The ridiculous, ridiculous price of property

[Snakesandpropertyladders]

This is really just a rant/moan/ whinge about how ridiculous house prices have got.
We are looking for a standard 3 bedroom house where the 3rd bedroom is actually a box room that would only just about fit a single bed. So nothing fancy. We have a pretty good budget but it is just not going to be nearly enough as house prices have risen so much recently.
We viewed 2 houses today. Both had pretty small rooms and needed quite a bit of work. The first was priced at 450k. It needed a new kitchen and complete redecoration. The second house was priced at 425k. This one was identical to the first but needed new kitchen, bathroom, complete redecoration throughout. It was a major project, though not being sold as one. If we bought the house we wouldn't be able to afford to do the work for years and years if at all. How on earth can these sorts of prices be justified!?
For that sort of money we'd expect a house that we can move into and that's it. It's a pretty high budget yet all that is coming onto the market are dilapidated houses or houses in dodgy unsafe areas. Even houses in not particularly savoury areas are edging closer to 500k.
We have even looked at moving further out from where we are, but the cost of commuting then becomes prohibitive. Both of our jobs only exist in London so we have to be within commutable distance. A 30 minute commute from Essex will cost us around £800 a month in train fares!
I'm despairing of us ever being able to leave our flat and buy a house of our own. Rents are pretty crazy too at the moment so even that isn't a great option.

Wake up and smell the coffee - there are several areas in Essex where you can get a decent 3 bed within 5 minutes of the station and less than 30 minutes to the city for well under 300k. But i suspect you've been looking at Towieland.

Also disagree about the train fares - £117 a week from Colchester to Liverpool street which is almost as far North Essex as you can go which is not £800 a month. So either start looking at other areas to buy in or earn more in order to buy in the area that you really want to be in.

I was actually just using Essex as an example. I wasn't looking at Towieland at all actually. Far from it! My point is that the cost of commuting rises a lot and starts to equal a mortgage payment.

Why the need to be so hostile!?

£800 a month is for both my husband and myself to commute .

Which areas are you looking in? I just bought a 3 bed in Plumstead a month ago for a bit under £300k. Train to London is well under £200 a month.

Because I love Essex :-)

And it's the same for everyone, if you can't afford a 3 bed house in the area you want then buy a 2 bed flat or move further away or earn more - take on a second job, but why the sense of entitlement - as in you have x amount to spend so you expect to get exactly what you want in the area you want.

Does seen a bit of a stretch unless you are looking v pricy - we have jobs which only really work in london and had to give up zone 2 for essex. Our annual season tickets are 1.8k each into Liverpool street and round here 3 bed semi would be under 300k. We are on the edge of the forest - primary schools all good with outstanding features - secondaries more of a challenge.

That amount would buy you a lovely place up here in Suffolk. You could retrain in a different job. Your income might be less but your outgoings definitely would be.

Where in my post did I criticise Essex!? It's hardly entitled to think that for a budget of £450k we should be able to buy a house that's inhabitable.
We are looking around the Kent border of London not London itself. We have a child so schools are a consideration for us.
Quokka where in Essex are you that your season ticket costs so little?

I agree about Suffolk but it's not so easy to just retrain and get whole new careers.

Snakes I totally get where you are coming from. We are in a small two bed at the moment. Paid c300k and prob now worth 350ish. We would like to move to a 3 bed ( or ideally 4!) in our village. Budget like yours- likely 450k and it will be a real struggle. I know that it's just the way it is and I do feel fortunate to even be in this position but who'd have thought that almost half a million squidules would struggle to get you a big standard family semi!!

*BOG standard not big standard!

I know and that is my point exactly. It's not exactly a small budget , it's beyond what so many people could afford ( and to be honest we'd be stretched), yet we are struggling. Even places that used to be cheap like for example Anerley are now expensive.
Of course there are cheaper houses around but there is usually a reason for it like not being in catchment for any schools, having no station for miles or just simply being a rough area.

I know what you are talking about OP. Both me and DH are qualified professionals and we live in a three bed semi that is much smaller than the house I grew up in and my parents were first generation working class. I feel like I should be able to at least afford a house better than the one my parents could.

I don't think that makes us entitled, my parents worked hard to give us an education in the hope our lives would be less hard and more comfortable than theirs were.

Tbh my life is much much easier than mum n dads was and I do live my home, but I get where you are coming from OP.

I get where you are coming from too, OP. You are absolutely right, it's surreal really, I don't understand who will be living in London from now onwards..who earns enough?!

If you are flexible on area look on the Euston to Milton Keynes train line. Three beds, garden, nice area, 30mins to Euston, £180k.

I do agree. It is ridiculous. We are to the south and DH works in central London.
We are probably older than you and half a million buys us a big detached on one and a half salaries. But my parents spent 20% of that for a similar size house.
God knows what the dc will do.

Snakes, I would guess we are on a similar budget and we have been pushed further away to afford a reasonable dwelling. I can't believe that £450,000 buys so little and we are not low wage earners. We rent at the moment and have a wonderful property to live in but have to compromise with a daft commute.

Yes you can find cheaper areas. But some people want to live in a 'nice' area, and it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect to do so without being a oligarch, given that there are millions of perfectly ordinary people living in these areas already who bought a few years ago at reasonable prices.

We're in a similar position. Bought a small, very modest 2-bed house in a deeply unfashionable area of southeast London/Kent borders four years ago for 275k. It's now worth 475k

We're now looking at 550k for a bog-standard 3-bed in our area. That'd be a huge stretch for us, especially factoring in 4% stamp duty.

Of course we're theoretically in a better position than many and we're very fortunate to have managed to buy at all (DH and I saved for 10 years to scrape together 10% deposit and got in just before prices rocketed). But the money we've 'made' on our house is completely imaginary. We can't get to it unless we move further out. We both work in central London doing jobs we can only do there and have 2 DC so commuting any further makes childcare a problem. Plus we like it here, have a good social support network, the DC are settled etc.

It's hard to see who's benefiting from this housing situation. I don't want to make money from a house, I just want somewhere to live.

It is absurd. I agree. Where I am, a beautiful town, with excellent schools and within commutable distance of Edinburgh and Glasgow, 450k would get somewhere gorgeous. at least 5 bed, with huge garden etc. There is such a discrepancy across the UK.

'Sense of entitlement'?! I think I've heard it all. The crazy world of the so epically socially conservative that questioning the most basic of structural inequalities or dysfunctional markets counts as 'entitled'. No, of course it isn't bloody unreasonable of you, house prices in much of the se are beyond ridiculous.

I'm glad some of you understand me!
I'm not looking to buy a big mansion in Kensington, just a plain old family house half an hour or so outside of London, so that we can have another baby and not be cramped in our current flat.
We both work hard and earn well so it shouldn't be as difficult as it is. What hope do our children have of ever being able to buy a house? And what about people now who don't earn enough to borrow upwards of 500k? It's not as simple as "earn more" or get a second job as some people seem to believe.
We have no family nearby but have built up a support network of friends so are reluctant to move too far away. We considered Essex as we have family there but we can't afford the commute from where they are ( and it's not a glamorous area!). It doesn't really make any sense for us to move elsewhere in Essex as that would make it even more difficult than where we currently are for our parents to get to us for visits. Not everyone drives.

I agree, it's madness both the price of houses and the differences in areas, I'm not sure there is an easy answer though. I did wonder if making commuting costs tax deductible would help but I'm sure that would bring more problems.

If you look at this [[http://www.zoopla.co.uk/heatmaps/ pricing map} you can see the average price in different places, there are some nice places in Bedfordshire that should be in your budget with good links to London.

oops. www.zoopla.co.uk/heatmaps/