Cardiff - good place to buy?

[sealtt]

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

[sealtt]

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.

[sealtt]

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.

[sealtt]

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.

[sealtt]

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.

[sealtt]

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.

[sealtt]

Fantastic advice in here, thanks very much, looking into it all.

That's really interesting stuff Croutons, some very interesting properties there. I'll reconsider too in the prime areas, see what sort of thing we could get if we would compromise on the detached home thing.

[sealtt]

Robbo66 said:

Grew up in Penarth. Live just outside.
My take.

Penarth: Retire there. Some decent areas, but can look like a scene from Cocoon. Stanwell a good school as in the brand new St Cyres. Town looks tired.
Dinas Powys: old village lovely. Close to town, woods, tennis, cricket rugby and football clubs ....could go on. I'm biased.
Cyncoed: a welsh Milton keynes, soulless and full of Jags. A masons wet dream. Large detached properties...detached generally.
Radyr: Lovely. What Cyncoed can only dream of being. Good schools and sports clubs, particularly tennis. Pretty.
Llandaff: as above. Good schools, rowing club and centre with Cathedral etc. Twee, but great for City Centre. BBC HQ.
Pontcanna: Guardian readers que up to live here. I lived her for 10 years before the Tristrams. If I were single, then would look here, close to town pretty housing, a buzz. North end of Cathedral Road more desirable. Ignore the black polar necks.
Cowbridge: tries too hard. The centre of The Vale. 50+ year old women preen on a Saturday, with their dominated blow dried husbands in tow. Mock Tudor at its worst, with the Vale a lonely place. Prefer to call it Upper Bridgend.

All have easy access to welsh coast, mountains with surfing and MTB on your doorstep. Driving roads are sublime up through Black Mountains. City Centre now superb, great restarants, bars, great university, National stadium, white water centre, snow dome, Bay Area, sailing, superb culture with WMC etc. Cardiff couldn't be more cosmopolitan.

Bristol ?.....because you're 20 minutes closer to London ?.

That's some great local input, thanks! Hadn't really looked over at Rydr or LLandaff which look pretty nice as well as being central. Will do some house searches there too.