Where's nice to live in the UK?

[Olly]

I find leafy SW London one of the best places to live in the world, let alone the UK

- easy commute to work by motorbike or train
- loads of great restaurants and pubs - more choice than you'd get in Europe
- low crime rate, from my experience anyway
- plenty of green open spaces
- coast is about an hour away

One BIG disadvantage

- Only good schools are independent - so when the kids get old enough move to Surrey.

Any particular recommended areas within my 300K budget? Semi with 3 beds and a garage in a safe enough hood where its contents have a chance of being there in the morning.

Could shrink it to 2 bed but would def prefer 3 beds and a box room for study / junk / guests.

[Lumiere]

http://es.homesandproperty.co.uk/pro...utertowns.html

[Moscow Mule]

One BIG disadvantage

- Only good schools are independent - so when the kids get old enough move to Surrey.

Or faith schools - which knocks you into a cocked hat

[Moscow Mule]

Any particular recommended areas within my 300K budget? Semi with 3 beds and a garage in a safe enough hood where its contents have a chance of being there in the morning.

Could shrink it to 2 bed but would def prefer 3 beds and a box room for study / junk / guests.

Sunbury. Or Shepperton, but you'll have to get a motorbike if you want to get to the centre of town in less than an hour as that train line is slow.

[Olly]

That "time to commute to the DoT" is scary, try it, leave the budget at max and set it to a 30 minute commute. Not exactly a large area covered!

Ok with time up to 45 mins it opens up somewhat but still not dramatically.

Now then, in reality, what I'm looking for is an above average house by London standards let's set the max budget to 350K, who knows, with 2008 prices and the spectacular crash we've seen maybe that's only 50K too short!

Aside:
'Average house prices' are one of those statistics that really bug me. You can you take an average like that. First you need to define the average house, then you can take an average of those prices but of course that's not how it flipin works is it!

Wow, what a great selection!
You'd also be inflicting a lengthy tube journey on yourself.

Can't believe they seem to be reducing the number of motorbike parking bays in London. ...actually I'm double mad at that one...

[sasguru]

Any particular recommended areas within my 300K budget? .

No sorry, you'd need to double that at least.

[sasguru]

Sunbury. Or Shepperton, but you'll have to get a motorbike if you want to get to the centre of town in less than an hour as that train line is slow.

I'm finding this a godsend to travel around London now the weather's good.
Should never have stopped.

[sasguru]

Now then, in unreality, what I'm looking for is an above average house by London standards let's set the max budget to 350K,

FTFY.
£350K for an above average house in a good London area. I shouldn't laugh but

[Olly]

No sorry, you'd need to double that at least.

Well in theory I could afford to borrow more but whether a lender would give it to me is a different matter. Currently my income is up to the 40% bracket and I hope to keep it like that since I'm allergic to tax.

500 ..600 these are all imaginary numbers to me. I thought 300 for a first time buyer was a fairly good stab at things.

I'm going to buy beer I think, Edelstoff if they have any, that Starkbier makes me feel funny and tastes yick.

[sasguru]

FTFY.
£350K for an above average house in a good London area. I shouldn't laugh but

I take that back. looked up 350K in Shepperton (as per Moscow Mule's advice) and you can get something decent much to my surprise.
Don't really know what Shepperton's like though.