm going to print this thread for my nephew as he is thinking of buying his first house in Cambridge. His girlfriend works there (she's a teacher) and he is a deputy head in Herts. I think they are under the impression Cambridge would be cheap.

Good grief, Swedey, tell him to buy in Royston instead and GF can commute the opposite way to the crowds! Much easier...

Cambridge has a buzzy atmosphere and is far more appealing to the 20 somethings than the other towns in the region. Consequently it is very expensive in the inner areas of town unless you want to live on one of the problem estates.
We hope to move into the centre of town now our DSs are leaving home but the proceeds from selling a 4 bed/2 bath/3 reception house in a good village 10 miles S of Cambridge won't buy much in the nicer areas of inner Cambridge.

You might want to think about Waterbeach. It's 5 mins or so from Cam on the train. So in the morning you get on before the rush, getting a seat. It's a nice waterside cycle to Cambridge proper and I've heard it is much cheaper.

Lilymaid - 4 bed/2bath/3 reception sounds exactly what we're after. Which village? If you don't want to say, which direction from Cambridge? North? South?

Chesterton is not ideal - hadn't heard it was because of traveller families but we lived near there before we had dc and got our car kicked in twice by drunk people walking through our road on their way home to Chesterton from town . Every car in the road was done and the police said they had an idea who it was but couldn't prove it. It has put me right off living anywhere too near to Chesterton I must say.

Having said that, I'm originally from somewhere which has much dodgier areas than Cambridge so it always makes me smile when people call estates in Cambridge rough or dodgy. And DP even more so, he's from an extremely notorious dodgy area of Glasgow

NorkilyChallenged - 10 miles SE of Cambridge in village with OFSTED outstanding Infants and Village College (not difficult to identify from that). We aren't moving at the moment - DH says it will take a year to get rid of the detritus of all the years bringing up children before we can even start to think of selling up!

Thanks again everyone for thoughts ... very useful. It's a bit disheartening to discover how very expensive Cambridge is - but I'm glad I found this out now before got too set on the idea. Have looked at Waterbeach newkiwi but it doesn't sound as if it's a very dynamic little place - we had been thinking about possibly moving to a village but now that I am really thinking about it I am not sure I want to be stuck in a small village with two under 5s - think I would feel very isolated, after living in London. Now looking again at other places in London which suddenly seem infinitely more affordable than Cambridge! You are right, MizZan, there is not a great deal of choice in Cambridge, but a huge amount still in certain places of London. Ho hum, will keep thinking on it all!

We went through this all a year or so ago - had lots of great advice from some of the people on this post -grendels mum etc. We did move from NW London to Histon in the summer - we have actually got a smaller house but with a much bigger garden and driveway than we had. Having said that we are at the end of Histon that is close to A14 - a bit noisy but great for getting into town. DH cycles to station and commutes to Kings X every day and this is fine for him but he does go very early in the morning and leaves around 4.30-ish to come back. I find Histon quite a buzzy village - there is loads going on for children and have found it friendly plus Cambridge is great. We left a great house which I still really miss in an area that was going downhill and I do feel like we made the right decision and that this was a good place to move to but there is a price to pay and for us it was that we couldn't get the kind of house we wanted (vic/edw with period features etc) and ended up going for a 30s semi with some features - a bit similar to the one that someone put a link to on an earlier post.Before deciding on Histon we did look at central Cambridge to be near the station for DH but we felt this wasn't really suitable for us for lots of reasons and also some of the schools in central Cambridge didn't seem to be so good.Hope this helps!
Mins

Watching this thread with interest, moving to Cambridge is looking a real possibility for us now too. Info people providing is really very very useful for helping us to get our heads around a new city.

Good luck goldpony : all the most useful comments on this threat have pretty much set us against Cambridge! I think I was living in cloud cuckoo land about what we would be able to afford there ...

And of course that was 'thread' not 'threat' ...