How do people afford houses in Chelsea/Kensington?

[user1497169397]

Hello, I was just looking at houses round that area and surely I thought can't just be people who bought homes 30+ years ago and celebrities?
I'm not actually a parent and was wondering if a job as a doctor (in uni currently studying) would allow me to live there, but it seems not!
Thanks in Advance

Alfie, I live in a v wealthy area, wealthiest by far in our city... We have a labour MP, and have done for decades. All those Champagne Socialists...

lol you're in cloud cookoo land re doctors pay, you'd be lucky to ever earn more than £90k and you won't be on more than 45-50 for a decade after qualifying

So how did they end up with a Labour MP There is local authority housing there too and many of the mega-rich who own the houses but don't live in them can't vote (they probably avoid paying any tax too by being domiciled elsewhere for tax purposes and knowing that would give me reason enough not to vote Tory if I was living nearby).

The London property market isn't like the market elsewhere. My sister has just bought a house in SW6 (£1.4m). She's single, mid 30s and in a public sector job earning about £45k. She's been lucky with her last 2 properties and has put all of the equity in (around £250k the first time and £400k this time). She's taken the maximum interest only mortgage she can with no intention that it will ever be paid off. The mortgage is basically rent. She rents out a room for £800 pcm.

Eventually she'll sell and use the equity to buy outright somewhere outside of London.

Thank you, I guess that explains it then

I lived there in the 1980s, in a live-in job. There were lots of poor people like me living there then, and I expect there are now. I worked as a cleaner in a hostel. Over 100 of us lived there, compared with just one or two wealthy people in the property next door.

It's not all mansions and oligarchs

Plenty of flats and places like Earls Court used to be grim so are cheaper. Plus lots of social housing like Worlds End and White City.

Our local MP lives in Kensington and Chelsea. So clearly MPs can afford it (or perhaps he's independently wealthy)

Note - he's not the MP for K&C, he chooses to live there rather than his constituency, just inside the M25 (so not far away)

We assume that's why he didn't vote against HS2, which is going to cause huge disruption to his constituents, loss of lots of local amenities etc. etc.
I didn't vote for him - I've come to the conclusion that we just shouldn't vote for MPs who don't live in their constituencies.

Titty

Are you saying the mortgage company allowed her to take the rent into consideration when they loaned her the interest only loan?

£650k deposit down, 3 times salary =£135k, plus rent?

I'm so surprised at them lending so much interest only.

Plus shift allowance and overtime. She got 5 or 6 times gross income on an offset mortgage over 35 years.

A £500k mortgage on a £1.4m property isn't that much of a risk.

I have a friend who can afford to live there many times over through his chosen career (not family money). His wife is a doctor (senior). He doesn't even consider her salary pocket money.

He also doesn't consider her work of as much value as his, because he makes more money. Tried pointing out that she SAVES LIVES. Fell on deaf ears, because he makes more money.

Obviously not everybody who is super rich thinks like that, but there's DEFINITELY an undercurrent of your value being linked to your wealth amongst this group, which I'd advise anybody with different values (and/or wealth) to stay away from, because you'll always be, at most, second best. Even if you save lives daily.

An old schoolfriend of mine lives in an ex-council flat in the borough of Kensington & Chelsea - there are cheaper properties within the area if you're not too fussy about having a big house/garden. Here's a flat on the same estate currently on sale for £595k. She paid less than that as she bought 6 years ago. She's a nurse and her DH works in IT, although I don't know their salaries. I know they didn't have any family help though, they aren't from particularly wealthy families. They were in their 30s when they bought so had about 10+ years of savings behind them and they used to live in a pretty grotty shared flat as they were a bit obsessed with saving for a deposit.

@TittyGolightly

I don't believe your figures. Your sister is telling you porkies (maybe your parents have given her loads of cash LOL) or you are mistaken.

She has no fucking way been given a mortgage for one million pounds (you said 400k equity) on a salary of £45k.

Rental income is not taken into account when sizing your affordability.

Also it is incredibly difficult to get interest only mortgages now and you have to have a repayment vehicle in place (which is expensive).

No, she had £250K AND £400K. Do the maths!

i used to work in kensington. it's horrible, soulless and full of tourists. wouldn't want to live there if you paid me.

Even at 650k upfront, that still leaves 750k to finance.

No bank is going to a mortgage, IO or not, of 750k on a 45k salary.

A friend of mine bought their council flat in a prime part of Chelsea at a massively discounted price. Just over the road from Madonna!

No, she had £250K AND £400K. Do the maths

Well that still leaves £650k of debt which you aren't going to get on a £45k salary.

Also what single person (earning less than £45k x years ago) managed to buy a property (albeit with a mid way move) that increased in value by 750k?

I know people who did buy for £400 sell for £1m but that involved buying unmodernised, spending cash on renovation, extension and loft conversion and riding the gentrification tide over 15 years. That is not the norm and basically does require two incomes (of more than 45k) or some kind of external financing from parents or whatever.

Having a decent job? We lived in South Kensington/Knightsbridge (literally one side of the Mews was Knightsbridge and the other South Ken) most of our neighbours were in finance or celebrities.

Totally not worth the hype. The restaurants are nice but the people aren't. Harrods is too busy with really rude clients that barge you out the way. There are lots of "fashion bloggers" and instagram girls always taking pictures outside your house. One of them was holding on to my front door when I opened it and stepped into my house when I pulled the door. She looked petrified and ran off.

Another time I was shabby looking and was walking up my Mews, where they were yet again on the doorstep taking pictures and assumed it wasn't my house. I stood there for about 3 minutes before saying "I would like to get into MY house please. When you're done pretending you live here" they looked shocked and stormed off.

I'm in my early 20's and London has totally lost all value in my eyes. Especially if you want to bring up children.

We've both had inheritances that have gone into our respective properties.

Her basic salary is £45k. She gets a 30% shift allowance, guaranteed overtime worth another £10k per year and the £800 per month rent.

She bought an ex council flat in SW18 that was about to be repossessed for £130k in around 2004. Sold for £385k in 2009 when she bought a shared ownership flat in SW6 for £450k. She used some inheritance to staircase and has sold that for £925k in the last month.

I bought a flat in London in 2002 for £264k and sold it for £490k in 2009. I'd bought a house in Cardiff in 1997 for £40k and sold it in 2004 for £145k. As a result I have no mortgage now (I'm not 40 yet) on a 6 bed, £400k house.

We come from a pretty savvy family, and there's been a bit of property value luck along the way. Very different lifestyles now, but both where we want to be.

K&C is over 40% social housing, along with most of inner london.

Stamp duty on 1.4 million would be over 80k.

I'm completely aware of how much doctors are paid, but if you do both NHS and private work, with some locum work for a few years it does build up.

I know a 35 yo Dr who does NHS private and locums and he has a one bed flat in Brixton. He has to do the extra work to afford the mortgage on that.

Most of my friends are professionals and are drs or lawyers and unless they had parents to pay their way through uni and buy them houses they are either renting or paying off massive mortgages for one bed flats.

HTH.

Stamp duty on 1.4 million would be over 80k.

It was. And?