Million pound houses

[thinking123]

So a house near me has gone up and sale and sold within two days. It was up for offers over 975k.

I am just so shocked. It's a perfectly nice four bedroom detached house with a nice size garden. The location is nice but not outstanding, the pics on Rightmove are very nice but again nothing amazing. It's not even in the catchment for the best school in the town.

How the hell are normal family homes selling for a million pounds. How can anyone hope to pay that sort of price.

Yes, I wouldn't be able to afford to do any work to it but the thought of the kids playing hide and seek and being missing for hours would definitely be a benefit of such a big house and garden 🤔😂

We might look like San Francisco soon where there would literally be someone eating a burger wrapped and cooked in gold leaf while people are fainting from hunger outside and the server would never be able to afford the gold leaf burger.

No thanks - it’s not the most attractive part of the country

Everyone who does have a high earner in their family and is age circa 33 - either moves to zone 4 or frankly moves out.

Yes I guess this is the answer to my question. But then the commuting costs are also horrendous!

For those on ordinary salaries but without a large deposit - they move out. Thats why London schools tend to lose so many teachers and nurseries. It's not just working conditions, it's also the fact they can afford housing. If a family has less than 100k family income and only sayd 50k deposit then realistically they have to move out. You can hardly find a family house for less than 600k. So they leave. I know lots of people who left once their kids got a bit older and they no longer wanted them to share a bedroom - a lot of people cannot afford to jump into the 600-700k house bracket. And these are not just nurses and shop assistants.

They are horrendous; in fact it is cheaper to buy a 2 bed flat in zone 3 London than a 2 up 2 down in the home counties if both have to commute. Most people with that kind of arrangement tend to have only 1 spouse who commutes and this is also for logistics reasons. Also lots of kids in my area live in flats. My development has loads of kids.

Yes I live in a terraced house, technically four bed but fourth bed is less than 6' wide. Sw London and prices range from £850k if not extended out back or in loft to £1.25m if done nicely. Lovely neighbourhood though with two outstanding primaries and two parks, 15 min from tube/train. But the houses themselves are nothing special - just terraced Victorian houses.
I could afford it as I'm 60 and have built up equity over the last 35 years, plus inherited my husbands half of our old house (couldn't afford to keep it though). My neighbours just had their second baby and couldn't afford to buy here (both work full time in the foreign office) so have moved a couple stops down the line.

My impression post Covid and increased WFH is that families with two kids (and usually both parents working from home half the week) are no longer prepared to live in two bed flats indefinitely especially if they have a boy and a girl. So more and more people will be moving out especially as ordinary and public sector jobs are not getting pay increases

There are 3 Hong Kong families in my development. And a few new families. I think it really depends. Not everyone WFH. I am looking at 3 bed flats myself and I WFH 3 days a week. Third bedroom would be a study and second bedroom a nursery..

It's simply supply and demand.

If you can get £1million for your house in your area then that's what you'll put it up for sale for, obvs.

Not many people are moving house atm due to huge taxes so they are in short supply which hikes up prices, amongst other factors.

Near me £1million wouldn't even buy you pretty bog standard 4 bed house 🤷‍♀️

@Oddessafile
My daughter is on £32k outer London, 23. Drives a BMW 180, Just got back from Paris with BF and going to Ibiza in summer with her girlfriends.
She has saved hard since she was 18, neither me (who she initially lived with post divorce, now her dad) or her dad have ever charged her rent because neither of us did when we lived at home (same reason) which meant we were on the property ladder at 24,
She will be buying a flat with her boyfriend next year. Neither of us has contributed to this apart from letting her live rent free.
I'm so glad my daughter won't get into the rental trap.
She went to the local comp - did ok at A level and did a business apprenticeship. Worked in the city for 2 years to do the apprenticeship. Then worked at a prison for two years. She now works for the police.
I worry about my son who needs to go to uni to pursue his chosen career as he won't be in the same position to start saving as his sister. And will be in a lot of debt.

My parents bought their terraced house near Sloane Sq for £12,500 in the 1960s (sadly they sold it in the 80s for just over a million) . He was an NHS doctor and had a small loan from his aunt to buy it. Can't think of any NHS doctor who could afford the current £7m price tag!

I live in a "million pound house" and it's also just a standard family home. Although we are high earners, we can afford it mostly because our starter terrace appreciated massively and that gave us the funds to move up to a larger semi with garden and to spend substantial money extending and renovating it. We got lucky, no question, and it would be much harder if we were starting out now and not 10 years ago.

I find it horrifying that if you look for £1m houses up here in Northumberland and compare it with £1m properties in London.

I know these are opposite sides of the country and vastly different places but still!

My boss moved up here a few years ago and sold him ground floor 2 bed flat with no outside space for £800k and I nearly spat my tea out when he showed it to me. My whole 3 bed semi was £1.8k

When interest rates go up and the crash comes they'll be in negative equity

Yes, you can't think it'd be first time buyers getting a million pound house. It'll be people who have worked up the ladder.

I know plenty on 33 year old high earners whose flats completely under-performed since 2015/16. But the reality is that if your family income is 150k-200k - you can afford to borrow 800k no probs. It's not luck - it's salaries

Two bedroom cottage near me has just sold for over a million. South West London, we are near station ,(zone 6,). The big houses go for over two million.

But the reality is that if your family income is 150k-200k - you can afford to borrow 800k no probs. It's not luck - it's salaries

but you do need to 200k deposit which is quite hard to save up

SOME will be in negative equity but only if they’ve bought recently and at the top of their budget . Our close to £1m house cost £275k and we’ve got about £60k left to pay. There will be lots of families like us.

I'm not sure a nice 4-bed detached house with nice sized garden is a 'normal family home' anywhere other than on Mumsnet though. I certainly don't know a single family who lives in a house like that.
We recently viewed a nice 4-bed house (small garden though) on at £1 million - they did viewings on 1 day only and has 28 offers by the end of the weekend. I don't think we'll ever be able to afford to move given prices around here

It's more of a graduate tax than a student loan..my DH has a student loan and pays £4000 per annum. That in itself is not going to help you buy an apartment in London if you can't afford it! The deposit for our flat was over £60k....

My impression post Covid and increased WFH is that families with two kids (and usually both parents working from home half the week) are no longer prepared to live in two bed flats indefinitely especially if they have a boy and a girl. So more and more people will be moving out especially as ordinary and public sector jobs are not getting pay increases

my dcs heavily oversubscribed school has got a lot of places as so many families relocated because of remote working. Even the ones who could afford 1m simply wanted more than a terrace for their money.

Also stamp duty is pretty prohibitive these days

We sold our house, post divorce 2 yrs ago for £600k (bought it for £200k in 2002) - the couple who bought it were young, I wonder where the money came from?
I looked recently at the first house my ex I bought in 1995 for £63k - we sold it for £170k seven years later - it's now valued at over half a million. It's crazy. Tiny three bed terrace in London zone 3.