Concrete proof that some vendors (and their agents) are greedy so and so's.

[bibbitybobbityhat]

I live in an area of London where the vast majority of the housing stock is terraced. Most properties have three or four "natural" bedrooms, two receptions, 1 bathroom and a kitchen. But some people convert their lofts and put one large or two smaller bedrooms and a shower room up there.

The size of gardens varies enormously from 15ft courtyards to huge 120 footers.

So

There is a small terraced house on my road that was sold in early 2010 for 475,000. To get to the front door you have to go up a steep flight of steps as the whole terrace is built on a hill. It has had the attic converted so in effect it is a natural 3 bedroom house with a 15ft courtyard at the back, with an extra 2 bedrooms and a shower room in the loft.

It has just gone on the market, 2 years after it was last sold at £475,000.

Have a guess at the asking price?

LadyW - school A has a stellar reputation now and that cheaper house is also in the catchment for the excellent secondary, which the more expensive house is not.

Bibbity in my day (old gimmer) I knew someone who lived literally opposite school A and sent her children to school B! Though I suspect she would not have been able to do that had she not been on her third by the time my only child went to school B, as ED was in at least the foothills of its baby boom by then.

I'm not sure I truly believe anyone in ED (as in, the postcode) is 'in catchment' for that excellent secondary these days. I think the only ones of DD's cohort at school B to get in had siblings there.

Not having any handy siblings for DD, we took the view that we probably needed to get out of ED before it came to secondary applications. Oddly, we have moved somewhere miles cheaper and are now in catchment for (and in!) a school that ED parents have to jump through hoops for.

Yes, I remember your story LadyW.

I think you are thinking of a different secondary. That cheaper house is definitely within the catchment of the one I am thinking of.

Mind you, if you want to see just how overpriced a terraced house with steps can be (admittedly this is on the doorstep of the Holy Grail of South London secondary schools), try this.

(Which, ironically, I found while searching for examples of the kind of palaces you could buy over our way for the price of a house in ED... bear with me!)

Terrible supply shortage, apparently. All I can find is really run-of-the-mill terraces in the £250-400k bracket. Or things in the Brockley COnservation Area for over a million.

Bibbity we probably are thinking of the same one but I am a bit geographically challenged - central ED is closer to ND than I give it credit for. Certainly very few people from school B catchment got into - shall we call it school 'C'? - based on where they lived.

Yes I know that very few people from school B catchment got into it!

But the CHEAPER house which I linked and is in the catchment of primary school A IS in the catchment

No, I do understand. House A wins on both counts. I just have trouble mentally placing shool C on a map. It always feels to me as though it is further south (and hence ought to be closer to school B) than it really is.

didnt realise this thread was still going - that is truly baffling, I was sure it must be due to catchments
So is the cheaper - ie the linked to one in catchment for the v popular secondar school beginning with C ? I would have thought it was too far

Yes, am fairly sure it would be going by where the catchment ended up last year Levantine.

I see elsewhere that you've found a lovely modern house - congratulations!

well - I dunno, we are so blinking indecisive

it isn't beautiful, but I liked it anyway, it felt nice and it has a massive garden

we do sort of need to take on a bigger mortgage though, we need to be able to downsize or we will have nothing to live on when we are old

.