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As thrilling as life is in London’s 32 boroughs, there are advantages to living a little further out. The capital’s commuter towns usually boast a slightly slower pace of life. There’s often a bit more space and greenery – as well as better value for money. Well, so long as you don’t have to spend eye-wateringly big bucks on a rail season ticket.
Looking to keep working in the Big Smoke but live somewhere a bit cheaper? Some commuter towns are much more affordable than others. To find out which London commuter towns are the cheapest, MoveiQ (the property advice website of telly presenter Phil Spencer) has dived into house price data from HM Land Registry.
Top of the pile came the city of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire. Fast trains take just 48 minutes to get from P’boro to London, while the average house price was apparently just £250,492. Not bad, eh? Plus, Peterborough has plenty of its own attractions, from the gothic façade of its cathedral to picturesque pubs and lush parks. We’ve even got a Time Out guide to the best stuff to see and do in Peterborough.
Second-cheapest was Purfleet-On-Thames in Essex, which had an average house price of £253,952 and is just half an hour from Fenchurch Street, while in third place was Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, which is around an hour from the capital and had an average house price of £248,050.
Compared to London, where you can expect to pay much, much more for smaller properties, all those towns look really quite appealing. Though it is, of course, worth bearing in mind the cost of rail tickets. A rail season ticket between London and Peterborough costs a whopping £7,824.
Here are the top ten cheapest London commuter towns, according to MoveiQ, as well as the average house price.
- Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (£250,492)
- Purfleet-On-Thames, Essex (£253,952)
- Wellingborough, Northamptonshire (£248,050)
- Northampton, Northamptonshire (£280,848)
- Pitsea, Essex (£297,494)
- Rugby, Warwickshire (£290,335)
- Chatham, Kent (£302,301)
- Bletchley, Buckinghamshire (£332,696)
- Colchester, Essex (£321,023)
- Luton, Bedfordshire (£318,612)
Ranking London’s commuter towns is, naturally, hotly contested stuff. Back in 2022 St Albans was named the capital’s finest satellite spot, while Slough topped a list by the Telegraph just last year. Alternatively, head out of the capital for a day trip with Time Out’s list of six dazzling destinations within an hour of London.
Did you see that Battersea Power Station is now officially one of London’s most popular attractions?
Plus: there’s an amazing city-wide art festival happening in London this weekend.
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