DH and I have been renting a flat in London for about ten years now. Our rent is cheap, our landlady (manages it directly) is decent and is likely to let us stay next year too, but the horror stories about the rental market in London are worrying me a lot. There is a flat in our building up for rent for 50% more per month than we pay. As it is, I already find myself panicking a lot about what if the rent goes up and we have to move, what if we can't afford it, what happens next, can we plan anything more than a year in advance etc. - autism and anxiety are brilliant, huh? - but things seem to be getting worse. I don't want to engage in rounds of interviews or estate agent bidding wars to have a place to live. We are in our 40s and I don't have time for any of that bullshit. And at some point, our landlady will sell/put the rent up to a point we can't manage, and we will have to deal with it. I've been dealing with some financial and medical stuff for the past few years, and this is now coming into an end and things are looking more likely in terms of getting a place of our own in the next year or so, but still feels impossible given the way things have been save a massive property crash.
Buying outright in London with our salaries/savings looks unlikely. So we have the choice of carrying on renting, considering moving out of London (I'm open to this, and have colleagues who commute in from other cities, but I'm concerned about the costs and unreliability of trains etc. over time) or shared ownership. When I look into the latter, I worry that a) the costs of rent and service charges will still be unpredictable b) the process for increasing our share looks like a massive pain c) it's still leasehold (though realistically anywhere we can afford would be the same) which seems like a massive scam d) the flats seem wildly overpriced at market value, even if the flats that would be in the same price range to buy outright all seem to be aimed at cash buyers/investors only because of lease extensions and such.
On the other hand, if we are childfree and are looking to buy as a place for us to have a stable home to live in medium to long term and not as some kind of investment vehicle, would it not give us that, thinking of it as more of a long term secure rental? And also that it would prevent DH being separated from friends, starting again elsewhere etc. Is it worth considering or, given the choice, would you look at moving to eg. a seaside town nearish to London, or a different city with a view to a once a week commute? I feel I need some kind of realistic plan to work towards to stop me worrying so much!
(We both do quite specific jobs, for the purposes of weighing up the options let's assume that and our places of employment will not change long term; trying to be practical and NOT anxious about this by looking at the situation as it is, and trying not to be annoyed that two professionals in their 40s can only realistically afford 1/4 to 1/3 of a small flat in Croydon and if that's the case then what about people who do real jobs etc)