feeling depressed about SE London house prices

[SarfEasticated]

They just keep going up and up near me, last year 3 bed house needing work went for £310k, this year same house over the road went for £410k in one day. so as soon as anything comes on the market it is sold immediately. The bank suggested we should only really borrow up to £350k so we don't stand a chance of finding anything in our budget now near our daughter's school. I really don't want to move so far away we have to get a car to take her there and back. I want her to live near so we can have play dates after school etc.
Please advise, are the prices ever going to go down again, or do we need to try to buy now and just borrow a lot more than we could afford if the interest rates went up to 1980's rates.
HELP property gurus.

Got it and I understand no wanting I divulge too much. Am in the phone atm, will reply properly when I get the chance.

You can definitely get a 3 bedroom in SE4 for £350. It may not be in the road you want or the house of your dreams, but you should find somewhere and get a bit more space. Houses seem to be moving really quickly around here at the moment so no reason why they would go down.

Not sure what school you need to be near, but here are a few
here, here, or maybe you like squirrels. You can also try surrounding postcodes, depending on which bit of SE4 you're in - SE13, right next to Ladywell Fields.

I know it's easy to get hung up on a small area when you like where you are and need to stay. We moved last year, moved a tiny bit out of our comfort zone but it's turned out really well.

Thanks Boboo - i laugh when I see that squirrel shot - no gardener in their right mind would buy that house now! I do appreciate your looking at those for me, I have seen them before and they are a good half an hour walk to the school. as DH and I both work full time we will have to rely on after school clubs and it will all add to quite a long day. We've lived here for 10 years, so it's a bit galling that as soon as the area starts getting really good, we can't afford to live here anymore!
anyway if there is no imminent house crash threatened I guess we will just have to suck it up.
Thanks for your help everyone
SE

just returning to this as we are still looking a year or so later. Houses in SE4 are now £450-£500k around here. No sign of any of the prices going down. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether the prices will just keep rising til they are in line with Hackney/Islington, or do you think they might stablilise. Give me hope ladies!

Re property prices, a financial expert on the radio the other day was saying the market is overvalued to the tune of 20% and will have to come down some time. But whether it crashes or gently subsides is the big question.

But financial experts have been saying that for years, special and prices are still being kept up with artificially low interest rates.

Interesting thread, we were househunting in Se4, 23, 26 starting in March 2012, and prices rocketed even in the time we were looking. We could afford se23 at the beginning of the summer, couldn't by the end!

SarfEast, I don't think anybody can give you the assurance you want either way. I loved the HOP ladder and thought we had time to find the right one as surely the doer-uppers couldn't possibly go over £400k, but they did. General concerns about the market being overvalued still apply, but there are (currently) good reasons why London is different. I assume it could all turn on a sixpence if foreign investors suddenly left London en masse - or if more arrived.

Short of consulting a range of economists and collating their views into a general forecast and adding a pinch of salt for unexpected events, the best we can all do is make the decisions in front of us in the order they come up.

Hey madbuslady thanks for your reply - where did you end up by the way? Even Catford is getting pricey now. My concern is that DH and I are probably at the peak (!) of our earning potential, and are in our 40's, so I really don't want us to overstretch ourselves. I do however want to live somewhere pleasant, where we can spend the next 20 years of our lives, and where our DD can go to a decent school, and make nice friends.

I feel your pain, although we are looking to rent, not buy.

I think London has too many unique factors to make any substantive predictions (in model-speak, it's a serious outlier). The normal rules of supply and demand don't really apply.

You could compare it to a city like New York, which is also very unique. As far as I know, in New York, once prices go up in an area, they do not come down.

Or another unique and expensive city, Washington DC. You did have a big decline in housing prices there at one point, but that was because of race riots, insane levels of drug violence, a crackhead mayor... once things calmed down, prices shot up again.

It's always possible that prices will come down in London, but that will likely require a lot of very impactful things to happen. So if you really need to move, I think you may have to adjust your wishes rather than wait on the market.

I know it really, really sucks though. I think it's a crime that housing costs so much, it's a basic life necessity.

I think that the fact will always be that we are an overcrowded island and a housing shortage. And there will always be high housing demand which will keep house prices high.

I have no knowledge of house prices in the north, but I can't see house prices in the south, and particularly south east falling. London remains one of the main business centres in the world, and therefore by definition will be a sought after area. It is basic supply and demand.

Unless there is financial Armageddon but who knows what that would bring. We would all be pretty screwed then.

SE26, right down the bottom of our search area. And we were glad to get that by the end! It was when agents started sending us places at the top of our budget in Anerley that we realised we had to just get on with it.

I laughed when I saw someone had linked to the squirrel house, I remember seeing that picture and thinking what the hell...!

I agree on the overstretching, I prefer the peace of mind. Although you can stay somewhere for 20yrs, so you can probably be a bit less cautious than someone looking to buy, say, a 1-bed flat would be at the moment because they might have to sell within a few years. 20 yrs is quite a long time to make overpayments etc if you think you can do it.

Don't know where your schools are, but I've always quite fancied the look of this one. I love unloved 30s houses, they're cheap because nobody can see the potential! It could be great and it's a couple of minutes walk from Hilly Fields and Ladywell.

I think house prices in London will just rise forever and find it thoroughly depressing. My parents bought in SW15 on one salary in the early 80s and through pure luck (as far as I'm concerned) are now sitting on a house worth over a million-it's not even big or particularly nice, tiny bit of paving for a garden etc. All the big houses in the streets nearby are well over 3 million.

Meanwhile DH and I, two professionals on the low end of decent salaries, would get laughed out of town if we tried to buy in the same area. In order to buy a 2 or 3 bed flat I reckon we'd need to borrow 10x our joint salaries. Instea we have borrowed 2.5x our salaries and bought a 3 bed house with a garden up north. It's lovely, and it's where we've loved for years, but I am resentful that because we're not investment bankers we can't afford to live where we grew up. And my mother insists on saying that young people nowadays just need to 'save harder'. Thanks mum...casually forgetting that we house has multiplied in value by 10x since she bought it!

Some (not all) of that generation are very deluded. It's extremely frustrating.

It sounds like you will either have to move out of the area, or make do in your flat. Which is sad, but, it's the same for everyone.

That's what everyone I know has had to do.
That's basically what the Home Counties are for isn't it?

Would you consider a big move?

Manchester is very similar to London and prices there have fallen and stayed low: sell a 2 bed London flat in Zone 2 and you could afford a large 3-bed semi in somewhere un-trendy but safe and civilised near the university, AND have money left over for private school, if that's your thing - google MGS, Withington, MGHS, and you'll see that they get comparabe results to SPGS and Westminster without being anywhere near as selective at entry, and also half the price.

Yet you have many of the same amenities - museums, theatreland, restaurants - that you'd find in London on your doorstep.

Solicitor friends of ours have recently made this move after realising they couldn't afford anything better than a 2 bed in Acton, though their jobs are admittedly more portable than most.

Hi All, thanks for your replies. 21March no to Manchester, as we have family abroad and would probably go there if we didn't live in London. Not sure about the 'burbs either, but I take your point about their purpose. The house mad linked to has gone, even though I spent some time imagining how we could do the garden! I will either have to get used to the idea of staying put, or will have to consider Croydon. I remember interest rates at 17% and negative equity so get a bit worried about affordability. Any way, back to Zoopla scouring - thanks again for your advice everyone :)

Oh that's a shame. Don't quite go to Croydon though! You can still get decent houses in Penge and Anerley in your budget and being near Crystal Palace Park still makes you feel like you're in London IYSWIM. If you do want to go totally suburban I'd go in the Bromley direction rather than Croydon.

No, you're right mad, not Croydon. Will stop obsessing and take a few days off looking, then will start my research into Penge and Annerly... Am also toying with the idea of Whitstable!
Thanks everyone

How about this, would have been a lot cheaper 12 months ago (like everything else) but not a bad option, nice size garden
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-38548579.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DOUTCODE%255E2313%26insId%3D1%26minBedrooms%3D3%26displayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dhouses%23_includeSSTC%3Don%26auction%3Dfalse%26displayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26locationIdentifier%3DOUTCODE%255E2313%26minBedrooms%3D3%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26previousSearchLocation%3DSE13%26radius%3D0.0%26searchLocation%3DSE13%26searchType%3DSALE%26useLocationIdentifier%3Dfalse%26box%3D-0.03892%2C0.01859%2C51.44475%2C51.46357%26popupPropertyId%3D38548579&fromMap=true

Thanks fapl that actually went a while ago, not sure why it's still up there. I now have 4 searches on zoopla, forest hill, catford, whitstable and Annerly, as well as the Brockley one. Something must come up!

Move to this house down the road from me. Three minutes walk to station, then 20 minutes to Victoria. In the catchment for a fantastic primary school, and a highly rated secondary. Won't lie, it's a poor and slightly shitty area, but there are lots of nice families here once you start to look around..... (and if you move round here, there'd be more!)

Should add - these are BIG houses. The pictures don't give you the scale, but I've been inside them (not this particular one) and they are really good sized rooms. Two really decent sized receptions downstairs, and a utility room (excited whimper!).

Honestly - the prices are depressed around here because of the football stadium, (which doesn't bother me AT ALL except issues around parking on match days) and because the high street is poor. Fly tipping/dog poo on the streets, roads a bit congested. But you're 10 minutes by car from Crystal Palace park, there's a fantastic leisure centre and children's centre within walking distance, and both Sainsbury's and Tesco (24 hour) a five minute walk away.

this is a nicer road than the last one I linked to. Opposite the park I think so very green. this is a very nice road.

choices. If you choose to live in London, this is how it is.

but keep with the sensible attitude you have which is that a) mortgage rates will go up at some point and b) everyone loses their job at some point.

Thanks for those mini much appreciated - will think about it. We don't have a car though so need to live close to station really.