COMMUTING COUPLE LEAVE LONDON FOR CHELMSFORD AND CUT RENTAL COSTS
27-year-old Adam explains: “We had been living in a rented house-share in Croydon with four other people for a while. We both decided the time was right for us to look at renting somewhere together, so rather than making a rush decision to find something similar in the same location, we considered renting outside of London instead. I have friends living in Chelmsford, so we paid them a visit and we both ended up falling in love with the area. Whilst we enjoyed living in Croydon, its not until you move away from London that you realise how much better off you can be. From a financial point of view, even though we both commute into London for work, amazingly, we are better off and now live in a better location too.”
Adam continues: “We were paying £950 per month living in a house-share in London, where we were having to share everything except our room. Now we are paying £925 per month, we live in a one-bedroom apartment, on our own, and we have an allocated underground parking space! We are still living in a central location in the middle of Chelmsford town centre, but it’s a lot nicer here. Chelmsford station is opposite City Park West, we are a short walk from all the shops and there is also a bar a few minutes’ walk from the development that we go to.“
We had seen the City Park West development in the town centre and viewed three one-bedroom rental apartments. The one we ended up going for is on the first floor, we knew as soon as we walked in that we wanted to live here. We have views overlooking the Essex County Cricket Ground, and of an evening there is a path nicely lit up which leads to Central Park, which is pretty much next door to us. There is a nature reserve and lake in the park which is really nice. We absolutely love it; we really couldn’t be happier living where we are now.”
Talking about their commute to work, Adam says: “We both work in London and the easiest route for us is to drive to Epping tube station which takes about 20 minutes, from there we can both jump on the Central Line straight into London. Door to door, it takes about an hour, and in all honesty in terms of our commuting time, it really isn’t much different from when we were travelling from Croydon!”
“We love the apartment; it is really big for a one-bedroom property, the layout is great, we have a big balcony, and the fact that it was also furnished free of charge by Folio, made our lives so much easier. When you rent, often you don’t have the big items of furniture to move-in with, so it was great being able to walk-in and already have a sofa, table and chairs and a bed, as well as the integrated appliances in the kitchen. We are very happy renting here and I think we will be here for a while to come.”
Speaking about the rental process, Adam explains: “Folio London were fantastic, they were really welcoming when we came to visit and once we had decided to rent at City Park West, they had all the paperwork sent over to us within the day, they made sure that the whole process was seamless, stress-free and completed within a few days. One of the really nice touches that greeted us when we arrived was a welcome pack. We received some chocolates and it also had some really useful tips in it, things like ‘don’t forget to update your address with the DVLA’, energy providers, local area information, instructions for the cooker and microwave and all our keys were put together and labelled for us. Its these little things that go a long way, we would definitely recommend Folio London to anyone looking to rent a home, they have been great.”