I hate London property prices

[Lolaredingfield10]

I was born, raised and still live in Uxbridge, Greater London.

DH and I have been saving up for a mortgage for years. Our Budget is £250,000

We have 2 DC under 10, we'd like a 3 bed semi with a garden in Uxbridge, even Hayes would be fine but the prices are all £400,000 +

The best we can get with our money is a 2 bed flat in our area and it's utterly depressing.

We don't want to leave London, I don't understand how anyone can afford these prices but Houses are being snapped up.

Surely this can't last. We can't decide between trying to save up for a bigger deposit and waiting a few more years or just settling somewhere else in England.

I'm ignoring t4!

I feel so incredibly sorry for folk trying to get on the property ladder in London. When we watch things like Location (x3!) I am always utterly shocked by the prices.

We live on the west coast of Scotland (Not far from Glasgow) DH is senior management in the whisky industry, I'm a manager in banking. We moved last year into a detached 4 bed 3 bath home with off street parking for 3 cars and 4 public rooms in a quiet location where the kids can play out and in the catchment of the school the children attend (which is a great school). We paid £240k. And we stay in our home town.

I can't imagine how difficult it is for people who just want to stay in their home town, near extended family, who want to buy a home for their growing family and to find themselves so priced out of the market.

I would echo the others and say buy the flat, it is at the very least a step on the ladder, and a home for you and your family.

Good luck op

I lived between Hayes and uxbridge for 10 years and I can tell you I got sick of the place I have now relocated completely to wolves and I prefer it greater London is a dump now

What jobs only found in London? MP? Beefeater?

Don't want to be too precise for risk of outing myself, but I'm a researcher and the only UK institutions that specialise in my area of expertise are in London.

On the fast train, I can get to Euston in 20 minutes. I don't live in zones 1-8. From talking to friends and colleagues it takes them longer to get from zone 3-4 to Euston. So you probably don't 'need to be in london'. (By the way 250k here will get you a three bed detached with garden and garage)

Knits- my job is also found only in London. Would never live there though. Commuting and living outside is cheaper and healthier once you get used to it.

Prices are massively inflated. It's more like £600-650k for a three bed semi here in another west london surburb. We bought a flat so as not to max out on a mortgage which was probably the wrong choice, we can't save fast enough to make up the gap - we save about £8-10k a year. We'd have a deposit of around £300k but it's hopeless as raising a mortgage of £350k is unlikely any time soon, particularly with the new lending restrictions. Our only hope of a home is to inherit, which hopefully isn't anytime soon so we may not "need" it by that point. Another option is to extend - we are in a ground floor flat and our neighbour already has permission for a rear extension, the additional space would cost a fraction of the price to move to a similar sized home and we could double our money on the investment if we sold.

My job does not exist outside of London.

There are no "no-go" areas in London. Stop believing the Daily Mail's lies.

Help to buy is only be stopped in one part of it. The way round it to get a bigger property is to buy a flat, sell it within 6 months or so, (hopefully at a slight profit) and then take out a help to buy equity loan. You could get a property valued at about £80k more for the same mortgage and give yourselves 5 years before worrying about it. Might only get you a 3 bed flat though!

No worries like this in the North of England! House prices are much the same now as they were in 2007/08

We live in Cambridge and it is beyond ridiculous here. Our plan is to move away as soon as ds has finished sixth form. We will still have DD at home but the cost of living here and what we would get for our (completely normal) 3 bed semi would get us something lovely elsewhere and give us plenty of spare cash. Horrible situation in some ways as Cambridge is my home town and I would love to stay here but practically it is impossible 😞

Living in London as I do I'm interested in these no-go areas T4, could you elucidate for my safety and all the other Londoners on his thread?

Waiting with interest.

It is all very demoralising. Some people may not like the area but it's home. The last thing we want is to leave, so we'll have to compromise on space. I've spotted a few 2 bed ground floor flats with a garden in the Hayes End area, it's not what we wanted but if we wait around, we'll soon be unable to afford even that. I do hope the situation changes though, surely these prices are unsustainable in the long run.

My guess is a lot of people see immigrant people in an area and get put off thus creating the myth of a no go area. Fact is immigrants' kids will often do better at school, so the schools in these areas are great. Tower Hamlets for example.

Keen to know where these no go areas are? Worried for my safety out there. Hope I've not inadvertently been walking through any of them, completely safely.

Yes, another one dying to know about these 'no go areas'. Please do enlighten us. My job involves visiting people in an extremely deprived London borough. Bits of it are pretty grim but none of it is a 'no go area'

3 bed semi with garden is more than 250k in many places tbh.

No-one starts with house. Most people start with a grotty one -bed in a dismal area miles from the tube/ station/ centre. Then you keep saving. Then you trade up to a two bed flat but in the meantime the size of your deposit has effectively risen in line with prices.
Then you rent out a room/ flat share... etc etc.

I know that is not possible for you now but in your position I'd certainly go for a flat. The kids can share. No worries that might not be perfect. You can trade up when you have more money.

Good luck.

Ha Ha - at no-go/ crime hot-spot in the capital.

Wondered where so I can remember " not to go".

I totally agree with you that London house prices are absurd/awful/divisive/horrific and I worry so much for my children and feel enormously for people who are 10+ years younger than me and dh.

HOWEVER, I do get frustrated with people who expect to buy a three bed house with a garden as their first home. I don't know anyone among my home owning friends who managed that as their first purchase.

Complaining about London prices gets you less than zero sympathy from 90% of the country.

Your maths seem to be a bit shaky, dear. Given it was the only bit of content in any of your posts (rather than the sort of rants you hear from the bloke who hangs out at the bus stop), you may wish to invest in a calculator.

bibbitybobbityyhat
Agree with you on starting with a grotty flat, but even saving up for one those, whilst paying extortionist rent takes a long time, not surprising then for some couples to start a family. Hence the need for a larger first home.

Op l think your expectations are very high, very few people actually buy the home they want first time.
l am in a nice detatched house in the south, BUT have lived in 8 seriously grotty flats with lodgers in the living room for 10+ years doing them up as l went, and selling on as each one was made liveable.
Like most l have lived in very poor areas, done work on each property over my spare time, shared repeatedly to pay the mortgage etc, and delayed having a family because of it.

You are expecting to buy where you want, the house you want and feel agrieved that it is too expensive.....it is not realistic.

Houses in greater London are not going to drop, you are losing ground each week so buy the best investment you can find or you may not be able to buy at all.

Sorry to hear that. I know the area well.

I think t4 might actually be my mum. I live in an area of London with quite a bad reputation (think Delboy and Rodney). When I first moved here, my parents came to visit and I gave my mum a tour of the local high street. She spent the whole time cowering behind me and nervously glancing over her shoulder. I think she had a vision of something like the Wild West with people randomly firing shots at other shoppers in Morrisons or WHSmith. But then, she does read the Daily Mail.

Great place to live. I've always lived in Hillingdon/Harrow boroughs.

Property prices are shocking, but tbh London and SE prices being so ridiculous is nothing new. I was born and raised in greater London and moved away in the 80s because I knew I'd struggle to afford a shoe box within range of where I was raised. And those of us who remember the interest rates of the early 90s will vouch for the fact that borrowing a smaller amount doesn't necessarily mean you'll be paying less.... I well remember paying £500 per month when my take home pay was around £900 on a house that cost 50k!! Seems ludicrous now that weve gone the other way and house prices are sky high and mortgages are so low. Better to cut your losses and move somewhere else. It's really not worth hanging on if you really want more space