Beaconsfield Commute

In this blog I would like to bring attention to the Beaconsfield commute to London – and why Beaconsfield and surrounding areas are such an attractive prospect to home-buyers moving out of the city.

The population of the English countryside will increase by more than half-a-million in the next decade as more people choose to leave cities and settle in rural areas, official figures have found.

According to the ONS, the rural population will increase by 6 per cent by 2025, leading to a major boom in England’s countryside economy.

The most recently available figures also show that tens of thousands of people every year are choosing to leave urban areas for the countryside. A large proportion of this figure is made up of affluent achievers, who are keeping their jobs in London and opting for a longer commute into their place of work. In many cases it is the commuting time that is a prominent factor during the search for a place to call home.

The Beaconsfield commute is 20-minutes by train to London Marylebone, making Beaconsfield and surrounding areas very attractive to house-buyers. Surrounded by the rolling hills of the Chiltern countryside, it is unsurprising that Beaconsfield was rated the most expensive town in the UK according to The Daily Telegraph (January 2016).

Beaconsfield came into prominence in the late 1870s when it was the constituency of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who was made the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield by Queen Victoria in 1876. The New Town was established quickly after the railway station was built in 1906 and grew further in two bursts, once in the 1930s and again between the 1960s and 1970. In the picturesque Old Town the many coaching inns, built as the first stopping point for coaches from London to Oxford in the 17th century, have now mostly been converted into offices or shops.

Typical home-buyers include professionals, growing families, and young City strivers who move on up the scale to houses costing in the region of £2-7m. Beaconsfield is much like it’s neighbouring town, Amersham, being divided into the old and new. The ‘Old Town’ has a grand and gracious main street (London End) with a variety of beautiful restaurants, pubs and boutiques. The ‘New Town’ is filled with a diverse selection of shops and restaurants. With weekly markets in the ‘Old Town’, Beaconsfield is seen as a social hub of interaction where home-buyers continue to be attracted to the high quality of life, architecture, history, setting and community spirit.

For those with families, a key attraction is the range of schools in the area, including the top performing state grammar, Beaconsfield High School for Girls and prep schools, Davenies and High March.

With many commuter towns around the M25; the larger family homes are often set a driving distance away from the town-centre’s. However, a unique selling point of the Beaconsfield property market is the amount of 5-Bed plus homes within a short walking distance to both the new and old-town high streets.

Once you have found your perfect home in the right location, there is much to consider:

– What work needs to be done to optimize the functionality of the house? – Are there local tradesman that are capable to carry out the work? If so, are they available to carry out the work to suit your schedule? – If there are extensive renovations to be made, will you need to reside in rented accommodation until work has finished?

Many people move to the countryside as their family begins to grow, that is to say it’s important that your new home can cope with the growth – think about “future-proofing”. Questions you might consider are:

– Are there any rooms that can be converted? – How large is the plot – Is there scope for an extension? – Could a loft be converted into further bedrooms/bathrooms? – Are there any outbuildings you can make use of?

Using an Interior Designer and/or Architect to help you understand the capability of your home, and also more importantly the feasibility of those ideas. This can save on costly mistakes.