Moving away from ED

[dulwichgirl2]

Interesting last few posts. Maybe worthwhile a new thread asking these questions specifically.

The reason I say that is that there must be many people who have gone through the same logic. We certainly did. We have dismissed ED as a place to put more money into as it is ridiculously dear per s foot, its transport links are not very good for the place in Western Europe where most wealth is created (city and cw) and there are so few houses on the market that they command tremendous premia, simply for being "for sale".

So we started to look at the ELL on the basis that there is more upside (lower starting prices we know and higher ending ones we think). We worked our way down it.

New cross - on the up, houses often small, some v nice new developments on Telegraph hill

Brockley - seems to split into Hilly Fields park area and "the rest of it". HFP - big gap in size between gorgeous huge impressive flats and the big houses with some in between. The "rest of it" has a lot of four bed, ED style terraces. Per sq foot all of it is still very cheap. Lots of new businesses opening. Leisure centre coming. Local blog but not very chatty. Girls school.

HOP - north side of station not as nice as south. Prices lower to reflect this. High street has potential bu we waited 45 mins for some coffee and my husband could not take that. I liked it though. No Really big houses but nice Edwardian terraces. Cheaper than ED and many of the houses are bigger.

Forest hill - loved some of the bigger non terraced houses but either cld not afford or decided the re doing and subsequent upkeep would kill us. Also thought the roads system weird and not sure where the centre is or where the development is happening. New leisure centre coming.

Sydenham - loved again the big non terraced houses, started to feel a bit suburban. Girls school but not sure where boys go.

I guess it depends what you are looking for.... Space and garden are important to us but friends have a cottage in Dorset so they don't mind being less "free" during the week.

[pebbles]

This website has just been written about in today's Sunday Times. Seems like it could be quite helpful to those who are moving away from ED and London. Clever idea. Basically people log in and can ask any question i.e. about schools, houses etc about any area and people local to that area will answer.

http://lifeafterlondon.com/