To wonder where are all the poor people in the South East supposed to actually live?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I rent privately, self contained space but essentially a lodger - ground floor flat. It looks like the family will need their place back sharpish due to illness, so I've started looking at rentals again.

Fed up. I've seen some horrific shitholes of studios and they're still hugely expensive. I'm in London zone 2, and looked at moving further out but it's still expensive. For a studio, Croydon is not significantly cheaper than London. Nor is Brighton, where I have family links to, hence looking there. Brighton is also close enough to be able to come to London for all my hospital stuff, as I'm an outpatient of Guys and Thomas and Moorfields plus have ongoing appointments trying to figure out fibromyalgia and gynae problems.

Weary of house shares now in my thirties and there are aspects of my health that make sharing quite stressful when it's a bunch of strangers. I don't want to share a bathroom and I don't want to share a fridge where I store my extensive medication. I guess maybe an en suite room, if I bought my own fridge for my room would be fine though.

Obviously I could well end up going somewhere like Manchester or Birmingham or Glasgow, or elsewhere, if I get really stuck - but that's just me as an individual, just one person.

There must be thousands and thousands of people in a similar pickle, including families with small kids in school. Leaving London and the south east of the country can't be the solution for everyone too poor to pay the market rent? Not everyone can up and leave?

What will happen regarding the whole unsustainable rental situation?

Can you lodge with family in Brighton? I think what will happen is multi generational living will be in the normal amongst lower earned, then amongst most of the working class...

Unpopular here maybe - but immigration is the cause. In London the McMafia and similar buy up the expensive property built for them or multi £million houses that natives used to be able to buy. Then huge numbers of poor immigrants are housed in cheaper areas - London population has soared.

So people are forced out - there are thousands of houses being built all over the place, anyone who drives through Winchester will see the whole place is a building site.

Employment needs to be move north - cheaper housing. And the ‘investment’ by foreign multi millionaires in London needs to stop.

Where do you need to be for work? What's your budget?

London is for the rich nowadays!! Grew up and went to uni and bought first property in London/home counties but we were priced out of London 8 years ago. Not possible for us to raise 2 (now 3) kids comfortably within the M25. We've moved to the South Coast ....not inexpensive but massively more affordable than London. Beaches & the New Forest on our doorstep and 2 hours or less into Waterloo on the train. It's been a revelation how lovely life can be.....perhaps have a look outside of Brighton along the coast?

noeffingidea
You could look in Essex. A lot of people commute and manage to live reasonably comfortable lives.

LOL We don't!

I'm a freelancer, so work takes me all over London. That's why it was a big advantage being where I am.

Will look at all these places, thank you for the suggestions!

Budget is £1100 absolute maximum, which would be uncomfortable because it means taking a long term loan from a family member to make up a shortfall. I pay £800 at the moment in West Hampstead (which I know is really cheap) so naively hoped I could get something nice for £800 in Walthamstow or New Cross.

@AChickenCalledKorma - and it's not helped by councils tearing down estates and replacing them expensive flats for flogging on the foreign investment market rather than the social and affordable housing epople need. Unfortunately, the market's pretty flat and the luxury flats are remaining unsold. London will become a ghost town

We were like this in East Anglia, our dc would never have afforded the prices, lots bought holiday homes in the little villages, pushing prices up and out pricing locals.
When this happens you have to move, simple as that.

@AbsentmindedWoman it's obscene isn't it we moved away in the end and we were on the M25, just couldn't ever afford the step up from first home and knew the DC could never afford to move out.

Housing benefit must cost a fortune in London... who is benefiting from this situation?

YADNBU op. On MN the answer often is "just move away" but London needs normal people with normal jobs to function, otherwise it would just be multi millionaires and council housing and nothing in between (not that they aren't normal people, but ykwim). It sucks.

Walthamstow is an INSANELY expensive place to rent, we just left because it was crippling us to stay, even though we were settled and had friends there.

We've moved down to Kent, which is only 50-55 mins from St Pancras on the high speed train. We don't feel cut off or disconnected from the capital and we have the benefit of sea air and quiet nights.

Luton, Stevenage, Hatfield, Bedford

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=STATION%5E3971&maxPrice=800&radius=20.0

There's quite a few studios here (I did a search within 20 miles of Green Park, budget up to £800/month

It’s obscene. Utterly obscene.

Essex is no better, prices have soared here due to the influx who can’t afford London/outskirts anymore. Twenty five percent of the new estate that’s being built was sold off plan to a family company who does BTL. Literally 25 houses which can’t be bought by families anymore. It’s gross and they should be ashamed of making a cheap buck off the backs of renters

Move further out. I'm a teacher and I live in Slough - not the most picturesque of places, but I can't afford to live in London itself. London is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and of course its going to be the case that not everyone is going to be able to afford to live there - that's life.

OP have you looked around in Kent, for example Dartford area you can get a reasonable 2 bed for £850 (or less but assume you want a nice one) you can get into London relatively quickly, say 50 minutes to Victoria, or how about Gravesend? Both of these have easy access to all motorways, airports, Bluewater for shopping. Its just a case of being a bit careful about which street you choose but there are some very nice bits and its generally safe round there.

You could look at Woking - still pricey but fast train to Waterloo is fast...

Plenty of studio and 1 bed less than your budget.

The South East is a no go area now for a lot of people. They just need to move to where they can afford accommodation. As long as people are willing to pay excessive rents and prices for property the prices will continue to be high. Even on a reasonable wages prices aren't affordable.

Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath are both on the fast line into London, as is Redhill (I dont know it as well as the other two)

OP, I don't know if this is up to your standards but it is in a genuinely nice, leafy part of Leytonstone (zone 3/4 but 16m to Bank on the central line so not too far out).

Very few people must be winning in this situation, really. Because it's been a market in favour of landlords for so long, what I have noticed is that many of the 'cheaper' (read still stonkingly expensive in real terms) properties are so badly maintained. Not just cosmetic, often structural unsound with dubious safety, and the landlords don't bother fixing it because they don't have to.

So the property isn't even being well kept and surely that means it can only depreciate in value if you're a relatively recent buyer?

That's leaving out the sheer amount of dirt and filth I've seen. Honestly it's amazing. Teenage me would never have believed that adults were cool to live in dirt like that.

Probably different if you're looking at luxury apartments but I have no experience of that

It's not always easy being a lodger and living in such close proximity to the people you pay rent to but my god - my place is a warm, safe, delicious haven to what is out there.

*structurally

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but it’s supply and demand isn’t it? As long as there are people who are able and willing to pay the price, then it isn’t overpriced. Something’s value is how much someone is willing to pay for it.

Haha, forgot to link

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-70106753.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-50583927.html#

Gravesend? You can pick up some of the high speed links from there too

I suppose though really what the OP is saying is not please find me a flat, she's saying how are people coping now and how will we all cope in the future.