Outnumbered - is the lifestyle realistic?

[Mrsemcgregor]

So I’ve been watching Outnumbered on Netflix with my DS (he loves it!) and I’m wondering if the lifestyle they have is achievable in London considering their jobs?

Pete is a teacher in a secondary school and is yet to achieve head of department and Sue is part time in what I assume is an admin/PA type role. I’m hypothesising that their joint income is likely to be around £60k? Maybe £70k. Where I live they would be lucky to be on £50k but I’m adding extra for London wages.

The house they live in is huge! I am not sure where in London it’s meant to be, but their is a scene where Pete mentions problems on the tube so I assume they are within the underground network. It’s 3 stories and at least 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms, a massive kitchen dining area, a garden and a nice sized lounge with a big bay window. Even where I live that would set you back close to £500,000. That house must cost a fortune in London?

Pete’s mum and dad are still alive as is Sue’s dad so I’m assuming no large inheritance, and they mention a mortgage so they haven’t inherited the house.

Can any London mumsnetters confirm or deny that this is realistic?

(I know I have far too much time on my hands and have given this way too much thought )

It’s easy to see, the house has been up for sale recently in Wandsworth where they filmed it 5 bedroom and 1.8 million pounds, so going to zoopla we find that similar houses in that area in 2007 were selling for £875K and further back 2002 £400 k plus and 1995 £175k, house in London have increased by 500% in value over the last 30 years while salaries have gone up by 60 to 70% go figure obviously not the same for all sectors and jobs.

So a couple with a deposit, quite middle class, not young ie in their early 30s late 20s around the year 2000 probably would be able to afford to buy what would have been about 300k

I’m not from London but similar age and working class but taught by parents that property was only safe bet like lots my age and get on the ladder and as much as you could afford you salary would catch up later, I bought my first house in my mid 20s

I literally could only afford a house that was cheap and needed loads of work and I had to have an interview with the bank manager for the mortgage and I worked and spent on the house and nothing else, I remember I had £13 left each week after bills which even taking inflation was low for 1996, so lived on weetabix and food parcels from my mum.

Unfortunately even with that resolve the young people of today stand little chance of doing the same

We bought a 3bed terrace in Z2 for £365k in 2010, with the benefit of a redundancy payout to DH. We sold it 6 years later for well over double that. We now have a 5bed semi in Z4, although admittedly it wasn't 5bed until we spent a fair amount of money on extension and conversion, which we got for less than the terrace sold for. Area does matter a lot and many areas have appreciated at an unbelievable rate since the 90s. It is sad that we would never be able to afford our first house today though, despite the fact we're both on very good incomes.

I totally wonder this when watching TV regularly. When watching the original Lady & the Tramp with kids recently, I asked DH how a young newly married couple could afford that giant Southern pile in a gated neighbourhood.

I bump into her every so often as she lives down the road. Sometimes we see them together as they are an item now. They look very happy x

@Respectabitch

If Z2 is your postcode then you're a long, long way out of London and hence the low price.

This is not realistic .

That house in Clapham / Balham would be circa 1.2-1.4 mil today .

Friends of ours bought about 10-15 years ago for circa 300 or so .

Totally unreasonable . I have no kids , earn 150k + between two of us and live in a 1 bed apartment in zone 2 ... 😅

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@Respectabitch

If Z2 is your postcode then you're a long, long way out of London and hence the low price.[/quote]
don't be ridiculous. Highbury is Z2, Camden Town is Z2. They are not "a long way out of London".

@LilacPebbles

Just read the thread 😱 clearly I'm not from the London area. It's a normal working class house- where does everyone live in London who isn't a millionaire then?!

It isn't a normal "working class" house 😅

It looks teeny to me! The rooms all look narrow and cramped, and they can hear all the noise from the neighbours. Maybe they crammed it extra full of stuff though and it just looks smaller on camera?

@stevalnamechanger

This is not realistic .

That house in Clapham / Balham would be circa 1.2-1.4 mil today .

Friends of ours bought about 10-15 years ago for circa 300 or so .

Totally unreasonable . I have no kids , earn 150k + between two of us and live in a 1 bed apartment in zone 2 ... 😅

It is realistic. It would have cost well under 200k in the mid 90s. As pp said, it cost 110k, early 90s. I live in that area and paid 200k in the late 90s. We earned a joint salary of 55k.

@EmmaGrundyForPm

I think you're confusing it with Lerwick - easily done.

My partner and I had this exact discussion watching this.

We came to the conclusion that it was more realistic in 2007 when house prices were lower.

However, these programmes always have people in slightly nicer circumstances than they’d have in real life.

I remember moaning to my mum about the amazing apartments the characters in Friends lived in. She said she used to watch a Tv series in the 60’s featuring a 20 something, single secretary who had an amazing flat and dressed in Dior!

Think people want to see themselves reflected back in TV series ... but thinner, richer and more glamourous versions of themselves!

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@EmmaGrundyForPm

I think you're confusing it with Lerwick - easily done. [/quote]
Z2 stands for Zone 2, on the London tube map. It’s not referring to a post code

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@Respectabitch

If Z2 is your postcode then you're a long, long way out of London and hence the low price.[/quote]
I live in Zone 2 and have a 30 minute walk into Central London to work. It’s very definitely in London.

Zone 2 is London, not central but definitely London.

NRTFT, but has anyone mentioned yet that the house in Spaced where Tim, Daisy, Brian and Marsha lived sold recently for £3.25 million? Marsha would have been able to buy a lot of Rioja and silk cut with that!

The statistics in Chrisshaw911’s post are very sobering. A necessary reminder that often if people who have been unable to buy property it’s not been for the want of hard work or because they’ve pissed all their money away on iPhones and avacados.

@wallyb

Zone 2 is London, not central but definitely London.

I think the poster mistook Z2 to mean a postcode (there had been precious talk using London postcodes such as SW1 etc) rather than knowing it means Zone 2. She referred to Lerwick (in Scotland) where the postcode is ZE so think she was mixing it up with that

That house in Clapham / Balham would be circa 1.2-1.4 mil today .

It would be more like 1.5 plus. 1.2m only gets you a small terrace really.

right @LittleRa

I meant previous in my post, not precious

A necessary reminder that often if people who have been unable to buy property it’s not been for the want of hard work or because they’ve pissed all their money away on iPhones and avacados.

Unless you get a job that pays 250k it's likely that your chance of buying a house depends on whether your parents can help you which is pretty shit.

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@Respectabitch

If Z2 is your postcode then you're a long, long way out of London and hence the low price.[/quote]
I’m on the zone1/2 border, St Pauls Cathedral is a 25 minute walk from my flat.

And this is why I love mumsnet

The house is in Dempster Road, Wandsworth. SW18

My cousins lived in this road, my family lived in the next road along

@SimonJT

I said Postcode not Zone, glad you're not a postman

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@SimonJT

I said Postcode not Zone, glad you're not a postman [/quote]
I could pull of the shorts.

Sorry, my bad, will read better next time 😁