South London =Surrey & Sussex -great riding at Surrey hills /South Downs.
North(&west)London = Bedfordshire ,Hertfordshire Buckinghamshire -great riding along Chiltern ridge and more.
East London you know,Epping slop,not so great riding.

somewhere in kent with access to HS1?

Assume you don’t mean riding, at that pace… in which case, why didn’t you ride?

I used a folding bike to a variety of Enfield stations and then from Liverpool Street i cycled over to Waterloo. 12hr shifts riding a bicycle made the train the preferable option for the bulk of the commute for a majority of the time, when i did ride it was 75mins.

I don’t think you can even get a shoebox for £120k in London anymore. Even Yuppies are pretending that West Norwood and Catford are ‘desireable’ to hide the fact they’re living somewhere they never ever thought they’d live in their wildest nightmares 🙂

Get onto Rightmove using the Property Bee add-on and see how many places are dropping in asking price or sales falling through and ask yourself if it’s actually a good time to buy or not…

Def think about renting in the area for 6 months+ so you can check it out…

Opinonion seems to be that London prices will plateau for a while and commuter places will increase. My house in village near Leatherhead hasn’t gone up that much in recent years from what I’ve been told.

qwerty – fair play, you’re excused. 🙂

Burgess Hill? http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35938856.html

Cycling distance from South Downs & Stanmer Park, plus its literally next to the station .

Another possible website to use is http://www.commutefrom.com/ as you can set out what house price you are looking for; what travel time via train you want to particular stations in London and it will tell you the average property price.

Aylesbury should be affordable.

Only 45 mins ride into the Chilterns too.

@phil, as above I was going to suggest Guildford area (I lived there for 25 years) but a 2 bed flat is £200-250. Have a look round Dorking, you are actually closer to the best riding but I think prices are going to still be high £100’s for flats. You might like to look around Aldershot / Camberly / Bracknell. Before I get flamed for suggestions I think you are going to struggle to find anywhere 90 mins from London where you can find a flat for £120. Also don’t forget commute costs, it used to cost me about £600 a month to get to work with parking/train/tube costs

As a Kentishman that lived in Guildford, that would have been my suggestion. But somewhere in the North Kent Downs might come in closer to that kind of budget than Surrey.
23 minutes HS1 from Ebbsfleet to StPancras. Towns around there are dumps though (imho), but out of town is fine.
Not just convenience getting to/from work, and to/from some trails to ride on, but also what sort of access do you want or need to airports and the like for business? (only ask, since I’ve lived within 30minutes of the check in desk of the largest european airport hubs for so long that I couldn’t imagine living somewhere where getting to the airport for a ski trip or holiday takes effort).

somewhere in kent with access to HS1?

Ashford is a pox-hole, and there isn’t much in the way of MTB’ing to make up for that.

As a Kentishman that lived in Guildford, that would have been my suggestion. But somewhere in the North Kent Downs might come in closer to that kind of budget than Surrey.
23 minutes HS1 from Ebbsfleet to StPancras. Towns around there are dumps though (imho), but out of town is fine.
Not just convenience getting to/from work, and to/from some trails to ride on, but also what sort of access do you want or need to airports and the like for business? (only ask, since I’ve lived within 30minutes of the check in desk of the largest european airport hubs for so long that I couldn’t imagine living somewhere where getting to the airport for a ski trip or holiday takes effort).

What is the riding like in the Kent Downs ? I have been looking around there a bit as it is way cheaper than Surrey, and is not too bad for access to the sea either.

I don’t need access to airports for work at all, and after 18 months of on and off travelling, think I will be in one place for a little while 🙂

was mostly a roadie back then, and there’s more than plenty of that, both in Kent and Surrey. north downs are hilly, plus there’s also the Weald, but it’s very much a grab a map and explore.
didn’t really properly defect to MTB until I moved to holland (work that one out).

Reading. Has some good riding straight out of the door. 120k might not be enough though.

I hear croydon is nice

Give me £120K and you can stay at our place for 10 years, exactly 1.5 hours from Waterloo, some of the locals are a bit weird though

Kemble (Cirencester, Malmsbury or Tetbury). Nearer than Stroud, and most importantly, not Stroud.

I would second reading, good road riding from the town, some offroad routes as well up towards mapledurham, and a bit further out you have the whole of the chilterns and swinleys not far either. On the motorway for escapes and its 23 mins to paddington in the mornings. I think you might struggle on 120k though! Also don’t forget to allow for the couple of thousand needed for your season ticket.

Any of the towns along the a25 from Guildford to sevenoaks would probably do a reasonable job of being nice places to live and convenient for London. Unfortunately that’s why they’re so expensive! Sometimes things do crop up a little bit further in, so maybe have a look at Epsom, coulsdon, caterham or Biggin hill?

In Rutland (Oakham 50 minutes from London) 120k would get you something decent and it’s somewhere you would want to be at weekends. I’ve lived in Manchester, Surrey, Islington, Australia and none of these places made me as happy as I am living here.

Oakham 50 minutes from London

How? By helicopter?

Reading is all that comes to mind. There are flats around for your budget. With Crossrail on the way as well, I guess that prices should keep pace.

MILTON KEYNES!
Not the hipsters choice – but 170k could get you a victorian terrace in the very up and coming Wolverton area. Not far from Woburn woods

You can live inside the M25 and by a mainline station for your budget

Rather you than me though

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46627237.html

Living in London sounds great!

😆

I had that sort of budget when I was looking ten years ago in Dorking (good combination of local riding and access to the South Coast for keelboat racing). I grew up in Leatherhead, by the way.

Did the commute into Soho for about five years – it was about 90 minutes door to door. Covent Garden is easier – an almost a pleasant walk from Waterloo, too.

As said above, look at renting to see if a town’s good for you – although prices will go up in the mean time, of course.

Oakham 50 minutes from London

How? By helicopter?[/quote]

Indeed, 1:40 with a change in Leicester…

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46627237.html

I wonder if you have to sleep in a coffin? 🙂

Ipswich if your idea of a fun day on the bike is lots of miles on rural bridleways with the odd small hill thrown in. (A flexible approach to cheeky trails is a good idea too). The only fly in the ointment is the mainline rolling stock is very old (as in it was brought in from GWR after one service life) and we’re miles from any decent hills.

Not being funny but isn’t the job/location/re numeration thing a bit skewed? What’s the point of working in covent garden and being payed a wage that means 120k is your mortgage limit and you will be paying a significant chunk of monthly income on travel?
Or is your job so very specific that you can only do it there?

The only fly in the ointment is the mainline rolling stock is very old (as in it was brought in from GWR after one service life) and we’re miles from any decent hills.

Eh? The mk3 coaches are infinitely nicer than most commuter rolling stock, and they didn’t come from Great Western, who are still using their mk3s in HSTs. The loco hauled mk3s are different, Abellio Greater Anglia have had some for years, others came from Virgin after they introduced Voyagers and then later Pendolinos.

Plenty of them still in service with FGW, East Coast, Cross Country, EastMidlands Trains and Virgin West Coast, plus derivatives in EMUs for most of the major TOCs.

Derby is 90 minutes away from London by train the only problem a peak time return ticket is about £170 a day…..

TIme-share?

FWIW, back when I was commuting in to town, my train (Exeter-Waterloo) was always clean and tidy, and I almost always got a seat in both directions (Bar about three occasions when there was weather or “passenger action” disruptions).

Just about an hour of train time, so enough to have a nice coffee, read the paper and do the crossword.

Brompton was the key, though. Made a massive difference to the “either end” element of commuting.

What’s the point of working in covent garden and being payed a wage that means 120k is your mortgage limit and you will be paying a significant chunk of monthly income on travel?

Exactly, from your previous post move I with the missus and save more to buy something nice, short term buy sell will just cost you in fees.

I hear croydon is nice

You hear wrong!

CaptainFlashheart – Am I missing something? How can Exeter to London be “an hour of train time”. IS there another Exeter that’s not in Devon?

Should have read “(Exeter to Waterloo line)”, sorry!

You take public transport Flashy? With the masses? Urghhh. I had you down as more…