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??

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

Really? That literally huh? Okay.

It's true we could move further out if really necessary but at the moment DP's only 15 mins from work, he can do dsd's school run in the morning and if he can manage to leave early on the odd day here and there he can pick her up. If his ex needs him to have DSD for an extra day, it's really easy for him to pop over and collect her.

Moving further away would impact on all that. We have discussed it but, understandably, DP doesn't want to lose any of that flexibility.

So we are rather limited in where we can go. Which would be fine if house prices hadn't gone totally loony.

There's a new build development going up nearby. Great, we'll have a look at those. Two beds were starting at +£400k.

And the thing is, they'll all be snapped up really quickly. Buy who???

I think there's got to be another crash on the horizon soon hasn't there? It's not sustainable, surely.

We just need to keep saving and keep looking I guess.

By who

Freudian slip!

I don't think you should rely on a crash anytime soon, OP. I can't see what would make that happen. Interest rates will rise very slowly, and I personally don't see that would impact greatly. Foreign investors pulling out of London? But why would they. I think a crash will happen eventually, but not in the foreseeable future.

I wouldn't count on a crash in London. There wasn't really one in 2008 - if anything prices stalled and declined a little (and a couple of sellers panicked and offloaded properties for much cheaper than they would have done a few months later when the market stabilised - we were incredibly lucky to buy from one of those sellers).

The jump from 2 bed flat to 3 bed house is appalling difficult. I'm in SW London and we put our offer in in late 2012, by the time we moved in 2013 we wouldn't have been able to afford the house because flats just aren't going up in value as much.

We were very lucky to find a house that we could afford but it was a dispiriting process and we were outbid on a huge number of houses first (and this one too, in the first instance, but the sale fell through and we got first refusal before it went back on the market).

The two things we were considering instead of a 3-bed house were either a 2-bed house with potential to extend (including into the loft - adding an extra bedroom in London is worth the price of loft conversion I think), or a 3-bed flat.

Friends of mine have a 2-bed house and they're using the dining room as a bedroom until they have funds to extend.

Good luck - and ignore the idiots who either can't read the thread or who are living in a pleasant bubble of transferable jobs and no ties to family or other support systems where they lived before. People are so blind about their view of London that they lose all capacity for empathy.

OP we are in the EXACT same position as you except in the SE. It's so depressing, we have ended up having to borrow more than we can really afford. The bidding war is mad and isn't getting any better.

sell your current property and exchange for similar two bed but with garden where you can build a insulated year-round garden studio/extra room or a top floor with possibility of loft extension (of course if leasehold flat makes it more difficitul than a freehold house).

I get staying near school etc it's same for lots of people and adding another commute to everything isn't doable....maybe when dc are much older and can move themselves around.

so you can put up and your current flat rises (or falls) in value; move by swapping to similar size but with room to extend; keep current rent it out and rent somewhere nearby that is bigger ( I joint own flat with ex which he is living in and am renting flat which I could no way afford to buy)

Of course that literally, when a lot of people reading might own no property at all or struggle on one income to plan their buying!

The garden studio is a great idea. I wish our garden was a little bigger as we could use the office space (but our trade off was third bedroom and tiny garden...)

The OP has three things handicapping their desire to find a larger property.

One: I don't wish to sound judgemental but am I right in remembering the OP and spouse have a mortgaged two-bed but has said they have little to no equity? How can that be? There would have been the original deposit and subsequent house-price inflation to increase the equity and that's without having made any over-payments on their mortgage. That's not the fault of the "London housing bubble".

Two: Considering the stated wish to acquire a property in the 350k ball-park, savings of 26k will not be adequate without any equity in what they own already. That's not the fault of the "London housing bubble"

Three: Restricting the area they wish to move to, regardless of the perfectly reasonable constraints, is a guarantee that they won't be able to find anything they can afford. That's not the fault of the "London housing bubble" either.

In mitigation the jump from two-bed flat to a three-bed house is bloody MASSIVE

How much flexibility would you lose if you moved over the North Circular and into Woodford/Highams park? It takes me about ten minutes to get to Walthamstow in the car and a three bed on our road (nice road, opposite a park and a good primary) went for 295k in December last year. It needed work, but mostly cosmetic and it had a nice garden. They're putting on a loft conversion now, looks lovely.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=OUTCODE%5E1155&insId=1&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=&minBedrooms=3&maxBedrooms=&minPrice=&maxPrice=350000&retirement=&partBuyPartRent=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&_includeSSTC=on&sortByPriceDescending=&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&newHome=&auction=false

I don't know if this is helpful but -

I live in a 4 bed Victorian sandstone detached villa.
3 receptions. All original features. Marble fireplaces.
Plus it's own basement suite of two 15x15 rooms + storage. Sep entrance. Its a bit tatty and on a busy road but it's really big.
I am about to try to sell it (again). For £175K, if we are lucky.
That probably wouldn't buy a double garage where you are?

I am in rural Scotland.
No jobs, (shepherd anyone? no??? seasonal beater for shoots then, no?)no transport, no facilities at all.
20m round trip to supermarket.
Rubbish schooling.
In fact, just rubbish.

I have a lovely house. LOVELY. I will never live in anything like it again.
I will be moving to an ex-LA cupboard - but only IF I can sell / get the 'top price' for my house (and I had it on for two years with 1 offer of £150K before....).
I wish I had never bought it. We are trapped.
I want to be able to get a job and send my kids to less awful schools, but I am stuck with this millstone.

I grew up in Kent. Lived in London late 80's. Then went to Uni in Edinburgh and found I couldn't afford to move back.
My sibling dropped out of Uni and took a 'dead end' job, but nevertheless bought in Canterbury before housing became silly and is sitting pretty now.

Life can be hard. Very few of us can have the house/the job/the life
where we want / need them to be.

I hope you find a solution to your problems, it is not easy!

When I was young and single I was able to buy a 3 bed flat in Brixton because I joined the TA, went to Iraq for 6 months and came home with that 6 months worth of salary untouched, to be my deposit.

The years roll by, I'm now a married mother, and I realise I am bloody lucky to have this ex local authority flat. It may not be posh, but it is sturdy and good enough for us. But I look at the bonkers prices paid in this road and realise that we will never be able to move.

A 3 bed flat in a victorian conversion in this road is worth £150,000 more than a three bed ex council flat. Neighbouring buildings but prices are in a different league. And a tiny 3 bed house is utterly unaffordable.

So we will sit tight in this place I bought when I was a foot loose and fancy free party girl - and make it our family home. Counting our blessings!

I think it certainly illustrates a point firstchoice.

I hope it wasn't annoying as it wasn't meant to be.
I was just meaning that it is so hard to have a good balance these days.
We 'fell for' a house we could barely afford (lesson learned) and thought we had researched the area enough but the house and area were full of nasty surprises and we got stuck with something that appears great, but really isn't due to all the other issues.
I would probably swap with the OP, tbh!

I live in rural Kent and commute daily to London. For £350K you could get a small farmhouse round here! ( I wish I had £350K)

mummytomog 295 last December is upwards of 325 k now - or more.

the price rises between 2013 to 104 are ridiculous.

op has a property
she is on the "housing ladder"

being on the "ladder" does not equate to being able to move up rungs unless you move area completely downsize etc (which isnt moving up is it?)

buy a small property get on the housing ladder is a load of rubbish. is pushed by government etc - it worked for right-to-buy in 1980s. it worked if you bought in 1994/1995 and didn't move or remortgage since then... doesn't work if you bought with 100 % mortgage in 2007.

even with seemingly massive equity of say £100 k you need a mortgage of 400 or 500 k to get anywhere substantially bigger... (unless you move area completely or trade to a exLA maisonette in an estate)

there is no guarantee of getting on the "next step" unless you move area etc.

and every step costs [tens of in London] thousands in stamp duty, moving costs etc.

2013 to 2014 obviously

I know of someone who left E London and moved to Stockport where they didn't know anyone, or have any family, just to be able to afford to live. I live in Stockport myself, have a decent sized 4 bed semi with garden, good schools, nice area, £210k two years ago prob worth a bit more now.
I don't see such a massive salary differential as some would suggest. Sure the salaries are a bit higher in London but not massively so. I just left a national retailer who refused to London-weight their salaries, I was on the same pay as my SE counterparts.

We live in Scotland and the reason we moved here rather than looking for jobs in London was the house prices. It is silly to say that you can only get min wage jobs outside of London. The jobs may not be quite as well paid, but you can buy a 3 bed ex-council house in a decent area for £100k, so you don't need to be earning as much.

None of this helps the OP, but I was getting peeved at the comments. As if the rest of UK is a wasteland.

I think the OP and her DH are to be commended - think of the comments she'd have got if she had asked 'AIBU to make DH move further away from his daughter from previous marriage so that we can afford a bigger house?'. They are doing what they can to ensure that the contact remains to his daughter, even if it means frustration for them.

My advice - go for something that needs work in a reasonable area. Ex-council house from 70s, that hasn't been renovated in years, but is in a decent livable condition.

Been doing my favourite thing this morning - looking at homes we can't afford However I found a nice one we could afford the mortgage on etc with a 5% deposit, but we still need to find another £20k for the deposit (we have some) and stamp duty. It's a not very nice area and the house needs lots of work however it would be £200k more in an area that is ok (ie still not great). However I think the area is on the up with better transport links coming. On the fringes of London, no tube but an overground train.

We could commit to saving the extra £20k but the house will be gone of course and prices of any similar homes will have shot up, so the £20k may well become £40k... Or more.

I know we can get a mortgage in principle now, but saving for the deposit seems impossible. Constantly chasing and unable to save at the rate of rises.

How much does it cost to renovate a three bed house anyway? It would need a new kitchen immediately.

Oh I so want to go and look!

op why does it have to be London.

or even commuter belt could you not move further afield buy your dream home and dh work away in the week.

its a thought no?

Depends what needs doing, fuckinglondonballs. We've spent around £30k, but that was pretty much everything - windows, bathroom, cloakroom, heating, garden, rewire, new flooring throughout. Still needs kitchen done. We could have probably done it about £10k cheaper but we went for top quality fittings, and had all the work done cause we are both useless at DIY.

mrsbucket - you seem to have missed all of the posts about OP's DP being a father to his dd, doing school runs etc.

Thanks Mme, that's certainly another cost to consider! Although if this house was all done you'd be paying for that upfront anyway.