Moving to London - some advice please

[simoneee]

A bit of an off topic question maybe, but would appreciate some advice.

I've got a job offer in London (Merstham), where it is a bit outside of London. And as I've not lived in London before, I'm a little unsure about where I should find a place to rent. As new in London, I don't want to get "isolated" from London city center.

It would take a while to take the train from Merstham, so I'm not sure if it would be better to live near the city center and travel all the this distance to work, but in my spare time live near city center. Or if I maybe should find a place in the middle, between work and city.

Any advice please?

 

[Edwin]

A quick glance at Rightmove suggests that your money will go much, much further in Merstham - whether that's buying or renting. I'm not familiar with the area, but it seems that trains take 30-40 minutes into London Bridge which hardly sounds "isolated" as long as you're living fairly near the station at the Merstham end so that you can just head out the door and hop on a train to the Big L...

Another factor must be whether you want to spend 10+ hours a week commuting to and from work from London or a few minutes walking or driving to work, plus a couple of hours heading into London on the weekend or of an evening.

At least the trains should be quiet if you're heading out of London to work - I can't imagine many people choose to do things that way around, not with property prices the way they've been heading recently!

 

[martin-s]

Merstham isn't London - it's outside the M25 London stops at Sutton really (end of the Underground rail connection)

It's a bit of a funny nothing sort of place really, bordering Redhill (an average sort of town IMHO).

As far south as Crawley can get into London Bridge in 35-40 minutes. From memory Merstham is a stop on most slow trains from Brighton to London Bridge/Victoria. Though if you go South, you'll struggle with the to drive to work - that road is a pig.

The area is super expensive though, as lots of people want to live in Reigate, Dorking or Godstone for the access to London.

If it were me, I'd probably look at Oxted.

 

[simoneee]

A quick glance at Rightmove suggests that your money will go much, much further in Merstham - whether that's buying or renting. I'm not familiar with the area, but it seems that trains take 30-40 minutes into London Bridge which hardly sounds "isolated" as long as you're living fairly near the station at the Merstham end so that you can just head out the door and hop on a train to the Big L...

Another factor must be whether you want to spend 10+ hours a week commuting to and from work from London or a few minutes walking or driving to work, plus a couple of hours heading into London on the weekend or of an evening.

At least the trains should be quiet if you're heading out of London to work - I can't imagine many people choose to do things that way around, not with property prices the way they've been heading recently!

Thanks for your advice, well it sounds logical to live near the job. Instead of wasting time traveling every day.

Merstham isn't London - it's outside the M25 London stops at Sutton really (end of the Underground rail connection)

It's a bit of a funny nothing sort of place really, bordering Redhill (an average sort of town IMHO).

As far south as Crawley can get into London Bridge in 35-40 minutes. From memory Merstham is a stop on most slow trains from Brighton to London Bridge/Victoria. Though if you go South, you'll struggle with the to drive to work - that road is a pig.

The area is super expensive though, as lots of people want to live in Reigate, Dorking or Godstone for the access to London.

If it were me, I'd probably look at Oxted.

Thanks, I think I'm going to move near my job.

 

[disruptive]

Better to live out, its cheaper and since you don't have to travel in to the city it will be cheaper. You can no doubt still go in for the day if you need to! Good luck.