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 totally agree, not sure I want to be a landlord ever again. But I'm keeping my options open.

I’m confused

Are you sure you won’t consider small mortgage? The monthly repayments wouldn’t be much on say £50k.

Flats in Newcastle are around 160

My thoughts are Stevenage or Luton.

Not a very nice one though.

Scarbados

Totally agree, you could get a house in some areas but they're not very nice at all.

North Wiltshire

Northampton is surprisingly easy to London on the train I believe. Areas of Nottingham are really nice and that’s not too far either

Folkestone! It's only an hour from London and it's brilliant!

Go for a house if you possibly can. Freehold always better.
Flats are usually leasehold, and leaseholds can be a nightmare and expensive, too, in management fees, etc.

I agree with @AlohaRose . I also hadn't understood that this was for a holiday home / second home. Return on investment would probably do better in hands of a reputable IFA. Also, you're not tied down to one location.

What!?! Where in Warwickshire are you? I'm in south and you couldn't get a one bed flat for that here!

Can I suggest OP you buy a map with some of your £169k. You are pretty clueless about the most basic of geography even for for London centric Londoner.

Also where have you been? The tide has turned against property as an income (even when it does social good and provide property for people to rent). Holiday homes are also now problematic. Buy if you want own use but I don’t think you are cut out for rental property business especially one remote. Who will manage the property?

invest the money or pay off your own mortgage. Use the income to pay for some nice hotels.

You could get a decent flat in many parts of Kent for £160k, also Hastings/St Leonards in East Sussex.

I think Hastings is coming up in the world too, so could be a good investment in terms of its value increasing. It seems to be having a bit of an influx of "down from Londons", now that Brighton has got so expensive.

It depends how many bedrooms you need
My brother is selling his 2 bed flat in Ruislip for £190 k

Cardiff is two hours by train to London. Bristol and Swindon are closer and on that same line.

Winchester is one of the most expensive parts of the country and is not close to Weymouth, probably 90 mins on a good day

Op- get yourself onto the rebel finance face book group. Do their free course.

As has been suggested, I would look at Milton Keynes. I am looking there myself as I have ambitions to move out of SE England at some point in the future. Other possibilities include towns along the northern branches of the Thameslink routes such as Luton or Bedford, although I haven't really looked at Bedford myself.

Buy my one! It's in a village called Melbourn in Cambridgeshire. You can find it on Rightmove on for £205,000. Bit over but you'd only need a small mortgage. Fast trains to Cambridge and London from Royston. Lovely flat if I do say so myself 😁

Seriously doubt this, not a cheap area.

I am not sure of prices in Weymouth but we are not that far from there, south coast, and a 1 bed flat would set you back at least 200k here.

I’m in Wiltshire and have exactly what you describe Flat currently worth 120-125k
1 hr 20 to London Paddington