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 was on a thread the other day where someone was complaining that a 3 bed house at £135,000 wasn't affordable to the average couple in full time employment. I thought that was pushing it a bit!

^
Blimey, you got a time machine?

Move out of London. It's not what it used to be. Miserable, stinking place. You could buy a nice home in the midlands with space and nicer people.

Its an awful place for kids - crime, violent crime, no go areas and toxic levels of pollution. Best schools in the country? No - most highly funded receiving twice the levels elsewhere in the country get (but not for much longer when the fff kicks in).

OP, I second buying the 2 bed flat to get yourselves on the housing ladder.

We are in the south west and even here we bought a small starter home first back in 2008 (small 2 bed where second bedroom could fit a single bed and chest of drawers with a small yard on a main road). It was just as prices were moving down from 2007 peak. We paid the extortionate mortgage for 5 years, but it meant we built up equity and used it to buy a 4 bed new build townhouse via Help To Buy. Once you own at least some of your monthly housing is paying off the mortgage instead of someone else's.

OP I have a friend who lived in SE London for years but her max property budget was also £250k. Nothing in her area for that money (with the exception of some very awful dingy flats) so she moved down to a new-build apartment building in Tonbridge and now commutes to the City by train.

Our 5 bed terrace in a naice part of SW London could by us a 30 room castle in Scotland. Yes, a CASTLE! I do love London with the exception of extortionate house prices.

I would probably buy out of London if I were you. There are lots of nice places only 30 minutes away by train. It's often quicker to get into London from somewhere 80 miles away than it is to get from the outer edges of London. My commute from Muswell Hill used to take me over an hour every day, whereas I can be in central London in 40 minutes from Leicester.

If you really want to live in London, then hold tight and hope for a crash. There just might be one when we leave the EU.

OP, I understand how you feel about London. I love it, it's my home, my family are there (or near).
I was forced to leave for work 4 years ago (I cried and cried and cried), and now live in The North.
The plan originally was to go back asap, but we've ended up buying a place up here so it looks like we're staying.

Honestly, it's been hard and lonely sometimes. I hate being far from my family. However, the benefits of being here are so marked that I don't think we'll go back.

Finding housing for both rental and buying has been easy and affordable. We live near the centre of the city and the train from there to London is only about 2 hours. It's the same time from all the northern cities (except Newcastle/Sunderland).
The reduced cost of living means that I really don't have to worry about money anymore. My salary easily sees out the month and I have savings.
I can walk to work.
No DC's (yet) but there seem to be plenty of good and outstanding schools.
People honestly are friendlier. My theory is that there is much less pressure for space and resources, so there is no need to be on guard all the time.

It's also meant that spending time in London is better. We go there for fun things, and we can afford to stay in nicer areas we could never have afforded to live in. (I do miss the cultural things - nowhere else compares, but honestly I couldn't afford to do them much anyway when I lived in London).

Don't discount leaving London. It doesn't mean that London has to disappear from your life. If you want (some) culture, the opportunities of city life, and to own a house, definitely look at the north.

Under no circumstances would I spend a quarter of a million pounds on a dingy flat in a grim part of London.

Totally agree with sheepissheep

Maintaining the status quo is always easier than taking a leap and making a change, but looking at it long term you can reap so many benefits. It would have felt easier at the time to stay in the area I was raised, family on tap etc

But actually quite apart from property prices being better, moving away means you have to increase your friendship circle, get involved in the community etc I think it's no accident that usually the movers and shakers in a community are the incomers who don't take anything for granted. Likewise, although visiting my elderly parents is now a 3 hour drive, it means we make a proper effort rather than having them on the doorstep; also as sheep says, you can still visit London and probably do more cultural things than you could afford if you lived there.

As both your kids are under 10, I would seriously consider moving, before they start High School.

For context, I live in a lovely town in Scotland. I have a 5 bedroom house with spectacular sea views, and according to Zoopla, it's worth about £220k (I paid less when I bought it a few years ago). I'm only 25 mins on the train from Edinburgh, so not "out in the sticks" or anything. Just 15 mins to the airport. Good schools, lovely countryside and beaches etc. I lived in London many moons ago, and there is nothing that is there, that I don't have access to here.

miss t4 fantasy would be those win a country cottage things in the mail

namechanger I agree but don't try and bullshit! The fastest train from leicster to St Pancras is about an hour!

I think yabu to think the issues are just london-based. People outside earn less as an average so although the prices may seem 'affordable' to those in London they aren't affordable to the locals.

But in general, yes the property market is nonsense. It's all very well saying 'most people don't own a 3-bed as ftbs' smugly but the point is that previously you would have had the 2-bed when you were younger but the length of saving makes the ftb point coincide with actually having children and needing a bigger place.

It's also all very well to talk about moving out and speed of trains. Yes, you could buy a lovely house in Leicester for 250K I'm sure but it would cost £10k a year for a season ticket (I live a similar distance, this is approximate). Which is likely to reduce her housebuying budget for the midlands somewhat.

why in these threads is it always full of people saying how awful London is and how they wouldn't want to live there. I wouldn't want to live in London, I was born and raised up north and I love Manchester too much to even consider living anywhere else. But I understand the appeal of London. Why is it so outrageous that somebody might struggle outside of London and that living elsewhere might be a really unattractive option for them.

Horses for courses and all that.

I see t4 has gone rather quiet. Still waiting to hear where these no go areas are.

sheep okay but as as been said many times on this thread this is great if you (and partner if applicable) have a job is an easy transfer to a different part of the country - many do not have this.

sheep okay but as as been said many times on this thread this is great if you (and partner if applicable) have a job is an easy transfer to a different part of the country - many do not have this.

Well that's my point. You could get another job outside London but it would pay less. Bit like the jobs the people in the area have and the reason why houseprices are seemingly 'cheap'.

The ratio of London wages/Northern England Wages is way lower than the ratio of London houseprices/Northern England houseprices though.

When I was working in a permanent role my wage was approx. 85% of what I'd get for a very similar job in London. My 3bed semi however is prob about 20% of what it would cost in a London suburb

basic do you appreciate at all that there are lots of jobs where most opportunities are in London?

That's a rather simplistic way of looking at it Crikey.

1. Not all of the 'north' is cheap or even the midlands.
2. The differences in wages/ stability cause other problems in relation to getting mortgages.
3. Some people's income will be less different depending on where they live. For some the difference will be massive

If things are so easy elsewhere then why is the southeast so popular.....?

do you appreciate at all that there are lots of jobs where most opportunities are in London?

Well obviously yes. So in which case life is easier in London not harder surely...?

There is this fantasy of what you could do outside London with your 200K a year salary. Outside London you'd be on less, so the house prices are suddenly less 'cheap'.

It pisses me off, my in laws are always on about how 'cheap' this area is. Not when 40K is highly paid it isn't.

t4 - my job can only be done in Central London. I live in zone 1 and walk to work. My kids absolutely love it here. More than Paris, where we lived before.

I live nowhere near London and you can't get a nice house for 250k so to expect one in London is rather odd to say the least.