Property special: the new commute
Riding a train may not be as joyful as clicking a pair of ruby slippers, but there is a kind of magic to the new one-to-two-hour commute, because if you’re only in the office a few days a week, what does a little extra journey time matter, when it increases your buying power? With the flexible-working ethic broadening our horizons, you may find yourself shopping for a bigger, better house, without actually spending more money
THE countryside just got bigger. Did you notice? Whatever mandates bosses issue about returning to the London office, one thing that the tumultuous past few years have taught us is that life is for living. We’re been forced to re-evaluate what’s really important and, for most of us, the good life does not involve spending 15 hours a week on a packed commuter train.
Flexible, hybrid, WFH, WFB or W-in-pyjamabottoms-with-a-Zoom-worthy-shirt-on-top —whatever you want to call it, homeworking is here to stay, which means the property market has broken free from its golden-hour shackles. Where ‘under an hour from London by train’ used to be the mantra for estate agents selling old rectories, cottages and manor houses to families moving to the commutable sticks, your average partial homeworker or TWaT (the acronym for a person who comes into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays) can cheerfully manage a journey of an hour and a half or even two hours. In this four-part series, we’ll look at the areas of the countryside that have opened up to those commuting into the capital, charming towns and villages where, for a slightly longer trip, you’ll get more house for your money and an extra spring in your step. This week, our focus is the area to the north of London, from Leamington Spa to Northampton, Grantham and even North Yorkshire.
North of the (imaginary) wall
On the Chiltern Railways line from London Marylebone, the Warwickshire town of Royal Leamington Spa, with its wide boulevards and ‘countryside feel’, has been repeatedly ranked the best or happiest place to live (Rightmove, Sunday Times and so on). Nick Martiny Roberts, who recently moved there to head up Winkworth’s new office (which opened yesterday, May 28), can’t stop singing its praises. ‘I’m obsessed with Warwickshire. It’s affordable, yet well connected—London is abo
