Where to live on 3m

[ItsPissingDownAgain]

First world question: where would you live in london on a 3m budget. Low income otherwise (!), kids in state primary, we like diversity, zones 1/2, parks, ease of travel (ideally bike but if not then public transport)

Here is one - City of London www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/76183800#/.
Here is another - Belgravia www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/84345097#/

Hiding the thread now.

It is this sort of comment that really does make people sound provincial

And there you go - anyone who doesn’t live in London is provincial! Il take it thanks 😂😂😂

And I wouldn't want to live in the sort of house you get for £500k in Forest Hill, let alone if I was a multimillionaire

You'd be lucky to get a decent 2 bed flat in FH for 500k, not sure where the notion of buying a house for that much came from! Though I'd agree, if I have 3m to spend, FH would not be top of my list. And why is it so difficult for people to understand that NOT EVERYONE wants to leave London.

Something London does have which I don’t think many places in the UK have is economic diversity. If you read the novel ‘Capital’ by John Lanchester it’s based on this very premise: that someone with just a pension, someone who owns a corner shop and someone who’s an investment banker can all be living on the same street.

Only in London can you be a lottery winner and still not be the richest person in your social circle at school.

@Loopyloututu2

I can't believe people pay the prices they do, to live in London. It's really not that special. Some people have been brainwashed into thinking it's a 'cool' place to live, and they are somehow 'better' than everyone else who doesn't live there.

This ^^. It’s funny, some people think there is no life outside London - I mean, if you’re going to pay 3million for a house wouldn’t you then at least want to ensure that you’re in a nice area where you won’t get knifed going to the corner shop or your kids can mix with the local kids?

And as for breathing the air...well, that’s not what I personally would go to London for!

What do you honestly think crime is like in London? And that kids can't mix with 'local kids'? What is a 'local kid' compared to a 'MN kid'?

Here are the stats comparing my area of London (Wandsworth borough, fairly central, most of it is zone 2) with London on a whole, with the whole of England.
And behold! They are mostly similar.

In fact, violent and sexual crime, and possession of a weapon in my area is quite a bit lower than the national average
So it is statistically more likely for a kid to get knifed where you live than where I live...

www.datawand.info/crime-and-community-safety/

On the off-chance this is a genuine search, @ItsPissingDownAgain I suggest you look slightly further out, at Acton or Ealing which are socially and ethnically diverse. Tbh the state schools in Ealing and Southall are fabulous, Acton less so.

I don't understand. £35k isn't a great combined income anywhere in the country, really. If I had 3m to spend, I'd be moving out of the city, buying a nice house and a few rentals, investing in a lovely lifestyle and good schools out of the city. You're not making sense.

@Loopyloututu2

And if you could tell me where I could live that gives me access to the same facilities, (free) museums, great schools and good housing stock as I have around me, I'm all ears. But from experience, people leave London because they want a complete change of lifestyle, not to replicate it elsewhere, because it simply can't be replicated elsewhere

Well, Manchester for one. Cheshire, Chester etc. I’m in the north so I’m answering based on that but I’m sure there are many other places.
I agree London is good for culture but do you really spend every weekend going to museums and art gallery’s?

You do know all museums are free nowadays?

errrr, you know Manchester has a higher crime rate than London for nearly all violent and serious crimes, right..?

www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&city1=Manchester&country2=United+Kingdom&city2=London

Lots of recommendations for moving out of London and/or private school neither of which are helpful! DH is morally against private school. I wouldn’t mind but don’t feel strongly enough to try and convince him.

Everyone seems very concerned about the maintenance costs of running a terrace. The roof would be average sized and no more likely to leak than anyone elses. Stamp duty is included in my assessment of budget. Council tax is fairly low. I estimated the bills in a previous comment. We would have a small amount left over for emergencies.

@londonstone has it in her post just after midnight

@emmy239 those are really nice. My friend is always trying to get me to move SE with her and it is very tempting

@TableNiner I love de Beauvoir is that where you are? Is there much of a community?

@Gazelda DH doesn’t like the idea of lodgers but wouldn’t mind renting out the drive

@Acovic I’ve got a friend very near there in almost that exact house! :o it’s a lovely area

@inkpaperstars I LOVE blackheath. Some really beautiful bits, and Greenwich right nearby.

@meowpurrgrr They’re so beautiful but I couldn’t live in a mews! For the same budget I’d prefer a bigger XLA

@sevensilverrings That’s nice too, it’s near the one I liked that someone linked earlier

@grimbelina Yes I agree re fractured communities and I wouldn’t want to live in Notting Hill or Chelsea for that reason. Also Hampstead really, although there are more mixed bits. A few kids on our street commute to private schools but plenty go to local primaries, including the ones in the fancier houses. People move from here to Walthamstow but I love being able to walk to museums

Cant find who originally posted the St Ives place, I LOVE st ives, we’re going this summer if its allowed!

I should really look at secondaries. We are near a good one but I love Camden school for girls which has a tiny catchment.

@bruceandnosh that’s really nice, im surprised Wimbledon isn’t more expensive than that. It backs onto a train line which I guess is the reason.

Sorry if disjointed im trying to home school at the same time. Also not sure re etiquette on @-ing people. I do like our current house and location but it has an unresolvable problem and feel I should be able to get my dream house for that much money?

Do keep posting rightmoves please, I’m enjoying them. Haven’t talked to RL friends about this for obvious reasons.

Acton probably isn't a bad shout with Chiswick not too far. Though I'm not sure the OP post is genuine. I don't think anyone who is truly from London would have difficulty deciding where to spend 3m for a home.

What do you honestly think crime is like in London?

I’m responding to a lot of the comments on here actually that seem to suggest that you can pay £2-3m to live in a wealthy area but then you would be slap bang in the middle of the ghetto and have to send your kids to private school anyway. You are taking it very personally for some reason!

So it is statistically more likely for a kid to get knifed where you live than where I live.

You don’t know where I live - I just said I’m in the north. I’ve lived here for twenty years and have never heard of anyone being knifed - crime is very low thankfully. Which is one of the reasons why people pay a lot of money to live here.

West Hampstead, Tufnell Park, Belsize Park, maybe parts of Camden. The area around Clissold Park and Green Lanes is also nice and very diverse, but a bit of a walk to the tube.

‘ take a good look at secondary schools and realistically move somewhere within the catchment of a good or outstanding secondary. To be honest in zone 1-2 these houses will already come with a premium anyway.’

Sound advice from@Stokey. Not just the schools per se but how your kids will get to school everyday - walk, bus, local rail, tube? You’ll want to avoid any form of school run in central London.

If you have been eyeing up Canonbury properties, then the choice of good schools in North London becomes tightly discrete & from that so are the catchment areas.

Everyone seems very concerned about the maintenance costs of running a terrace. The roof would be average sized and no more likely to leak than anyone elses. Stamp duty is included in my assessment of budget. Council tax is fairly low. I estimated the bills in a previous comment. We would have a small amount left over for emergencies.

Surely the point most of us are making is why do something that would only leave you a small amount left over for emergencies when you could instead have a rather sizeable amount left over for not just emergencies but to aslo vastly improve yours and your children's lives?

In reality a terrace house worth 3 million means nothing to your children when they could instead have holidays, life experiences and future security from the money you don't spend.

I have given 2 suggestions in the zone 1 and 2 areas! (One of my off spring owns 2 flats there and another a house so we might have a fair bit of experience in that respect although I live out here in zone 5 because I like detached., land, trees, wood opposite, horses go by etc - I think the houses on my road are probably mostly under £3m but not by a massive long way).

I suppose I probably do think that some kind of mansion tax/rebalancing of council tax towards more of the cost being born by owners of valuable properties/etc could be on the cards within the next decade or two. It'd be win-win in terms of the popular vote.

I think I'd be looking at spending roughly £1.5m maybe somewhere in zone 2/3 on a niceish 4/5 bed place that's close to a tube, and use the rest for income/spending/whatever. If you've got few ties to any area in particular it might be worth using state primaries as the starting point.

If CSG is on your wish list, then that really has set your search area & what you get for your money. You may be fortunate to pick up an ex-Council property so your money goes further.

If you set the school above paying fees then you may consider girls schools such as City of London Girls, South Hampstead, Frances Holland etc. Again transport into school is a strong consideration - CoLG is has local buses & tube stops aplenty.

I would go for a property with potential - mostly for a few flats or with attached property - so flats to rent out very close to the property as this then provides bolster income but it would need to be run properly etc.

If you could move further out this could be managed better with a property with holiday lets rather than full time lets - so it becomes a business in its own rights

city vs country is a tricky decision - I much prefer country with a connect - we have a London station stopper 5mins from home and thats a walk not a drive. It then takes about an hr and 15 on a none busy route with good clean timely trains v reliable. That then opens up a massive area to buy in and to school in. The school should always fit the child in my view.

I grew up in a deprived small town in the north east. After university, I moved to London and lived all over (Walthamstow, Islington, Bow, Woodford Green) and now I’m back in said small town for a few months before leaving the UK in June. Honestly, the people who think all of London is shit and dirty and crime-riddled are as boring as the people who think London is the be all and end all.

Every family has different wants and needs and likes and preferences and none of them are wrong. I don’t blame OP for wanting a £3m house in London, it’s bloody fantastic in London. Equally, a £3m where I’m living right now would buy you an 18 bedroom mansion with acres of land and that would suit someone else entirely.

If I lived in £3m house here in the north east, I certainly wouldn’t be on the same road as council housing and my kids wouldn’t be mixing with pretty much every walk of life in a local school. For me, the worst thing about this thread was realising the council tax on I house I linked is only £900 a year more than what we pay for a tiny box flat in the north east (our council tax is notoriously high, always makes the ‘top 10 most expensive council taxes in the country’ lists).

Council tax on lots of mega expensive houses in London is actually cheaper than bog standard ones further north

I looked up the council tax on one of those links the £2.8m house has a band G rating which was £2187.90 a year
However a band G in my NE village is £3184.73 a year and my house which was around £500k is band G!
Council tax is not as directly linked to value as most people think!

@littlepattilou

Bet the OP *@ItsPissingDownAgain* is loving this. Her thread, which is almost certainly a wind-up, has got people frothing and attacking one another. Bet she is sitting there reading this, with a massive bag of popcorn.

I'm out.

This. I didnt expect to come on this morning and find that OP is still keeping it up; I think the joke has worn a bit thin and like @littlepattilou I am surprised to see so many still buying into it.

Queens Road is south Wimbledon and it's a main road.

My council tax is about £3k.

I wonder if the poster likes either of the ones I posted - Belgravia etc. I think all within the budget of £3m.