London is getting more and costlier, and there appears to be very little that can be done to diminish the desire for our nation’s capital. Admittedly, this inevitable rise is pricing in some out-of-town residents, with many first-time buyers opting to make daily trips from their surrounding areas of origin.

To help first-time buyers get out of the capital, real estate agency Yopa has created a interactive tool to help you choose the best commuter city based on your own needs.

We thought we’d give it a try, and the results were somewhat surprising!

When I first logged on to the widget, initial results indicated that Leagrave in Bedfordshire was the best place to live, even although the crime rate was barely higher than average. This is outwardly because the average house price is £257,000, well below the London average of over £480,000, but it’s also quite near London, taking only 38 minutes by train. Season ticket prices are reasonable at £5,256, and there are up to 96 trains per day.

Reading is next, followed by Luton and St Albans.

We then played around and wondered what would occur if we did not care about season ticket prices but wanted the cheapest property. This would be ideal for somebody who works from home but still needs to get to London every now and then.

Our results suggest that Stoke-on-Trent would be ideal for us, despite all being away in Staffordshire. It’s 87 minutes away, and the average house costs just £141,000. The crime rate is barely higher than average, but for those who need to consider the occasional trip to London it would be a gorgeous option.

OK, so what’s next.

Many of us had kids, so we played around and glimpsed places with good primary and secondary schools. Grantham in Lincolnshire tops the list, and the journey time is just over an hour. The average house price is £207,745, which is not too bad if you only need to get to London sometimes. If you had to do it every day, you’d be spending 11 hours a week commuting, but even then, it might be worth it for the nice schools and affordable housing.

Nuneaton were next, and it was closer in the 59th minute and with a lower average house price. However, a higher-than-average crime rate may give some people pause.

Price

Price is commonly the most vital part of a person’s decision to buy a home, just because if an area is out of reach there’s not much you can do apart from save for a few more years!

However, therein lies the advantage of this tool. While it does not cover every area of ​​the UK, it does have most of the major commuter routes and locations. We set a criteria of no more than 60 minutes and commenced playing around with prices.

On our first attempt, we found High Brooms in Kent to be a low crime area. It’s part of Tunbridge Wells, but you will only end up spending slightly below £300,000 on average living there. Crime is lower than average, but commuting time is somewhat slow at 53 minutes. If you do not mind the barely higher crime rate, Leagrave makes another appearance.

At £337,000, Farncombe is a viable location, and has several more pubs than High Brooms. The ride is somewhat shorter at 40 minutes, even if you do ending in Waterloo, which can be a plus point or a negative point depending on how you view the station. Alternatively, Witham in Essex is a possibility, even though five minutes further the average house costs £30,000 less.

Overall, these commuting tools make it easy to determine what’s important to you and help you make informed choices.