How are people affording to buy in London?

[absolutelyeverybody]

Looking on Rightmove at pretty standard terraced houses in ok but not super posh areas like Clapham, Fulham, Wandsworth - houses are £2m!

Who is buying these?!

Is it simply a case of family money/help??

And further in to zone 3, houses are £1m!! How are people affording this's?

Some people are very well paid, some people are selling property they made a lot of money on, some have inherited and most buy in cheaper parts of London!

I would much rather live in the city / area I actually want to live in, in a flat/maisonette/small house, than live in a bigger family home elsewhere.

When I lived in London, there were several young families in my block of flats. It’s really not unusual to raise children in a flat, especially in London where there is ample green space (also incredibly common / the norm in parts of Europe).

I think as dc get older you naturally want more space & a park around the corner isn't the same as having your own garden. Europe is a very different set up.
Plus you are often paying through the nose for said small property and can move a little further out for a house the same value. I personally wouldn't move out of London for a big house but equally I wouldn't stay more central and sacrifice space. Everyone has different needs.

I’m the same as you. I lived in Zone 3 when I lived in London because I wanted a second bedroom. I chose that over buying a 1-bed in Zone 1. But I stayed actually IN London, in an area that was a short tube ride from Central London, and which felt very much like London (if that makes sense). I would not have wanted to move to the commuter belt for the sake of a garden, not in a million years. PP seems incredibly crushed at the prospect of having to leave London to buy a family home, I was offering a potential solution: don’t leave London, compromise on the property instead.

We normal people have always lived here, but not in expensive houses, unless through inheritance.

We bought using a small inheritance from his granny as the deposit.
But we did not spend £2m or £1m

if you want to live central then pare your ideas back and buy smaller.

I thought I wanted a garden
ffs I have kids a dog and a tough job…. I don’t have the time for a garden!!!!!

I would swap that garden to live in a 4 bed apartment now, closer to the office. But hindsight is a wonderful thing

Contrary to popular belief it’s still possible to buy a house in zone 4/5 for £375k - £425k but people can be sniffy about those areas; for eg Mile End, Plumstead, Abbeywood, Bexley and Bromley boroughs. Easy to get into central London (on Oyster and sometimes quicker and easier than tube lines further out) and gentrifying fairly quickly as they’re close to trendier areas that not many people can afford to move into these days. Eventually though, even those areas will become too expensive.

If you don’t want to do that then it’s best to start off somewhere else entirely where house prices are lower and you don’t have huge commuting costs.

Mile End is Zone 2, I’d be amazed if you could get a house there for £375-425k. Probably more like double that. Otherwise agree with your point @Turmerictolly

Difficulty is - if you buy outside London and work in London, that's 3k-5k a year commute costs. Even just outside M25 to go in 2 days a week it's £2,400 a year.

My dd’s boyfriend has 1m to spend gifted by his family, bit that will only get him a 2 bed flat in the areas he’s looking, so he’s looking to buy something he can add value to and then trade up in 3 years. But that’s how he’s doing it.

@MadeThisOneUp yep which is why my son will look in areas like Enfield and Bromley as still in zones - if you have a London centric job ( hisGF works in theatre) and his role is somewhat that way too then it makes financial sense to stick within zones if you can manage with a 2 or 3 bed flat etc especially if both of you will have commuting in the equation -

My dd’s boyfriend has 1m to spend gifted by his family, bit that will only get him a 2 bed flat in the areas he’s looking, so he’s looking to buy something he can add value to and then trade up in 3 years. But that’s how he’s doing it.

3 yrs to add value to a flat?!

Seems unlikely. Unless he’s buying somewhere that needs renovating and has access to free or cheap tradespeople.

Seems crazy!

well then he needs to widen his search area as there are many areas you can get a 2 bed flat for far less than 1m in London!

He’s being given ONE MILLION QUID???

This sums up the whole thread really doesn’t it? Rich people exist, and as it stands, often live in London. Happens all the time to be honest.

people can’t get their head around who can afford to live in London because they can’t get their head around the idea that someone can be gifted £1m. But it happens

This is MN in general though. People unable to imagine anything outside their direct lived experience, especially as it relates to money. The Holidays board is full of people who can’t fathom having more than 1 holiday a year. They’re incredulous at posters who go away a few times a year and who use all their annual leave on….going on holiday. They must all be “fantasists”. When in reality, it’s not at all uncommon to have multiple holidays a year.

Amazingly, and this a stat that came out this week, over 30,000 first time buyers have had gifted deposits of over £100,000 deposits in the first quarter of this year.

Of all gifted house deposits, apparently a third are over £100k.

Which is quite astonishing but goes some way in explaining how people are buying despite the high prices!

Utterly ridiculous the prices in London now.

I’m well aware that it happens. I work in this sector. What I can’t get my head around is the ever-widening gap between rich and poor in the UK.

ever-widening gap between rich and poor in the UK.

We live in an inheritocracy now, it's less about your income, education and more if your parents can help you. It will be interesting to see what happens with inheritances over the next 10 years. There is so much money tied up in property but the ageing population and pressures on social care and health care are immense and growing.

Partly true about living in an inheritocracy now but education etc still very important.

Regarding health & social care, it’s very easy via wills for people to protect 50% of the value of their house. They can put it into trust for their children which means it can’t be used when it comes to potentially paying for care.

The middle class always find ways to protect their wealth. Richer people even more so.

My friend grew up in what was a poor area of SE London which has since become popular. Her family all live in the area (grandparents, aunts etc). Each time someone dies the house is worth a fortune, and they share the proceeds with the next generation . She and her brother had a very nice deposit as a result. It's already been planned that when her uncle dies (no children ) that will be the £ for her and her brother's children who are teenagers.

I have friends who have a good education, good jobs/income but rented for years because their parents didn't have space for them to live with them or money to fund them. Whereas other friends coasted through school & have more middling jobs but got on the ladder much earlier due to help.

Regarding health & social care, it’s very easy via wills for people to protect 50% of the value of their house. They can put it into trust for their children which means it can’t be used when it comes to potentially paying for care.

I'm not disputing people don't do this but realistically if the majority do this the whole thing will be even more of a shit show than it is now. How much more tax is everyone going to have to pay in order to support people not paying for their care so they can pass on money?
I've been in hospital with older relatives and fed/watered others because the food & drink is left in front of them and they can't reach it or manipulate it into their mouth. It's terrifying. Some of my older relatives ended up paying thousands for private carers as the state offer was so rubbish, didn't turn up, wrong times, constantly changing. But they died comfortable and happy. My godfather recently paid about 60k for a private operation as the NHS waiting list was years and it was affecting his life. The state offer will continue to decline imo.

A lot of the parents at my kids school are older. They bought when houses there were 300k pre kids. Those houses are now going for 850k and are definitely not worth it imo.

They also bought starter flats in areas that massively increased in value - so timing is a thing.
Both parents working in impressive careers.

In answer to your question, 2 people I know who bought those really expensive houses and are closer to my age lost both parents in very early just adulthood, which whilst their homes are lovely - is not consolation.