When did all kitchens in London/property mags start looking like this?

[AsparagusFern]

I'm a bit slow so bear with me but do all kitchens now suddenly seem to look like this?

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52431113.html

Huge knocked through kitchen, velux windows, bifold doors, kitchen island.

Nothing wrong with the look - I just suddenly realised that they seem to be everywhere.

I guess there does also seem to be a slight conformity to the look though, too. Just musing. Slow Sunday

[cressetmama]

Our kitchen has a similar layout, and is very practical. However, it was built that way in the 1970s... and the units are original tatty. But we have a terracotta tile Karndean floor which makes it friendly and warm.

[Wishful80smontage]

I like the kitchen but those chair covers are bloody awful!

[DelBoyImNot]

I agree the market has turned Beaufort but 5-7 years negative growth? I've always figured there is so much demand waiting that for a slump that when there is one it will begin to grow again after 2-3 years.

[BeaufortBelle]

Donatella, I think the market has already turned. There will in my opinion be negative growth in and around London for the next 5-7 years, interest rates are on the rise, wages have been held for too long, the world economies are in or heading towards turmoil. I'd only buy property now if I had to have somewhere to live and I could live more cheaply on a mortgage than paying rent. Buy to let is pretty saturated and good tenants are hard to find.

My advice right now. Pack into your pension, have an ISA, put a couple of grand in premium bonds, save hard to toe into the next rising market after 2020. Everyone in their early 30s is ignoring me and who knows, they may be right.

I may be very wrong of course but now is not the time to be highly geared.

I/we have never bought a house we couldn't also see as a home. I am in the 5th right now. I owned the second for eight years and just about broke even. It wasn't a good investment over those eight years but had I played the long game it would have been.

Never borrow more than you can afford to pay back and have a back up plan. Insurance, renting, lodgers, etc.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

I never said people who live there are mad btw. Just that 1.7 million for that house should be no ones idea of value for money, and that my opinion on that will not be changed.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

You were just lucky that you got to sell at a peak what if you'd needed to move at point where the market had dropped, or lost your job at that point and had to sell for less than you'd paid. For every winner there is a looser and continuing growth in property prices without wage inflation is economically unsound in the long term

[Donatellalymanmoss]

I wish I knew! I'm just someone who bought and got burned in a different bubble who has quite a cautious approach to buying property.

[BeaufortBelle]

So, when's the bubble going to burst then? It burst in 1990 and we stretched ourselves to buy beyond our means. Then it burst in 2002'after 9/11 and then again in 2009/10. It reached a high peak in 2014 and we sold the 1990 house post major refurb.

Come play it Donatella if you think all those who have lived there are mad. Looks out at rolling grounds "thanks, mad SW London - you served us well, but crikey we took some chances and held our breath at times". And ultimately fitted a bleddy awful kitchen with bifold doors and wine fridge, beige marble, pearl grey and white beige paint.

[Lollipopgirl8]

Bubble might never really burst
True it's a world capital and everyone wants to live in London
Also really expensive area to be fair
Life is unfair!

[Donatellalymanmoss]

Of course their are choices to be made, mine would be to wait until the London property bubble burst in your circumstances.

[tootsietoo]

Grey is the new beige. You could buy a house in Crewe which would probably cost less than that kitchen. Only an hour and a half on the train from London.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

Whoops missed out the value.

[Devora]

There are of course choices to be made over where to live, even in London. But they're not great choices, to my mind: you can live somewhere grottier, or smaller, or with a longer commute. I choose to live in a nice area and to have a fair bit of space, the compromises are that my house is fugly and on an A road and that I spend 3 hours a day commuting and so missing out on time with my children.

And before the inevitable, "Well, why choose to live in London" post: this is my hometown. it is where my work is based (and I can't do my career elsewhere). It's where my family and friends are and where my dd's dad lives. I'm not going to give it up to the avaricious maw of international capitalism without a good fight.

Which is why, madness though it is, people spend silly money to live in zone 2.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

In all honestly that still doesn't make it for money.

[BeaufortBelle]

But not in London! A cab ride home from the theatre or after a late night at work. Not in a leading world capital city.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

but you can buy bigger nicer houses for less, in nice locations.

[BeaufortBelle]

Because a less ordinary house with a bigger garden would cost more than three million, possibly more than four.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

property market economics aren't just about supply and demand though, you also need to include availability of finance and speculation. It's the speculation that makes this a silly price not supply and demand.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

i just don't understand why anyone who buy a fairly ordinary house with no garden for nearly £2 million pounds, Battersea is nice enough but still. Anyway each to their own, I'll just sulk in my much larger, much cheaper house

[BeaufortBelle]

But it isn't the house that commands the price, it's the location and it's determined by supply and demand. Remember too this is a relatively expensive part of London and is in zone 2.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

it shouldn't be normal for a 3 bed house that needs work to cost £1 million pounds, I don't live in London but even my very well paid friends who do would struggle to buy this without substantial family assistance. Thinking this is normal is part of the problem.

[BeaufortBelle]

It's actually not for the style and location. Remember a three bed small terrace goes for about a million unextended.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

Ok, you just tell yourself that £1.7m isn't a lot of money for a fairly standard house

[Millymollymama]

In the original picture, the table and chairs can easily be replaced by something brighter! They are not fixtures. Light, bright and airy is way better than dingy and small in my view. This house has been extended and £1.7 m is not that much for London!! I like kitchens that are streamlined and colour is easily added if you want it by accessories.

I have bar stools for my circular breakfast table which is built into the work top of my island. They are used all the time! We sit in the kitchen and talk to each other! The person cooking is not shut away from everyone else. We like having a more open plan house but have kept a separate room for cosy dining and a family room with a bigger TV and music set up. A larger open plan space means you can see what children are doing whilst you are in the kitchen area.

[Donatellalymanmoss]

Wow, that really isn't a lot of house for the money, even by London standards I'd have thought!

As others have said it's a very practical layout, but the decor is a bit show home/ interiors magazine for my taste, but then a quirky, personalised, lived in look isn't what you go for when you're trying to sell a house. People know this, so you end up with a lot of the houses on the property sites looking very similar, but they aren't necessarily representative of what you'd see if you opened up the front doors of a house that's not up for sale.