Twickenham | TW2

In one line: A home in leafy Twickenham — 2 bed apartments from £705,000 around a landscaped garden, 20 minutes from Waterloo and built for low-bill, low-stress living.

Picture this: Wake to birdsong over the communal garden, walk five minutes to Craneford Playing Fields, hop on a 9-minute stroll to Twickenham station for a 20-minute ride into Waterloo. Saturday market on Church Street, paddleboarding on the Thames, a Six Nations roar drifting from Twickenham Stadium nine minutes from your front door, then dinner from a Siemens-fitted kitchen island looking out over the courtyard.

The area: Egerton Road, Twickenham TW2 7SL — the London Borough of Richmond, the green wedge of South West London and the kind of postcode people usually trade up into rather than start in. Church Street's independent boutiques, GAIL's, The Cabbage Patch and a Waitrose are all an easy walk; Richmond Park, Bushy Park, Marble Hill and Crane Park are minutes by bike. Twickenham Stadium and the Stoop on one side, the River Thames on the other, with Strawberry Hill, St Margarets, Teddington and Richmond all on your doorstep.

Private Residents' Amenities: A landscaped central garden by Assael Architecture with seating, play space and biodiverse planting; shared cycle storage for apartment residents; lift access to every floor; ground-floor bin store; video phone entry. A quiet pocket community rather than an amenity-led club.

Apartment Specification: Matte handleless kitchens with DuPont Montelli worktops, Siemens integrated oven, microwave, extractor and 300mm wine fridge, plus Electrolux fridge/freezer and dishwasher. Bathrooms in porcelain tile with Silver Storm fittings, fixed square showerhead, black ladder towel rail and feature wall tile. Underfloor heating, fitted wardrobes, wood-effect flooring and air source heat pumps throughout — EPC B with selected 3-bed Energy Smart homes rated EPC A and net-zero in operation (~£27/month estimated energy cost).