Zone 1-3 people, where do you live?

[msrisotto]

And do you earn millions and millions? Or live in the tiniest of flats?? I would love to live in zones 1-3 and have money that would buy me a palace in some places but sadly not in London....

Sorry Mrs H. You will not defeat me!

Acton, three bed house, zone 2, £600K Small change.

pmsl at green eyed monster swamp!

You can't expect MrsH to live in Acton! Someone might smoke a joint there. Or possibly sit out on their front step.

Oh dear MrsH. Now that was uncalled for wasn't it? You don't like me questioning your terrible snobbery and your very skewed perception of what life in London is like for most ordinary people ... so you have to resort to telling me to fuck off! I do hope you manage to give a better impression of yourself in this enormously important career of yours.

When you have anything approaching a career, MintyAero, do be sure to let us know.

I want my children to have aspirations, not ridicule the achievements and expectations of others. You're welcome to your council estate with an attitude like yours.

Londoners have a bad name outside London and I have met with a lot of anti-London hostility in the shires etc. And now I know what sort of "Londoners" they might have met to get this impression...

Most of us are just normal, honestly OP!

My council estate?

I think she's getting us mixed up, Minty. I'm the skanky dope-smoking council estate dweller.

And I have quite a nice career, actually. As do most of my neighbours.

Hmmm, maybe you would be better off staying in West London after all mrsH

It's got a little bit heated in here

Zone 1, 4 mins walk from Hyde park. We rent ( ridiculous price really), and have a 1 bed ( 2 adults, 2 toddlers). We won't move until we really can't fit. It's a large 1 bed tbh, with balcony and underground parking. Large open planned kitchen/ living/ dining room. An ensuite and seperate bathroom. Lots of storage, floor to ceiling windows with view on Hyde park.

We save on having no commuting fees and live very minalistic. I think if/ when we eventually move to say a 2 bed of the same size it will prob be around Wimbledon.

We just bought a 3 bed house between wood green and ally pally for £485k. It's zone 3 and we can still get to crouch end and Muswell hill for coffee and cake, and have the high road for everything else. It's a lovely area.

We had a little bit of help buying our first flat in 2007, a one bed garden flat in zone 2, bought at the very top of the market. We extended to make it a two-bed and really cashed in when we sold as the area had gone up in value. No way we could have afforded this place otherwise. I'm still very grateful to have the chance to live in a house in London.

Blimey. Mrs H! Play nicely or you'll definitely be losing Golden Time*

*It's a state school thing.

Herbs are you still clutching that handbag to your chin? Allow me to pass the smelling salts. Anyone for a Parma Violet?

It was a Vic n Bob-style handbag to chin, but I will have those smelling salts.

Aww herbs, no Parma Violet? What about a tissue?

I simply cannot abide parma violets, ta ever so.

What's your London property trajectory, OQC?

FWIW, MrsH, mintyy and I live in an area that you might actually consider living in. Not on a council estate - it's quite popular with the banking brigade now. If you could stump up the cash, of course

But then we are quite happy to educate our children at state schools.

Well, I bought a not very nice flat in Clapham, just after height of boom in '89, with deposit (5%) from money left by a grandparent and my Dad as guarantor on the mortgage. I had a succession of lodgers / flatmates in the spare room to cover the mortgage.

In '94 I sold it and pooled resources with now dh, who also sold his 1 bed flat and we bought a terraced house in a not very nice street in central Islington for what now seems like peanuts. We were lucky because at that time Islington just wasn't seen as particularly desirable at all (indeed my late in-laws who had always lived in Hampstead were quite horrified).

We sold that house a couple of years ago for 5x what we paid for it and bought an amazing house at great expense, still in Islington. It is lovely and I'm never moving. I do realise we are very very lucky. I worry that when dss realise what it's like out there in the world these days they will still be in residence on top floor aged 40.

OQC, I got on the property ladder buying an ex-council flat in Clapham Old Town in '92. We sold it at 3 x the price and bought our current house in '99, but really wish we had just rented it out - it would have been a fantastic money spinner.

I toyed with that idea with my EX-COUNCIL flat in Dalston, but needed its equity to buy this house.

Sorry OP. All this talk of early property ladder leapers isn't helping, is it.

I'm very envious of all you house London dwellers. And wish I had been able to buy in the 80's. (physically impossible)

But I guess if we were prepared to live on the outskirts of Zone2/3 we would have managed to get something quite lovely with a garden.

The council estates where I am sell at a premium as many have unobstructed river views! So there not all grotty.