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 .

I understand where you're coming from Mintyyyyyyyy. I moved to my area because it's more diverse and I think areas dominated by one social group are unhealthy. I am actually poor, so that was a factor.

My family used to live in Fulham and our old house is now 'worth' over 1 million. It's smaller than mine. It has no garden and no parking. My auntie is in her 80s and still lives down my old road and she laughs her head off at all the richies (though she is one now!). They are a bit of a menace with their terrible driving (my auntie is disabled) and insistence on adding oversized extensions to their poky houses.

Here is a brief list of pros and cons of my mostly immediate area in West London to tempt you:

PROS

1. It is near green areas inc. nature reserves and a popular mini zoo.
2. It's on the central and the piccadilly lines. Also on the A40.
3. There's a really great Filipino/Chinese takeaway down the road. A couple of nice Lebanese and several other nice Chinese places.
4. Tesco, Sainsburys, VBs, Popat, Ikea, big Chinese supermarkets.
5. Diverse.

CONS

1. My local chip shop is shit. Though there's a nice-ish one a couple of miles away.
2. Nothing for sale at the moment. Soz. Oh, and there was a murder the other day, but those happen everywhere.

Croydon is where you go if you like getting stabbed. Camden is an overpriced shit hole.

I love poncey neighbourhoods so I'd say stay put. Or find even poncier.

Yes, bloody well stay put Fargy! Why should you be priced out of your area?

This is what I am talking about. Prices rampaging out of control so the only incomers are seriously wealthy. It is not good for an area.

Quint I wonder if we're neighbours? In our little cul de sac we have Irish, Muslims, Portuguese, South African, Italian, English, Caribbean, Italian, South American and Scouse. It's lovely

Oooh, for pros I forgot the nice Polish shop. They have a fancy sausage counter and bakery.

I don't think it is reverse snobbery, I think there is a noticeable change which goes with gentrification that means that every damn shop is full faux distressed nick nacks but you can't buy a child's vest or a spare part for a ball cock. This is OK when you are on holiday, but not every day. And every burger is wildly over priced and every ice cream is artisan and the conversations about schools makes you want to shriek.

East Dulwich and Balham are like this. Though obviously both house normal people too.

My rural three bed cottage with a quarter of an acre of garden and free use of the forest behind the house cost £675 per month. Secure estate tenancy. Fabulous. We can go to London on the train to see the British !useum, etc. we are n hour and a half from Euston. Why live in central London if you're skint?

Excuse typos!

You said it, Blu.

I really don't understand how your neighbours status and lack of cultural difference affects you. There are only two types of neighbours; good and bad. If they're not threatening you, making your life miserable with excessive noise, trying to break into your home or doing anything that affects your life negatively in any way, then what's the big deal?

As for this obession with diversity, it shouldn't matter whether all of your neighbours are of similar colour to each other, whether that be black, white or any shade in between, how on earth does that affect you? Do you really think you'd be more comfortable with your neighbours if they had a diversity box to tick? That is bizarre

I knew it was time to relocate from London when a waitrose opened 10 mins walk away. Lowered the tone of the neeeeighborhod totally daaarlink!

I don't know if you were addressing me Caff2, but I love London and I don't want to live anywhere else see

Perlona, Blu explained it much better than me.

Know what you mean. We've now got an 'outstanding' primary school down the road and can't move for all the bugaboos, micro scooters and 4x4s

It so does make a difference, perlona. See Blu's post 4 before yours. Got in a nutshell (a nutshell hand-painted by Peruvian artisans.) That, and the very loud competitive consumerism everywhere you turn.

I know what you mean OP, our area has become similar. We were in the car the other day driving past a main road with some medium sized semis not near a station. One was for sale so I asked my H how much they sell for as they'd be a good size for us once we grow out of our terrace with three boys. £450,000 he guessed. We zoopla'd it and it was on the market for £950,000.

I mean come the fuck on, that much for a semi that would take 40 mins at least to Central London, zone 5/6. London is a joke at the moment.

We keep saying we'll move to Wales, where I'm from but I can't bear the thought of not being near a high street and loads of amenities.

Mintyy, I live in a grottier area to your W, the place with the notoriously horrible High Rd, and like to come over for a salted caramel tub or some middle class meat some times, but the whole Retro Sweetshop vibe is just Too Much now. Hope and Greenwood is practically a pastiche of itself.

Or sometimes I go to Waitrose in Balham for a relaxed shopping vibe and nice packaging.

But in the end you can live YOUR life the way you want to live and make sure you have friends and contribute to the community and that your kids feel relaxed enough to bring lots of friends home, and just get on with it. I doubt Tulse Hill, for example, will ever become chi chi because it has too much traffic, and why would you want to swap what you have for that?

I think a lot of the young people moving to these areas look like they have more money than they actually have.

I'm including DP and I in this. We're 'young professionals' I guess wankers and most of our friends have ended up in Balham, Clapham etc. after graduating. But, although we all have shiny gadgets and netbooks we're all renting and are unlikely to be ever able to buy where we are.

Ha. I used to live in Camberwell (home to countless pound shops and fried chicken outlets). East Dulwich was only 10 minutes away on the bus but it was a different world. I got sneered at in the poncy garden shop for actually asking the price of something.

Move to Camberwell/Peckham/Forest Hill, they're all up and coming with nice period property but not the vom factor of East Dulwich.

I empathise to a degree. Where I am it is gentrifying at a rapid pace. On a local blog someone who'd moved in recently said them moving to the area was improving it.

Now I'm happy enough to see some more high end retailers and restaurants alongside more budget alternatives but if my area is going to 'improve' I want it to be because the lives of the people living there have improved, not because they have had to move out because they can't afford it any longer. The poverty still exists, the struggle to find affordable housing still exists for private renters in slightly less well-paid jobs, they've just been shunted elsewhere.

The housing situation in London is in crisis and nothing this government (or the next, more than likely) is going to do is going to improve it.

The young professionals who are moving in next to us do have shedloads of money though LaFata. They are buying.

They need to gentrify my rough part of South east London. A certain Lord Whatsitnotsit seems to have done very well off of putting his name on damn near very school in the area, but North Peckham and Camberwell are still shit. And no, the nice Victorian houses in between the cookie cutter new builds and the endless estates do not relieve the drudgery, endless bookies etc. No need to go as far as the Lordship Lane yummy mummys and get rid of the local Iceland though. THAT is the bad side of gentrification. Bitches who couldn't afford to live in an already gentrified area that "suited" their professions and personas, who have to slum it it an "up and coming" area and when said area has enough of the same like minded people in it, these women campaign to get rid of ANY sign of what the area may have been. Sod that the less well off still live in the area. They just are not noticed anymore, what with the Tarquins Poppys and Rasputins that have taken over with the aggression, but better focus than any stereotypical "gang".

Surely this is the beauty of living with diversity. What an odd thing to get your knickers in a twist over? Jealousy perhaps?

If you were posting to say the area that you'd loved & lived in for years had gone to the dogs, your house had depreciated in value, everything was run down, can't approach your neighbours etc I would have some sympathy. However, you appear to be saying your house is worth a tidy sum, you have cupcake shops on your doorstep and your neighbours (who I assume you talk to, as you know what they intend to do with their house) want to improve their home.

Seriously?