h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello, hope you don't mind me barging in here but I was pointed in your direction by someone at Ask h2g2.

Cutting to the chase, I'm soon to be moving jobs to work at Cardiff University and so am after some advice on living in or near Cardiff. To begin with I'll probably rent in a shared house with others but will ultimately want to buy a house of some description.

I don't know the region at all so any advice on where is nice and where to avoid would be much appreciated. I suspect Cardiff itself is a little pricey for me so a short commute would not be out of the question. I notice from the map that Caerphilly is not too far, is that a nice place to live?

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now, hope you can help and hope nobody is shouting at you too hard down the telephone.



Orcus

Hello there

First of all let me say welcome to Cardiff, although I'm not actually welsh myself I have lived here for over 20 years!

Cardiff is very expensive so I would advise that you look a bit further afield for more reasonably priced properties. Caerphilly is quite pleasant but I have no idea about house prices in that area but am sure if you looked on the internet you could get a fair idea of whats on offer! Peter Allen and Darlows are two big estate agents in the area and both have web sites as far as I know!

I live in the Llantrisant area, which is inbetween Cardiff and Bridgend and takes between 20 to 40+ minutes to get into the centre of Cardiff depending on time of day and traffic! Properties around here are still quite reasonably priced and it's a pleasant rural area with excellent shopping facilities locally.

Anyway, anything else you need to know, please dont hesitate to ask and I'll do my best to answer if I can

Helen

Thanks

Welcome is a little premature, I won't be there until January and it'll be a further 18 months before my partner joins me there but thanks anyway

I've managed to live in both Scotland and England so far so I might as well complete the set.

I noticed Caerphilly from an internet map and that house prices were comparable to here in Birmingham so that's why I asked about that. They make nice too
Thanks for the advice, I'll check out your area, it sounds nice. I only live 3 miles from my current place of work and that can take 40 minutes! I like the idea of living near mountains again. Scotland was very cool for that.

You know, I could have sworn there was a cheese smiley.

I live very close to Caerphilly and it's a very nice place to live with good links to Cardiff by road and rail. There are only a few areas to avoid, Lansbury Park and Penyrheol being the main ones. A few miles outside Caerphilly, you've got Llanbradach which also has excellent rail and road links. It would put about an extra 10 mins on a journey into the city, and the house prices tend to be a bit cheaper here, but you've got to be quick, coz they sell like hot cakes!

I think there's a (cheesecake) smiley........dont think there's a one tho

Thanks Scarymomma, places to avoid are most worth hearing about in my experience. When I moved to Birmingham we had our house burgled 3 times in six months I would not want to repeat any experience like that.
I think I'm going to come down and have a look around fairly soon. From what I can see on the map, the University looks to be in a really nice part of the City.