How far from London do I need to go to buy a flat for £160k

lol yes I admit I did not read the full thread!

Holiday is an entirely different question!

Mm, let's go on holiday to Rugby or Milton Keynes!!!

Rugby? Northants?

You could get a flat in Tunbridge Wells for that, OP. In plenty of other nice, commutable parts of Kent also.

Rugby

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/157435028#/?channel=RES_BUY

Ah yes…Jaywick! Disco Dave!!

Im in a village on the outskirts of Milton Keynes and you can be in Euston in 40 minutes from either MK central, Wolverton or Bletchley.

You wont get much for 160 (bar some very rough areas) or you could look at just inside Northamptonshire where the prices drop a bit and you'll get more for your money

In my town you could buy 50% of a flat for that, and a bit of change, with no rent on the other half, you just own half. Always lots on rightmove. Town is Whyteleafe - near 2 stations and in zone 6 (30 mins to Victoria).

Best get an atlas ...... especially if you think Weymouth is nearer than Somerset, too!😆

Biggleswade

I don't want to rain on your parade, but I wouldn't bother even thinking about what to do with any potential equity released from your flat yet. For starters, it's probably months still before the tenant leaves, if he isn't paying rent and has thrashed the place the fact that his rental agreement comes to an end soon is hardly going to make any difference to him is it?! Once he has left, you will then have to spend money on making the flat saleable (unless you are planning on selling it at a much lower price and have already factored that into any amount you may receive). Flats also aren't selling well at the moment as the market is flooded with many BTL landlords exiting in advance of new legislation on renting.

Once you do get your hands on the money, I would suggest that you set up a spreadsheet with all of the potential costs involved on any purchase. Remember that many councils are now charging double council tax on holiday homes and even if you eventually rent the property out as a holiday let you are responsible for all of the utilities as well. Holiday lets are intensive in terms of maintenance and costs for change-over cleaning. Presumably you would use an agency to manage the lettings and advertising, which is an additional cost to be factored in.

If you really end up with £160k from the sale, I think there are many better ways of investing the money.

Have you looked at Suffolk? Some lovely villages/towns like Woodbridge and only 1.5 hours from London.

The upkeep and running costs on a holiday place might not make much financial sense either!

By the time you have paid all the buying costs, then insurance, council tax (can be huge in coastal holiday areas if you don’t live there ) utilities , maintenance could add up to an expensive way to keep £160k!

If you find a commutable place would you live in it this saving yourself rent? Or do you have another property that you live in?

PLEASE DONT BUY A PROPERTY TO USE AS A HOLIDAY HOME

If you want to holiday in the UK (or in any country) please use hotels and guest houses designated for tourists.

Holiday Homes, second homes and AirBnBs that get rented out are RUINING towns and cities for everyday, local people who live and work in these areas.

Have you no shame?????

You can do so much with £160K that won’t inconvenience people and add to disgusting capitalism and gentrification.

You can sometimes get a one bed in Crawley for that. From Three Bridges, it's about half an hour to London Bridge.

Ignore my post. RightMove only do up to 40 miles ( I’m sure they used to do more) but still came up with plenty within 40 miles.

That train is incredibly slow, it’s nearly 2 hours from Weymouth to Winchester on the train or driving (I’ve done the drive a lot of times with work and it’s not a quick easy journey, you’re probably better just going from your house in London).

There are some other lovely places not too far from Weymouth though (it’s a lovely part of the South West) and lots of people do have holiday homes in Dorset/Somerset that they travel to from London.

I would say that anything that is nice and easily commutable from London will be expensive though and almost certainly out of your budget. You’ll be competing with other second home owners, holiday let owners, and people who actually live/work in the area which pushes prices up.

For your budget you’ll be looking at:

• Very far or difficult to get to from London with poor transport links
• Very small or needing a lot of work.
• Not in a particularly desirable area (meaning that it won’t be a great holiday homes/rental).

I’d probably put your money towards your home in London instead or choose different investments. Then just use the money you save on mortgage payments/investment returns to pay for trips to places you want to visit.

Go onto RightMove.
Set the location as London, max price £160k , radius say 50 miles. See if anything shows up.
Set radius to 100 miles, see what shows up. And so on.

Harlow, Peterborough, Lincoln, Thetford.

Well I would try to invest it - the internet is full of information on how you might do this. Or you could speak to an IFA. You wouldn't just leave it in a current account...

Property which is already so cheap is essentially already undesirable so the chances of your money growing are lower. Either way, don't invest £160k in an area you have no idea about.

You could use some of it to pay down your current mortgage, if you have one?

Where I live in Kent, we've had enough of DFLs (down from London) buying up property to rent out as so many locals are being priced out the market.

Not far at all; it just depends on what you want from the flat. There are cheap 1 bedroom flats in East London (E17) when you do a search on Right Move. An alternative is a flat in a hotel with a guaranteed yield:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/158087129#/?channel=RES_BUY

Portsmouth is pretty reasonable price wise and not too far from London about 1h 15 on train.

Have a look round Southsea, Lee on the Solent, Fareham, Gosport... a quick Google tells me your budget could be met and it's coastal. X