Hello everyone,
We are relocating from Sydney to London in July with our kids (4 & 1year). Would love some advice about where would be a good place to settle. Our son will start school in September so we need an area with good state schools, not too expensive (willing to pay up to 1350 per month rent) and with good public transport. My husband will be contracting, mostly in central London, and doesn't want to spend an hour getting to and from work. We don't want to be moving our son around once he's started school so wherever we end up we'll be staying for the duration (3-4 years). We've been looking at Wimbledon and Chiswick but they seem very expensive - any other suggestions would be appreciated. Also any information about how we might go about renting a property in advance would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Hey Marc
It takes around 40 minutes on the train to get to "The City" with a very nice train. It is semi-rural. Very good schools. A very nice life out there...

Alternatively, Greenwich - which is VERY close to Canary Wharf where your husband may work if in financial services. It's about 20minutes to the city too...

Email direct if you have any other questions. We've been here nearly 6 years and about to return to Australia in maybe 18-24mths time. We've been contracting too but now have 2 kids.
Warm Regards

Hello Marc,
Greenwich is nice, as is neighbouring Blackheath, although may be a little expensive. Seems to be lots of green space in that corner of London, with the heath and Greenwich Park, transport links are good as well.

Never rated Wimbledon, neighbouring Putney is quite nice, but again your paying through the nose for what you get (seem to recall paying ?900pcm for a one bed basement flat not so long back!) and its not that great.

Might be worth looking at St Albans, its north of London granted, but has excellent transport links via Thames Link trains into the City and key hubs such as Kings Cross where you can hop on the tube. Its an old Roman City so quite nice, plus you get a lot more for your money than in central London. Although it is outside of Zone 6 so you will pay more for the commute, which will have to be factored into the savings on rent.
Keep in touch

I'm afraid that anywhere nice around London is expensive. You could look at Richmond and Dulwich as well and you have pretty much the full list of desirable spots.

We were experiencing financial difficulties so we planned to move outside London. We found a very good house in Essex but we had to sell our previous house quickly in order to get mortgage on this house. Decision Homebuyers bought our house in 15 days.

In the south Greenwich and Blackheath are lovely and not too expensive. In the North, Finchley is ok and not too expensive. Muswell Hill is very nice, moderately expensive and about 45 mins away.

Cheers

any one have any thoughts on watford? you can pick up a 2/3 bed terrace for under 220k, you've got the M25, M1, and 20-30 minute train direct to london euston i believe, also amzing shopping and night life?

all thoughts welcome

regards

hurghadad

Well I am a fan of Wimbledon and environs - I used to live near there. The South West suburbs have some excellent schools.

It is very common to have a one hour commute each way and you may have to accept that if you want to have a reasonable rent and decent schooling. If you can move a tad further out consider any of the following areas - Worcester Park, West Ewell, Motspur Park - rents reasonable for what you'll get.