Help with choosing house in West London please!

[ameliacampbell]

Hello!
We (my DH, 3 year old DD and 6 year old DS) are currently living in Chelsea in a very small flat which we will soon grow out of. We still want to live relatively centrally as DS goes to a prep school in Kensington, and DH works in the city. Our budget is around £3 or 4 million, and we've been looking at the areas of Brook Green, Kensington, Holland Park, Notting Hill and Bayswater. We would like to get a 4 bedroom house with garden in any of these places - and if you have any ideas of other suitable areas please say!
We particularly liked Brook Green, very upper middle class, leafy and particularly quiet, however the houses aren't as big there as in Kensington or Holland Park (even though they are only 10 minutes walk from Brook Green!). We love the community feel of Chelsea, do any of these areas have this?
Thanks so much, and a happy new year!

[Nancy66]

yeah, i know peckham is close but there are £5million houses in Notting Hill that are directly opposite huge sink estates.

[AmberLeaf]

I think if you can afford a £5mil home in nottinghill, your life will be pretty much unaffected by the existance of sink estates.

[AmberLeaf]

existence

[Nancy66]

you're not when you suffer the knock-on effect of crime.

I've got friends in Notting Hill and Hammersmith who seem to be burgled all the time.

[ValentineWiggins]

Newmummy 1.5m will get you at least 5 bed semi plus garden in Richmond with no hassle at all...

[AmberLeaf]

Yes I can imagine expensive houses in all areas are targeted by burglars.

It even happens in the countryside.

[Northernlebkuchen]

I just do not believe that the quality of life in Kensington/Holland Park etc can possibly justify the monopoly prices for very ordinary housing.

[Nancy66]

When the super rich from Russia and UAE want to buy in London they pretty much only buy in: Kensington, Chelsea, Holland Park, Mayfair, Knightsbridge, St Johns Wood.....which is why prices in these areas are so bonkers.

[Northernlebkuchen]

So if you want an oligarch for a neighbour that's the place to go!

[Nancy66]

Yep!

[NewMummyInTown]

there aren't any brits living in those areas anymore - mostly russians and americans

[tethersjinglebellend]

There are large parts of west London which are suffering serious structural damage from all the basement excavations done on tiny terraced houses.

It's mental.

[bevelino]

OP I thought you were being serious for a minute.

[TheCollieDog]

im sure there are agencies who provide those sort of services and can research the areas

Ah, but vicar you have to PAY for those sorts of services. MN is free!

How the rich get richer, and the poor get the picture.

[marriedandwreathedinholly]

0.75 miles over the river in putney and you can have a 2 million terrace with 4 beds and a huge garden. Closer to more and better schools too. It still feels pretty central with the added bonus of a mainline for very fast access to City via Waterloo.

[Ponders]

bevelino, I thought so too until

ameliacampbell Sun 30-Dec-12 19:22:41
what is the average size of a property in the UK?

& then

ameliacampbell Sun 30-Dec-12 19:35:27
sorry I'm new to MN - am I not doing it correctly??

[1605]

I don't know if Amelia is genuine or not, but I have to tell some of you disbelievers that this scenario isn't particularly implausible in the parts of London where I work.

Her husband probably works in hedge funds or is a VC, possibly a trader or fund manager, or an equity partner in a Magic Circle law or accountancy firm; wife (guessing on her age based on age of DCs and not sexism!) probably herself a junior partner in a second tier professional firm or a VP in an investment bank. IME also some barristers and hospital consultants in Harley Street friendly disciplines make this kind of money.

Big chunk of family money as an inheritance tax transfer, plus combined equity on pre-marriage flats bought pre-2000 paid for small place in SW3 in mid noughties. Past few years, SW3 goes nuts (though it dived in 2008/09 along with the rest of London), and suddenly people in their late 30s or early 40s have £4m to play with.

Fewer and fewer of these people about though, and they'll shrink some more because of the demographics post 2007. If there's a labour government in 2 years' time, I'm thinking the asset price bubble will deflate very, very quickly.

You can tell Brook Green is smack bang in the bubble though, because all the houses in the top price brackets still have cheap tat furniture inside.

[Ponders]

oh, it's not the money, 1605

it's the tone (&, of course, her posts from October, especially \link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/a1393427-BBC-league-tables-Latymer-Upper#34864307\this one} )

[MrsCampbellBlack]

1605 of course we know people spend large sums on houses but amelia or newmummy or whatever she's calling herself is ahem not telling quite the whole truth for whatever reason.

[TheCollieDog]

You can tell Brook Green is smack bang in the bubble though, because all the houses in the top price brackets still have cheap tat furniture inside

What was that someone once said about poor people having to buy their furniture?

[1605]

[Grin]

[MandaHugNKiss]

I was pondering this thread last night when bored stupid as DF watched another cheesy 80's action movie I was at a bit of a loose end and I figured as much as you, 1605.

That, yes, this could be genuine. At least, the situation could be (where I live I've seen quite a few families come and go through my older two DC's primary education - they were american and here a couple of years whilst DH's did some terribly important work playing with money ).

Still, it remains that probably the same percentage of MNers who could offer the kind of valuable advice someone in this situation would need or appreciate will be tiny, followed by a small percentage who will be friendly and offer limited advice anyway but that ultimately the majority will be either thinking
OP is hairy handed or looking to rip them to shreds just because they have money.

I don't really understand why it's ok to do that. And I grew up on a sink estate, surrounded by crime, poverty, children having children so please don't think I'm defending the mega rich because I'm one of them, because I'm really not!

[MandaHugNKiss]

Ah, x posts with several as I was distracted by the baby whilst typing mine...

[Ponders]

What was that someone once said about poor people having to buy their furniture?

Alan Clark is reported to have described Michael Heseltine as 'the kind of person who buys his own furniture', believe it or not!

(Clark's father bought their house furnished, so his was 2nd generation inherited furniture which must be ok)

but he was actually quoting one of the Chief Whips

(the nobs party never changes - doncha just love 'em )

[TheCollieDog]

Hmmm, I see what you mean, Manda and who am I to chide -- I have two houses (neither separately or together worth anything near to £4mill) But there's sensitivity and sensitivity, isn't there?

Bankers playing with money - not working in the real economy - got the rest of us into this bluddy mess, and their actions have had consequences, but not for them, just for the rest of us.

On another MB I frequent there was a very silly poster, wife of a partner in a very large merchant bank, who used to post while tired and emotional and made some very reprehensible statements about her things: her house, their maids, the cars and so on. Poor thing raging drunk she ended up in rehab and people felt sorry for her, but it might have been better had she been a little more thoughtful in her postings ...

I've never really thought of Ealing as rough, and I've lived in some sketchy areas in my time.