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.

Am confused about why you would need a three bed? You have one dc and would like another , so what's wrong with a two bed?

She wants a three bed. Not at totally unrealistic thing to want for a planned family of four. It's not like she is only looking at places with tennis courts.

OMG I have the perfect house for you. SE London, towards Kent border. 3 bed terrace, 50ft garden.

New kitchen (2013) bathroom (2014) doors and windows (2012). Totally rewired 2013. New flooring throughout downstairs. Some cosmetic work still needed (decorating) so not on the market yet.

A snip at a mere £350k... PM me!

£350k a snip? For a 3-bed terrace? What, 12x the average national wage?

Fuck that.

House prices are ridiculous, it's true, but much of the problem is cause by a lack of investment in jobs outside of the south east.

My own profession is increasingly moving into London (god knows why, it could be based anywhere in the country). I currently live in a 3 bed townhouse with a decent bit of garden and a nice view of greenery, in London I would get a poky flat with a view of more poky flats for the same money, if I'm lucky.

If my current job also moves to London I will retrain rather than go there.

There is nothing wrong with wanting a three bed but a two bed would allow much more choice.

AgaPanthers I can only presume you haven't been shopping for houses in London and the home counties lately.

This is in an area already mentioned upthread as one that OP might consider and £100k less than the properties needing major renovation that the OP has viewed.

£350K for a 3 bed house is bonkers.

You would get a lovely detatched 3 bed family home for around £140K in my neck of the woods.

4 bed semi 1950's decor £800k.... yep bonkers

If you can cope with a commute of an hour (£6kpp travel), walking distance from the train station - www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47488283.html

If not, is zone 6 too far out? I'm thinking Uxbridge way?

We lived in London up until 4 weeks ago we lived in the grim end of west London and lived in a council home even with 100k discount we were still looking at 250 for our house and due to the changes in rules to mortgages we would not be allowed to borrow that much

Lenders are not taking off the market in London even if asking prices has been agreed it's sealed bits and mas view sing cross rail is due to go up in our old are which will had 20% on to house prices

We moved MK for what we have brought a 3 bed with garage and conservatory we could only get a mortgage for a studio flat my husband has a really good job but not enough for a 1200k mortgage

The only people that will be left in London is people on benfits , those who brought for 50p in 1957 and the Russians

My friends mum has her daugter husband and child her son his wife and their child living with them all work but none can even afford to rent let alone buy

And to those who think 300k is resonable to somone say a teacher or a nurse once you take into account of childcare and travel your off your head

My sister has a a house in west london she is a nurse her husband is a computer programmer 2 children she earns nothing after child are it actually costs her to work and all mus bil wage gose on their huge mortgage they have no central heating and no double galzing that's what 300k gets you in London

Uxbridge are you joking

www.barratthomes.co.uk/new-homes/middlesex/H442601-Edgware-Green/

Avrage house prices are 400k cross rail is driving the price of everything up all the new homes their building on the old RAF are at least 400k

"AgaPanthers I can only presume you haven't been shopping for houses in London and the home counties lately.
"

There are hundreds of terraces for £350k inside London.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=REGION%5E87490&insId=3&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=houses&minBedrooms=3&maxBedrooms=&minPrice=&maxPrice=350000&retirement=&partBuyPartRent=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&_includeSSTC=on&sortByPriceDescending=&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=houses&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&newHome=&auction=false

Doesn't make it a snip though.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E26834&minPrice=270000&maxPrice=450000&minBedrooms=3&maxBedrooms=5&displayPropertyType=houses&oldDisplayPropertyType=houses&googleAnalyticsChannel=buying

How about Whitton, next to Twickenham, not as nice but much cheaper.

Lots there, even 4 beds, in your price range

There are areas commutable to London for way under your budget OP. Areas such as Pound Hill in Crawley which is in the catchment area for a very good primary school and Hazelwick secondary school which is excellent. It's walkable to Three Bridges station which has a fast line into London. You could buy a nice home there for under 300k. The train ticket isn't 4k a year either.

Here's what £2.3m buys in Sheffield, for comparison

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2784882/Former-world-champion-boxer-Prince-Naseem-Hamed-loses-1million-selling-luxury-Yorkshire-mansion.html

We are in a fairly grotty west London suburb, zone 4 but no tube, just a slow train so DH takes well over an hour to get home from central London. And yet houses, run down and in need of new kitchens, bathrooms and total redecoration and teeny third bedrooms are in the OP's price range, unfortunately this is a little out of our likely budget. We are stuck in a two bed and everyone seems to believe this is just far too little space for a family of four, particularly our parents' generation, our parents who are both sat in mortgage free family homes with no more than two people living in them - I'm sure the reluctance to downside is partially why the prices are so high, there is a shortage of family sized properties. This is also exacerbated by the trend for developers and landlords to break up family homes into two or three flats.

I've no doubt that it was tough for people buying 30 plus years ago but working class, average income families could still buy a decent sized family home, even if over stretching themselves. On the equivalent salary in many areas now, it wouldn't be difficult, it would be impossible. But even in our two bed flat (with garden and driveway at least) I feel lucky to have the security, a low mortgage (compared to friends) and we are close to a top state primary which my eldest started last month (and we are now trapped here for the next x years until prices go down, our income goes up substantially or someone leaves us a large inheritance).

Hounslow/Whitton borders will throw up some decent properties. I used live there many moons ago and there's a decent rail link into Waterloo which is walking distance.

Yeah it's a not a particularly nice area, but then neither is Peckham.

Add message | Report | Message poster AgaPanthers Thu 09-Oct-14 16:43:44
Yeah it's a not a particularly nice area, but then neither is Peckham.

London sellers in the main are doing mass viewings and sealed bids only and not even taking the home off the market my exs dad lives in a grotty council easte in white city it's worth 443k

Thanks, I do appreciate all of the suggestions of places we could move to. We are not really looking to move from where we currently are for now. This is the area that we moved to because it was affordable! We couldn't have anticipated how much house prices would rise in just a few years. We could have bought a house 2 years ago for the same amount that our flat is now valued at!
We have managed to make friends here and since we have no family nearby we would quite like to stay in the general area. If we do move somewhere else it will probably be to be near family.
Of course there are houses for sale in this area that we could afford, but none that would work for us. We would be spending a lot on mortgage payments each month so it has to be a house that we feel is worth the sacrifices we would have to make.
I can't remember who it was that asked why we needed a two bed. We don't - yet! But we hope for more children and would therefore outgrow another two bed place. We won't be able to move again in the future.

Anyway I don't want this thread to be all about me, it's become a really interesting discussion.

OP do you think you could make a more affordable house really beautiful over time? Are there any three bedroom options that are nearly in the right area that are cheaper?
I always work out what I can afford and then see what I can get rather than work out what I want or think I want and then see if I can afford it.

Yes we will surely find something it's just a case of waiting for the right place to come up. We are prepared for having to extend or redo kitchens etc.

I agree with the OP. I moved out of London 10 years ago. I had two pre-teen kids and couldn't see any way to afford more than a 2-bed flat in any of the places in or close to London I'd want to live. And of course it's gone much more crazy since then. So as an individual, my solution 'worked': back in 2003 I bought a lovely 3-bed house for just over £200,000 which was what I'd sold my London flat for. And I've lived happily ever after, so hooray for me. That's not the point, though. It's simply crackers that people with good jobs and well above average salaries are being priced out of our capital city. It's 'trickle-up' at its worst - the increasing transfer of money and resources to the super-rich. Because that's exactly what's going on here - London is being bought up by the 1%. I'd certainly support a taxation system that provided dis-incentives for super-rich people (Russians or anyone else) from using our precious housing stock as their investment playground. But oh no, the government won't do that - might upset their corporate chums.

The fact that the OP can be told she's 'entitled' for wanting a house for her close-to-half-million pounds worries me - it shows how easy it is to accept the narrative that we should all be grateful for the crumbs left to us by the 1%.