To be totally fucked off that we just cannot afford to buy ANYWHERE

[TheLowestFormOfWit]

I earn £50k, DP earns £45k. We have savings of £26k.

We live in a two bed flat and have two DCs (our DD and DSD) so need to move to a three bed place.

Can we afford anywhere remotely close to the area we need to live in? Can we bollocks.

Every house sale goes to a bidding war with people paying up to £70k over the asking price.

House prices in our area are going up by about £5k a week.

It's insane. I feel like we're going to be stuck in this flat forever.

Who the hell can afford to buy houses these days? Seriously, who are these people that an afford £600k for a three bed in East London? What do they do??

Thanks for answers to my questions (sorry that there were so many - I just can't quite believe how bad it has got).

I just assumed that the OP was a fairly typical London buyer, and that most other buyers would be financially similar or worse off than her.

So, it seems that it is only possible to pay the inflated prices via external help of some sort or higher earning.

How depressing!

I only live in Lincs, and I am thinking of buggering off to New Zealand, and I can only consider that because I would be able to stay with family out there at first.

I hope that you find something OP. Could you buy a two bed that you could extend in some way?

In a nutshell, what Tinkly said. Most people I know who need to stay working actually inside London commute, the rest of us are either just outside or in Europe.

You own your own home (in London), you earn £95,000 between you and have going on for 30 grand in savings. So the fact you own property will also be assets.
Nope, you're right, you're completely skint and can't afford anywhere.
Move if you can't afford to live in your original area, It's what everyone else has to do.

it's mad.

I'm in Waltham Forest. Just moved from a 2 bed in Walthamstow to a 3 bed with garage in south chingford. It was £309k. Bargain for London suburbs I think. Not as "cool" as e17 but would meet your criteria. Have a look round here and north Walthamstow and you can still get a 3 bed for under £400k, and if you are quick for less than £350k.

So move area. I've paid off my London mortgage on a 1 bed ex-council for a nice 3 bed semi with big garden in a much cheaper part of the UK. With no mortgage to constantly worry about I can breathe again, and only need to earn a reasonable income for bills, not live for work. (As a single parent of a disabled kid my career ended anyway).

Oddly enough out here in the sticks the public library services are infinitely better than London was, our lifestyle is healthier, less worry about DS falling victim to violent crime just going to and from school when he hits his teens. In the end being a career high flyer isn't all that if your quality of life is grim on a day to day basis.

I think London is emptying of the traditional middle and skilled working classes, as people realise it isn't the centre of the universe and move. Ipswich and Colchester are less than an hour away and lovely homes can be had for around £150K. Uni lecturers, teachers, doctors, nurses, plumbers etc can all have a better quality of life elsewhere.

My elderly mother is getting ready to sell up and move closer to her grandkids too.

It'll be interesting to see how London house prices fare when the petro-dollar implodes, or if this lot win a second term in 2015.

I live in Walthamstow, moved here 3 years ago from newington green. It is bonkers what is happening with house prices round here. Despite being a homeowner, I hate this crazy house price inflation as my friends who are now ready to leave dalston and stoke newington can no longer afford walthamstow so are looking in forest gate. I also wonder what will happen to London in years to come when only the super rich can live anywhere near it - there will be no place for artists and writers and nurses and public service workers to go.
However I do love walthamstow - the green space, transport links, decent pubs and restaurants, sense of community. I live in the village bit and know all my neighbours and see someone to say hi to every time I leave the house. That never happened in newington green.
Anyway op, sounds like highams park could be a good bet.

Sorry, meant to say good luck and I hope you find somewhere

You can get a three bed for £250k in Waltham Forest and there are fast trains to Stratford once an hour. I think it's twenty minutes.

I'm not sure why anyone would try to buy a house in London at the moment, unless they already have property there. Ultimately it just fuels property prices and makes a house price crash more likely.

Brace yourself Mumsnet, I'm going to suggest the unmentionable.

TheLowestFormOfWit Is your DP on speaking terms with his ex? Would she be interested in moving out of the area as well? It's their daughter who is keeping you both in Walthamstow, so can you all move?

I think the real title should be that you can't afford anywhere you like.

I earn about the same as you, my OH significantly less than you. We had about the same amount in savings. We were first time buyers. Yes, the nicer London boroughs were out of our reach but we managed to buy a 3 bedroom house in zone 3 for less than 250k. It needs doing up but that, and the area it's in, are the compromises. The work will be done and (hopefully) the area is slowly improving as Stoke Newington is now far too expensive (that might give you a rough idea where I am).

I think there are probably several places you could buy on the budget you have, they just aren't in places you consider to be nice enough. Whilst i see your frustration at having essentially a very good income but not being able to live in a very good area, that's London.

OP cant move away from area because of 50:50 care of DSD school runs etc. She's not being snobby about where she lives - it's not even particularly nice (as she has said).

Maybe YeGods has the right idea.

kikithekitkat you say that, but the OP did refer to most of Walthanstow (and a couple of other places) as being "shit". That doesn't help people form a good opinion.

It's crazy I know. We were just incredibly lucky to buy when prices were low and you only needed a 5% deposit. We'd be stuffed if we were trying to buy anything now. We'd love a 4th bedroom as we have 14 year old DS sharing with 5 year old but it isn't going to happen.
I just don't see how the current situation is sustainable as the only people who can afford to live in London are those eligible for social housing, very very rich people and people who bought more than 20 years ago.
And many of those who do afford to buy are stretching themselves to the absolute limit - it only takes interest rates to go up a few %, which they will eventually, and there will be a lot of people faced with repossession.

Definitely not snobby. Where we live now isn't all that. And the nicer parts are way out of our budget so I'm resigned to the fact that we'll have to end up somewhere a bit scummy.

Conversion is a good idea. I'd discounted it because I was scared of project managing something that huge but it could be a goer.

Things are amicable with the ex but her parents have lived in the area for years. She lives very close to them (and hence, so do we) and they do a lot of child care for her so she's all set where she is.

Don't understand the snarky 'well you're not skint so why are you moaning' comments.

I never said we were skint. I just can't believe how goddamn expensive house prices are. It is totally out of control. I mean, I knew London was a bit of a bubble and was prepared for that when I started looking but I didn't have a clue.

But Bitter you said the real title should be that you can't afford anywhere you like. The OP has to stay in an expensive area she doesn't like. She would LIKE to move to a less expensive area but can't.

I'm old enough to have friends in the cohort of buyers above me that got stung badly when house prices crashed in the late 80s/ early 90's. Years of misery in too small homes with negativity equity or repossessed was the end of the housing dream for too many people. Those with children had a really rough time of it for a solid decade.

It's not that long ago yet seems to have been totally erased from people's memories that ordinary people suffered. All we hear about now is the killing the buy to let sharks made.

This go round housing benefit won't save people, and as far as social housing goes the rules are that if you don't pay your mortgage you are making yourself intentionally homeless regardless of ability to pay. I'm not saying don't buy, just if you do choose to make a purchase at the top of a bubble go into it with your eyes wide open. No job is guaranteed for life any more and interest rates WILL go up sooner or later.

I agree it is worth your DH talking to his ex - after all she may be desperate to move too, and cursing you two for preventing her from doing so. You don't know unless you ask! Outside London it's easier to get a decent, nice secondary school without being completely cutthroat so this might be an angle from which to raise the possibility.

What about moving out but within commuting distance? I know people who live in Northamptonshire, Berkshire and South Warwickshire who commute to London daily. They continue to earn their good salaries but can now afford a good sized house in a decent area.

Obviously they have high transport fees but compared to the stupid mortgage/rent of London it's peanuts and I think does pay for itself.

I appreciate there is the issue of the DSD but you could work around this issue if you only have her to stay at weekends and holidays.

As for Walthamstow I have a friend who lives there and she was telling me how it's the new up and coming place to live and prices are going crazy - again with sealed bids going way over the asking price.

Lowest I suspect that many of the comments you don't understand have arisen from your inaccurate and hysterical thread title.

Why have you put anywhere in your title? Its london! Dh works in london and commutes in, earns the same as you we have a four bed house, great area.

You could move out of london and still see dsd as much. Priorities.

The bubble is about to burst in 'normal' areas (ie not Kensington or Holland Park where the zillionaires hang out).

Prices have extended beyond 'normal' peoples pockets and it seems that you can only buy if you bought a dump at 18 and made some very canny moves, making profit as you go along. Or be very rich.

I would bide mny time, save every penny, get a part time job - anything to build up the coffers - and watch the market very very carefully. Target a few areas for a reasonable 'wish list' and see how the prices change. Maybe consider buying at auction.

I wish you luck - it really does suck to see flippin kids barely out of nappies swooping in and buying up nice local properties, thus pushing up prices in the area, so you can't even afford to buy where you were brought up!

Rest - commuting works for one, but would you cope if you both were out the house working and commuting 14hrs a day?