Renting in Birmingham, areas to avoid?

smyth · 12 Oct 2011 at 23:17

Hey everyone,

I've got a new job that requires me to relocate to Birmingham at the end of the month. Are there any areas I should avoid when looking for a place to rent?

I'm after somewhere that is commutable to New Street in under 45 mins walking/bus (the place I work doesn't have any parking :rolleyes:

)

Cheers!

smyth · 12 Oct 2011 at 23:33

Raymond Lin said:
45 minutes means you can live as far as Worcester ! which is much nicer.

Oops, I should probably say bus routes instead, isn't rail travel pretty steep now a days?

smyth · 12 Oct 2011 at 23:41

ojrules said:
The metro-train to New Street is frequent and fast on the line that runs through Edgbaston. It takes about 25-30 minutes to commute from Sutton Coldfield/Four Oaks and that's quite far out from the centre.- I would look for anywhere close to any of the stations on that line.

As Raymond said 45 mins is a long way on the train so you could live in a huge radius, personally I would avoid the areas immediately adjacent to the centre, including Edgbaston, but it all depends on your budget.

Budget is probably £550-600 inc bills, looking for a house/flat share.

How much is are season tickets (month/yearly) for the metro-train?

smyth · 13 Oct 2011 at 20:34

Cheers for the help guys, I'll probably end up around Edgbaston.

Preferable a house share since I don't know any one in Birmingham and it should help make a few new friends.

Prices look around £400 inc bills which isn't too bad.

smyth · 13 Oct 2011 at 20:45

cm1179 said:
edgbaston is nice but are you aware it's central?

Aye, should be easy enough for me to commute via bus (30ish mins)

smyth · 13 Oct 2011 at 21:02

The office is in city centre tower, like 2 mins from New Street Station.

smyth · 14 Oct 2011 at 00:52

HarryPainful said:
If you are giving yourself 45 mins of New St, I would say avoid Brum totally and get the train in, 45 mins from New St can get you pretty far.

Brum is pretty small as far as cities go, so telling you to avoid Handsworth, Aston, Selly Oak, Northfield etc pretty much will cover 90% of Brum.

Look at Solihull, the extra rent will be worth it.

If you REALLY need to be in Brum then look at Edgbaston, but then thats right next to Ladywood... all the OK places in Brum are surrounded by **** holes.

Looking at spareroom.co.uk there are a few places just south-east of Edgbaston resevoir, I'm guessing that's getting pretty close to Ladywood or are those places ok?
e.g. http://uk.easyroommate.com/edgbaston-flatshare/Ad-Title/H339EDF9770EB/20050525142516354

smyth · 14 Oct 2011 at 08:45

NeverWinter said:
I wouldn't live by there, I had some student friends who lived on Carlyle Road, it's a crap hole, so are the surrounding roads.

ljt said:
I'd avoid Edgbaston if possible, (I work there most days of the week) the only good side of Edgbaston is the area around the botanical gardens, and they are mega bucks money houses, the other side is basically "Ladywood" which is a big no no

Another thing to keep in mind then.

Any thoughts on Moseley, there are a few houses which seem decent around there.