Buying a property can be extremely daunting for buyers and trying to find the right home for you within your budget is something that often requires patience.
Moving home is also expensive and includes payments such as stamp duty, legal fees, surveys, estate agent fees and moving costs which means that ideally it isn’t something that you want to do often – which is why making the right choice is vital. A property that will fulfil your needs for years to come and give you room to grow without exceeding your limits is key.
Why Essex?
Essex is an extremely popular place to live with so many great towns, villages and even an established city drawing in people from all over. The balance of beautiful countryside, sandy beaches and plenty of things to do with easy access to London is a huge attraction giving residents the best of everything.
Convenient rail links to London also make this a great opportunity for commuters looking to enjoy a more rural lifestyle but within easy distance to work.
Stansted and Southend airports are both located within Essex and offer a huge range of flights to locations all over the world as well as being a close distance to the other big London airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and London City.
For families there are so many great things to see and do for children of all ages with an abundance of green space and parks for summer picnics to museums, farms, swimming pools, play centres, cinemas, trampoline parks, escape rooms and more.
There is also a number of extremely good nursery and educational options at all levels for both private and state schools. Whether it’s pre-school, primary, secondary, college or university, Essex is home to some outstanding schools, providing great opportunities at all stages of education.
Top Tips for Your Essex Property Search
We spoke to some professional estate agents Chelmsford to put together some top tips for buying property in Essex.
- Area
Do you know your preferred area at all? What do you know about it? It’s important if you’re not local to your chosen area that you don’t just take on person’s word for it. Do you have friends or relatives nearby you can ask? Think about what is important for you to know – are their good local parks nearby? What is the social scene like? Are there good work opportunities?
- Commuting
Will you be commuting into London or travelling to work every day? If so then looking at areas in Essex that are conveniently placed to give you easy access and shorter travel times on the roads or trains are important. Chelmsford, Grays, Colchester, Basildon and Purfleet are just a few of the places that can have a lot to offer commuters with good travel times, more house for their money and reasonable season ticket prices.
- Children
Whether you have kids already or are planning to in the near future this is something you should think about in every property search – and not just because of the size of garden or amount of bedrooms you want. Being in a desirable school catchment can make properties extremely desirable and in high demand with parents doing everything they can to help give their children the best chance of getting into the top schools.
The last thing you want to do is settle into your ‘forever home’ only to find that it means a 30-minute round trip every morning in the car for you to do school drop offs. How close are the nearest schools to your chosen property? Can you walk it if needed?
Also what is the area like for families? Are there places to take them in the summer for a game of football with their friends and plenty of places to ride bikes and run around?
- Budget
If you set your heart on moving to places such as Chigwell, Ingatestone or Buckhurst Hill then you better have a very big budget or accept how much you’ll be able to get for your money. If, however you aren’t set on a particular town in Essex then do some research and go exploring – there’s so many great places to see that could just be the right fit for you. Towns like Maldon, Witham and Harlow have a lot to offer with plenty of properties for all budgets.