Rochester

[dema]

Hi,
Can anyone from Rocheseter give me some info on what is it like to live there? I've heard that Strood and Chatham are not very nice, however, Rochester looked nice (the high St anyway)
Need to be near the M25 and easy commute to London by train.

Thanks

Edited by dema on Sunday 7th June 16:33

[dema]

LOL, shall I blame my fat fingers or the phone's predictive text,

[dema]

Yes, I've heard that there are some nice villeges around the main towns but, although I'll be fine for the M25, the wife will need to drive 2/3 miles to the nearest station, not sure if she'll be sold on that.

I guess that all of the main towns in the area are effected by the not so nice people leaving in the nearby places (no offence to anyone)

[dema]

Thank you for the info,
Unfortunaltey all of those places seesm to be 2/3 miles away form the closest train station, we would be looking for something with a station in town for the wife to commute to London.
Should I be looking more west kent? is that better?

[dema]

Thank you, did the people from Chatham or Strood,"invaded" Rochester at all?
I live in a small town in Buckinghamshire, and, although there are couple of kids playing the bad boys in fornt of Tesco or in the station car park, they are no an annoyance to others.

[dema]

Thanks for the info guys,
Trains from Rochester seems ok, only 3 available options betwees 7.00 and 7.30, the wife might needs to wake up earleir....

Maidtone prices also seems ok, But I would prefer living in a smaller town near to a larger one for shopping etc.

Prices, to start with I'll be looking for around 1K a month for a large 2 bed or normal size 3 bed house, in the next few years I'm hoping to be in a position to buy, same size house for less than 300K.
House prices is thereason I'm lokking at the Kent area.

I do like the sound of Tunbridge as well, buy might be out of budget

[dema]

Thank you for the info,
I just seen that there is an 8am train into to London, takes less than 40 min, which is quicker than what it takes where we are now, good point in the seating availability!
I guess we will need to check it out on a week end day and night to see how we find it.
Had a look a tonbridge, although house prices are not too bad, renting will be out of reach

[dema]

Thanks for the info, it does sound strange to commute by bus for some reason but, prices seems a lot cheaper, will need to check how long it takes and were the pick up points are.

We spent couple of hours in Rochester today and not a chav on site! The high street and surrounding areas do look nice and the roads we have driven to on the way in and out ( Maidstone road?) didn't look bad either.

Have I been lucky or because it is a Medway town people have reservations? There must be some truth on all the comments I've read so far..

[dema]

Thank you for he comments,
Higham would be out of budget for what I've seen on Zoopla, Wainscott however, would be ok.

Although pretty and affluent,Tunbridge Wells doesn't do it for me for some reaosn. I drove through Tonbridge and the south part where the castle is looks nice, although I would problably look at the north part where the station is, the high street, is rubbish, but, for restaurants, TW is 10 min down the road and Bluewater is not far for shopping. Although at the top end, prices seems ok, I have looked at Rochester way first as you could get a much bigger property for less money (although demographic and 1K extra on season ticket might be the reason for it).

Open to all suggestion for location, due to work we did move around the south east a fair bit so we have friends scaterred every where, as long as the location is nice, housing affordable, easy commute to London I'm not too bothered, I'll be happy to travel further to the M25 if needs be (the area I look after for work strech from Newbury to Ramsgate including the south coast and parts of Herts,Bucks,Bed and Essex).

I would agree on having a future better return in a property closer to Londond but finding a deposit would take me another 15 years or so (I want to have 20%) that would cost me another 15K min in rent.

Thanks again for the suggestions and advise, I'm off to Italy to see the family for two weeks, will do more visiting and maths when I'm back.

[dema]

Current office location is Baker St, there are rumours that the office will move near Bond St but not confirmed yet, it could be anywhere, although I'm 99.9% sure it will be central London.

The idea js to move now to buy in the next 2/3 years, I don't want to buy in s place I haven't lived in as I wasn't to be sure that the location is right.
At the moment era re spoiled in a larghe 2 bed House for Justin indet 1k ( smaller giudea in the area arte going for 1100 to 1250 , we have been good tenants for 5 years)

[dema]

Cheers guys,

Back from holiday now, will be spending few more days in Kent in the next few weeks so that I can have another look around.