to want to move house in London just because the area where I live has become extremely poncey?

[Mintyy]

Yes, yes, of course we have been unbelievably lucky that we chose to live somewhere that became gentrified and therefore have made a lot of money on our house.

However.

We now feel like we have less and less in common with the people who live here. We are 49 and 51 and have good but not outstanding incomes.

I have just discovered that my new neighbours (who paid an extraordinary amount for their extremely average terraced house) are newlyweds in their early 30s. They are going to be doing building works, so I am imagine an extension and a loft conversion.

We are going to have nothing whatsoever in common with them are we?

I sincerely yearn for more authentic London living. Either inner city or further out and less pretentious and overpriced than where we are now.

Such a pita to have to move though! And nothing on the market .

Thanks Blu that's interesting. I know Loughborough Junction from way back, last summer I was on a bus passing along Coldharbour Lane , I had not been back there for 20 years and it did get me wondering when passing the station why the area had not seen much improvement despite having a good rail link but I was only forming an impression from the view from the top deck of the bus. I googled the cinema, I really wish I had something like that near me. So it seems that the arty crowd are again a factor in regeneration.

There is a Waitrose in Deptford Wow things have changed over the past 5/6 years. New X is getting poncy-fied - there are now 2 Sainsburys and a Subway. Used to be all about the chicken shops!

lookatmybutt there's a nice fish and chip shop on Pitshanger Lane.

Ooo, I'm not sure PH Lane is for the likes of working class me!

(OK, what's it called, I'm gonna send my dad there to pick some up )

Oh, wait, I know the one. I think we tried it and it wasn't so good, but I'd give it another go.

Yes,yes to arty-types kick-starting regeneration/gentrification - that's what's happening in Peckham now.

You can hire that cinema for parties

V posh former colleague bought a flat in Belleden last year, rejoicing in the fact it was getting "naicer and naicer". I bit my lip.

PrincessFlirtyPants and lookatmybutt

you are local to me I sense

I actually have an irrational hatred for people in Pithanger, they all wear barbour and green wellies as if its hampshire. Its fucking Ealing you morons! and they carry those " I love Pitshanger lane " hessian bags

MrsDevre, sad to say I am at the stage where $300K for a 3 bed with a large garden is a "bargain"......

Some of the roads in Peckham are ED prices now. Lucky friends bought years ago and mortgage free. On the other side, still a bit cheaper.

I actually have an irrational hatred for people in Pithanger, they all wear barbour and green wellies as if its hampshire. Its fucking Ealing you morons! and they carry those " I love Pitshanger lane " hessian bags

yes, I can imagine.

lookatmybutt I can't remember the name of it, I used to go there a few years ago, sorry. I go to one in Harrow now. Tis very nice

I've p.m.ed you, Mintyy.

I moved to Walthamstow Village nearly 10 years ago (transport links were fantastic and I could get to forest/countryside/airport easily) and the change has been astronomical. When I moved here, I couldn't have given a fig that people including some friends turned there noses up at it. I grew up in non-fashionable Enfield, so wasn't a postcode snob, I just wanted to own my own place and get to work quickly.

I guess it could be said that I'm being a hypocrite regarding newcomers with money as DH and I are high earners even for London. However, we weren't when we first got here, our roots are working class, we chat to the old cockneys etc…Some of the latest arrivals seems to want to turn the area into a Disney east-end like Stoke Newington Village.

I love the pubs and restaurants and admit I was excited by the inflation in the price of my house initially but as I don't want to move, that really doesn't benefit me.

I love the electricity and 'realness' of London (some) warts and all and I don't want it to go. If I wanted to live in the 'safe' home counties, that's where I would be.

I agree, this is really sad - lifelong Londoner here and I don't like the way the city is going. On paper DH and I have benefited from high house prices (our mortgage is now a fraction of the value of our house), but actually all they meant for us was that we couldn't trade up in the area where we used to live, and wanted to stay, because we'd have had to find an extra £1 million to swap a flat for a house. Funnily enough, we didn't have it, so we had to move further out to get a garden for DS. And we were really starting to feel like the poor relations in our neighbourhood: the dry cleaner and convenience store round the corner turned into a posh dress shop and a cupcake boutique.

I don't really feel entitled to complain, because we're very lucky to be old enough to own a house in London (even if it is zone 4 rather than 2): if we were starting out now, we could never buy our house. But I don't see who the current situation benefits. There was a very good article by Caitlin Moran in the Times a couple of weeks ago on why ridiculous London prices are a bad thing, in the end, for everyone - I would link but it's behind the paywall.

Am I the only person who sniggers like a loon at "Bellenden"?

And why have people started dressing as if they were living in the depths of Yorkshire? There was a man on the bus today in a green tweed suit, brown brogues (Brown shoes in town! What is the world coming to!), a yellow checked waistcoat and yellow tie. He was accompanied by a fat labrador, and he only went three stops.

Mrs Schadenfreude, when I first moved here I did always used to have a little smirk at Bellenden Road, especially as it was very pleasingly close to Melons Grove. But I have grown out of it now

Some of us clearly never grow up, Mintyy. A colleague and I were sniggering today at the surname Winnetts, as to us it is bits of poo that stick to your arse hair.

Mintyy...presumably you will be selling your house well below market value when you eventually move?

Otherwise of course you'll just be adding to and progressing this issue that you have a problem with.

You won't want only rich young 30yr olds to be able to afford your house will you.

I'm not that far from Bellenden Rd and I always snigger. It's a gift

Can I plead with someone come and gentrify my little pocket of zone 4?

I would love a cupcake shop on our little high street. Anything actually which is not a wig shop (1 is enough, we don't need 4), a betting shop (have 3), a halal butchers (have 6), a barbers (5), or a fried chicken shop (7).

We also have lots of weird little churches (often resident in bleak commercial buildings and semi-abandoned scout huts) springing up all over. Literally. There are 6 within 50 yards of my dc's school.

I have NO problem with Hessian bags.

thepig, I sold one house and bought another. I didn't give a damn how much, in absolute terms, I got for the first house: I just wanted to have enough money to buy another house. The number of zeroes doesn't make any difference at all until you want to downsize or leave London. Of course mintyy isn't going to take less than her house is "worth" because she'd end up living in a cardboard box under Waterloo Bridge, but unless I've misunderstood her, she would be perfectly happy for house prices generally to be much lower (as would I - I really, really cannot see who is benefiting from the present situation).

am piggybacking on the back of this thread not having read the whole 19 pages.

I work in a solicitors in a vaire naice area and we constantly see a mix of very wealthy young couples or sometimes poorer working class god can't believe I just typed that sounds very condescending types and also shared ownership clients.

A lot of people find it hard (but it's got easier in past 3 years) to get mortgages. we find a lot of people who:-

a) have great jobs and earn loads and will have a vaire naice house in a vaire nice area - good for them!

b) have great jobs, incomes etc but there's always the worry if they get divorced - eg one guy, entrepreneur, bought BTL and had other property with fiancee but it was all in HER name and not HIS name.

also we do see people a few years later where they've got divorced, now need to sell property, or get made redundant etc - this admittedly doesn't happen too much where we work.

but we have a mix of clients who YES they've lived in the area a long time, make lots of money on their sale and yes MOVE AREA and older people who bought cheap get NEW money coming into the area and maybe see the area either not being as prestigious as it was before etc. That's life.

I think OP has to have a long hard look at where they live, what they want, can afford etc. if it is that they want a different edgier area then let out your house and rent elsewhere before you sell up and buy.

My neighbours for example - I sometimes look on in envy at them - a huge house - 2 income earners (high) but they are struggling eg with money for a new double bed! and they have 2nd baby on the way too, but then they lived in a flat in Brixton beforehand and wanted a family house in a naice area so have made sacrifices to move to our area (it is great area a hidden gem actually and more and more popular and more and more trendy lately) - the DH also cycles to work, they only have 1 car, her mum lives with them to child mind their toddler etc... and yes I think they had help from their parents re deposit. unless you save very hard the deposits are huge these days.

Good luck Op.

Yep, you've got it DanceWithAStranger. I assume thepig was having a little joke with me, otherwise it would have been a daft post.

I really really wish I hadn't learned today what a winnett is - thank you for that!

Just because you want house prices to be low enough to upgrade is understandable. But it does not have to translate into resenting your new neighbours because they have money to afford the higher prices and extend.

Walthamstow Village

sorry, but snurk!!! Its does make me laugh when people call their areas "village"

My brother in SIL did it, and said that they went to "the village for xmas lights and carol singing"

you live in fucking zone 3 , DB and SIL

god this thread is bringing out my bitchy side isn't it

I so dont live in a village, a "hood" maybe