Cardiff - good place to buy?

Cardiff - good place to buy?

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Discussion

sealtt

Original Poster:

3,091 posts

157 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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Hi,

I am looking to try living in a new area (currently in Dorset) as I am looking for a bit more of a lively scene.

It is me, my girlfriend & our kid (under 10). I am in my mid-20s and we both want to move to an area where there is plenty of social side, good activities and things to do in the town - as well as good access to countryside as we love going for road trips. We found Poole great for the coast and exploring, but not very exciting socially.

I run my business online, so as long as there is good internet and some offices/warehouses in the area I can move work in a day.

I want to use the govt help to buy scheme so have up to £600k (less is always better, but I'm happy to max out budget if I need to), and that seems to get a nice house in the Lisvane suburb which I've read good things about.

So any thoughts about Cardiff? Or any recommendations for other cities which might suit us better?

London is where all my friends live, but we can't get a nice house or area there for anything close to our budget.

Thanks for any advice, much appreciated as we don't know anything about the area.

Edited by sealtt on Monday 26th January 11:47

Timmy40

12,915 posts

197 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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I vote Bristol.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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Bristol is a good call, or Bath if your budget would stretch to it. Much better connected to train/motorway networks, easy access to South West and a shorter journey to London.


hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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Lots of advice in here so well worth a read:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

With 600k I'd be looking at Cowbridge.

sealtt

Original Poster:

3,091 posts

157 months

Monday 26th January 2015
quotequote all
Wasn't sure if Bath / Bristol might be a bit pricey for us to be able to get into a nice enough house with good access to the city centre, maybe 15mins-20mins by public transport as my girlfriend doesn't drive and I'm tired of being the taxi service!!

We want to continue living in a detached house, we did the whole apartment/flat thing in London and I've had enough of that for life if I can help it!

If you could recommend any areas of the cities it would be great as I look at the map and don't really know where to start.

carreauchompeur

17,830 posts

203 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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I'd go Bristol too. Think about some of the surrounding areas such as Backwell- which has a mainline station with quick links to the City Centre, or express buses... Nice area and countryside too.

SwissJonese

1,393 posts

174 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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sealtt said:
I run my business online, so as long as there is good internet and some offices/warehouses in the area I can move work in a day.

I want to use the govt help to buy scheme so have up to £600k (less is always better, but I'm happy to max out budget if I need to), and that seems to get a nice house in the Lisvane suburb which I've read good things about.
Wouldn't bother with Lisvane, as the planned extension of Pontprennau to extended all the way to Lisvane will surely seriously de-value the area. Nicer local places are Rhiwbina, Radyr, Lakeside, Cyncoed (where we live), Cowbridge (might be a bit far for non driver?).

Cardiff has excellent internet fiber connections (hitting consistant 78mbps for last 2 years at home). 4G is also pretty good and I use that as a backup line or working away and getting around 25mpbs min.

However as others have suggested Bristol is really nice, definitely more of an IT hub. We lived in Bath and surrounding areas for 10 years, and worked mainly in Bristol. Bristol is a great city, great people and nice places around.

sealtt

Original Poster:

3,091 posts

157 months

Monday 26th January 2015
quotequote all
Thanks a lot for the info.

I had no idea of that development around Lisvane, that's very good to know. How have you found the social side of things with Cardiff area vs Bristol / Bath?

I don't get to meet people through work, due to it being online and only have one or two part time staff. So it really needs to be through things like the kid's school (more for mums though I've found) or through the sports club, I play tennis, or through the local community of where we'd actually live.

Bluebarge

4,519 posts

177 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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I would look at Penarth - 10 mins train into central cardiff, on the sea, nice houses, nice pier, good schools.

The problem with Bristol is that the state schools there are pretty crap, so unless you can afford a private education you will find much better schools in the Cardiff area. This one in Penarth is very well thought of
http://www.stanwell.org/
There are lots of sports/outdoor opportunities in and around Cardiff (National Watersports centre, surfing in Porthcawl, endless football and rugby, cricket and lots of mountain biking/walking opportunities). I would not say the entertainment/cultural opportunities are any better in Bristol, in fact, I'd say Cardiff has the edge. The traffic in and around Bristol is also worse.




Bluebarge

4,519 posts

177 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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There is also a tennis club in Penarth

Ynox

1,702 posts

178 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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+1 for Penylan / Cyncoed being a decent idea (ex resident here, folks still live there) if you want easy to get into centre of town. Lisvane is a reasonable distance out really.

sealtt

Original Poster:

3,091 posts

157 months

Monday 26th January 2015
quotequote all
Bluebarge said:
I would look at Penarth - 10 mins train into central cardiff, on the sea, nice houses, nice pier, good schools.

The problem with Bristol is that the state schools there are pretty crap, so unless you can afford a private education you will find much better schools in the Cardiff area. This one in Penarth is very well thought of
http://www.stanwell.org/
There are lots of sports/outdoor opportunities in and around Cardiff (National Watersports centre, surfing in Porthcawl, endless football and rugby, cricket and lots of mountain biking/walking opportunities). I would not say the entertainment/cultural opportunities are any better in Bristol, in fact, I'd say Cardiff has the edge. The traffic in and around Bristol is also worse.
Thanks for your advice.

Yes, we have this same issue around here - lots of good private schools and very few good state ones. So we've had to pay for the private education this year, but I'd much rather put her in a good state school as it's just such an unnecessary cost if you move to the right area.

SwissJonese

1,393 posts

174 months

Monday 26th January 2015
quotequote all
sealtt said:
I had no idea of that development around Lisvane, that's very good to know. How have you found the social side of things with Cardiff area vs Bristol / Bath?

I don't get to meet people through work, due to it being online and only have one or two part time staff. So it really needs to be through things like the kid's school (more for mums though I've found) or through the sports club, I play tennis, or through the local community of where we'd actually live.
Same here as I work from home, so don't get chance to meet people, but everyone I have met has been very friendly.

State schools in Cardiff are excellent, look at reports for Radyr, Lisvane (primary), Cardiff High and even the Catholic schools like Corpus Christi, all pretty good.

If you play tennis consider David Lloyd center as is very popular, plus also has a great pool and where I take my 3 year old twins swimming.

SwissJonese

1,393 posts

174 months

Monday 26th January 2015
quotequote all
sealtt said:
I had no idea of that development around Lisvane, that's very good to know.
Found the map showing proposed house building in Cardiff - going to be a bit mental:-
https://www.cardiff.gov.uk/ENG/resident/Planning/L...

tleefox

1,110 posts

147 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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I lived in Cardiff for 4 years, and now live in Bristol.

Bristol is definitely more expensive and although you would find somewhere within the central boundaries of Bristol for £600k, it would be a lot less than you would get in Cardiff for the same money.

As someone else has said, non-private schools within the City of Bristol itself are mostly rubbish, and unless you live next door to the good ones, you have virtually no chance of getting in because of over-subscription.

If you go 15-20 minutes outside of the centre, that all changes. Areas such as Backwell, Nailsea, Clapton & Easton-in-Gordano will see you get a lot more for your £600k and the schools are generally much better.

We personally hated Cardiff - both myself and Mrs L-F are English, and on occasion you do very much feel like an outsider and that you are not welcome. I'm not talking about having doggy-do thrown at you for walking down the street or anything like that, more that the Welsh are very proud people and patriotic and if you don't get into that, you do feel like an outsider. I would bear this in mind if you have children as it is something they will be exposed to at some point - apologies to the Welsh people if this sounds offensive, I'm only calling it as I see it.

Another thing to consider is property prices - if you believe the forecasters prices in and around Bristol will boom over the next few years due to the electrification of the railway lines between Bristol and London meaning you will be able to get from Bristol to London in just over an hour. If you buy in the right area in Cardiff you will do ok, but will not make the same gains as if you bought in Bristol.

Just for the record, I'm not from Bristol!

hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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The problem with very good schools is you pay a massive premium to buy in that area. Cardiff High, Stanwell, Cowbridge... all ludicrous house prices. We had to do a little lateral thinking and went for Pontyclun as Y Pant has an excellent reputation.

sealtt

Original Poster:

3,091 posts

157 months

Monday 26th January 2015
quotequote all
Hmm, that's an interesting point - though we are quite a mixed family anyway as my girlfriend is Brazilian. I like the idea of Wales and could certainly buy into the patriotism, as would likely fall in love with the countryside & history.

Those plans are very interesting, I will have to work out where the house we like the look of would be in relation to that map. We also thought the RedRow estate in Lisvane looked like it had some nice houses on it. However from what is being said it sounds like Cyncoed is a better location and I've seen a couple of new builds there which could suit well.

Thanks very much for all the info shared here, it's so helpful.

SwissJonese

1,393 posts

174 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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tleefox said:
We personally hated Cardiff - both myself and Mrs L-F are English, and on occasion you do very much feel like an outsider and that you are not welcome. I'm not talking about having doggy-do thrown at you for walking down the street or anything like that, more that the Welsh are very proud people and patriotic and if you don't get into that, you do feel like an outsider. I would bear this in mind if you have children as it is something they will be exposed to at some point - apologies to the Welsh people if this sounds offensive, I'm only calling it as I see it.
I am surprised by that and sorry to hear you had a bad time. Cardiff is very Englishy, plus much more multicultural than most cities in Wales. My wife is English and seems to have no problem, yes on England vs Wales rugby match day we get a little jokey about it all but that is it.

sealtt said:
We also thought the RedRow estate in Lisvane looked like it had some nice houses on it. However from what is being said it sounds like Cyncoed is a better location and I've seen a couple of new builds there which could suit well.
Do you mean the RedRow estate that is in Rudry just outside of Lisvane? Very small town and not much public transport plus a bit of a pain to get to? There is a new build in Morganstown just outside of Radyr, but again rubbish public transport (bus every hour and take over an hour to get to town!).

sealtt

Original Poster:

3,091 posts

157 months

Monday 26th January 2015
quotequote all
SwissJonese said:
Do you mean the RedRow estate that is in Rudry just outside of Lisvane? Very small town and not much public transport plus a bit of a pain to get to? There is a new build in Morganstown just outside of Radyr, but again rubbish public transport (bus every hour and take over an hour to get to town!).
Yes the RedRow estate on Rudry Road. We drove past it last night (5pm and dark in the rain!) and it didn't seem to take long to get to the town centre, though I was driving so we had not thought about public transport issues. She is learning to drive, but we really need some good public transport to tide us over until she gets her license.

I like the idea of Cyncoed, though I'll need to go there in person to really look around the areas and see which suits us best.

skahigh

2,023 posts

130 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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tleefox said:
if you believe the forecasters prices in and around Bristol will boom over the next few years due to the electrification of the railway lines between Bristol and London meaning you will be able to get from Bristol to London in just over an hour. If you buy in the right area in Cardiff you will do ok, but will not make the same gains as if you bought in Bristol.!
The line is being electrified all the way to Swansea so the gains will be similar, obviously it will always take longer to London from Cardiff as it is further away however.

I live in Radyr, it's a very well-to-do area with some lovely older properties and is about 15 mins from the city centre by car at quiet times and 45 mins in rush hour. It is also about 3 minutes in the car from the M4 and A470 (which takes you up towards Brecon).

There are two train lines from Radyr that run to the city centre so there are roughly 10 per hour and they take about 15 mins. Cardiff central train station is a main line station between Swansea and London Paddington, I believe these services run hourly and in my experience are quite pleasant and comfortable.

Radyr sits on the Taff river which runs from Brecon down to Cardiff Bay (which is a nice part of Cardiff for an evening out btw), there is a path called the Taff trail which runs the full length (though not all of it tarmac) so you can cycle in to the city centre down the trail (which is all tarmac) in about 20-30 minutes depending on your pace (it's 5 miles).

Radyr itself has:
- Two primary schools (I think)
- A good comprehensive school
- Tennis club
- Spar
- Newsagent
- Health spa
- Optometrist
- Doctor
- Sandwich shop
- No pub! (which is something I miss)

Every home in Radyr is walking distance to the local ammenities, the older properties up the hill are generally quite large, detached and go from anywhere between about £400,000 and £1.5M. There is a new build estate on a former rail yard site down by the river where house prices are much cheaper and range from about £180,000 to £400,000 (this is where I live).

Personally, I think it's a very convenient and pleasant place to live and £600,000 will get you a beautiful house!

Edit: Forgot to add, crime in Radyr feels virtually non-existent, I'm sure it exists but I'm yet to be exposed to it.

One potential downside for you however, we don't have Fibre yet, it's coming sometime in the next year or so I believe though. I get 18Mb/s through my Sky LLU connection.

Edited by skahigh on Monday 26th January 15:36