£450,000 for a tiny 2 bed in Brixton

[TheBogQueen]

I left London 10 years.

Holy moly I cannot believe the prices in 'trendy' and 'up and coming Croydon

Croydon???? (Yes I'm watching location)

Yes we had saved a substantial deposit (no family help) before be bought on zone 2/3 border (tube line for either zone just 5 min walk away). That helped. As did DH's salary (mine was modest compared to his!). Most of the young couples with small DC recently moved into our street work in City finance/law, IT/web development, own their own online business, photographer, senior position in international development.

Oh forgot... DH also previously owned a flat in Cambridge so we sold that to release the equity before buying in London.

DameDiazepam yes Walthamstow has gone crazy but it's still more than possible to get a nice Victorian terrace for £500k. We moved out to Highams Park / Chingford in April as we only had around £350k and even for that price there were 3 bed houses in Walthamstow but they just had tiny gardens which we didn't want.

Plenty left for £500k as long as the person doesn't have to live in "the village"!

Croydon 'up and coming?' Pmsl the only thing up and coming in croydon is a load of louts and gangs of youths. Hate the place!

I've just watched the episode that inspired this thread. And read all your comments about Brixton, where I live and am raising my family.

The one bed garden flat that they offered £462,300 for, is not in Brixton. It is in Poet's Corner, Herne Hill, which is unbelievably sought after, and you have to pay a whopping premium on the price to live in such a fashionable area. I live in a neighbouring road which is in the Brixton postcode, and when I was flat hunting the difference in price between the two postcodes was over £100,000, and I imagine that difference has increase. If you want to live somewhere considered to be the poshest place in the neighbourhood, then you have to expect to pay.

Someone said that Brixton doesn't have open space. BROCKWELL PARK! With it's superb play area and paddling pool, and café.

I like living in Brixton because I can get from home to my central London office in 25 mins. And the less time spent commuting means more time spent with my child. I've lived somewhere with a long commute before (leafy, middleclass, suburban Hampton) and it was soul destroying, wasting my life's hours on a busy train, hoping if I'm lucky to get a seat, and paying a fortune for the pleasure. Brixton, being the end of the Victoria line, means that I'm always boarding an empty train, and get a seat, which is nice, even on a short journey.

And just as it is easy to get in to central London, it is also easy to get to excellent schools, JAGS, Alleyns, Dulwich College.. etc. So by living in Brixton I maximise the amount of time I can spend playing with my daughter in the park, and when she's older she can walk to an excellent school.

NHS doctors are not adding to the economy, although I would suggest we need them more than NHS managers and the huge load of pointless local authority jobs we have invented which are not needed. There are some parts of the country where most jobs are for the state - you might as well live in North Korea.

I totally agree with that. Putting aside the fact that lots of people would be made redundant, i think there are thousands of ridiculous public sector non-jobs that really would not be missed at all if they were axed and would save local authorities an absolute fortune.

oops, sorry, didn't mean to resurrect an old thread, was searching for Brixton and got carried away!

I thought I cannot be bothered with this shite when I'm trying to eat pizza.