Tell me about Fareham and/or Waterlooville.

[DaChivs]

My partner and I have recent started looking at houses in the Waterlooville area, just north of Portsmouth. Unfortunately we're finding it's slim-pickings right now. The market is a bit hot, of course, but we're hoping to find something by the end of summer.

We're only first-time-buyers, so our budget isn't sky high (we're looking at 3-bed terraced, end of terraced, and the occasional semi-detached). We're aware of some particularly nice places, but the houses are mostly 350k+ (firmly out of our reach).

A friend recently suggested Fareham as an alternative to Waterlooville. We're not super familiar with either location, but we at least have friends in Waterlooville who have pointed out a couple of areas to avoid.

Does anyone know much about the general area, who could tell us the hot/not spots?
We're not looking to go further west of Fareham (perhaps Whiteley...) or east of Waterlooville/A3.

 

[DaChivs]

Avoid Wecock Farm in Waterlooville, Leigh Park in Havant and Paulsgrove.

Stay well clear of Leigh Park

The only thing I know about the Waterlooville area is to avoid Leigh Park.

Thanks all! I think this mostly reflects my own research regarding Leigh Park, Wecock Farm, and (at least parts of) Paulsgrove.

Is there a similar area in Fareham? I've seen someone mention "Highlands" before, which I presume means Highlands Road. But even that doesn't look too bad to the untrained eye (based on google maps / streetview).

We're actually moving from the Bognor Regis (North Bersted) area, purely so we can commute to work easier, and not have to live with relatives. I see the crime statistics in all these places we're considering and they mostly seem higher than where I am now (some by quite a bit) except for the nicer parts of Waterlooville (where we definitely can't afford). So I don't know how to even start comparing!

 

[DaChivs]

Edit: Blimey I've just noticed your from Bognor, why don't you drive down and take a look, its only 30mins down the road) You can tell a lot about the place by just looking

Haha, you're not wrong! Part of our worry is that we've visited one or two places thinking they looked quite pleasant, and then told by friends that we'd be foolish because of how awful the area is. Perhaps the friends are being slightly snobby? But this experience of "that looks nice" (actually it's awful) has led me to asking these sorts of questions...

I have a family member(in-law) who grew up in Leigh Park, who has family that still live there. They have told us how awful it is and to never even consider buying near it. Despite this, there are some alright-looking roads within it, and there are new-build estates popping up in the near-by surroundings that look very pleasant indeed! "Just, don't you dare buy any of them because of proximity..."

Couple of houses in Swanwick for sale where I live. I'm a terrible neighbour, scaring them all off, lol.

Swanwick does look rather nice, but I think they may be listed for above our budget, as I've not found them on a quick sweep of rightmove/onthemarket (I know these websites are not the only places to look, but I guess they're fairly well populated).