Spec me a Commuter Town

I'd suggest one stop further out from Woking so you have a fighting chance of a seat but 35 minutes out from Waterloo. The walking to the station is the killer.

You have Worplesdon and Brookwood. Your budget doesn't fit the former. The latter is basically one road and a decent community but houses don't come up so often.

If you didn't want proximity to Hampshire I'd suggest Wye in Kent. £500K will get you an amazing house in the village and the village station can get you to St Pancras in 50 minutes via the High Speed links at Adhford.
 
Ivyforce said:
Try Looking at Bracknell/Crowthorne/Wokingham
Rail is waterloo/Paddington or most others via Reading line

Motorways are m3,m4 and Heathrow is 25mins by car.

http://www.familyinvestments.co.uk/hotspots/top20/
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I lived in Martins Heron for about 12 years.. now living in Guildford, commuting to/from london.

I can give the low down on Bracknell etc.
1. train is slow line and every 30 minutes - 1h into waterloo
2. secondary schools aren't great and the the largest (and the best at "average" rating) has a catchment area spanning up to ascot (including the nice to be areas - unless you go private).
3. you could look at a martin's heron, ascot, sunning dale etc..
4. Bracknell town centre = dump. Reading is 20 mins by car.. has Oracle shopping centre etc.. okish..
5. Royal Ascot week.. a very, um, "refined" racing even.. reality is it's all traffic jams, drunken idiots getting chaperoned by the heavy police presence on/off the train.
6. Bracknell - waterloo season ticket ~1000 for 3 months. not including tube for the 1 hour trip.. seats/standing is 50/50 chance..

An alternative is Guildford and the surrounding area. 38 minutes into waterloo (there's fast and slow trains.. literally every 15mins), main train lines but more likely you'll run/brompton for the tain into w/loo.. A3 goes tight through it.
I'm in Burpham, reasonable area (steer clear of Bushy Hill in Merrow).. but there's lots of areas around. Burpham catchment area is for both primary and secondary schools that are graded excellent.
Guildford town centre rocks. It may appear smaller but lots of great shops and bars etc.
Now the bad bit.. train fare is 937 for 3 month season ticket.. not including tube .. but's 38 minutes.. seat/standing is 10/90.. I normally take my own travel seat :)

So far - from experience Guildford >> Bracknell/ascot area by a country mile.

Oh.. I used to work in Basingstoke - Chinham Gate.. they don't call it Basinggrad for nothing..
 
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Having just moved from Godalming (think Guildford) to Maidenhead I am astonished by how much easier it is to get into London even over Godalming.

Finished a meeting last night in Kensington, I was home in under an hour. The train from Paddington to Maidenhead was 18 minutes so I didn't care I was standing.

Town centre is a dump but the surrounding areas are lovely plus you can get to reading/high Wycombe/Windsor really easily.

Plus so long as you mostly travel north/south west you get to miss the m25 :)
 
Where in London will you be working. When you say city do you mean financial district around bank?

This is important, many of the suggestions here will get you to london in <1hr but certainly not to the city as it's east. You can expect a 40 min further commute from somewhere like paddington...
 
I can only offer an opinion on Didcot as that's where I'm from. I go back quite often to see my parents.

Location wise its a mainline station and 45 mins to Paddington.
Its on the A34 and takes an hour to get to Southampton and 45 mins to Salisbury.
House prices are increasing due to the amount of commuters and like all towns, some areas are a lot more desirable than others. Just ask which street and I'll let you know.
1 new housing development near A34 is about 70% complete.
2 more about to start on outskirts.
Station currently undergoing an overhaul. Town centre was 'moved' when a trading estate was demolished and new town centre built.
Entertainment is okay, Reading, Swindon and Oxford only 20 mins away by train though.
Primary schools are pretty good, Secondary schools are single sex until you get to 6th form.

Its much better than it was 15 years ago and is growing fast.
Est. pop. 25,000+
 
R4z0r said:
This is important, many of the suggestions here will get you to london in <1hr but certainly not to the city as it's east. You can expect a 40 min further commute from somewhere like paddington...
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This is a really, really good point. Always consider the door to door time as travelling across London can be longer than your train in and be significantly more unpleasant.

When I lived a 5 minute walk from Woking station and worked across Waterloo Bridge on the Aldwych I used to take 15 minutes less to get to work than someone who lived 8 miles across town in NW London
 
iamtheoneneo said:
Why, some nice areas in Aylesbury and prices are good and rejuvenation investment is pretty high.
Brilliant link into London, and other areas. (MK, Hemel)

Certainly worth a look.
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Have to echo this. Some fantastic villages/areas outside of Aylesbury itself. And the town centre isn't too bad either (nice theatre, some decent restaurants).

Train in under an hour to Marylebone.
 
Blinkz said:
Guildford is lovely, but walking to the station will cause you issues with house prices! Cycling would help.....
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Council tax is quite high too - especially after the flooding too.

Centre of Guildford experienced small amounts of flooding however virtually everywhere around the centre is raised.

House prices vary wildly but like everyplace that has links into London - all the commuters want an easy walk, train frequency every 5 minutes, direct fast train, etc etc.. so anywhere near a train station will push the prices up high.

We bought a couple of OS maps then spent a few evenings adding circles for walking distance and biking distance, house prices, cost of season ticket for each station. Then we added catchment areas for the schools and their ratings.
Then we ended up diving 80 miles in each weekend marking down the areas - ticks and crosses so we ended up with a housing landscape of all the areas - from Reading to Weybridge to Shalford including Guildford and all the roads/housing between.

Actually initially we put a offer in for out top end budget near the north of bracknell (large 4 double bedroom), then after thinking about possible issues, we pulled out and looked for a smaller place in a nicer area.. and ended up here. Good thing too - after the floods etc.
 
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R4z0r said:
Where in London will you be working. When you say city do you mean financial district around bank?

This is important, many of the suggestions here will get you to london in <1hr but certainly not to the city as it's east. You can expect a 40 min further commute from somewhere like paddington...
Click to expand...

Yes, near Bank - I've now found a job hence the thread bump!

Still struggling to find much value - it seems £450k won't really get me anything bigger than what I have at the moment (~1340s***) in the areas I'd consider living. Logically I know that if there were any 'gem' areas the market would flatten them out due to plenty of others wanting the same, but still....

Coming round to the idea of Hook if it is definitely a better place for families than Fleet.
 
***BUMP*** time to progress this as will be looking to move in the next six months.

Original post criteria are broadly intact with the exception of the following:
-No longer need links to Southampton as my wife will be changing jobs to work in Basingstoke area instead
-Headline budget increased to £550k to offset some inflation, but remains flexible
-Would like reasonable road links to Fareham area, but not that critical

I've subsequently visited various places considered including Fleet, Hook, Basingstoke, Farnborough, Farnham and Godalming to have a bit of a poke around and see what the towns area like. Currently I am drawn towards Fleet because of its peerless reputation (voted best place to live in UK past 5 years in a row) and decent range of family houses near the station; however, my head says that Basingstoke is a more practical option due to the better rail links (more frequent/direct trains to London/Reading/Southampton/Salisbury/Portsmouth), being slightly closer to family around Salisbury and also being a bit cheaper.

Having done my online research over a 2 year period (must have viewed over a thousand properties on Rightmove) the market has definitely moved on a bit, with prices around 15% higher I would guess compared to when I started looking.
 
I would always be picking Fleet over Basingstoke. Property will be smaller for the same money granted, but much nicer place to be and when you come to move it will no doubt have gone up in value more /easier to sell - location, location, location.
 
Rightly or wrongly I've always dismissed Slough on reputation, although I have at one point considered Langley due to impending Crossrailage (Liverpool St is under 10mins walk from my office so being able to get a direct train there in 36mins would be pretty awesome).

To be honest, I don't think we'll go for anywhere north of Reading, which is starting to enter my thinking if I can find somewhere safe (Caversham area maybe?)
 
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