Those of you who live in London and ....

[UnquietDad]

... DON'T have a massive ffff-off Rachel Johnson salary/Caroline Phillips walnut shelves - where do you live? How do you do it? Do you all rent?

There must be cleaners, roadsweepers, dinner-ladies etc. living in London. They can't all commute in. And yet even a teacher would struggle to get a house, from what I gather.

It sounds impossible to move there - you have to have bought 10-15 years ago and sit tight. Will things ever get back to "normal"?

Social housing ?

Bought when market was less buoyant ?

Bought a fixer upper in a crap area ?

(not in london, btw, just speculating)

inheritance ?

the worst thing about this town is affording finding somewhere to live

shared ownership here
....travelled and partied and fooled around ...then had ds and suddenly had to think....
last chance saloon for us...so saved our bacon but tis sort of con....

Are all the cheapish areas in crap school catchments?

we bought a 'fixer-upper' (what a great term) in 2003 (so still when the market was quite high) but it is a TINY house - in fact, I'm sure it's probably smaller than most flats.

I go through periods of hating it and loving it and we have LOADS of work to do.

The depressing thing is the size of our mortgage. We have quite a few teachers on our street.

I know a fair few who have moved into a heap of shit and done it up over several years.

That and mortgaging oneself to the hilt.

crossed posts foxinsocks... but do I know you?!

do you think you recognise me by the description of our house ?

our bathroom is sitting in the dining room if that helps with identification

DH bought years ago.
Then we moved way out of town to an up-coming area and made some equity as it caught up with SE prices.
Moved back and were pleasantly surprised by what we could afford (on fringes of West London, just outside zone 6 which keeps prices down a bit i think).
Primary schools are good here, secondary not so.

I'm not thinking of moving to London or anything, just curious/nosey.

We rent privately and it costs an arm and a leg but because it's "a good area" the schools are great so that is some compensation. We owned a flat in another "good area" but sold it a few years ago. We haven't bought again as DH is currently self-employed and we can't get a mortgage. I can't see us ever buying in London again. Unless our numbers come up

no, I dont' think I do know you but am intrigued by the bathdining room hybrid.

Is it not embarrassing when you need a poo int he middle of a sumptuous dinner party?!

does everyone avert their gaze or do you march them all out into the hall?

We bought our first flat donkeys' years ago, back in 1991, and sold it to buy our house in 1999. We bought in a cheap area which by an incredible stroke of good fortune turned out to have two good primary schools within spitting distance. Prices have gone up a lot since 1999 though, even in our crime-ridden borough (Hackney).

lol

the new bathroom has arrived before I've had a chance to book someone in to demolish the old one (which goes off the kitchen and has a door that doesn't close so I have to clink cups together loudly if someone is in there to spare their blushes)

so I'm sitting in a 12x12 foot room with a table, a huge football table, a computer and a 3 piece bathroom suite.

Only positive is that I have a footrest (the bath) while I'm mumsnetting!

lol foxinsocks, reminds me of my uncle's mate who added a loo to a room off the kitchen only he ran out of wood when making the door so made them into saloon doors .

foxinsocks..do i know you from homes and gardens
lol

and teenagers dont leave home in london..

i scarpered when 17 dont see much of that round here...mind you loved that grayson perry line people are teenagers til 30 now...

UnquieDad, there are parts of SE London where it is still just possible to get on the housing ladder on modest (eg) public sector salaries...
Thamesmead, Bexleyheath, Erith, Plumstead...
The schools are variable, frankly. Not all bad, though.
The housing stock is what most people would consider "undesirable" though - ex-council, or dilapidated and small Victorian terraces, which do have to be done up, unprepossessing and neglected sixties low-rise private blocks, street upon street of smaller, terraced thirties houses. Thamesmead was built mostly in the sixties with grand ideas for a wonderful Thameside new town, which have completely failed to materialise
In these parts thirties semi or a chalet bungalow is considered desirable and aspirational, let's put it that way.
But it is so off the chattering classes' radar it is not true.

What do you mean by London? It is a big place and there is a huge difference between living in zones 1/2 and living outside zone 6.

We bought our 1 bed flat in 2003. It is in a pretty rubbish area, not very close to the tube station and at the time was stamp duty exempt. It is a great flat with a garden and quite large.

My parents helped us with the deposit and when we were buying we were both working in retail.

We have since had our DD who is now 2.7 and still in a cot in our only bedroom.

I don't work anymore but my DH had a career change a couple of yrs ago and now earns more than what we did jointly when we bought it.

We also decided that we wouldn't actually make a huge dent in our mortgage by pay it off so changed to an interest only mortgage at the begining of last year so our payments are just over £450/mnth.

Last week we accepted an offer on our flat and have made loads on it in 4 years. It has helped that the new Olympic stadium is only about 2 miles away.

We are moving to Australia and with the profit we have made exchanged to $AU it's lovely!!
Sorry bit of an essay there!!

We bought a one bed flat over a shop on a busy road but in popular part of zone 2 minutes from the tube back in 1990 thanks to then dp having an inheritance. Moved on to an ex-council house in another popular part of zone 2 close to train station in 1997. Which was a mistake in terms of property investment as value of ex-council houses clearly much less than private housing. But suited us at the time, great place to live (already owner-occupied so weren't taking it away from public housing stock). Couldn't afford to buy back our first flat now, I expect (prices in Hammersmith/Fulham are ridiculous). Moved out to the burbs in 2004 and now have a three bed ugly 1970s townhouse but location is perfect, close to station, good schools, desirable, pretty small town.

Have not made as much money on property as we could have done and couldn't afford anywhere we'd want to live in London now. Again, prices outside don't keep pace, even in somewhere as lovely and popular as our current home. But that's because we've always bought what we want to buy, not for investment, and also are very risk-averse so never gone for big mortgage by South East standards.

Don't think if we were starting out now we could afford to buy anything in London now on our salaries since I jumped off career ladder after ds. I regret not borrowing what we could have done when I did have a career but would have terrified me at the time.

we missed the boat and didn't buy and jsut rented for 10 years, got a big shabby flat in a VERY leafy suburb for well under the going rate.

Then we left the country

Dh's inheritance was £12.5k which got us a lot of respect from agents in 1990, now would barely stretch to a deposit!