The missus has been told this is a nice place to live and a property expert friend of ours has said price increases will outstrip anywhere in the UK from 2015 onwards due to regeneration but I'm worried it is full of dirty Kent chavs.
Currently looking to move from Streatham Hill South London and for what I would get for my flat I could buy a 5 bed detached new build house (I would never consider a pre-owned home).
Any residents both former and present who have advice?
Rochester is one of the Medway towns(Gillingham and Chatham are the others). A significant price increase is probably the only reason to live there. Rochester is probably the least chavtastic of the 3, there are almost certainly nicer bits but that's the same everywhere. There are lots of nice bits of rural Kent but these may not have the convienience you need if you are commuting daily.
EDIT: I have never lived in Medway but my job takes me to sites all around the area.
We had the misfortune of having to stop there a few years ago as my wife had a job to do locally. Lasting memories are of men, women and kids wandering the streets drinking lager early morning, vomit covered pavements and of course Rochesters famous landmark, Borstal.
There was a nice tea shop and had a very good tea cake on offer.
It really isn't (a nice place). Honestly, if you or your OH are hung up on norther Kent, take a Saturday and drive around.
Thanks for the replies. In terms of crappy places to live I have Sheffield and Merthyr as my benchmarks for the worst places in the UK I have been to. Would you say that area is as bad as those places?
Faversham isn't far and might be worth a look. I grew up in Kent and its where I'd look in that area.
Look to buy a home in a area you are content to live in . Your not looking for a speculative investment vehicle aka your home for the most pricing increase. If you are looking for an investment then a family home is a bad idea.Originally Posted by ryanb741
It's not recommended if you're Danish.
http://www.foxearth.org.uk/DanesSkin.html
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
If you're looking to live in commuting distance from London you could look at east Sussex. There's a train line down to Hastings with lots of nice villages on the way. There's another from London bridge to uckfield again with nice villages en route.
I think it's nicer than Kent but perhaps I'm a little biased as I live down here. I don't commute but my neighbour does.
The other option to make your money go further, and live in a nicer area is look to Warwickshire - Rugby is 50 minutes to London.
Works for me, as an ex-sussex lad.
Why do you only want to buy new?
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
I moved to Longfield, a couple of junctions up the A2 from Rochester, a couple of years ago and like it a lot. Commute into the city every day but the benefits of a rural home at the weekends.
Rochester has a nice little Dickensian high street and the castle but probably best avoided on a Saturday night (like most town centres).
Was about to say the same thing....I think of the Medway towns as chavvy and much of it smelling of low tide....with views of the power stations on the Hoo peninsula....Jonathon Meades would've a field day with it....he only made it as close as the Isle of Sheppey. I'm so glad I moved away from the area when I was 12. I did still pay visits to the area just as a reminder, plus Gillingham and Rochester appeared on that police show narrated by Jamie Theakston.
Bluntly put it's a crap hole
2 reasons. First I love mod cons and I'm not a fan of period features etc. 2nd (and I open myself to ridicule here but I don't care I have witnessed these things with my own eyes) I would like to avoid any encounters with previous 'residents' hanging around as I have genuinely had issues before around this point
Sheffield is miles better than both Merthyr and Rochester.
My previous experience with 'brand new' is not good - bodged and poor workmanship, loads of repeat visits to sort snags out etc, etc.
They don't build them like they used to...............
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Round my way, all new 'estates' seem to have a proportion of shared ownership / affordable housing, so you're almost guaranteed to have feral kids in the street, sofas dumped in front gardens, someone dismantling an old car over the road, and garden parties every weekend with banging tunes till late, followed by noisy fireworks.
Also, if you're buying a property with a view to investment, surely you're better off not paying the developer's premium on a new build (I appreciate the OP has stated his own reasons for preferring new build)?
I work in Chatham. It's horrible. Houses prices have one nothing or years. My advice would be try somewhere else.
Andy
As has been said, you basically don't want to live in Rochester.
If you buy new you're trapped there for the long term if you want to make a profit. If you're not sure about an area try renting for a year first before getting tied into a craphole.
There are many, many worse places in the UK to live than Sheffield - I've lived in a few. I'd rather peel my eyeballs than set foot back in Luton for example.
Blimey.. right happy bunch we have here then
I would go and have a look for yourself.. plenty of nice places to live in Kent.. like wise some rough places as well.
Come on you currently live in Streatham Hill - which I happily left behind a decade ago.
I needs to know! Please tell us about "encounters with previous 'residents' hanging around". Sounds really interesting.
I live in Kent, but any part of Kent from which you can see Essex is best avoided.
Quite, hardly the ghetto (and yes, that is the Tour de France)...Blimey.. right happy bunch we have here then
I would go and have a look for yourself.. plenty of nice places to live in Kent.. like wise some rough places as well.
Come on you currently live in Streatham Hill - which I happily left behind a decade ago.
My mother's side of the family are all from Merthyr.
Can't say I disagree with you.
Tris
I think everythings been said about Rochester. One thing about your Streatham property, don't sell it- rent it out. Keep it as an investment.
Alas I will need to sell it to raise the deposit/equity for the next place.
I asked around work and they said that there are some nice parts of Rochester. Certainly the town is nice. Most people at work have negative equity so I it could be due an increase. My worry would be how near It is from Chatham which is world class dump. You really have to see I to believe it.
I'm actually thinking Rochester would be an improvement on streatham hill. I totally understand the issues etc regarding Chatham and surrounding areas but streatham hill borders Brixton etc. Horses for courses. Although anywhere in the vicinity of central London commands high prices, let's be honest here, streathams hardly a nice place to live in as much as crime, standard of living etc. Personally, I don't like new builds. As said previously they aren't built to great spec, normally sited on housing estates etc. I would go for a period property down a quiet street/lane and ideally renovate myself. Anyhow good luck op.
Last edited by Yeti; 26th July 2013 at 22:50.
Have changed focus. Looking at Guildford, Godalming, Lingfield in Surrey and East Grinstead in East Sussex
BTW all the Streatham Hill naysayers - I presume you haven't been there lately? It's much improved. Also someone mentioned the proximity to Brixton as a bad thing. Brixton is far changed from what it was a decade ago. It's very vibrant and affluent now - a decent place in Brixton will cost Islington money these days.
I just find it gobsmacking that I can sell my 1 bed flat in Streatham Hill and buy a 3 bed detached in Guildford or a 4 bed detached in East Grinstead by adding just another £50k. Madness!
I've lived in lots of places in the UK, and we have now settled in a very picturesque village in Central Bedfordshire, just next to the protected Georgian Market town of Ampthill. I don't intend to ever move again. The community, schools, and amenities are all excellent. It is abut as non-chavvy as you can get, and the people are lovely.
London, if you have to, is less than 40 minutes on the train, direct. The M1 is ten minutes away. The A1 fifteen minutes.
And best still, the prices are still sensible. I cannot recommend the area highly enough.
So clever my foot fell off.
Isn't that dangerously near Luton though, which is where they actually manufacture chavs?
Hmm - I had mates in ampthill and flitwick - the bits they were in were ex corporation terrace and skanky chav estates.
There are nice places and horrid places everywhere. Very few places are just lovely or just nasty.
I agree with you though, I don't know why the default is Kent rather than herts/beds/bucks. I also lived in Potton End, a village near Hemel. The village was lovely, Hemel had some real dumps. Good transport though.
What is your commuting tolerance? Move another 20-30 minutes down the line from Godalming and the prices will be even lower plus Surrey council tax is always significantly more than Hampshire's.
If you want a 5 (well 4.5) bedroom house in a rural location 5 minutes from Liss station (Waterloo 1:15) then I happen to be selling one. :)
I'm a South Londoner & would never go back, no matter how much it improves overall. I live in a village in Oxfordshire now, having moved from Sydenham. I've changed jobs & rarely have to go back to London. My advice if you are moving out is that it takes some getting used to. People talk slower, walk slower and don't appear to have any idea of what rushing around or hurrying up means. Their thought process seems slower. This is probably why city types label them as inbreds, but they just seem more relaxed.
My comments to you are I think you'll get sick of commuting and then start to look at work locally. Commuting in the winter is awful. Peoples stinky wet clothes, them coughing & sneezing all over the place, being bashed about by aggressive commuters... Late transport that's disgracefully overcrowded and not cheap with the prices only going up. My only other comment is when buying always look at getting the best area, even if it means a smaller property.
This ^^^
Rochester is a toilet. Probably the least Armitage Shanks of the Medway towns, but as described above.
Brixton might be full of media luvvies now rather like Islington, Hackney, Hoxton etc etc with prices to match but like all those others it's still a very dangerous place.
I wouldn't want to walk down Coldharbour lane or Electric Avenue (with or without Eddie Grant) after dark.
Cheers,
Neil.
Flitwick yes, I wouldn't live there, but it is a very small town. Ampthill however is pretty much all very nice. It has a population of only 6000, so I am not aware of any "skanky chav estates" at all.
The villages of Maulden, Clophill, Gravenhurst, Steppingly and nearby Woburn etc are all considered premium villages and quality of life is commensurate with that.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a location snob - I lived for many years in Luton (in a nice part - and there are a number). I never experienced any crime or any social problem at all. However, having now settled where I want to stay, after extensive research, I am 100% happy with my choice.
The reality is that England, and especially the South East, is so overcrowded that nowhere is more than ten miles from somewhere not very nice. Islands of true English civility do still exist, but you have to be prepared to pay for them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampthill
Last edited by TheFlyingBanana; 27th July 2013 at 20:05.
So clever my foot fell off.
My mate lived at the end of Oliver street, willows something. It was all nasty flats, terraces and corsas with loud exhausts. It really isn't all chocolate box. The centre was nice though.
We are in an identical place to the OP. We live in West Dulwich - we like it very much, but want more for our money. We considered Rochester but have been robustly dissuaded! The problem is that "40 mins into London" still leaves you with a vast amount of territory in all directions to try to research! Currently looking at Tring, Sevenoaks, Godalming, Egham, etc, etc.
N
tbh with those locations you list (well at least 7oaks) I would not expect to get much more for your money unless it was a bit further out.
A friend has just sold a compact four bed semi in Godalming, about ten mins from the station, for just under £400k. It needed new windows and only had one off road parking space but other than that was in nice condition.
I lived in Bearsted near Maidstone for 8 years (2000-2008) and worked in Gillingham. Visiting Rochester frequently there were always chavs about but they had a few good pubs and restaurants. I'm glad I moved backed to Norfolk though.
...swapping chavs for village idiots in the process...
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
