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??

Hackney - Rochester = under 1 hour by car
Kings X/London Bridge - Rochester under 1 hour by train
Hackney/London Bridge - eg Shepherds Bush = well over 1 hour by public transport or car

The actual practicalities of moving out are not that significant

LowestForm I hear you!!

Similar situation - I am SP with 2 DC in shared ownership one bed flat. I sleep on sofa bed :(

We are in west London and as I work west I need to stay living west.
It's depressingly impossible even in the shared ownership system. The place that may be an option (may) will stretch me to the limit and involve paying a £300PCM SERVICE change

I'm at wits end with it all

Julia in what world is it practical to do a school drop off from Rochester to Hackney?! Jeez, talk about a slit your wrists situ, it might be Ok for a commute but not for kids school drop off, and pick up

And life isn't like the aa route planner, you would be lucky in London at peak times to do anything like an hour for those journeys

Sounds like you can afford to own, you just can't afford to own a bigger house so you can have another child comfortably. Not really the same thing.

OP honestly I feel your pain but get your skates on and move to Chingford. I still take my son to preschool in Walthamstow 3 days a week and pick him up. Its very doable. We also did a complete refurb including kitchen bathroom and floors and repainting for £10k. And properties are just so much cheaper in E4 (generally) than E17. Come on....you know it makes sense!

You poor thing. I'm in Walthamstow and it's gone nuts. How about Leyton/Leytonstone?

Or Chingford or Highams Park? You get really big 1930s houses there for reasonable amounts, and there's an overground that's 5 mins from Walthamstow and 20 mins from Liverpool Street.

I can't believe how many Walthamstowers there are on MN now.

I swear I used to be the only one.

Never mind house prices and artisan bread shops that has to be the true sign that somewhere is up and coming

I've been here since 2007! DH from round here though. He is as bemused at the pop up restaurants and artisan breweries as you

OP I understand why you can't move away, but at the same time you must know you have no particular right to live in that area at the price you can afford. I would suggest renting, carrying on until there's more equity in your current property, or finding a two-bed you can extend.

I used to live in Walthamstow about 13 years ago - I always liked it! Couldn't afford it. Now live in Hertfordshire.

We couldn't afford to stay in London, we had to move out.

And it was 'home' for over 20 years. We had no choice if we wanted a bigger place.

I sympathise. But so many people are sitting in those houses in those areas thinking great our houses is earning more than we are. I think there will be another slump before too long and it will all be tears and hand wringing when interest rates go up.

Seriously unhelpful suggesting the OP move outside of East london. They have a DSD in school there!

Agree with some of the helpful posters - leyton, chingford, forest gate all might be more affordable and not too bad a commute for DSD?

Where I live in london, one bed ex-la flats are £450k. I want to know who the fuck is buying those?!? It's not even like the blocks are massively gentrified - cut through the one next to our flat last night and there are still plenty of, um, well, people who don't seem like they could afford the flats hanging about!

My God who, you mean there are only good schools in London?? Who knew!

Don't be stupid uncle. do you think it's easy to move a child who is 50:50 with each parent?

How old is DSD? You won't be needed for school runs forever so maybe it's just a case if holding on a few more years and then moving out of London?

Thanks, but I'm not stupid. It's not necessarily easy, no - neither is it impossible. People do it over far greater distances than London outskirts to the east end.

I'm shocked to hear that "The 'Stow" has gone all tendy. DH is from there and his parents moved to Hertfordshire when he was a kid because it was "an absolute shithole" lol

We live on East London, earn similar money and are in a similar situation regarding buying. But it is what it is OP. I've just accepted we will have to keep saving and keep renting if we want to stay here, which we do. It can't really be helped. Try and relax about it.

I do have sympathy with the OP but she's consistently ignored the very sensible suggestions of looking in Chingford etc, which is cheaper than e17 but minutes away by train. I don't get why that's not an option.

I am aware of price rises but the small terraces near us are still going well under the OP's budget. Getting on the property ladder certainly worked for us - we funded our move and massive extension by virtue of the rise in value of our zone 1 ex-LA flat and moved out to Zone 4. At any rate, having poked around right move, there do seem to be properties around the OP's budget, are they all going for masses over asking price?