£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)

The London market is cooling, though.

Crossed with Nancy.

I paid a similar amount for a smallish flat in one of Edinburgh's best streets (not boasting, it's just fact. It's a modest basement flat anyway, nowt too fancy!). Do I regret it? Not a chance.
Having lived in bigger houses in not so great areas, I'd now pay for location every time. That's why it's a bit pointless when people say 'ooh, you could buy a massive pad for that money round our way'.
You pay your money, you take your choice.

nancy75 is right about London living warping you.

I regularly find myself looking on Right Move at £1million plus houses and thinking: 'wonder why that's so cheap?'

I think perhaps what I mean is that people are generally quite shit at negotiating the price of the house that they want to buy and are terrible at recognising what is actually value for money and that the price of their asset can go down as well as up.

How many people take any notice of how much that extra ten grand will actually cost them over their 25 years mortgage?

How many people are going to be totally screwed when interest rates rise, or when they get to the end of their mortgage term and realise the real implication to having an interest only mortgage?

Er iggly.
I was born on Brixton Water Lane, grew up on Brixton Hill and lived as an adult in Streatham, Thornton Heath and Old Town. Ain't much you can tell me about Croydon.
I base no opinion upon Ikea, that was simply where I was travelling to as I drove through Croydon and felt no pangs of regret at leaving.
Maybe I miss the takeaways, although I'm half a stone lighter...

dieu one of Edinburgh's best streets isn't really a fair comparison to Brixton tbh.

How so? I thought Edinburgh and London prices were more or less comparable (unless it's one of the super posh London quarters), but I could well be wrong.

Edinburgh is teeny tiny compared with London. So yes it is expensive but not many people actually live there.

The only thing I miss about Brixton is the cafe under the bridge at Herne Hill - garlic chips. Mmmmmmm

I'll stick round here, for that price you can get a 7 bed plus study detached home... and I can't afford that either.

IAmAPaleontologist where is that £65k house please? We are looking to get out of London as we can't afford to live here!

We sat in our house and laughed at them. Especially the shared gardens and how excited they got.

Half a million for a place with bars on the window? Yes please.
And the tiny patio that for most people is the path down their garden.

cereal I'm in County Durham . Great house prices. bit stuffed if you ever want to move somewhere else in the country though .

dieu perhaps they were before the mad bubble that London has experienced in the last couple of years? I do know people who live in basement flats in non-central London and people who live in basement flats in Stocksbridge and I know who has the better deal!

I don't get all the pearl clutching about Croydon. Its in zone 5. 15/20 mins from 3 major London stations. Easy commute to the city. About to get a Westfield. Massive development and money being poured in (new tech city apparently). Loads of shitty old real estate ripe for redevelopment. Nice leafy suburbs 10/15 mins drive away (South Croydon, Sanderstead, Caterham, Woodcote estate in Purely etc). Easy access to M25 and the coast. Some very good schools (mainly private admittedly). Its the next bit of London ripe for gentrification. If I inherited money I'd be buying a 2 bed flat to rent out pronto.

I also like IKEA and the Purley Way - handy shopping and you can feed your family in the IKEA cafe for about a tenner.

Its because its London innit! It does not matter where, you pay through the nose just for the priviledge. I live in Milton Keynes 50 miles away, in a large detached property, double garage, large garden, 4 large bedrooms bought for £300k, I would be lucky if I got a 2 bedroomed pokey flat in Hackney or Deptford for that! No thank you, a fool and his money and all that.

I nearly fell off my chair at the prices.

That and the fact 450k was "well within budget".

I find myself more interested in their jobs than the properties in all honesty.

I don't think people who buy property in London are fools who are soon parted from their money...far from it. We all have our own money and are able to make our own choices.

If you can afford to buy in London you'd be foolish NOT to. you're never going to lose money on a London property.

God, that bloke was so excited about his patch of shared grass you get so used to bring very grateful for even the smallest scrap of grass in London. We moved out, sold our Victorian conversion for 3.5x what we paid for it and bought a house and garden half an hour away from Euston on the train! I wish we'd hung onto it as it's worth a FORTUNE now!

You're right Nancy.

Brixton is a funny place. Was once naice, then gradually became a shithole, then became a cool shithole and is now gentrifying and will probably end up being naice again because of all the people priced out of properly naice Clapham. I lived there for years and am still fortunate enough to own property there but there is no way on God's green earth any sane person should pay the asking prices of property there at the moment.

London is mad, and I don't say that with any cosy smug glow. I don't understand where people are getting the dosh for these tiny places either or why they would spend it there either. It's vibey and well connected transport wise but it could never be described as pretty or even charmingly bohemian.

Do people honestly think that the London property market will only ever go one way?

Currently average London house prices are over nine times London salaries and wages are rising lower than inflation. Where do you think the people are who can afford to but these houses?

Major property investors are currently cashing in their London chips and seeking new markets. Possibly this is because they just wouldn't know what to do with all the money they stand to make