Help! Relocation from London advice needed!

[ParsonsGreen99]

Hello!

I’m looking for some advice for my husband and I. We currently live in Parsons Green and are looking to move out to somewhere with good schools, a good sized garden for our 11 month old and future babies, and no more than an hours commute into Waterloo for my husband (and likely me if I go back to work).

We’re really drawn to Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire and Surrey because my family are in the South West (Devon and Oxford). I’d love somewhere with a nice young family community as we’re planning more children in the future, nice shops, a pilates studio/gym, cafes, restaurants nearby (but not necessarily walkable). A village would be ideal if it had a nearby train station and walkable play park, perhaps a shop or nice pub. Our budget is around £1m and we’d like detached with at least 4 bedrooms.

Our issue really is that we don’t have a logical place to go with our family living too far to be commutable. We feel like we’re going round in circles and just pointing at a place on a map feels too random for such a huge decision. We also find it hard to check places out with very little time at weekends, a baby and also lockdown make that quite hard! We’ve been renting for a long time so I think finally committing to an area and spending so much money feels like an enormous decision but we’re really ready to put down roots now.

Hoping the mumsnet wisdom will help us!

Hi, we're just giving this thread a bump for you - hopefully some Mumsnetters will be along shortly with some words of wisdom.

Following! Similar dilemma and budget. OP - Tunbridge Wells??

Thanks both! It’s hard isn’t it?! A bit of a first world problem but we’ve been in this predicament for years

Same - I would LOVE a countryside location but we don’t want a hellish commute. Also preferably want to move to the state system for money saving so schools really important!

Exactly the same dilemma!

Tunbridge Wells ticks all the boxes lifestyle & cost wise but is slightly too far from London for both my husband and I to commute. It's also an hour & a half drive back to Parsons Green to see friends. Can anyone recommend a Tunbridge Wells-esque village closer to London?

Tunbridge Wells is the wrong side.
What's your budget? (I saw a very lovely house in Pirbright, nr Woking, on a rightmove trawl yesterday - is that sort of area good?)
Oxfordshire / Bucks aren't brilliant for Waterloo as you'd have to go to Marylebone and then across London on the tube but if you can face that, Great Missenden / Princes RIsborough / Penn

I'd definitely look in Surrey. There are two train lines into Waterloo - the Woking line and the Cobham line. Both have lovely places on it. The further out you go, the more likely you are to get a 4 bed detached for your money.

I'd look in places like Oxshott, Cobham, Claygate, Esher, Clandon as well as slightly larger places like West Byfield, Walton, Weybridge or even Guildford.

Sevenoaks to Waterloo East is only 30 mins on the high speed line. It's £££ for the commute though. If you're happy to drive to the station there are some lovely villages around that area.

You can even go out to Fleet/Farnborough to Waterloo on the fast trains!

What is your budget? Would you be reliant on state schools as that very much impacts on house prices.

@escapelondon13 we are exactly the same - LOVE TW but it’s a bit of a commute

Tunbridge Wells-esque village? It’s a pretty big town with mainly Regency and Victorian housing - not entirely sure what that would look like :-)!

We live in Sevenoaks - annual commuting costs aren’t exceptionally high and there are fast train links into London. It’s a very pretty town with easy access to open countryside. The grounds of Knole Park are in the centre of the town. There are lots of pretty villages close by and good pubs and restaurants. Many of the inhabitants are DFLs (down from London) so there is less of an ‘outsider’ feeling. The shops however aren’t great and our Kent schooling system is something to think about before moving. We have good independents and grammars but fewer good State schools. If you are looking for a village with good commuting links, Otford and Eynsford have their own train stations and are both very pretty.

Have you looked at Farnham? Beautiful town, some of the best state primaries in the country, lovely countryside and 55 mins in to Waterloo. Gets you a bit closer to the south west. There's also Haslemere, Godalming and Guildford round that way.

They're all quite expensive but £1m would get you a detached 4 bed with a decent garden.

Hi there,

Just seen your post @ParsonsGreen99

What did you end up doing as we are thinking the same and looking at Pirbright. We are a young family living in London. It would be great to hear what you did and if you did move to Pirbright or that area?