to ask people who live in a house in Central London what it's like?

[manicinsomniac]

I mean an actual family 2+ bedroom house, not a flat or an apartment or a divided up house etc.

I'm absolutely fascinated. Living in London is my absolute pipe dream but, even though I'm on a good salary, I am a single mum of 3 and would only be able to afford a tiny shoebox in an area of London that would make it worth moving to (I'm only 35 mins on train now so now worth going to zone 4+). Whereas I can rent a lovely little 2.5 bed house where I am.

I don't see much in the way of full houses when I walk around central London (we go a lot) but was walking down a street of them today and the people looked so normal. Not rich at all. And the houses looked pretty run to be honest. It made me think.

This is pure curiosity but, if you do live in a zone 1/2 house, can I ask:
Which area it's in
What the area is like to live in
Whether you think it's worth any sacrifices you may be making

and, if it's not too personal (sure it is for many and I completely respect that) whether you consider yourself affluent and, if not, how on earth you manage it?

I have to admit I'm so jealous!

Our two mortgages (totalling about £5m) cost us a LOT, no doubting that. Painful for sure.

As are the people who talk of the loely rural idl, with ace schools and great quick links to London, yet at super duper cheap prices.

Never claimed where I live was super cheap.....but "ace schools, quick links to London and rural idyll"....yes....works for what we want - best of both worlds.

I'm not trying to aim it at particular people, these threads abound at least once a month on MN.

I do feel sorry for people who read them and ask for proper advice, when so many people either come on being doom mongers and predicting a massive price crash or tell them of some wonderland really near London byt priced like Hull

and Feckkkk... £5 m, I'd be looking at my assetts especially now BTL laws are changing.

Us, we plan to do a "flip" sell the big house once all the DC are fully clear, and move into the flat instead. Hopefully that will work, and we can spend our retirement spending the money disgracefully.

Hehe, longtime, you are certainly right with FECCCK....it has been a case of terribly poor planning, and a surprise baby. We wouldn't have wanted it this way! Hopefully not for long, but got tenants to get rid of.

I lived in a shared house in fairly central North London (zone 2) for ages, around 10 years ago - the place was fucking massive but not 'done' at all so although there were three of us we could afford a four-storey house on not much money . It was great! We had all of downstairs communal and then a floor to ourselves each which (due to various bodge attempts at making it upmarket over the years before whatever various owners ran out of money) included our very own , personal, fucked-up and not quite working but personal, bathroom. How times change - I just looked it up on zoopla and the last time it was rented out the asking price was £2.5k per month . I assume they've tarted it up. The area itself was dodgy in general but the little few streets around where we were were absolutely lovely - a real neighbourhood feel, with lots of arty boho types around (not Shoreditch boho - proper old school London boho). Minutes on the tube to town, maybe 20 mins on the bus and as those were the days of 60p bus tickets to anywhere (thanks Ken!) that was how we got about. It was brilliant - everything was on our doorstep, there was a massive (stabby) park just up the road for running in, shops that sold everything you could think of all day and night, great parties.

I'm sorry LHR, really hope things work out, can't be easy that.

Actually, the £2.5k was for five years ago. The cheapest for a similar property in that area now is £3.25k pcm. Even more

I live in a flat in central London. The people I know who have houses are either very rich (work in the City, or are barristers, or have old money, that kind of rich) or are the exact opposite and are living on very small incomes, and have a council house (which they've had for a long time because council houses are thin on the ground nowadays).

I love my flat, but I dream of having a garden, as I'd love a dog. But then I hate driving and I don't need to here, whereas all my friends who live outside of cities are forever in their cars. And there is so much to do for free on the doorstep for when you have kids: eg we went to one of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures today - tickets for these are usually expensive and impossible to get, but they put an extra one on today which was free (as last-minute), and as we were close we could go down and get in. I'd miss all that.