Hello! PH'er moving back to Scotland - but where...

[kiwifraser]

Hi

I'm a regular mainly posting on the TV&S local forum, but soon to be not quite so local. I need another PH home for and , as well as a new place to live in. Some of you helped me out Christmas with advice when the Inlaws boiler broke down, so I know you are a pretty friendly bunch

From 2000-2002 I lived in Glasgow (Newton Mearns) and loved it. I met wife Vicki who is from Uddingston, and with work commitments we moved down to Ascot in England. We now have Rory who is 4, and Isla who is 2, both purposely given good Scottish names when we were living in England . A change of role at work means we have sold our house and can re-locate back to Scotland. The timing is almost perfect, as Rory will be settled into a long term family home before he starts school next August.

We have spent the last month on Rightmove looking at so many houses, with only a rough idea of which areas we think would be good to live in. The most important things are having a period property (semi-detached or detached), good schools, nice local facilities. It needs to be within 40 miles of Uddingston. We will be buying a 4 bed property and looking for good outdoor space. I will be driving/ flying each week down to the office in Maidenhead, so easy access to motorways and airports would be a bonus.

Currently the list of areas where we are looking includes:
Giffnock/ Clarkston/ Busby
Alloway/ Ayr
Balfron
Bearsden/ Milngavie

Can anyone offer some guidance on these areas, or give us some clues as to somewhere else to look. Any advice will be very much appreciated.

Cheers
kiwi

[sherman]

My brother currently lives in Giffnock. It seems nice..

Also Linlithgow is great and the schools are cracking. The only probelem is getting new kids into them as they are so full.

Edited by sherman on Thursday 5th August 22:27

[LHD]

The east coast is much nicer...

[kiwifraser]

We started as Giffnock being the first choice, mainly because it's the location we know the best. It is a great place, but getting a good property is hard work as they don't come up that often without silly pricepoints attached. Some of the other areas postcodes rank very well on acorn profiles (link below), which is how our search widened out to the above list.

http://www.caci.co.uk/acorn2009/acornmap_ext.asp

[LHD]

Bearsden is nice, would probably be my choice if i was moving to the outskirts of Glasgow.

Not too far from the center either and easy links to the airport.

[kiwifraser]

LHD said:

The east coast is much nicer...

So everyone over that side tells me

We have looked as far over as Crieff, but the distance back to Vicki's family is too far for 'convenient drop off child watching' if we want to head out for dinner, pub, etc.

[LHD]

kiwifraser said:

LHD said:

The east coast is much nicer...

So everyone over that side tells me

We have looked as far over as Crieff, but the distance back to Vicki's family is too far for 'convenient drop off child watching' if we want to head out for dinner, pub, etc.

You are welcome to join us through in Edinburgh for our many social events once you get settled in.

[kiwifraser]

LHD said:

kiwifraser said:

LHD said:

The east coast is much nicer...

So everyone over that side tells me

We have looked as far over as Crieff, but the distance back to Vicki's family is too far for 'convenient drop off child watching' if we want to head out for dinner, pub, etc.

You are welcome to join us through in Edinburgh for our many social events once you get settled in.

Cheers, sounds like a great plan to me.

[kmm]

I went to Eastwood High School many moons ago, erh left in 1984. Giffnock, Maxwell park, Mearns area have always been nice. My brother stays in Waterfoot which is nice and his kids go to Eaglesham primary. I grow up in Uplawmoor which is a smallish village 13 miles south of Glasgow, 5 miles past Barrhead going towards Irvine. Brilliant place to grow up, but possible not too many houses for sale very often. Small primary school, but i'm not sure what High school the kids would go to.

Bearsden/Milngavie are nice parts also. I have stayed in silvertonhill in Hamilton which was ok, but now stay in Falkirk and really like it. 30 mins from Glasgow or Edinburgh, some really nice bits and all the shops etc you need. Uddingston around 20-22 miles take 25-30 mins when they sort out the road works!! The only thing about Falkirk, some of the locals do talk a bit funny!!!

[sherman]

kmm said:

I went to Eastwood High School many moons ago, erh left in 1984.

You left school before I was born

[kmm]

Does that make me older than you then?

[Stevenj214]

3 of the top 4 schools in Glasgow have catchment areas in Giffnock/Busby/Mearns.

Jordanhill, Bearsden and Lenzie make up the rest of the top 6 glasgow schools.

I'd be basing my search around there if that's important to you!

[S2red]

North Glasgow (Bearsden Milngavie Bishopbriggs round to Lenzie) has good housing and schools but if Uddingston is the focus why not try South Lanarkshire (cant speak for schools over that area though)?

If you are going to travel 40 miles from Uddingston thats most of West Central Scotland covered

Like most place it will be down to budget

Get family to send down Wednesday's Herald property supplement

Couple othert sites to try

www.s1homes.com

www.gspc.co.uwww.slaterhogg.co.uk/

I'm sure others will add more

Happy hunting

Edited by S2red on Friday 6th August 08:50

[6C4GTS]

Usually your commute is in issue but you don't mention your employment status or intentions.
If you can work flexibly or work from home give us a budget and I am sure you will get flooded by links to fine baronial homes for sale. Of course the first thing you need to do on arrival is get the car sorted so that you can do the PH runs.

[6C4GTS]

These are near me which has great non fee paying schools and brilliant wee village pubs.
Depending on budget!!!
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...
Good hunting.

[kiwifraser]

6C4GTS said:

These are near me which has great non fee paying schools and brilliant wee village pubs.
Depending on budget!!!
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...
Good hunting.

The first one is fantastic, but double what we want to spend.

We are aiming for £300k - £325k.

We looked at the Bridge of Weir property as the space is brilliant, but again we know nothing of the area.

We are coming up next week to look around the locations, which should help us narrow the search.

I now work from home, although I have a small number of clients spread all over the country (Crewe, Daventry, Poole, Newcastle, Theale, Dundee), and will spend most Tuesdays in our head office in Maidenhead. Depending on my workload each week I'll either fly or drive down.

[scotty_d]

sherman said:

kmm said:

I went to Eastwood High School many moons ago, erh left in 1984.

You left school before I was born

Snap

Have a look in Ayrshire too Stewarton is nice Fenwick Dunlop only 20 miles in to town for me but nice and quite and a good bit cheaper for house's too get more for your buck just now.

[Celt]

Bridge of weir is very nice. As is quarriers. Both are pretty close to Glasgow Airport. Im not sure about the schools in the area. I would imagine there primary schools will be very good. It may be greenock high after primary. Iv got friends that went there and I dont think its to bad. Only problem is the places you have mentioned might be abit out of the way for when your kids are growing up. Might need to ferry them about quite abit.

[Mr Trophy]

My house is for sale in Musselburgh if you're interested?

[6C4GTS]

High school for Bridge of Weir and Houston is Gryffe - look it up in the league tables - it does very well for a non fee paying school. Worth a look.