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"?

Dreamily looking in estate agents window of desirable area of London in 1996. Rudely awoken by the price showing on a 3-bed, 2-storey flat. Surely they had missed the 1 off the beginning of the price. But no. It was shabby decoratively (had "artistic" kids who liked to draw on all available surfaces), but in nice block.
Bought it and now worth about 5 times what we paid. Would desperately like some outside space, just beginning to feel we are outgrowing the place. Would dearly love to stay in the area (live opp a great primary, secondary more of a problem) and are beginning to consider a move. Maybe.

Meant to say, considering a move away from London. Don't really want to but cannot afford anything more here.

serenity..i
used to live in brixton..til landladies evil family thought its time to claim our inheritance afore she goes...shame !

i cant see myself moving from london when honest though dont think that good a place to grow old in but hey..yet to find out!....

Actually NDP Plumstead's not really Murderville. If the local papers in SE London are anything to go by it's no worse than Lewisham, Deptford, Catford etc. Its transport links into London are not good - although local buses are excellent. It has its share of social problems and I think that and the lack of good train links to a lot of it are key. But I am surprised it is still so cheap tbh. Plenty of families live there - including some Mners - and Woolwich, down the hill, is likely to benefit from Crossrail and big regeneration money in the next few years

Hi Batters

There was a 'Mums in Streaham' thread a while back, but it was very quiet - I think we're just a reserved and gentile bunch down here

Obviously I've spelt that wrong - I'm not actually making any comment on anyones religious affiliations - I think that should have been genteel?

So streatham MNers do you think it is improving around here??? After the ice rink episode how do you feel???

I live pretty much opposite the ice rink and it doesn't bother me (obviously very sad though). Bad things happen whereever you live, Streatham isn't that bad. I wouldn't wander around St Leonards Church late at night, but the streets near me are fine - I get home around 1am from work, and often have to park a road or so away and walk. No problems at all.

I have a 3 bed HA conversion in SW5 - attained by means of several strategic swaps (lots of people wanting to move out of London and I wanted to move in). There's plenty of social housing dotted around zone 1 even in RBKC.

I love Plumstead. But I don't live there now. I lived there with family for a couple of years when I was 18 and I loved it. I ended up returning to my hometown of Southampton because I found the social aspect of being a Londoner quite hard. Now I am 32 and absolutely desperate to move back! But I have a child who is going to senior school in September and I am umming and ahhing over whether it is the right thing to do. I'd like to move back to Plumstead to be close to family again but all this talk of stab vests and the murders on the telly recently have been frightening me. I have a degree in media and can't really progress my career in my home town so being in London would help in that area too. I don't know what to do!

bought a 2 bed flat in a crappy area in 2001 for 100K. on the market now for 250K super - area still quite shite with even worse schools but close to west end and city hence good for those pre-kids.
as for us we are moving to suburbia - nicey zone 5 - with decnt/good schools, park and villagey life (nothing like wimbledon or richmond, mind). could only do that because DH has one flat to sell too exactly like mine. even then, although we will have the same mortgage.
I long to be mortgage free but it is a sacrifice I am prepared to pay to live in this great city.

We live in a Housing Association flat in an ok area, not the best, not the worst, cheap rent, 5 mins from the Thames and fortunately for us a nice primary school 3 mins away. We won't consider buying in London and are hoping to escape somewhere else in the next 5 years. DP is a lecturer and I'm a part-time archivist / artist, so neither of us on the kind of salary where you can afford to buy anything bigger than a shoebox in Peckham.

Does anyone rent in Plumstead?

No one rents in Plumstead?

I'm now a Streatham MN-er - having moved from the more expensive housing market in Brixton!

UQD - We can only afford a house because DP and I are both 'mature' in comparison to many Mn-ers, I think, and we both bought tiny 1 bed flats in areas which, at the time we bought them were very very cheap areas - Brixton, in the slipstream of the riots, and Streatham - just cheap. I then sold my tiny flat and bought a v cheap 2 bed house in the deepest depths of the housing recession. Now we are in a ludicrously expensive 4-bed-nothing-special semi.

If I was buying in London now I would buy in a currently cheap area, take out a 40 year mortgage and try and have space for a lodger. Or I would INSIST that DP get a job with key worker status!

Serenity - bloody hell - I didn't realise your flat was only 2 bed - that's tough. And the waiting list is that long?