What do you think about this flat?

[helpmedecideplease]

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44509686.html

Hi OP,

I don't think the price is bad but do think about the lease. At 97 years now, it's fine, but if you're planning to be there 10 years, you may have to renew before you sell. We had a few issues seeing a flat with an 82-year lease, and ended up having to take the cost of the freehold (£20K) off the asking price.

In an idea world, you'd change the layout - knock through kitchen & living room and maybe bathroom & separate loo.

I also agree with other comments about ex-LA properties. If you could afford a 2bed period flat rather than a 3- bed LA flat, I'd go for that. Kentish Town is a great area, but a less busy road would be better.

Sorry should have said selling a flat with a 82 yr lease.

@TheFirstMrsDV I also lived at the top of Leighton road for years- small world! Which end? I was at the end furthest from Kentish Town station. Just opposite Charles Dance

It was a tiny teachers' co-op flat and the rent was ridiculously low. I LOVED living there.

OP, where do you work? If you can live with the noise of the road, buy it. It is a VERY loud road though. There's this one up the road in Gospel Oak, with good access to the overground.

I live in Bethnal Green now, it's great. Have you considered east London?

I live in Kentish Town and also own an ex LA property. I agree with others - KTR is extremely noisy and traffic clogged, and there are night buses running past too so they'll be no end to it. And also agree that you must look very carefully at the council's service charges and major works schedule - my flat has so far cost me at least 5000 a year on top of quite hefty service charges for work to the block. Quite annoying! And there's no real comeback apart. Feel a bit like a cash machine for the council.

That said, I would look at the estate around Gospel Oak for relatively well priced property. Lismore estate, Weedington Road, Kiln Place, around Grafton Road. Further from the tube but right by Gospel Oak overground and the Heath. The area has its characters but I've never felt unsafe there and there's a good mix of private and council owners, also some quite smart new flats being built which will make the whole area a bit smarter.

This place, for example, is in the catchment of Gospel Oak primary which has just been given an Outstanding Ofsted and so would have good resale potential to families:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46627956.html

Cross posted with another fan of Kiln Place!

Haven't RTFT but I don't think that's a bad price for 3 bed. I live in SE London and you could get a period conversion with garden in some well-connected areas for about 500k though e.g. E Dulwich rather than above shops. Can be difficult to get mortgages above shops if the usage could turn to a chicken and chip shop/ dry-cleaners or something.

Unless you are wedded to Kentish Town, you can get more for your money I would say, even in London! What about West Hampstead/Kilburn?

I think what us 'Northerners' wonder though is..

What is so great about London, and your jobs, that you would even want to consider spending £500k for a flat above a row of somewhat nasty looking shops?

What is it about your job that you couldn't do say in Leeds/Liverpool/Manchester etc where for £500k commuting in the same distance you would bag yourself something worthy of a decent lifestyle.

I might add I used to work in London back in 99. Personally never saw the appeal ( I rented, didn't buy) - some friends of mine bought back in 95 and boy have they creamed in the money!

But now - how are prices going to go up even more?

For £500k I would want my own private drive and sheep out in the fields!

Seems a decent size, but you might struggle to rent out the box room unless you advertise it as a Monday-Friday let (so someone who lives outside of London on a weekend), unless either you or you sibling take a tiny room. also would only having one bathroom put a potential renter of if they have to share with 2 other people. I'm not sure what the London expectation is, but this would put me of a bit.
What the noise situation?, I assume this road is busy?, are you going to be woken up by people coming to and from the tube at 11/12 at night on a weekday. The downstairs is a library, but how would you feel if it gets turned into a restaurant or pub?.
What the lease on it and is their a service charge?.
What sort of price do similar size flats go for in the area.
Decorative wise it's bland, but nothing that can't be fixed. The bathroom looks tiny but does that mater?, the kitchen units look a tad dated, but nothing that can't be changed if you choose.
Have you been and looked round it. Try walking up and down the road at different times to get a feel for the area.

People were saying 'How are the prices going to go up even more?' years ago but they have gone up; that's why a 3-bed flat in Kentish Town is now £500k.

I moved out of London but still in the SE so I would be considered a mug too. Are people who live in Manchester mugs because they choose to live in Manchester rather than in an ex-mining village further north where you can get a 3-bed house even cheaper, say for £60k? No, because they're choosing to live where there are plenty of jobs on offer plus other amenities and opportunities that fit with their lifestyle.

I say this as someone who has lived in a village in the NE, a city in the NE, London, and now a village in the SE. No one is a mug. Where people live is influenced by where they need to be for work, where they want to be to access culture, countryside, education, sports and arts facilities etc., and where their support network/family are based.

What is so great about London, and your jobs, that you would even want to consider spending £500k for a flat above a row of somewhat nasty looking shops?

Because this is where we grew up StarUtopia. Would you like to live away from your loved ones?

Do you not realise that ordinary people grew up in London and would quite like to continue living there to maintain family networks?

It's the same for people being priced out of other areas of the country. But people in London don't get the same sympathy

Why do people find it so hard to understand why Londoners want to live in London?
Its not just a tourist attraction. Real people live here too.
We have babies and go to work and school and everything.
Probably explains why I have never packed up my life and moved to Sheffield for the sake of a cheap semi.

OP I live about 10 mins walk from that Priory Road flat. Do not let the lack of nearby tube put you off, the transport links to the area are great and I would say it's much nicer than Kentish Town. As another poster said, it's easy walking distance to Hornsey station, which will take you into Moorgate in the City (i.e. A few mins' walk from liverpool st) in 20 minutes, on a perfect fly comfortable, frequent (every 15 mins) and not overcrowded overground train. It also goes to Highbury and Islington from where you can transfer to the Victoria line by crossing the platform and be at Oxford Circus within half an hour from leaving your house. Outside your door is the 144 bus that goes to Turnpike Lane station in approx 10 minutes for the Piccadilly line, as well as loads of decent shops in Wood Green. The 14; in tbenither direction will have you in Muswell a hill in 10 mins, which is lovely and chic, and you have both Priory and Alexandra Parks on your doorstep. 10 mins walk will take you into Crouch End too, another nice little London Village. For real late nights out in central London an Uber home is about 25 quid. Also, they are building a new development of flats with a big Sainsbury's between that flat and Hornsey station so will be very convenient for shoppping and will get buzzier with young people, meaning probably (even) more nice cafes and restaurants on Hornsey High Street.

Fuck my arse that's expensive 😮😮😮😮😮😮

It is so incredibly fucking boring, every single time that someone wants advice on a property in London, for loads of posters to post their incredulity at the prices and go on about "why on earth don't you move to (insert name of northern town here) and buy a 17 bedroom house like I did for 27pence"?.

Londoners want to live in London, because they are Londoners.

Yep Paula and still over 100 posts into the thread with explanations having been given it continues. How is that helpful to the OP?

Newsflash - everyone knows you get more property for your money up north.

Cheap cos it's a very busy road I guess. Depends how you feel about traffic noise, people drinking and getting loud and the traffic fumes. I know someone who lived above a shop on a busy road and they said they moved cos fed up of their cutlery drawer being full of grime from air pollution.
Sorry. Kentish town good but I'd worry about that road, personally.

Apparently it's really cheap to live in Kosovo. We should all move there.

If course I have no family or friends there. No job. Don't speak the language. Kids school is here. My doctor and dentist is here...

originalbiglymavis you are right.

It's very grim up north. We have no dentists- no need as no one has teeth over the age of 8. Doctors are rare, but at least we have one person in the town that can read. Language can be difficult, all those regional accents. Very few jobs either apart from sheep herding.
Don't come, you would hate it.

I'm a Londoner but i don't want to live in London! I now live in a 60k 3 bed semi in a northern ex-mining town. There's jobs, shops, schools, roads and everything up here. Bit windy though😀

Its weird that not wanting to leave London translates as 'I hate The North and everyone in it'

Not wanting to live in London translates as 'I am cleverer than everyone who is still in London'.

Its tedious.
We get it. London is expensive and busy and dirty and everywhere is is cheaper and better.

In my experience, a lot of people who buy houses in London are not people who've been brought up there, they move in for work. Every member of my family, who are all from London, have bought houses in Kent, south Wales and the north. It's just not affordable for the average person unless you bought your house 40 years ago.

There are 9 million people in London.
So not everyone will have been born or bought up there.
Lots will.
I didn't buy my house 40 years ago and I don't know if I am average but I am on a lower than average income.

The stereotype of Londoners being rich and elite is infuriating. Its an excuse to dismiss and ignore us.
I was born and bought up (less a few short years) in London and have spent my life working in the community in one form or another.
But I am always being told on MN what London is really like.

Because how the hell would I know?

Skerry (and out have no idea where I come from - but I know the NE well) I was merely pointing out that there's always somewhere cheaper to live but if I was to say to someone living in the cheapest part if the UK that they should move somewhere even cheaper then they would note that they most likely have have family, work and social ties where they are that make the suggestion a bit daft.

Yes I know people do have electricity and running water up North, but when your job is in EC4 and your old mum lives down the road, you have no ties elsewhere, and your kids are settled in school that's not a lot of use saying 'you're an idiot, up sticks and move out'. It's not that easy or an option for people.