£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)

Yeah, I had a friend who worked in the area of home economics education and 99.9% of UK people definitely DO NOT cook every night. It's not even a significant minority.

it's the blind acceptance that this is just how much it costs
What are we supposed to do about it DoubleDootch? It's a choice between spending £2k per month on a mortgage or £2k in rent in the (very lightly regulated) private rental sector. I'm really not sure what you expect people to do (aside from lobby their MPs to work for more affordable housing and regulate the private housing market)

£2k being a figure pulled out of the air btw - I'm guessing that's what a 2 bed flat in Zone 2 costs to rent these days.

Really? the majority of people don't cook every day?
let's have a little survey.
How many days a week on average do you cook a meal?
My answer 7 out of 7 for the huge majority of the time.

Um, I think there might be some flaws in your study design there!

nonsense. It was very well planned out and thoughtful survey!!

When I was looking to buy my first place, I was living in a shared flat in zone 2, and my budget would juuust about stretch to a tiny one bed flat a few tube stops away. And everyone told me I would be insane to buy something like that.
So I looked further out and bought myself a 3 bed house with a 90 ft garden, walking distance to a mainline station that got me into work in 40 mins. It was even a university town, so some semblence of nightlife.

Biggest mistake ever. I hated it. After 6 weeks, I'd appointed a letting agent, after another 6 weeks, it was let and I moved back to London. Brixton Hill of all places. Had to tough out the next 18 months of subsidising the shortfall between my mortgage and the rent coming in, but I then sold it the second I could and bought myself a shoebox in London, where I stayed for another 5 years happier than I could ever been in a big house in a boring town

adsy : Wednesday is the only night I will have cooked.

Mon: bought snack between work and night out
Tue: dinner out
Wed: meal at home. Cooked another meal for...
Thurs: reheated cooked meal from Wed before going out
Fri: dinner out tonight
Sat: meal out for a birthday
Sun: pub dinner with family

And yes DH and I are childless

We do have a nice little kitchen though and as the nights draw in I expect we'll be home a lot more and will cook more. DH is home tonight and cooking dinner for friends.

So 4 meals out inone week? Is that normal foryou? I have quite a disposableincome but could never justify that to myself! Must cost a fortune!

It varies adsy.

If anyone can recommend somewhere to buy for about £300k I'm all ears by the way! Currently renting, thinking about buying. Fingers crossed for the euro millions

I love eating out, it's one of the things I really miss about London/no kids. Doesn't have to be expensive, there are so many reasonably priced restaurants there. I miss a little Vietnamese place we used to go to in Deptford

Plenty of work places have really good canteens so there are many professionals that will eat at lunch time, only using kitchens for the bare minimum so doesn't matter if it's minute.

I'm really missing London now!!

How do people manage commuting plus full time work with childcare?

We looked at every possible option of moving out to Surrey (needed to be south as we have to travel to the South West regularly to see family). We needed to keep our commute at the 50 mins door to door it is currently so we could still do nursery drop offs/pick ups and in future breakfast/after school drops/pick ups. We needed an area with reasonable schools and within a mile walk to the station.

It was impossible. Either houses were miles away from stations or trains were too infrequent/came into the wrong London station. And the houses weren't that cheap either. Neither could we find jobs outside of London despite actively looking for years.

All our (female) work colleagues who have moved further out after having children either have family to help or have given up work (and not always through choice).

So I choose London with its exorbitant house prices because being a SAHM in a commuter town is the only viable alternative.

Oh yes I am quite spendy and need to cut back. We're very much enjoying being young and in London right now - probably because suburbia beckons! But I don't mind paying £8 for some Pho when I don't have the necessary six hours to make it (and buying all of the ingredients would be waaaaaay more than £8).

Million - good question and I'd love to know the answer too. Living in zone 3, DP still takes am hour to get into the city

Women I know either quit their jobs or give up on their careers and settle into any job they can find (shop work for example). Their DH's jobs are usually deemed more important They also seem quite bored, and dare I say it, boring.

Million, we only manage childcare, f/t jobs and a commute because we work different shifts. Also DP's job pays for his commute, which cuts our travels costs in half. Fortunately we're never both out of the house for the same 10 hours a day so childcare is just under f/t for our DC.

The downside to that is that I never bloody see DP.

Still, I get to enjoy my garden in peace and quiet

If we both worked 9-5 in London it would never work. I have no idea how people make that work.

I love the implication that:

1. buyers in London aren't actually aware that there are other places that are cheaper; and
2. that if they are prepared to pay more money to live in the city they are GETTING IT WRONG .

It's almost as if different people actually want different things!

If the price is cheaper where you live, great - enjoy. But it's cheaper because in spite of its wonderful 5 bed executive housing with pampas grass and built in wife swapping, fewer people want to live there.

Gosh yes. The people I know who have 'made' the most from their properties are the ones who bought in London. I am not prepared to say that prices will only go one way but these people are certainly not fools. Most have the intention of retiring elsewhere and it seems logical that whenever you do decide to leave then houses elsewhere will be correspondingly cheaper.