Anyone know Surrey fairly well, from a housing perspective?

[nowhere.elysium]

Hi all - I've got a house-related question.

The Mrs is currently looking at the possibility of her job moving to Redhill, with a noteworthy pay increase. However, since she lives near Stratford, that means that travel's gonna get expensive and lengthy. The quickest we've narrowed it down to is about 40 mins overground, and 30 mins underground travel each way, at a cost of about £325 per month. Although work will pay for the travel, it's a bit of an arcane method for getting reimbursement, and takes a month or more sometimes, thus causing potential financial headaches.


We're thinking about getting a place together out there now, but I don't know the territory too well, plus what I'm seeing isn't particularly cheap. Can anyone tell me of nearby areas that don't cost the same as a London house, but aren't in too shitty an area? Bear in mind that we're used to Newham, so we can deal with a certain amount of roughness to the area, but we'd like to think that we're looking at somewhere that's a bit more civilised...

Ideally, we'd be looking to buy, preferably something like a 3-bedroom house, but can manage a 2-bedroom flat if needs be. There's currently 1 sprog involved, and possibly more in the nearish future (i.e. next three to four years or so). I currently own my place, she rents hers - the only constraint on my moving at the moment is that I'm in the last half-year of a 2-year fixed-rate mortgage, and I'm thinking of selling in 2011 in the hope of at least breaking even on the amount I paid for my flat, if not turning a slight profit.

Anyone got any thoughts/suggestions? If we can find a nice place out there, we may be able to rent out my flat for a year or so, but nothing's concrete yet, and we're just trying to work out the possibilities.


By the way: if anyone suggests commuting on the bike: she doesn't have a license or CBT yet, and I worked out how much it'd cost for me to take her to work and then go to work myself. It's a lot - it's a 55-mile round trip each way, so I'd be doing 110 per day. That may not sound much to most people, but it'd be on the 600, which has about a 110-120 mile tank range before reserve. Factor in tyres and consumables, and it starts to potentially match the cost of the train fare, given that we'd be two-up for 55 miles of that per day. Basically, broken down, it works out thus:
Petrol @ approx £13 per day * 20 (working days p/m) = £260p/m
Tyres @ approx £200 / 7000 miles (3 months) = £70p/m
Chain/Sprocket @ approx £100 / 7000 miles (3 months) = £35p/m
Current total of about £365. A pound for every day of the year. But monthly, instead...

Obviously, that doesn't include other consumables, such as oil, which'd probably need doing twice a month, so that's another £40-50 on the pile. Same goes for brake pads.
Insurance may be lower generally, but that's a high-mileage policy in the works there, and those can be pricier, from what I'm told. I currently only do a few thousand miles per year anyway, so a sudden jump to 30K would be a bit of a shock to the system...

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[stevekingchef]

Hi I am from crawley which is about close by.don't venture to red hill that Mich but I would also consider horley crawley.there is. Pleanty of new apartment close to crawley train station and plenty of nice enough areas around here.any question do ask

[nowhere.elysium]

Cheers to the both of you guys: it's all largely just idle speculation, at the moment. I've been farting about on rightmove.co.uk for an hour or so now, and things are looking distinctly more affordable around Crawley than they are in East London at the moment...

If I could sell my flat right now for the amount I bought it for, the Mrs and I could 'easily'* afford a fairly nice-based-upon-the-photos sort of place with 3 bedrooms and a garage, which is one of my personal concerns, of course


*in apostrophes because I've never been able to bring myself to think of mortgages as an easy payment...
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[r1_lad]

Crawley: Avoid Bewbush & Broadfield. Three Bridges has good travel connections to London/Brighton
Horley: Avoid Court Lodge. Langshott is fairly modern
Redhill: Earlswood is nicer than Redhill centre and only 2miles away
Reigate: Nice but more expensive
Merstham: Avoid!


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[Banned]

I hope you find some suitable solution as you have just saved me a tenner on a eyetest !

[stevekingchef]

Yeah I agree if can afford stay away from bewbush and broadfield but sayin that there are parts that are fine.I'm a ifield lad also look into west green furnace green pound hill and three bridges.all are fine gossip green is also nice.horley is fine the Mrs lived there I quite liked it.bus train all go to red hill and trains to London and Brighton

[Robby]

I'm from the general area, and lived in Redhill with Maurice for a year or so.

It's a dull town, and not particularly cheap.

You haven't said where you live, but you may find moving to South London more tolerable. She'll be able to get to Redhill in 40 mins max if you live near a station that connect to East Croydon. You'll still be in London, and property prices have taken a dive around here recently, while Redhill and surrounding areas have remained strong, at least in adverts.

Of course looking at it objectively. You own your own flat and would be best keeping it until the market picks up, around 2012 for that area. Her work will pay for all of the expenses around a month in arrears. Put the travel on a credit card, the expenses hit her account at the same time the bill comes out each month.

Never move house for a woman.

[The Original Muzza]

[Robby]

Since when did moles and rabbits compete for work?

It's those squirrels you need to contend with. Cunts.

[nowhere.elysium]

[Polo]

Have a look at anywhere on the East Croydon to Redhill train line.

If budget is an issue then you have, Croydon, South Croydon, Purley, Coulsdon, Merstham.

All have varying levels of niceness and easy to pick up the very regular trains to Redhill.

I am a Coulsdon boy myself and left fairly mentally intact.
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