House in London under 300K

[Jafarcruise]

Hi there,

Due to personal change in our circumstances, we may have to relocate to London in a couple of months.

Rather than spending dead money in rents, we were thinking of buying a house (not flat/apartments) under £300K in a good locality that's safe to live in, commutable from central London under an hour and has good affinity for schools/shops, etc.

Would people living in and around London/Greater London advise of some good, safe, commutable areas to buy a house?

Many thanks!

If you headed out to Essex you might find something at that price. Look at stations at the end of the central line.

That is going to be a impossible thing to find. I’m in East London in one of the cheapest areas and live in a 1 bed flat on the 1st floor and it is over £300k .. Every flat around me is roughly the same price so looking for a house here for that price doesn’t seem feasible at all.

You won't find anything around that price, I am in zone 6, a 2 bed flat where I live is 500k

It’s not London (although is within an hour on the train), but you’d get something in Crawley for that. Would be small and / or not particularly nice, though.

E.g. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121094678#/?channel=RES_BUY

Goodness, OP! A house (not flat/apartments) under £300K in a good locality that's safe to live in, commutable from central London under an hour and has good affinity for schools/shops, etc.

Don't you think most people in London would prefer to buy rather than rent if they could find that?

There are 200 houses (not flats) with 15 miles of London here, priced up to £325k (in case they'll take an offer).

Can anyone advise on some of these areas?

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E87490&minBedrooms=2&maxPrice=325000&minPrice=240000&radius=15.0&sortType=6&propertyTypes=bungalow%2Cdetached%2Csemi-detached%2Cterraced&mustHave=&dontShow=retirement%2CsharedOwnership&furnishTypes=&keywords=

Wow, check this out - near Redhill. What's the catch?! I must be missing something...

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123812783#/?channel=RES_BUY

Its being sold via auction so I imagi e that price will sky rocket

It's a 1 bed and it's up for auction, that's not a fixed price. Unlikely to go for anything near that!

Your last property near Redhill is for sale by auction. They are notorious for setting a very low guide price to generate interest and create a lot of competition. They generally go for WAY above the price shown.

Particularly likely in a seller's market like this one.

I wish Rightmove had a filter to remove auction properties. Most of those houses look to be, and in this market and area I would worry why they can’t be sold the “normal” way.

Hi. tbh I don't think anyone is going to look through the whole list. you might need to do a bit more work at your end to make up a short list. FWIW I live near Enfield and it's ok. pretty good for shopping. no idea about schools. There are several overground stations but no underground. I know Dartford a bit, it has nice areas and not. Shopping a bit hit or miss, but near Bluewater. trains into London Bridge

I only looked at the first place but of the places I know Chesham, Hoddesdon and Hatfield are all perfectly nice areas but you're not going to do a door to door commute into central London in an hour.

What bit of London do you need to get to? The mainline station you're heading for often influences whether you go North, East, South or West.

You need to narrow down your areas and work from there. Auction prices are a starting point. Several properties look lower cost because they clearly need some renovation. If you can do the work that can be a good way to get onto the housing ladder.

You might have more options if you also include maisonettes and flats.

If you can find a house for that budget it's going to be in appalling condition in a very dodgy area. £300k is the budget for a flat quite far out.

Barking and Dagenham

Essex officially

I live in Southend, you'd get a house for £300k here but in the rough round the edges areas and needing work. An hour from London.

We tried to move last year but it all fell through so we are staying in our flat right in the city centre. You'd get change from £200k in a flat here.

I don't think you can buy a house anywhere in London for that price. We live in a cheaper/rougher area and bought our house for 335k back in 2019. I think they are selling for more than that now.

A lot of those 200 you linked are also auctions too.

If you don't get somewhere in London itself you'll be spending £4,000 a year each travelling in from somewhere outside by train

There are very few houses for that price

Very interested why you wouldn't want a flat - that's weird, I live in a massive flat - it's literally twice the size of the crappy houses round the corner from me (and they're twice the cost of mine)

Flats are great (well, some flats - I have my own front door and a garden)

I wouldn't live in Grays, we looked there when we were buying a house and it wasn't very nice

This thread was started a year ago.

it looks like a wooden/not brick built property i.e. non standard construction. unlikely to be able to get a mortgage on it is my guess.

Ooh, so it was! I wonder what they ended up doing.