Hi all,
Have been spending the last two months reading on various websites and forums, esp for mumsnet, which I found the inputs/ experience sharing from all forumers here are invaluable.
We are moving in April 2020 and now the time is ticking for lots of preparation. The first thing we have to nail down by end of this year is home location. So we are planning a trip early Nov to check out some properties. So, would appreciate if anyone can share her thoughts below so we can plan better for the trip.
- We prefer outer London or outside London for better value for money and still keep the job opportunity open as I believe the business activities are more robust there (I am of finance/ insurance/ consultancy). I can accept to travel up to 50mins to central London. We have two kids, 4 and 2. So, school, low crime, nice residential areas are our top priority. We also think to plan ahead to find a place close to comp schools as our backup while we aim for gramma. So, is it true that we can just focus on the distance from comp as the gramma schools just look at academic?
- We have hired an education consultants and talked to some friends and property agents. So far, we have in our mind some places to look at. Could you please offer any comment or other suggestions you may have?
- Barnet - near mill hill as someone said Colindale is more for working class. We are also not sure about the very high ethnic diversity
- Sutton - good schools but again we read that some areas inside are quite rough
- Berkhamsted, St Albans and harpenden - residential area but schools are over subscribed. Should we be concerned? Is there a place even outside London with excellent schools, which are not heavily over subscribed?
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Tonbridge well - nice areas but seems the neighbourhood area has high crime ratio
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Kingston/ Richmond - I found some houses eg in Twickenham within my budget (600k for 3beds). But seems the schools are again oversubscribed and even worse not too many backup.
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Reading - we are yet to research yet as the good school guide books we bought only cover London.
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Watford - some recommended St Albans/ Berkhamsted over Watford for living environment. Watford does offer better transportation and convenience, supermarket etc. Which is good as my wife will need several months to get her license and I may need to travel occasionally.
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some friends are asking me to consider Southampton and Winchester. Any opinion?
The more we research, the more we are overwhelmed by the choices and a matrix of the pros and cons. So we would deeply appreciate if you can share some light.
Many thanks.
Elaine.