Can the last poor* person to leave London please take their kids with them.

[fakenamefornow]

WTAF is going on with house prices? I want to move to London but it seems impossible.

I think Surrey's going to be next to remove all traces of the poor.

• By poor I mean anyone on average income or below, so actually, just not rich.

[Goldenbear]

I was born in Greenwich hospital, grew up in London in the 1980's-90's. We had a detached 3 bedroom house with a huge garden. My Mum was a part time teacher and my Dad was an Economist- we had a fairly middle class existence but on their equivalent combined income now there is no way we'd be able to afford something similar. After university I didnt return to live in London as an adult except when I was doing some work experience in central London and needed a place to stay. I am a Londoner but do have expectations of owning a house for my DC as its what I was afforded as a child so I don't think it is true that 'real' Londoners don't have these 'expectations' as the London I grew up in was affordable to those on average, professional incomes. I settled in Brighton and have a two bedroom flat but despite having a huge deposit and my DP being an Architect we still can't afford a house. Even when I return to work we won't be able to afford a house in our area as it is going the same way as London! Indeed, as someone pointed out there has been a huge influx of children who did previously live in London to my DS's school.

[MummyLuce]

Where in zone 3 does Sybil live? That's a good price. I think the house prices are ridiculous too. We're in zone 2 and live in a 2 bed flat which is worth about 500k. 3 bed terraces in our area can't be bought for less than a million which even on DHs 6 figure salary we can't afford. The idea of commuting is really horrid though! The answer is to take a salary cut relocate completely to outside london I think

[LittleBearPad]

It's utterly depressing. We're leaving soon as we can't afford to buy a house here; our joint income is six figures. Just checking my borough - there are 19 houses for sale. 16 of them cost over £1 million, the remainder c.£700k.

I'm so sick of George Osborne saying there's no housing bubble. Talk about ostrich behaviour.

[donteatthehedgehogs]

You're right Goldenbear. I spent 10 years in London 1995-2005. We were all on pretty average sales/recruitment low level professional salaries (no bankers!). By 2001, when we bought, most of our friends had managed in the last few years to buy flats in decent areas (Blackheath, Putney, Wimbledon) for anything from £85-200,000. We all felt we were really stretching ourselves to afford them and talked about London prices. I still work in the same industry and salaries are notable for their similarity to what we were all on in the 90s but there is no way those salaries now allow you to buy anywhere near those areas.

[donteatthehedgehogs]

I was just typing the same Iseenyou. That's one of the differences between the 1980s/90s high interest rates and now. The gap between property hotspots and the rest of the country is much greater. I don't want to see my, pretty average part of the UK, mortgage increase to calm London house prices!

[MrsKoala]

I sold my 1 bed flat in a crap hole (Selhurst Road) 2 yrs ago for about £125k (£10k less than i bought it 5yrs earlier) and now the same ones are on for about £170k . The place has NOT improved one bit. Apart from being near the station there are a couple of offys, a bookies, 2 rough Crystal Palace supporters pubs and a few kebab/fried chicken places. The sad thing is, the best thing you can say about the place is it has good rail links to Victoria and London Bridge - so you can leave quickly and go somewhere else and not have to spend any time there. It's pretty shit to spend the best part of £200k for a 1 bed flat in a horrible area you hate.

[AgaPanthers]

Obviously £700k for a flat above a shop in Peckham is fucking ludicrous www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45580256.html

And anyone who pays that is a moron.

But that's it really isn't it? There are enough idiots out there to pay it.

The result of all the idiots with too much money is that you have to look elsewhere. And not everywhere is that bad.

[Spero]

But WHO are these people who will pay £700K to live in that place?

Did you see the 'roof terrace' ? Surely, anyone with £700K to spare is not going to want to live there?

[HeeHiles]

It will be a BTL - someone else will pay the owner to live in it!

[Spero]

But WHO are these people who have that kind of money or who can take out a BTL mortgage for £700K? Over a shop in Peckham?

Have we all just collectively lost our minds? WHY is that worth £700K?

What kind of rent would you need to service a mortgage of that amount? Surely a hell of lot more than you would get from five rooms in Peckham, even if you do strain the definition of a house in multiple occupancy.

[Spero]

I think I looked at this property or one very close by in 2003. It was on the market at £285K then. Its now nearly £800K. For two bedrooms.

We are all doomed.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44242807.html

[olgaga]

When we moved out of London in 2003 we knew we'd never be able to afford to move back.

It's not exactly unusual for a capital city to be expensive!

[olgaga]

When we moved out of London in 2003 we knew we'd never be able to afford to move back.

It's not exactly unusual for a capital city to be expensive!

[AgaPanthers]

"This is a lovely house in a prime location between the two competing highlights of the area, Brixton and Herne Hill. "

Last time I went to Brixton the GP only opened the door to the surgery after checking who you were with the chain on, and on the street there was someone dripping blood from being stabbed.

"The pubs of Herne Hill are similarly close and a little further is the culinary mecca of Atlantic road and Brixton Village. "

Look, fuck off you stupid cunt of an estate agent. Culinary mecca my arse.

[olgaga]

Brixton has changed a helluva lot since you were last there.

Anywhere in London with good transport links is desirable. Eventhe Elephant is now on the up.

And let's not forget, 40% of buyers don't need a mortgage. That's the UK average, not just London - so it's probably a higher % age in London

[AgaPanthers]

Actually, lower in London, because of the insane prices.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2454161/Cash-buyer-hotspots-A-homes-bought-mortgage.html

Although in places like K&Chelsea and Westminster it's 50%+ paying cash. So in more normal places there are an awful lot of suckers being saddled up with debt.

[Fideliney]

If you bring up a child from smallness in London now how do you explain that the people around you are not a representative sample of the UK? Do you even try? It will look even stranger over the next 18 years.

[sj73]

Railton Road was 'murder mile' when I lived round there in the '90s!

[Goldenbear]

Olgaga, like others of my generation (36) I grew up in London in a house with a garden due to my parents being on a good but not excessive income. My brother lives in a part of North London that looks very similar to the streets I grew up in but the difference is that he earns 'a lot' more than my parents ever did. Yes, Capitals are expensive but London used to be affordable to those who 'didn't work in Finance!

[TheBogQueen]

Agapanthers

It's very hard to adjust to the new London. We used to laugh about the gentrification of Lewisham - we don't laugh any more.