Buying in London. Come here and share your stories

[Flowers2014]

So we are trying to buy in London and the market is crazy. Everything that we've seen has gone for 10%-20% over the asking price. Because of DP and his work we can't go too out of London which is making this whole process much harder than it needs to be. We have a good budget but in this market it's just not enough.

I'm tired by the process now so we are taking a break from it. We have until Nov to move out of out rented flat so we are going take the spring off and try again in the summer.

Anyone else in the same boat of trying to buy in London? Come share your stories with me!

I love Crouch End.

Foreigner alert! I just looked at crouch end and that seemed nice. Is that a nice area? A few pp have mentioned it but I've never heard of it. Are there trains/tube to the City?

Crouch End is great but you need to get a bus to the tube. Although it's quite quick to cycle into town if you don't mind risking your life twice a day

Alexandra Palace has trains to Moorgate during the week in 12 minutes. That's just across the park from Crouch End.

Crouch End is very lovely (but am biased). Lots of great cafés and restaurants and great for children (when the time comes). Yes you have to get a bus to the tube but these are very frequent. Hornsey and Harringay overground stations are also close which take you into Moorgate via Highbury & Islington and Old Street.

Alexandra Palace is currently being regenerated so is a good investment buy IMO. And like a PP days, you can walk to Crouch End or Muswell Hill depending on which side you're on. But there isn't much coming on (and what does come on is going way in excess of asking price) so it's worth keeping an eye on.

Hornsey is a good bet, park, lido, close enough to the artisan bakeries of Crouch End, not quite so knee deep in buggies yet.

I luuuurve Crouch End . The W3 and W7 get you to Finsbury Park in a matter of minutes, and Hornsey train station takes you to Moorgate really quickly too. Good restaurants, grocery shops, butchers, fishmongers, way too many coffee shops, and an arts cinema. What more could one want?

Flowers, if by the City you mean the Wharf I have to warn you, it's an effin pain in the backside to get there from Crouch End.

Clerkenwell would be really fun pre-childen. Much more fun to live centrally before you need lots of space.

I agree about staying central while you have no children. You can save your travel money for the extra bedroom you'll need in 5 years time.

Well the flat in clerkenwell was good but it's a comprise for the location and actually we both walked out and said that we want to be a bit more away from the city centre. So consensus in the flowers household

You've all given me great ideas of places.

Because - thanks for that advice. I don't meant the Wharf, I mean chancery lane, Liverpool street, etc. Though at the moment you never know when either of us might get a job in the Wharf again (I was working there until last year)

Yeah, if it's the City then piece of cake - overground to Moorgate and then just walk. But from Crouch End to the Wharf these two take up to 50 mins:

• Bus to FP, Victoria to Green Park, then Jubilee
• Bus to Archway, Northern to Bank, then DLR

The fastest route is overground to Moorgate, then one step on the Northern line, then DLR. But it's fussy.

There is an overground from Highbury and Islington to Canada Water, but you need Tubes on both ends of it.

Tbh as it is not going to be your 'for ever' house and you might even go abroad in few years i would focus on which areas are likely to have big price rises in the next few years. I know you need a crystal ball for that but i would bet money on Leytonstone. Or Chingford.

As for trendy bars and coffee shops tbh i have found that you tend to stay local after you have a baby (because of babysitter meter ticking), pre children you can go for a drink anywhere on your way back from work i.e. you can meet dp or friends halfway.

If your commute is to Canary Wharf or the City then AFAIAC Greenwich/Blackheath/Lewisham is a no-brainer.

Hi, place marking to keep track but so terribly tired of our situation. Bought in West Norwood (2 bed flat) 2.5 years ago, sold and nearly exchanged over last six months, trying to buy 3 bed house in Greenwich. We nearly lost our buyers because a previous purchase didn't happen; we're exchanging so they have peace of mind we won't jack the price up and for us that they won't drop out, however vendor has to sell (divorce, we all wish the situation were different) and is unrealistic/unwilling to move. Very close to court involvement as the house is under a court order to sell. Stressful doesn't even get close right now... Bit hey at least it's taking our late thirties minds off TTC :) interested to hear how you are all getting on with it.

Sorry to hijack, does anyone have any thoughts on Streatham? Looking for four bed house.

Or west Norwood / gipsy hill? Argh. Am currently in North London. Looking to move south better for work, more for your money but I just dint know south London at all and I feel bad dragging dd round the streets with me too much.

Littlebear Tulse Hill, Streatham are nice; Tulse Hill, West Norwood well on the way to being improved and a good investment. For all that though a lovely and peaceful place to live with good trains, and for us a 150% uptick in property prices in 2 years to match Streatham prices. But I want to live in Greenwich :)

Streatham too expensive and too many freehold all owned by Lambeth Council who are arses when it comes to repair.

Littlebear you'll find that London kind of mirrors itself North and South and to a certain extent east and west too. There are bands of properties and areas, much the same regardless of which direction you go in. The only thing that's different is transport links. Each area has its housing estates, high streets, little hubs of shops. The best place for you to live depends on things like your work, your friends, your family, where you fit in with all of them. Once you have decided the rough location you want to live in, you will find something suitable. If it's too expensive, simply go further up the train line rather than seek out a completely new area. In each area you will find nice areas and nasty areas within a very short distance of each other. If you have a child, schools and parks might influence your decision. Just don't get bogged down in the details first.

Post code snobbery causes a lot of angst IMO. People living in pokey victorian flats and putting up with noise from others when they could have a whole characterful house with a garden in so called 'less desirable' areas for the same money.

In any case post codes are less of an issue now with all the development moving east and south east. Best to move that way now while you still can.

Agree that Forest Hill is good and Brockley, and around the river area from Canada Water down to Greenwich, a multimillion development scheme is on the way here. Lots of lovely green spaces in Lewisham and Greenwich
In the east Wanstead and Forest Gate are good bets. Again some nice open spaces and lovely properties. Cross rail is going to Forest Gate and transport links are excellent around Stratford. These will be the new vibrant areas of London in the next few years, somewhere nice to live and not just to invest in.

Huge areas of west London are becoming empty, under occupied and sterile because of people with too much money sitting on bricks and mortar in order to make even more money by doing nothing. Despite this I am always amazed by how scruffy some of these so called desirable areas can look.

I can't afford this area but can I recommend Wanstead/Snaresbrook/South Woodford? Just around the corner from Leytonstone but posher.

It is absolutely lovely and if I could have afforded it, I'd have been there like a shot! And it's on the Central Line tube (a fast line).

Have a look at these:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44928146.html?premiumA=true

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43309825.html

(I don't "get" Walthamstow either, but what do I know? )

Sorry, meant to convert links:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44928146.html?premiumA=true

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43309825.html

Just how much money is everyone earning to buy these places? A MILLION POUNDmortgage? You must be earning at least £300k, right?

DP and I will never afford to buy. Every month that goes by, the prices are riding faster than we can save the deposit... I've lived here my whole life but fuck knows what we're going to do. Even renting is getting further out of reach.

Stay in our one bed forever and not have kids? A real possibility.

London would survive without us but what about without the teachers, police and nurses? Where the fuck are they living?

So great to have found this thread!
House prices are going insane aren't they?!

My sister & her husband put their house on sale barely 3 weeks ago and they've already accepted an over way over the (crazy) asking price, making nearly 120k in the process after less than 4 years living there.

My mother continues to make her displeasure clear regarding me & OH living in rented accommodation (shock horror!) with our little baby.

We'd love to buy but are in absolutely no position to do so, maybe we could with Help to buy scheme but we'd be pushing ourselves to the absolute limit...any interest rate rise would leave us fucked.

My big memory from the late 80s/early 90s is of my parents constant rowing about finances- my dad especially, raging at my mum (as if the interest rate rises were all her fault!).
I do not EVER want this for our children.

Also, as a child I recall at dinner parties everyone banged on about how much money they'd made from property, as if they'd been so very clever & were practically responsible for the property boom!

Anyhow, we're not eligible for HTB as OH has a property in Yorkshire that he rents out- which is in negative equity with a 100% mortgage from 8 years ago.

It's a depressing situation, interesting to hear that even those with a big budget aren't able to secure something suitable with gazumping and gazundering going on.

Any ideas why our property buying laws here in England are so rubbish that people has pull shit like that at the last moment?!

Ahh so we'll continue to save and hope we can buy at some point...it's tough when you're paying out London rent too.
My mother suggested that we move in with her and my father...I know this works for others but I couldn't imagine anything worse. Yes I know, I am an ungrateful so and so as my mother reminds me!

Feels good to get that all off my chest!