The Best Places For London Commuters To Buy Property In 2019

BEST FOR: A Short Commute

A house could be cheap as chips, but if the commute is long, arduous and expensive, then buying the property just isn’t worth it. Luckily, there are some locations on London’s peripheries where the commute isn’t too taxing. Trains from Gerrards Cross in South Buckinghamshire takes just 27 minutes to reach London, while Potters Bar, a town north of London in Hertfordshire, takes a tight 18 minutes. And the best bit? An annual season ticket is less than £3000. Check the best places below:

• Staines to London terminals: 32 minutes, £2,696 annually.
• Slough to London Paddington: 18 minutes, £2,712 annually.
• Potters bar to London terminals: 18 minutes, £2,220 annually.
• Gerrards cross to London terminals: 27 minutes, £2,724 annually.
• Weybridge to London terminals: 34 minutes, £2,780 annually.
• Windsor & Eton to London terminals: 41 minutes, £3,292 annually.

BEST FOR: Cheap House Prices

The whole point of moving to the outskirts of London is to avoid the astonishing cost of buying in central London, so keep the cost low by buying somewhere like Slough, which has an average house price of £396,063. Slough often gets a bad rep,but was voted seventh in the UK’s top first-time buyer locations. There’s a bunch of regeneration projects underway, and once the Elizabeth line opens at Slough station residents will be a mere 32 minutes away from London’s West End. Bletchley is one of the cheapest – house prices rose by 41%, in 2017, but this still only brought the average house price up to £ 227,649. House prices have risen again since then, but the average remains under £250,000. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Bletchley is known as the home of the Second World War codebreakers, and boasts good schools, period housing and a good location on the Grand Union Canal.
Here are just a few of the best places for cheap house prices:

• Bletchley: £248,888
• Slough: £396,063
• Hemel Hempstead: £396,265
• Stevenage: £317,479
• Redhill: £415,045

BEST FOR: A Buyer’s Market

The Advisory class a buyer’s market as one with lots of property for sale, combined with falling house prices. It is an area that gives the buyer both choice and the chance of a great deal. Places like Virginia Water ranked as number one in The Advisory’s list – the area is quiet and leafy with Windsor Great Park just around the corner for a nice Sunday walk. Average house prices are quite high – around £1,420,305. But Homes & Property say houses near the station are “moderately affordable”. With a commute of 45 minutes, an annual season ticket priced at £3,060 and a moderately wide selection of property available, it is one of the best places to get an affordable bargain.
Top five ‘best for buyer’ areas:

• Virginia Water
• Taplow
• Windsor
• Bushey
• Gerrards Cross

BEST FOR: Choice

When looking in a certain area for your first property, you want to know there’s plenty of variety available, instead of trawling through out-of-reach townhouses to find the one affordable flat. Milton Keynes was number one for having the biggest number of listed properties available right now, while Slough was number four and Basingstoke was seventh on the list.
Top five for biggest selection of property:

• Milton Keynes
• Reading
• Chelmsford
• Slough
• Watford

BEST FOR: Regeneration

Knowing where is going to be a good investment can be guesswork , especially if you’re not au fait with purchasing property. But according to Homes & Property, there are a few places that are worth checking out in 2019 with big transformations in the pipeline – and plenty of them are on the fringes of London. Such as Barking, which sits in Zone 4 and is getting a multimillion-pound facelift to look more Manhattan-esque, “complete with thousands of new high-rise homes, a ‘loose grid’ street layout, a central park, a redesigned station and a rejuvenated shopping centre.” And Hounslow, which forms a part of ‘outer London’. It’s accessible on the Piccadilly line and still has house prices under £300,000, but their £410 million revamp of the former Hounslow Civic Centre and the Notting Hill Housing project could change all that. Luckily, half of the homes will be affordable and ring-fenced for those priced out of London’s market.
 
For more information visit TheAdvisory.co.uk