Where to live (central belt)

[housemove123]

I'm NCing as I have friends on here and nobody knows yet, but we are most likely making a big move in the next few months!

I've never lived in the areas I'm looking at, and I've not even lived in Scotland for some years now and so can't easily go have a look round any time soon. Any advice would be great to narrow my search. We will most likely rent at first then buy, but regardless, we wouldn't want to move to another area if we didn't like the one we'd rented in, as it could mean moving schools (again) which would be unfair. So we have to get this right first time, and settle in the area for the long haul!

Wishlist:

• easy commute to Falkirk/Larbert areas (ideally 20 min or less but could go slightly further if really needed)
• not far from East Kilbride (ideally max. 30 min and/or doable on public transport)
• good school catchment area (primary and secondary)
• nice (pref naice) area with good parks, family activities, safe, etc.
• ideally walking distance from a train station that runs to Glasgow

I've started looking at Larbert itself, but it doesn't seem to have much going on. Lenzie has been mentioned on here before and could be a contender, but I'd love to know more about it. I don't know much about Falkirk or Stirling, except that Dunblane and Bridge of Allan have a good reputation. I've never been to either properly, only driven through and it was years ago. Can anyone advise on those places along with specific postcodes/areas to stick in Rightmove there? Anywhere else to look at? Thanks in advance!

Linlithgow
Very niace, excellent schools
Great for families, loads activities for kids
Main Edinburgh to Glasgow train line
Property quite expensive though due to the above

Thanks, yes, just started looking there too, with the downsides so far being house prices, lack of rentals and being further out (more like 45 min) from East Kilbride. It looks lovely otherwise so I'll keep it in mind.

What sort of house size/price are you looking for? I'm in stirling so happy to help with there plus BofA and Dunblane.

Thanks. We need at least 3 bedrooms plus office space (which sometimes means 4 bedrooms, sometimes it's there in some other form or could be added easily). 5 bedrooms and a garage would be the dream but not strictly necessary - we're in a 2 bed just now and I'm just dreaming of all the SPACE. The budget is quite flexible - we could afford £250000 very comfortably, or we could stretch to a long mortgage for more like £375000 if it seemed like it would be worth it. The bigger priority is making sure we don't have to move again, so I'm interested to find out the "good" areas to look at, do some searches there, set up some alerts and see what sort of house we could get there, and if it looks feasible then start looking at rentals in the meantime.

Okay, I think the problem with Stirling, Bofa and Dunblane will be the commute to EK. It will be 40 minutes at least and I don't think there will be direct public transport. Certainly no direct train, you might get a bus. If that is a deal breaker then you can probably discount all those areas. If not, I could make some suggestions that would fit most of the rest. Larbert is about 20 minutes so that bit is fine.

Regarding schools, the (very sensible) advice always given on here is to start with secondary school catchment and work backwards
Most primaries are very good so you can't go too far wrong really
Can be difficult to get placing requests these days if you find you've made a mistake secondary wise, as popular schools are very full

For your budget there is not much on the market in Stirling/bofa or Dunblane. For BofA/Dunblane you would need to go to the top of your budget and even then struggle for a 3 bed plus office.

Larbert is more affordable but still quite pricey (though everywhere seems to be now) - and it seems to only new builds that are available. For high schools under Falkirk council Larbert is a good option. It can be a bit soulless and doesn't have much of a centre though. Does tick your Glasgow train box!

You can get in budget in Stirling etc but property is going within days so very little to look at and if you can't move quickly to offer then there is no chance. For example, in my estate which is close to the bofa border and about equidistant from both train stations, you can get a 4 bed well within your upper budget. I have a 4 bed with an office and garage and an extra public room and would expect around £300k plus if I was selling.

Stepps.

• on the Edinburgh train line which drops off at Falkirk.
• 15 mins from Glasgow on train or driving
• 20/30 mins driving to EK
• decent schools, not in East Ren’s league but good.
• small main st with doctors, cafes, pharmacy, beautician.

It’s the commute on public transport to East Kilbride that’s your issue. There’s a good train service from Glasgow Central but timings won’t tie in very well with trains coming from anywhere east or north of Glasgow going into Queen St station.

Stepps is a really good call if you can drive to EK.

East killbride is a bugger to get to from the east you would probably need to get a train to Glasgow then a train out and as far as I'm aware there is no direct bus route. You really need to broaden your search to more west nearer Glasgow. I

East Kilbride is a real pain to get to on public transport. Kirkintilloch/Cumbernauld/Kilsyth? They don’t really fit the bill though.

You’d need to be on either the train line to ek or hamilton/Motherwell etc
I’m in Stirling and drive to wishaw for work but early in the morning it takes 40 mins. I wouldn’t move to lanarkshire myself. Maybe some of the villages around Ek? Clarkston, Newton mearns/Eaglesham etc? Then you drive to larbert? I wouldn’t live there either, just loads of houses and little else.

Thank you! EK isn't a daily commute - but we'd be going there very regularly and would have people coming from there regularly, one of whom doesn't drive (so preferably there's a means of her getting here without us having to do a long round trip twice each time) and one who is a nervous driver and may not do the trip if it's much over half an hour. So it's not a deal breaker, per se, but it would make life a lot easier if it's that bit closer.

I think it would be easier to get them to move somewhere more convenient!

It is possible to do by public transport from stirling area but requires to go via Glasgow on both train and Coach/bus and takes around 2 hours and requires to change. By train, it's a transfer between central and queen street stations as well.

For the areas you're looking at the EK people will likely have to go via Glasgow if coming by public transport

Polmont/Brightons area of Falkirk. No direct train for EK though, but you'd be right onto the motorway for driving.

Or further West to Cumbernauld / Stepps would be good distance between Larbert & EK. But it's not the prettiest of areas.

Linlithgow, Bridge of Allan and Dunblane will be above your budget.

Thanks - it's fine if they need 2 trains or a bus and train, just as long as it's feasible for them to do once in a while so we're not always doing the drive (e.g. they get the train to us and we drive them home).

Regarding budget, I had a look again this afternoon and think we could go to £400k for the right place (renting first then buying in 6 months or so probably, so prices may also have settled slightly, fingers crossed).

I'll take a look at Polmont and Brightons then too, thanks.

I think it is possible to get Bridge of Allan and Dunblane in your higher or revised higher budget, the problem at the moment is really available stock. Depends how far you are happy to walk to the train station too. Whilst Stirling station is in the centre of town, it is quite a stretched out city rather than a round one but even having said that it's quite small, so even at the BofA side, it's still only about 20/25 minute walk. BofA station is at one end of the village and housing mainly stretches away from it. Dunblane is a bit like stirling but on a smaller scale - some house will be at the far away end.

High school wise, Dunblane, Wallace, Stirling High or for catholic provision, St Modans are what you would be looking at. I'd largely ignore the Bannockburn catchment based both on the school and in general the walking to station. Primaries are usually pretty much fine.

If you want to be really near the station, The Riverside area fits your bill but may struggle with house size, it's mainly older properties and ex council and flats but is a decent area with a good park etc. There is the Kings park area where you might get something like a part of a large house conversion with a garden, possibly not a garage. If you are happy to walk a bit further then much of Torbrex (stirling high catchment) is about half an hour walk. It's a mature area of probably 60s/70s houses. Otherwise there is causweyhead, similar type housing plus some older traditional ones which a lot have been converted to BnBS, Also a newish build estate there (maybe about 17 years old?), catchment would be Wallace High. ALso similar age estates on other side of railway Wallace Park and Forth Park. Both Wallace High but forth park is technically BofA. Dunblane has similar age and newer estates and 60s housing all up near the high school and then more traditional houses and flats and a council estate nearer the centre and then newer build again further to the north of the village.

BofA is mixed, again 60s/70s housing mainly near the primary school and large house, some split and some flats etc nearer the high street and then a real mix to the North of the High Street, probably a lot of your more expensive houses there. Council/ex council estate nearest the train station.

There are obviously some areas that are less desirable but those will be weeded out by your budget so no need to discuss really.

This is all that came up on a search based on BofA outwards:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E4537&minBedrooms=4&maxPrice=400000&minPrice=100000&radius=3.0&propertyTypes=&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

6 results, 2 already sold. Cambusbarron doesn't fit the criteria for being near the station which leaves 3 worth looking at which are all recently advertised and will probably be sold within a week.

Remember to factor in the offers over system OP
This year family homes with gardens have been selling for about 20% over asking price in many popular areas

Is the larbert commute rush hour? This will make all the difference.

Look up the train route from central to EK- lots of naice neighborhoods there with good schools/ parks cafe cultures etc.

An out of hours commute to larbert from these may only be 40 mins.

Or you can look at the EK bus routes 18 or 66 (I think) these are SLOW, but do go through nice suburbs.

If EK isn't so important Cumbernauld is halfway between.

But North Lanarkshire schools arent good.

If you could switch some of your budget to private school Hamilton college has relatively low fees and bus routes from lots of areas where you will get a big detached new build for that budget. All these details are on their website. If you look at the M73 corridor the commute to larbert will be very quick as you are missing out the heavy traffic around Glasgow.

Bothwell/ Uddingston are naice but further from Larbert.

Thanks. Lots of great info! Regarding the Larbert commute, it would be to arrive around 7.45am and leave mostly 4.30/5pm (sometimes earlier to do school run). Wouldn't want to be 40+ min away as that will make the primary school pick up more complicated (will use after school club but not every day).