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Where would you spend a million in London?

281 replies

hiphophippity · 29/12/2014 17:50

I have NCed for this. Would love some ideas/MN wisdom. if you have a budget of a million or thereabouts and wanted to buy a family house in London for a young family of 2 young girls where would you look? Can budget for independent school. Have been looking West but wanted some new ideas thrown out. Happy to go pretty urban... Too suburban would probably put us off.

But more I would love to here where YOU would go (or already are) and why. Need reasonable access to town for daily commute (West End/City). We have lived all over (but not with children, and now moving back from abroad)

OP posts:
LaurieFairyCake · 29/12/2014 22:40

Oh god, yes there are - but they don't get over a thousand square feet for a million and often they don't get their own front door. The compromise for living so fabulously central like that flat in Westminster or my favourite house from earlier in Barnsbury/kings cross/Islington is it's usually a bit smaller or not the very best road.

minipie · 29/12/2014 22:49

hiphop that bit of Hackney is between newington green and stoke newington... so will be family friendly, stokey is land of the lentil weaving mummies and clissold park is v nice. Transport is a bit of a walk away tho and may not go where you need - check connections carefully. Subject to transport, not a bad option if you want n london ... tis well over a million though? if you can stretch to £1.15m that opens up other options.

hiphophippity · 29/12/2014 22:52

realistically we could stretch to 1.1 if we had to.

OP posts:
emeline · 29/12/2014 22:53

Hackney house you put up, OP, is good. Vibrant area.

You have to go see which you prefer, Hackney or East dulwich. The vibe is very different. That house is close to a fabulous Turkish restaurant and lots of Vietnamese cafes. Arty area.

East D. Is the sort of place you might find it hard to leave, once you've got to know it, although it may initially have less instant appeal than more edgy Hackney.

Personal taste!

TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams · 29/12/2014 23:13

Greenwich/Blackheath area for Blackheath High School for girls (3-18) and good commute to City, West End and Canary Wharf.
Dulwich also has v good girls schools but a more high pressure environment. £1m will buy a reasonable home by urban London standards.
Chislehurst if you want space, quick commute and good Indy schools

MrsSchadenfreude · 30/12/2014 00:19

I like the Greenwich house. Smile

The houses on Hayles Street that someone linked to are being done up by a developer. A couple of months ago, they were on the market for £850,000. They appeared to be taken off the market, briefly, and put back on for £1.2 million. (A friend of mine was interested and went to look at one of them.)

Kennington is not gridlocked with traffic, unless you are on Kennington Lane/Kennington Park Road, which are outside the congestion zone. There is almost no traffic, apart from buses, inside the congestion zone, and it's very easy to park. There are some lovely squares and small roads off the main drag, although places like Cleaver Square are overpriced.

I would wait a few years and see how the Elephant goes, personally...

East Dulwich seems very overpriced at the moment, and I think if the housing market does take a hit, you might lose out.

Boysclothes · 30/12/2014 00:27

I love living in surbiton, but it might be too suburban for you. East sheen? River, lovely high street, I love it there.

emeline · 30/12/2014 00:29

It's true, it does seem over priced in East Dulwich. The whole of London does, though. In the morning perhaps roneik will drop in....

Xmas Smile
MrsSchadenfreude · 30/12/2014 00:39

I've owned property in London since 1990, so have seen the various crashes. Anything inside zone 1 seemed either to lose very little or hold price. I had friends who bought at the peak (previous peaks!) who were in negative equity for years. Buying somewhere like ED, which used to be quite reasonably priced, would make me nervous.

The Chinese seem to be buying up swathes of the Elephant and Vauxhall at the moment, which will keep prices up in these areas. As you get further out, you don't get the "foreign investment", so more susceptible to a crash.

NurseDoctor · 30/12/2014 00:46

West Hampstead, Balham, East Dulwich...
Either an "up and com in" area or maybe move slightly further out?
Chigwell etc in Essex is nice
Thames Ditton in surrey is a very short commute
Epsom
.... lots of choice!

emeline · 30/12/2014 00:48

Elephant I find a depressing area. Vauxhall I noticed recently has changed a lot for the better..about time.

ED has been more reasonably priced in the past because it has no tube. I'm surprised to see the houses there are now on a par with the prices in Southfields, which as you know, has a tube on a good line, the district, and has Wimbledon and Putney next door for shopping..ie it's better connected, and is in wandsworth, good for council tax.

I've always been in London too. Rather amazed at current prices.

happybubblebrain · 30/12/2014 00:50

Leicester is only an hour on the train into central London and you can buy anything you like for a million pounds here. When I lived in Muswell Hill it took me an hour and a half into central London. Strange but true.

emeline · 30/12/2014 00:55

happy that's cos you lived a bus ride away from the tube, high up on a hill in North London!

MrsSchadenfreude · 30/12/2014 01:06

Yes, Vauxhall even has Waitrose now! Shock

They are busy cleansing the Elephant of all the poor people, so it will soon be as "naice" as Vauxhall. HmmHmm Walworth Road and Old Kent Road are still dear old shitholes though. Grin

Kewrious · 30/12/2014 01:10

If you are looking in West London then look in Kew, North Sheen and Barnes. North Sheen in particular (as opposed to East Sheen) offers excellent value for money.

happybubblebrain · 30/12/2014 01:12

Lots of parts of London are a real pain to commute from. When I lived in East London I just walked to work every day to avoid the tubes. And that was 15 years ago before they truly became the sardine cans they are now. I think if you can't afford to live walking distance to Central London don't even bother living there at all.

TooSpotty · 30/12/2014 01:30

East Dulwich/Forest Hill/Peckham etc are now on the East London Line so fast links to Canary Wharf etc. The prices have now fallen from last spring's mania there but I think the ELL will mean they stay higher than they were.

I'd look more at the area toward Forest Hill, around the Horniman. Better transport links and more house for your money, eg this, which is in the catchment for a madly sought after primary:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45484753.html

Or this, which is rather gorgeous:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49037903.html

Things are not going for asking price right now.

emeline · 30/12/2014 01:36

Walworth road is a good place to buy large lumps of goat, though. ( should you so desire)

Xmas Smile

happy I agree. Living very close to a tube, and a good line, at that, changes perspective, though. Living close to the Victoria line or Jubilee line makes life easier. district line is surprisingly over ground for a fair amount if it's length.

Northern line is absolutely grim,IMHO.

Somethingtodo · 30/12/2014 01:46

I think that you need to decide how you want to live with v young children in central London....how active, physical or outdoorsie would you like to be with your children?

Do you want to be able to throw open the back door so that they can play for hours safely in their own back garden, climbing trees, getting dirty making mud pies, digging for worms and building dens etc? Do you want them to have a small veg patch or green house to grow veggies? Do you want them to keep pets (rabbits, guinea pigs etc)?

Do you to want ensure enough outside patio space for them to be able to skid around on a tricycle or scooter?

Do you want your girls to have space for a wendy house, a climbing frame, swings, slide, monkey bars, paddling pool etc? Best thing my kids have had is a trampoline - they are on it all year round - takes up a fair bit of space tho.

Do you want to be within a quick (5mins max) safe, non polluted, scooting/ cycling/walking distance to a big park so that you can easily go everyday?

Or do you want it to be all about the house - so directly on to a v busy, noisy, polluted rd, with a long, stressful, noisy, polluted, hazardous walk or bus ride to get to a park for the girls to play?

It really isnt about prioritising chi chi coffee shops and cake - frustrated toddlers strapped in buggies or bored little girls drearily colouring in whilst yummy mummys gossip - childhood should be more than that? Not child centric IMHO.

emeline · 30/12/2014 01:55

Noisy polluted option obviously preferable, something, hence all the suggestions here for houses on the Hammersmith flyover

Flowers
Somethingtodo · 30/12/2014 02:09

OP @20.53 'There ain't a park for miles though eh? Would I be the most selfish mother in the world to move my babies there?......eerrrmmmm...

HeeHiles · 30/12/2014 02:18

If I had a million I would look at Bayswater, Notting Hill, Holland Park, this area has got everything and most of it within walking distance, loads of good schools, shops, parks, activities for children everywhere from ice skating to origami, eating out, restaurants around here are amazing. It would be a flat though or a teeny tiny house!

Then a mile up the road you could get this for a million in Kensal Rise, hop skip and a jump from Ladbroke Grove and Portobello Road, beautiful houses, wide roads,good schools, nice parks.....

4 Bed House

KoalaDownUnder · 30/12/2014 03:07

This is an aside, and not really helpful to the OP (sorry), but...Peckham?! Wow. It must have changed a lot since I lived there (although that was 2003, tbf). It was revolting, smelly, run-down and unsafe. And I say that as someone who has lived in some very dodgy places (and happily spent a few years in Stratford, well before it was up-and-coming, so not exactly a west end snob).

chocolatemartini · 30/12/2014 07:21

I agree not Peckham!! But do look at Sydenham if you're looking at Forest hill/ Brockley/ Honor Oak Pk etc, it's on the same line and I think it's equally nice

AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves · 30/12/2014 08:22

Many parts of SE London are changing out of all recognition now, notably Peckham and Deptford. The Overground has made a big difference as we are now on the tube map, so for many people living in other parts of London it's as if our cloak of invisibility has been yanked away.

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