What do you think about this flat?

[helpmedecideplease]

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

Salaries for professional jobs in London do generally reflect the cost of living. Once you get established the money you can command can be far in excess of what you can earn outside London, as a multiple of living cost. That's why people like the OP and me follow professional careers here. We're not idiots working at a loss because we just love the cool big Smoke.

The irony is that if all us Londoners moved up North en masse, everyone would be complaining that we were pushing house prices up and that they have to wait a week to get a GP appointment. London isn't just Leicester Square and Oxford Street and Big Ben. People live here and go to work and children go to school just like everywhere else. We even have trees and grass. I live in zone 2 and this is less than 5 minutes from my house.

I know someone with a dog and a bicycle... And a garden!!

If the vast majority of the population in London up sticks and moved to (say) Newcastle, anyone want to take a stab in the dark what'll happen to property prices in Newcastle?

Not a Londoner myself, but it'd appeal to me to live there (if I ever returned to England).

I live in a capital city and property prices have a similar pattern (as does the chip on the shoulder attitude!!). But not as expensive as London (it's a much smaller city)

Londoners are aware that living here has drawbacks.
I sometimes yearn for more space and more quiet.

But I love London and its weird that the rest of the country are allowed to love their towns and cities but we are supposed to STFU or we are being boastful and elitist.

I have a garden too. I can see a forest from my house.
so ner

Sorry, that was meant to be a text

Oops - id report it and get it deleted if I were you MsHooliesCardigan

Spot on post @TheFirstMrsDV **

Also I know lots of people who were desperate to move away from their boring hometowns up north and move to fashion forward and exciting London years ago to go to university and get jobs.

They bought property married had children and then buggered off back up north with their London property profit to buy a huge house up north.

They have pushed up prices for local non media Londoners and local working class people up north.

Easier for them to move back as they have a ready made network of other friends also moving back with children from other places like New York plus mum and dad to babysit grandchildren and cousins sisters etc

Then in the Easter holidays they air B and B a place on London for a break after going on about how much better up north is!!!

Oh dear @MsHooliesCardigan

What a way of turning a house buying thread into a London - bashing thread!

OP, it's a good price but I'm not sure I'd buy it with the intention of renting out a room. It's just too small to comfortably accommodate a stranger, you'd be under each other's feet. Plus make sure you can get a mortgage for a flat above a shop, we couldn't years ago but maybe things have changed.

I love London too. Really enjoyed my time living there and have great memories of it. Two of my children were born there as well. Not sure I would want to live there again, but I love to visit when I can.

It always has been tricky when buying a property there though. Good luck OP in deciding what to buy.

I hate the 'how much' responses to threads like this. London is expensive. Get over it.

London is expensive. Get over it.

Luckily I don't have to.
Not a place I would choose to live.

As a Londoner i think questioning the expense of living there is totally valid !

Skerry - that's fine - but it's fine if people choose to, too.

Waterrat - completely agree, that's why we moved out, but just saying 'how much??' isn't questioning the validity - questions like that aren't helpful to the OP.

I can just see the OP now, deep in discussion with her sister "I was quite keen on pursuing my graduate career in London but now a stranger called Skerry on the internet has made it clear that she would never choose to live there so I'm applying for a job in Edinburgh immediately. Thank goodness I posted on Mumsnet for advice. See ya sis."

Edinburgh isn't all that cheap! Maybe Largs?

Not a place I would choose to live.

bangs head against desk

OMG over half a mil to live over a shop, in somewhere that was considered a dive when I was a kid in London. The world has gone mad, well London house prices have anyway.

Kentish Town hasn't been considered a dive in a very long time.

We know London is expensive but it's getting ridiculous. Over half a million pounds for an ex council flat that's leasehold above some shops?

Or you could live in this, work in a decent Northern city (take your pic of two really) and have nearly £100k less on your mortgage.

6 bed detached

Seriously? Not so much London bashing as really really not understanding why you want to continue to pay these sort of prices when there are other great places to live (yes, London has its moments, had some good times there)

I didn't actually say anyone was a mug though? I can't actually afford where I want to live and will have to move to provide my kids with the type of house I want them to grow up in)