Considering a move to Dane Road

[BumblePee]

Hi all, looking for some information regarding Dane Road / Brittany Road.

I currently live in Surrey and have sold my house as I am moving abroad and I am looking for a bolt hole here in the UK so I have somewhere I can come back too if need be.

A friend of mine suggested I look at property in Hastings / St Leonard's as property prices are pretty attractive, I have a budget of around £160,000.

I am considering making an offer on a flat which is on Dane Road and have heard some conflicting views regarding St Leonard's, some say its a rough place full of druggies and alcoholics and others say they would never dream of moving away.

I am now confused as to whether to go ahead with buying a property here so thought I would come and get some advice from the people that actually live here!

Many thanks any information will be appreciated.

[Geoff]

Hi Bumblepee and welcome to the forum.

I personally like Dane Road very much and have considered living there in the past myself. Some great properties! Brittany Road is okay too in my opinion, but Dane would be my choice of the two.

I think the thing to do before speculating your £160k is to rent a flat for six months in St Leonards and get a feel for the area. It's not for everyone and has it's issues like any other town, but hopefully you will like it and decide to settle here.

Keep us posted!

[Insomniac]

I live just around the corner in Upper Maze Hill, love living in this area. Close enough to shops/train station/beach etc... Haven't had/heard any trouble.

Dane Road (and Brittany as Geoff points out) have some great properties, we had our eye on one or two places before we moved into our current flat (rented). Also Markwick Terrace up the top of Dane Road is also very nice.

You also get access to Markwick Gardens, for a yearly fee.

[mordecai123]

Hi All

Voted with my feet 10 years ago and moved down from London to to the area. Am involved in property; renting, developing and selling, and am currently selling a very large two bed garden flat in St Leonards on Sea; share of Freehold, well managed,and no disputes with any of the other leaseholders!

It is about a minute's walk to the beach, and about five to the rail station - which, on certain trains, gets into London Bridge in around 1 hour 25 mins.

Yes, there are the druggies and the drongos (name anywhere vaguely interesting that doesn't!).

But, at the risk of sounding like some New Age yogurt-knitter, there is a real energy about the place; a lot of regeneration, new art galleries, cafes, bars, restaurants, independent shops and some genuinely talented artists, musicians and writers moving in to the area - all happily swopping their shoe-boxed sized bijou apartmentettes in London for some absurdly large, ridiculously affordable property down here - and being justifiably smug in the process.

If you've got kids, become a Catholic if you aren't already, as the half-way decent state schools are largely RC. But, the area does have some pretty good 6th form colleges (Sussex Coast College in Hastings, and nearby Bexhill College). Check out the Ofsted reports.

In short, a real curate's egg of a place, but with a lot of natural beauty in and around the area (East Sussex is massively underrated in my view), and a lot of really decent people...AND, bonkersly-low property prices compared to the likes of Brighton and, of course, London.

Plus, according to my NBF, local MP Amber Rudd, there will be a 70 minute train service to London from around 2017, which is bound to have a knock-on effect on property prices.

Think on...but not for too long!

Martin Levinson