What part of London to buy cheap first flat for DD1?

[BoxedOff]

We can afford to help DD1 onto property ladder. She is 22 and she can raise a mortgage up to £180k, we can give her £50k. Is there anywhere that is nice, fun, well connected for commuting to KingsX area and where you can buy a decent flat for £230k? I am beginning to think there isn’t! We live in London, she was raised here, but not in an area she can afford.

Unless all of her mates live nearby then the buzz of the local area is irrelevant, most young people spend half their time crossing London to meet friends anyway. The well connected is much more important.

This is why I would buy one! There are some desperate sellers out there, you can probably get a bargain. “Buy things that are currently unpopular, avoid what everyone else wants” is generally a good investment principle.

That said, in OP’s daughter’s position, I think I would just live in a flat share for a few years and buy when she’s closer to 30. A flat share somewhere central-ish will be much more fun and sociable then being lonely in your own place out in zone six.

Could she buy with a friend in a similar position with a written legal agreement to sell after 5 years and share equity. She is still so young. In the next 5-10 years she might meet someone who will become her life partner and want to buy with them.

I wouldn’t buy anything just yet. She’s too young to know where she wants to be in the medium term. You don’t want the flat to become a millstone.

Let her live at home for a couple of years, or rent in a shared building with your home as a bolthole. Then she’ll have more of an idea of her career path, where her friends are, etc - and hopefully greater earnings too. I also suspect prices especially for flats are going to drop or at worst stay flat over the next couple of years, so no harm in waiting.

@minipie agree

My first 1 bedroom flat I bought for 250 in Walthamstow 13 years ago

sold in 2021 for 325 and it sold FAST

moved to a 2 bed flat 2022 in Tottenham for 370

just had offer accepted for 435£

I don’t really believe this whole impossible to sell thing all my friends have started in 1 bed flats then they move on and they always sell fast

my building I live in now the 1 beds are always being sold and new people moving in every few years

also I don’t think it really matters too much about area it’s so easy to get around anyway - I’m always all over London for various things meeting different people - always night buses and weekends theirs the tube all night