How far from London do I need to go to buy a flat for £160k

[Lillibetthecat]

Forgive me, just posting here for traffic.

Have a flat in London that's being currently rented. Tenant stopped paying, has wrecked it in the process too and I'm taking him to court next week. However I'm fed up with the stress of it all, whilst I'm paying my mortgage on the flat and bills.

So, after the tenant is evicted, I'm thinking of selling it and buying a property somewhere mortgage free, if I can. The equity would be about £160, possibly 5-10k more. How far do I need to go away from London to buy something for this price? I think I'd have to go further North rather than South? Somewhere that is well connected to London, would that be too much to ask?

I 'MAY' have just watched a programme on TV about this area. Maybe I was being a bit mischievous....

Try looking around Banbury, Milton Keynes, Northampton, long Bucky, should be able to find something in your budget and they are all commutable distances into London

Try Hampshire....BTW Weymouth isn't close to Winchester, I'm 15 mins from Winch, I work there.
Weymouth would be an hour 45 mins, more in Summer traffic through the New Forest.

A holiday property that's not too far from London as we still live in London. Basically easily accessible by car or train.

Salisbury? There are one bed flats for 160K on the property sites and it's a 90 minute train journey if you need to get to London.

Why didn't you stipulate you were looking for a holiday property. There's a reason that homes in holiday destinations cost more than £160k and there's also a reason why something does only cost £160k.... Are you familiar with capitalism? I think you should probably think this through a little more.. if you already have a home in London, why do you need to buy another in an undesirable location? Just do something else with the money!

We love Hampshire but it isn't cheap. I didn't realise Weymouth is that far from Winchester. It's usually the end of the trainline from London when we go to Winchester? Never went there to be honest, just assumed it's a little bit further away.

I was just about to mention Peterborough as well.

"A small holiday home, 1 - 2 beds in a nice location."

A holiday home is very different. If you aren't reliant on commuting into London then there are lots of places to look at.

Maybe somewhere like this in Hunstanton looking out over the beach

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/156395135#/?channel=RES_BUY

Or Sheringham? A 10 min walk to the beach

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148870859#/?channel=RES_BUY

Maybe somewhere like Clacton on Sea? Both of these near the beach

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146571452#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87112035#/?channel=RES_BUY

What should I do with £160? I'm not looking to create any issues, I just think keeping £160k in a bank account doesn't make much financial sense.

Thank you. Will look into all of them.

Have a look round Southsea, Lee on the Solent, Fareham, Gosport... a quick Google tells me your budget could be met and it's coastal. X

Portsmouth is pretty reasonable price wise and not too far from London about 1h 15 on train.

Not far at all; it just depends on what you want from the flat. There are cheap 1 bedroom flats in East London (E17) when you do a search on Right Move. An alternative is a flat in a hotel with a guaranteed yield:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/158087129#/?channel=RES_BUY

Where I live in Kent, we've had enough of DFLs (down from London) buying up property to rent out as so many locals are being priced out the market.

Well I would try to invest it - the internet is full of information on how you might do this. Or you could speak to an IFA. You wouldn't just leave it in a current account...

Property which is already so cheap is essentially already undesirable so the chances of your money growing are lower. Either way, don't invest £160k in an area you have no idea about.

You could use some of it to pay down your current mortgage, if you have one?

Harlow, Peterborough, Lincoln, Thetford.

Go onto RightMove.
Set the location as London, max price £160k , radius say 50 miles. See if anything shows up.
Set radius to 100 miles, see what shows up. And so on.

That train is incredibly slow, it’s nearly 2 hours from Weymouth to Winchester on the train or driving (I’ve done the drive a lot of times with work and it’s not a quick easy journey, you’re probably better just going from your house in London).

There are some other lovely places not too far from Weymouth though (it’s a lovely part of the South West) and lots of people do have holiday homes in Dorset/Somerset that they travel to from London.

I would say that anything that is nice and easily commutable from London will be expensive though and almost certainly out of your budget. You’ll be competing with other second home owners, holiday let owners, and people who actually live/work in the area which pushes prices up.

For your budget you’ll be looking at:

• Very far or difficult to get to from London with poor transport links
• Very small or needing a lot of work.
• Not in a particularly desirable area (meaning that it won’t be a great holiday homes/rental).

I’d probably put your money towards your home in London instead or choose different investments. Then just use the money you save on mortgage payments/investment returns to pay for trips to places you want to visit.

Ignore my post. RightMove only do up to 40 miles ( I’m sure they used to do more) but still came up with plenty within 40 miles.

You can sometimes get a one bed in Crawley for that. From Three Bridges, it's about half an hour to London Bridge.

PLEASE DONT BUY A PROPERTY TO USE AS A HOLIDAY HOME

If you want to holiday in the UK (or in any country) please use hotels and guest houses designated for tourists.

Holiday Homes, second homes and AirBnBs that get rented out are RUINING towns and cities for everyday, local people who live and work in these areas.

Have you no shame?????

You can do so much with £160K that won’t inconvenience people and add to disgusting capitalism and gentrification.

The upkeep and running costs on a holiday place might not make much financial sense either!

By the time you have paid all the buying costs, then insurance, council tax (can be huge in coastal holiday areas if you don’t live there ) utilities , maintenance could add up to an expensive way to keep £160k!

If you find a commutable place would you live in it this saving yourself rent? Or do you have another property that you live in?

Have you looked at Suffolk? Some lovely villages/towns like Woodbridge and only 1.5 hours from London.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but I wouldn't bother even thinking about what to do with any potential equity released from your flat yet. For starters, it's probably months still before the tenant leaves, if he isn't paying rent and has thrashed the place the fact that his rental agreement comes to an end soon is hardly going to make any difference to him is it?! Once he has left, you will then have to spend money on making the flat saleable (unless you are planning on selling it at a much lower price and have already factored that into any amount you may receive). Flats also aren't selling well at the moment as the market is flooded with many BTL landlords exiting in advance of new legislation on renting.

Once you do get your hands on the money, I would suggest that you set up a spreadsheet with all of the potential costs involved on any purchase. Remember that many councils are now charging double council tax on holiday homes and even if you eventually rent the property out as a holiday let you are responsible for all of the utilities as well. Holiday lets are intensive in terms of maintenance and costs for change-over cleaning. Presumably you would use an agency to manage the lettings and advertising, which is an additional cost to be factored in.

If you really end up with £160k from the sale, I think there are many better ways of investing the money.

Biggleswade