Recommendations on areas in London to buy a house

[scooterscot]

I quite like Reading.

Decent shops, pubs and restaurants. Nice river and canal walks/cycles. Very short distance to stunning countryside. Nice mix of old and new bits. Some very nice areas to live that are still walkable to the station.

Hampshire is nice, don't get me wrong. Last time I visited my sister in Reading walking in the green fields you could still hear the noise of traffic even though there was nothing to be seen for miles.

[CheeseSlice]

Hampshire is nice, don't get me wrong. Last time I visited my sister in Reading walking in the green fields you could still hear the noise of traffic even though there was nothing to be seen for miles.

Reading is in Berkshire

[Martin@AS Financial]

Now that I've started contracting, the idea of doing an MBA has been put on the backburner. I really want to buy a house in London. I'm in need of some help with which areas to buy, and how much I should spend.

I'm thinking of buying a 2-bed apartment for under £300k, which can be paid off within a few years of having a good rate. That said, if I could find a nice 4-bed (i.e. 3-bed plus office) house for under £450k, I would certainly be going for that instead.

I'm on a £600/day rate, and I have around £80k saved up so far - outgoings of around £1500 per month other than rent.

So, can anyone recommend a nice area to buy either a two bed flat for under £300k, or a 3/4-bed house for under £450k? Must be possible to commute into the square mile in under an hour, and Paddington in under 90 minutes. If you were in my position, how much would you spend on a house?

The crossrail map below should hopefully give you a few pointers as when this is complete, commuting times should be a lot quicker.

Route Map - Crossrail

I personally cannot wait - I'll be able to get to my office in Holborn in about 20 minutes.

[sasguru]

The crossrail map below should hopefully give you a few pointers as when this is complete, commuting times should be a lot quicker.

Route Map - Crossrail

I personally cannot wait - I'll be able to get to my office in Holborn in about 20 minutes.

I second this wise advice. Crossrail will gentrify previously crap areas, so a judicious pick of stations on the map above will be fruitful.
Avoid complete crapholes, but pick areas that are slightly grotty but have:

1) good housing stock
2) not too much council housing.

e.g. I believe Hanwell to be underpriced (relatively of course!) but to have good housing stock.

[DimPrawn]

4 bed victorian house with cellar, south facing garden and a double garage in the Old Town part of Swindon a few miles from the train station. Train take 1 hr to Paddington and you generally get a seat, those in Reading do not.

4 bedroom end of terrace house for sale in Lansdown Road, Old Town, Wiltshire, SN1

Come and gentrify Swindon!

[fullyautomatix]

4 bed victorian house with cellar, south facing garden and a double garage in the Old Town part of Swindon a few miles from the train station. Train take 1 hr to Paddington and you generally get a seat, those in Reading do not.

4 bedroom end of terrace house for sale in Lansdown Road, Old Town, Wiltshire, SN1

Come and gentrify Swindon!

What a dump! Its worth 100K at most.

[DimPrawn]

What a dump! Its worth 100K at most.

Last year maybe.

But now the CONDEM party have fixed the economy, it's worth that a much much more.

Booomed!

[sasguru]

4 bed victorian house with cellar, south facing garden and a double garage in the Old Town part of Swindon a few miles from the train station. Train take 1 hr to Paddington and you generally get a seat, those in Reading do not.

4 bedroom end of terrace house for sale in Lansdown Road, Old Town, Wiltshire, SN1

Come and gentrify Swindon!

Where you moving to, Dim?

[Martin@AS Financial]

I second this wise advice. Crossrail will gentrify previously crap areas, so a judicious pick of stations on the map above will be fruitful.
Avoid complete crapholes, but pick areas that are slightly grotty but have:

1) good housing stock
2) not too much council housing.

e.g. I believe Hanwell to be underpriced (relatively of course!) but to have good housing stock.

Hanwell is where I will be looking to buy my next place as I think as it's a pretty decent area - Olde Hanwell is the area to go for in my opionion.

It's also got some pretty cool history - Every year they have a Hanwell Hootie to celebrate the life of Jim Marshall which I went to last weekend.

(Taken from the Hanwell Hootie website)
"In 1962 a young Pete Townshend (The Who) walked into Marshall’s shop, 93 Uxbridge Road, Hanwell, demanding from Jim Marshall an amplifier that was BIGGER AND LOUDER. This was to be the birth of the first Marshall amplifier and with it a new sound that changed the landscape of rock music the world over.

Other regulars to the shop included Ronnie Wood (The Birds), Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and Jimi Hendrix. Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience) worked in the shop."

[DimPrawn]

Where you moving to, Dim?