£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)

springlamb we went to Ikea Croydon yesterday, it was a special kind of crazy.

We left Norwood a year ago, and as much as I loved our beautiful Victorian house

drat.

it was time to leave. It's so expensive, I can't see how people can get on the property ladder now.

Yep, london prices are completely crazy. I live in a bit of a dump but it's london so I feel privileged to live in the dump!

The insanity that is the London housing market aside...

I don't really get why buying a 5 bedroom house with a 2 hour commute is better than buying a 2 bedroom flat half an hour from where you work. Some people don't want a massive house (they have to heat and clean) in the middle of nowhere. They want restaurants and clubs and pubs and public transport and life.

I didn't see the programme by the way but I"m guessing this is a young childless couple rather than a family of 6?

In London it is generally cheaper to buy than rent - you can't blame people who can, for choosing to buy. It's not the purchasers' fault that prices are so insane.

I like Brixton by the way.

Glad so many people would hate to live in london - stop the prices going up any faster than they already are ;-)

I can't see how people can get on the property ladder now

Well paying jobs, no children, save, buy zone 3+, buy an ex-LA flat a bit closer. inheritance, massive bonus paying jobs and buy a swish warehouse conversion in zone 1. Whatever, lots of people manage to buy something.

Yes aren't us Londoners stupid, wanting to have a home in the city we grew up in, where our careers and families and friends are, where more jobs are, where there are oodles of parks and galleries and museums and cinemas and independent cafés,...

And yeah I'd take a two bed in Brixton over anything in Milton Keynes thanks!

Well its just silly money really

A friend of mine paid £330 000 for what is basically a double bedroom with a shower cubicle and toilet, albeit in Pimlico. She doesn't even have an oven, kitchen sink or washing machine - just a mini fridge on her desk. I think she's crazy but she's grateful she found somewhere.

Yes aren't us Londoners stupid, wanting to have a home in the city we grew up in, where our careers and families and friends are, where more jobs are, where there are oodles of parks and galleries and museums and cinemas and independent cafés,...

Croydon has been mentioned here. I have been to Croydon.

I had a flat in London. When I was looking for it, the competition was other first time buyers. When we sold it 6 years later, the only buyers looking at it were parents looking for investment properties for their 20-something children.

"you're never going to lose money on a London property."

Isn't that what people generally say right before a property bubble bursts....?
I reckon it will all start to go into meltdown after the 2015 election.

I live in Brixton and really love it. There's so much going on and it's really interesting and vibrant. I can totally see why people would want a smaller place here rather than somewhere big in a less fun and convenient location.

Yes I also wonder about the jobs when I see young couples able to buy flats for half a million pounds and more!

They said it was her inheritance. Pretty sad to be honest that the only way anyone can buy something not even exceptional is due to the death of a parent.

I would have taken their £500k and gone slightly further away to get a nice terraced house....I dont know south very well but instead of a flat in Hackney I would get a house in Walthamstow so that type of compromise. However you can do that all the way to Milton Keynes and further and you have to stop somewhere. Maybe this was the further out option compared to Soho or Fitzrovia?

Brixton is a great place to live in London though I used to live in Stockwell. I'm bloody glad I moved out of London years ago!

Would 500 buy a house in Walthamstow now? Last I heard it had got very pricey. I'd rather live in Brixton given the choice tbh.

I found it scary as £450k was our budget when we were looking to buy in Brixton or the surrounding areas just over two years ago. When we were looking that was enough for a 3/4 terrace in Brixton Hill, at least in the areas that weren't in the catchment of the sought after primary schools.

Now, no chance. Those flats were rubbish for the price.

I do really love Brixton but don't have any regrets about not buying there.

Gawd Brixton has changed.
Do they still put those big yellow boards at the end of roads 'another crack den has been busted'?

Do you still get offered a wide variety of drugs on the way to the train station?

I don't think Londoners are stupid for wanting to live there, I was just making comment on the housing market only going one way statement that someone made.

And I do think panic buying and getting swept up in the market as it is now is not the wisest move, but then I speak from the perspective of the Northern Irish housing market where I have heard many of this phrases before. If it looks, acts and sounds like a bubble - it probably is a bubble.

These phrases!

Exactly CkD not even a kitchen to cook in, that is silly money, and not a good standard of living IMO, when you could get something much better further away within commuting distance to London if you need. London's overrated really IMO.

I was horrified too. If you have half a million, go and love somewhere you can buy much bigger house!!! An a less stressful life away from London ha :)

Or at least not Brixton. Every time I have been to Brixton I've had weird things happen - a trolley of raw, skinned, unpackaged cow legs in the middle of the pavement, told to fuck off when queueingg for a cash machine, naked person dancing in the street...... Just no.