DTMark Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Hi My partner has a new job in Chessington and we're going at the weekend to look at places to rent for 6 months. We're ideally looking for somewhere rural or semi-rural: a two bedroom cottage would be ideal. Panning around on Google Earth I can see some less built up areas, for instance getting on towards Farnham the urban sprawl seems to fall away. As Rightmove cannot pick out "Rural" properties, (only "Character Properties" - which ideally is what we want - but property is rarely correctly listed as Character Property so it finds nothing) we're entering e.g. houses, two beds, Farnham, within 20 miles, and getting tons of results back. Not knowing this area at all - anyone who can advise where is good and where to avoid? We were hoping to shortlist maybe three general areas and then go and see them on Saturday. The only requirement is that it's possible to get to Chessington in about an hour, preferably by car but useful if on or near a train line as well. So it can literally be anywhere non-urban within about an hour, the main requirement is space/greenery if needed at the expense of distance to work. Thanks, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsme Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 HiMy partner has a new job in Chessington and we're going at the weekend to look at places to rent for 6 months. We're ideally looking for somewhere rural or semi-rural: a two bedroom cottage would be ideal. Panning around on Google Earth I can see some less built up areas, for instance getting on towards Farnham the urban sprawl seems to fall away. As Rightmove cannot pick out "Rural" properties, (only "Character Properties" - which ideally is what we want - but property is rarely correctly listed as Character Property so it finds nothing) we're entering e.g. houses, two beds, Farnham, within 20 miles, and getting tons of results back. Not knowing this area at all - anyone who can advise where is good and where to avoid? We were hoping to shortlist maybe three general areas and then go and see them on Saturday. The only requirement is that it's possible to get to Chessington in about an hour, preferably by car but useful if on or near a train line as well. So it can literally be anywhere non-urban within about an hour, the main requirement is space/greenery if needed at the expense of distance to work. Thanks, Mark 10 to 15 minutes are leatherhead, epsom and ashtead.20 minutes are Esher and Hinchley wood ( very upmarket), and along the A3 towns such as farnham( quaint) and guildford( mixture).Try leatherhead epsom and ashtead first,Epsom and epsom downs would be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted June 29, 2007 Author Share Posted June 29, 2007 Thanks for that - just planning our day out now :-) It appears you can't commute by train to Chessington anyway as it's a line terminus, so car it is, which means we're not restricted to places near train stations. We've found some nice places so far: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-158...e&tr_t=rent http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-802...e&tr_t=rent http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-834...e&tr_t=rent (looks like the owner couldn't sell it looking at the foreground!) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-829...e&tr_t=rent http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-825...e&tr_t=rent Cheers for your help - exploring those areas today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsme Posted June 29, 2007 Share Posted June 29, 2007 Thanks for that - just planning our day out now :-)It appears you can't commute by train to Chessington anyway as it's a line terminus, so car it is, which means we're not restricted to places near train stations. We've found some nice places so far: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-158...e&tr_t=rent http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-802...e&tr_t=rent http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-834...e&tr_t=rent (looks like the owner couldn't sell it looking at the foreground!) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-829...e&tr_t=rent http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-825...e&tr_t=rent Cheers for your help - exploring those areas today. Just watch out for the rush hour traffic on the A3.You can easily hit a bottleneck at the hook turnoff used for chessington.Apart from that you are definately going out of the city..... and remember that Chessington is an industrial and theme park area, the high street is on a fast main road, but any of the surrounding and nearby areas will be close by, and though not rural, you will be able to find something with greenery around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted July 16, 2007 Author Share Posted July 16, 2007 Just watch out for the rush hour traffic on the A3.You can easily hit a bottleneck at the hook turnoff used for chessington.Apart from that you are definately going out of the city.....and remember that Chessington is an industrial and theme park area, the high street is on a fast main road, but any of the surrounding and nearby areas will be close by, and though not rural, you will be able to find something with greenery around. Just to update - we only got to go down and take a look around on Saturday. We were very impressed with Bookham, so focusing on there as it's not far away, but quite tranquil and pretty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted August 6, 2007 Author Share Posted August 6, 2007 This is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare... We don't really know the area that well, but we've been down and taken a look: Farnham is nice, Great Bookham is nice - Haselmere - Alton - and so forth. Trouble is, it's as if none of the agents round that way are on Rightmove - or, very few. When we search we just get back a limited selection most of which has already been let. We have a few special considerations which then narrow it down further and so far we've only arranged one viewing which thanks to the traffic on Saturday we couldn't even get within 30 miles of. We'll go up to £1,000 per month (we could spend more but would rather just travel further) - one bed +, must accept a cat, semi-rural or rural but not urban, doesn't have to be characterful but must not be a new build, can be a flat as long as it isn't in a "block of flats". The "non urban" requirement has us looking outside the M25, we'll go up to 30 miles away for the right property (Alton or a bit further) as that's more important than commuting time, plus, we seem to have chosen the most expensive "corner" of the M25 and while there are thousands of tacky new flats and terraces, there's very little in the way of non-urban rentals even though so much of the area is very green. We're searching West Surrey and East Sussex and finding next to nothing. Trying to track down local estate agents on Google is tricky and taking a long time. Does anyone live round this way with any info that can help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachman Posted August 6, 2007 Share Posted August 6, 2007 (edited) Just to update - we only got to go down and take a look around on Saturday.We were very impressed with Bookham, so focusing on there as it's not far away, but quite tranquil and pretty. Half of the Bookhams are nice - the other half is chav Beirut (or is round the pubs). Ripley is nice, and has a good pub and a decent restaurant (Drakes). The Horsleys are nice enough too - but quiet. depending on what you want to pay, you can stay closer to Chessington - Cobham, Oxshott (though not a lot of 2 bedders there, let alone cottages), Esher (as before) - Stoke D'Abernon is OK too. I quite like these, but they are not cheap to rent - good rural location though. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-155...3&tr_t=rent Do not underestimate how busy it gets trying to get through Malden Rushett or off the A3 to Chessington - it's a traffic disaster zone in the morning and it's only slightly ameliorated at the moment because the kids are off - it's a horror so being closer means your commute will be less and less chance of being held up elsewhere. Try it when the kids are back and it's raining...... Edited August 6, 2007 by Rachman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted August 13, 2007 Author Share Posted August 13, 2007 Thanks for that. I did search around those areas, but putting in £1,000 per month as a budget brought back a total of only one house - must be very expensive to live round there! We finally settled on a semi detached cottage in own grounds in a rural areas just on the border with Hampshire, near Alton: it's about an hour away from Chessington which isn't too bad. We saw it on Saturday along with a number of other properties around Farnham and decided to go for this one as it is fully rural (on land owned by some Trust or other); we did have some on the shortlist in Ash and Fleet but fell in love with this one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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