£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)

Really? the majority of people don't cook every day?

The majority of 20 to 30 year olds without children living in London who have OK jobs (thinking £35k+) will almost certainly NOT be cooking most night.

Late night at work, sandwich from pret on your way somewhere in the evening, a take out Leon because you've no food in the house, many many many dinners in restaurants with friends because that's how you see people when everyone lives in either a) a tiny central flat or b) a bigger flat somewhere horribly out of the way. You're not exactly going to travel from the Wharf to Ealing Broadway after work to go eat at a friends then back to London Bridge (for example) to home are you?

Most people I know eat at least 2 meals a day at work anyway.

London prices are mind boggling. My dsis lives there now and bought a place a couple of years ago. After parents gave me the farm, she naturally wanted some help buying so I sold one of the farms rental properties in the local village and gave her the proceeds (nearly 500k).
It was a lovely old 5 bed police house with about 2/3 acre of gardens etc, a very nice spacious family home.
She bought...... A flat. Seriously, a friggin ground floor flat with no outside space, one allocated parking space and less than a third of the floor space of the house I sold .

Rip off city doesn't quite cover it! Astounded.

People who make money on their houses generally do so by accident, and it's important to remember that these great personal gains have been made at the expense of society as a whole. Not being able to afford the house that you bought 2 years ago if you had to buy the same again today is not a good thing.

And I make no apology for saying people go into house buying blindly, you do have a choice markets go down as well as up, wait till it goes down.

I lived in London in my twenties earning ok money and despite eating in the canteen most days and out quite a lot In the evening I still found quite a lot of use for my kitchen.

haha, you could buy a mansion for that in some parts of Scotland!!

I have a lot of disposable income, but would view eating out 4 times in one week as unusual

I think that is entirely normal.

Not all expensive stuff - lots of viets or Thais for £10. Lots of eating when out and about from street food stalls. Lots of sandwiches on the way somewhere like sport match or theatre. Also some nice meals thrown in too.

I used to eat two meals a day at work, breakfast and then you could get a cooked meal for about £3 from the subsidised cafe. If I did cook it was pasta, but half the time it was just a bowl of cereal or some toast. We'd eat out a lot too.

It's a rather different lifestyle when you're in your 20s and living in a big city, I think. There's probably a lot of be said for many of those "city" jobs encouraging a work hard, play attitude, lots of socialising, client meetings, working late, that sort of thing.

It really is probably only normal for a very very small proportion of people.

I sold my SW4 flat in 2000. Looking at Rightmove, it would now be worth half a million. I bought it for £60k. How the hell would a civil servant/teacher/nurse afford £500k?

The majority of 20 to 30 year olds without children living in London who have OK jobs (thinking £35k+) will almost certainly NOT be cooking most night.

So a quite small minority then.
Another example of people thinking that London is all there is and outside the m25 is a waste land.

One reason is they work a lot harder in London which is why they earn more and can afford more expensive houses and to think spending £10 on going out to eat is "cheap" (which by the way I think is an amazing statement. I earn quite a bit and just about never eat out).

"One reason is they work a lot harder in London"

What an inflammatory statement to make about only people in London working harder! Bloody hell, I've heard it all now.

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

Blue There's plenty of cheaper places in London that are better than Brixton and not that far out.

"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"

Right then! Who said anything about wife swapping?

I do get that people want different things. But buying a property and raising a family in Brixton when you can afford not to - why? Just because you want to have some nice restaurants on your doorstep and have a 10 minute commute to your work in Victoria? I appreciate the investment aspect, though.

I'm pissing myself laughing at the thought that apparently DH and I don't work as hard now that we have left London!

We have a better quality of life but this is not to do with not working as hard more that we just live in a place that is quicker to travel round and closer to countryside and beaches.

I absolutely loved living there when I did but I wouldn't go back.

"I'm pissing myself laughing at the thought that apparently DH and I don't work as hard now that we have left London! "

You heard it here first on MN

Newflash!!!! People who live outwith the London financial bubble do NOT work hard.

FGS ever since I moved to London in 1993 people have been saying London prices have peaked and are unsustainable. I remember looking at flats in SW London for £65,000 and friends telling me it was insane to buy, and each time I've moved I've been told that the situation is unprecedented and there's going to be a crash, but basic economics show that you will not lose money in the long term in London. I have a couple of friends still renting in London as they've always been a bit to worried about the next 'crash' to commit.

Lots of people don't cook wherever they live.

I couldn't put my finger on what was odd about a boyfriend's London flat until it dawned on me that his tiny kitchen - it was a large windowless cupboard, really - didn't have a cooker. Just a microwave, a small fridge with milk and alcohol in it and a small sink. One cupboard with bread and cereal in it.

He had four plates, four bowls, two mugs on a mug tree and some cutlery hanging from one of those dangly things from Ikea. Lots of wine glasses.

It took about two months for the penny to drop because we used to go out all the time and eat cornflakes or bacon sandwiches the next morning.

I live in London. I have a decent-sized kitchen with a window and full complement of white goods and I'm going to cook tonight. But I don't eat in every night.

Like PPs have said, part of the attraction of living in London (or Manchester or Leeds or Birmingham etc) is that you can eat out. Within a minute of my house there are eight restaurants. Within five I lose count.

I like Brixton, OP. I like the centre, and I also like the hill, but I'd prefer to live closer to the station. But I prefer where I live.

And yes small kitchens are absolutely fine until kids come along! We ate out all the time, if not in the evening it would be a work lunch. I learned to cook when I needed to cook for DS1 and understood he couldn't make it through on a pret sandwich and a bottle of red!

I'm very nostalgic watching people on location looking for their first flats and believing Brixton is as far 'out' as they can go. I remember that. It was a fantastic time. Some people want to grow up and settle down quickly and find a sensible home, others thrive on city living (not just London) and have completely different lives. Neither is right or wrong.

Oh I totally agree that big kitchens aren't an essential for
Everyone, I was just pointing out that no kitchen would mean it probAbly wasn't actually a house. In fact in think a house may need. Kitchen to be mortgageable.

Things are different to the early 1990s but I wouldn't say that the differences protect the market from falling, the biggest concern would be interest rate rises I think.

I think you are right Dooble. That's what they say on Homes Under the Hammer anyway.