Out of town but not out of touch: Hertfordshire offers the best of both worlds for north Londoners looking for more space near good schools

Londoners from 'N' postcodes don't stray too far when moving out to the commuter belt.

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Ruth Bloomfield25 August 2017

Loyal to their neighbourhoods, that’s north Londoners — so much so that if they do decide to buy a home outside the capital, they tend not to move too far away.

Cheshunt, just 12 miles north of Highgate Village and 17 miles from central London, is the most popular option for those moving from “N” postcodes, according to a new study. More than a third of all new arrivals to the Hertfordshire town are from north London.

A league table of the most popular commuter options for exiting north Londoners found that the vast majority inch out of the capital into Hertfordshire. Here, we tour the county’s top commuter picks.

CHESHUNT

Buyers pay an average £426,300 for a home in Cheshunt according to the research by Hamptons International. This influx has helped boost prices by a healthy eight per cent in the last year and 52 per cent since 2007.

£372,500: a three-bedroom end-of-terrace house in Crossbrook Street, Cheshunt with a conservatory. Call Norman J Shepherd (01992 847333)

A huge part of Cheshunt’s appeal is its fabulous train connections. Rush-hour services to Liverpool Street take from 24 minutes and an annual season ticket costs £2,144.

Primary schools are generally of a high standard, and Flamstead End School gets an “outstanding” Ofsted report. Options for seniors are more mixed. Cheshunt School “requires improvement”, says the government education watchdog, but St Mary’s CofE High School and Goffs School are both “good”. Most buyers who register with Justin Armstrong, senior negotiator at Kings Group estate agents, are moving out of locations such as Islington, Tottenham and Edmonton, and are young families with a flat or a small house to sell. They’re looking for more good-value space.

He suggests the streets around the town centre and Grundy Park, near the shops and the station, where a three-bedroom Victorian terrace or new-build semi is about £400,000 and post-war houses start at £350,000.

Locals worry about the town getting too big but can escape to the Lee Valley Regional Park on their doorstep.

Boring shops and eating places are an issue. There are some good pubs though — the Bull’s Head stands out — and the village of Goffs Oak, just to the west and far more expensive, has a cuter range of independent coffee shops and boutiques.

WELWYN & HATFIELD

Thirteen miles from north London, the neighbouring towns of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield area favourites with north Londoners.

A quarter of buyers moving there are from the capital, and they spend an average £465,600 on a new home.

Prices have inched up by just one per cent in the last year, but in 10 years homeowners have seen property values increase by 53 per cent.

£375,000: a three-bedroom open-plan end-of-terrace house with a cottage garden in the heart of Welwyn village. Contact Herts Homes (01707 900025)

Trains from either of Welwyn’s two stations to King’s Cross take just under half an hour, and an annual season ticket costs from £3,144. However, Hatfield narrowly wins the commuting contest, with trains to King’s Cross taking just 21 minutes, and an annual season ticket costing £2,952.

Both have some cracking school choices. Welwyn St Mary’s CofE VA Primary School is rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, while Stanborough School and The Sele School, in Hertford, both seniors, get “good” reports.

Hatfield has some “outstanding” options of its own. These are Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School, for seniors; Hatfield Community Free School, a primary, and Birchwood Nursery School.

Nathan Reddy, assistant sales manager at Kings Estate Agents, says most of his buyers arrive from the furthest reaches of the Northern line — Barnet, Whetstone, Edgware and Finchley. “We have a lot of first-time buyers,” he adds. “We are only 20 minutes into King’s Cross.”

Hatfield is one of the post-war new towns and sadly the planners of that era did a pretty poor job of trying to create a new world in the form of its now lacklustre town centre and its dismal social housing. The more recent Galleria Shopping Centre is not much better.

However, there are pockets of great housing and commuters favour Birchwood, a few minutes’ walk from the station. It is filled with streets of Thirties houses, extremely similar to the houses of outer north London, but about half the price. A three-bedroom semi would cost between £375,000 and £410,000.

Buyers who want a larger house could investigate The Ryde, a private estate of big executive homes.

A four-bedroom property, measuring about 1,500sq ft, would cost in the region of £700,000.

Alternatively, for some period charm Old Hatfield is the best hunting ground. A three-bedroom Victorian terrace here would cost between £525,000 and £550,000.

Hatfield’s great downfall is poor shopping and lack of nightlife — but lovely St Albans is only six miles west.

ST ALBANS

The perennially popular little cathedral city, with its period houses and boutique and café-packed high street, is Hertfordshire’s answer to Islington, complete with dreadful traffic but with the added benefit of fantastic schools.

£700,000: a two-bedroom detached house in Kings Road, St Albans, with an office and possible scope to extend into the south-facing garden. Through Strutt & Parker (01727 629077)

Little wonder that one in seven buyers arrives from the north of the capital.

An average house costs £674,000, up four per cent year on year, and the high prices mean movers tend to be from more central, expensive parts of north London.

They move an average of 18 miles to St Albans and can be back at St Pancras International in 18 minutes. An annual season ticket costs £4,440.

While St Albans is the most expensive option in today’s league table, its price growth over the last 10 years is also the most impressive of the lot at 60 per cent.