Who can afford houses in Hampstead?

[shteiner]

I don't want to hear about people who bought 20 years ago and gained from 300% house price increases. I'm talking about people today, who actually has a decent enough salary to afford a £1.2mil 2 bed flat.

Greater Hampstead, maybe!

Estate agents and developers are notorious for trying to tweak the borders of a more expensive area. I remember years ago in The Archers James Bellamy talked about investing in a new block of flats being built in 'West Greenwich', a term I had never heard before, but as this is not a million miles from where we live, I knew immediately he was talking about Deptford.

More recently, I saw one of those blocks advertised as standing on the banks of 'Greenwich Creek' - the waterway known for hundreds of years as Deptford Creek! That one annoyed me intensely. Deptford is an area with a proud history, just like Greenwich, but they're different.

I expect it's similar with Hampstead and all its surrounding areas.

A person with an average salary is not going to be able to buy anywhere in Hampstead these days, we are totally excluded from this area and would have to look in Kent or outskirts of London.
My mother and I rented in Hampstead in the 1960's the big houses were often divided up into several rather squalid bedsits and were very cheap.
Roll on 2019 and the same squalid bedsit is now worth a couple of million. Unbelievable.
I also missed out on the Brighton price rises, I considered buying a house there in the 1980's but decided against it as I thought Brighton was too rough a place to bring up a small child. The house I was going to buy is now worth almost a million.
If I went back in time I wouldn't change anything. I'm glad I brought my son up in a nice quiet place even though my current house isn't worth much.

Rich people obv

Strange question

George Micheal lived in hampstead I think and boy George used to

They can /could afford expensive houses

I live n London I don't really get the question

It's all expensive and you've chosen one of the most expensive bits which is famous for being both v nice and v expensive

I live in North London that should say

The re

it is doable for normal people to live there

Wordle The OP is asking about people who haven't made a ton of profit on their previous property (I think), not people like your Dsis and her DH.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68031613.html

Hampstead is NW3, then you've also got West Hampstead

We bought our first house in Hampstead. We both worked for a start-up company that was sold and we used the proceeds to buy the house. No inheritance or any help from family. Before we bought the house we lived rent free in Hampstead for 3 years because I was on secondment and rent was included in the package. DH moved in with me and we saved an absolute ton. Most of friends in Hampstead are self made and haven't relied on an inheritance. There was a huge diversity of ways that people had made their money.

Yeah there's always been a mix in Hampstead. There used to be those flats near the high st that were assured tenancies with low rents as well. No idea if they're still there.

I've worked bloody hard all my life, I have some savings. I can't afford to buy anywhere in Hampstead. Nor would I want to if that flat is all you'd get for 650k

So real Hampstead is only the NW3 postcode?

London is confusing.

Friends have a mews house which they totally gutted and remodelled. It’s in some of those interior mags frequently. He is a partner in a fund. Self made, not significant family money. It’s somewhat mind boggling how they went from exactly the same as the rest of us to crazy rich in the space of 5 years. But they have their troubles still, money smooths the path in lots of ways but doesn’t cure all ills.

I used to live in that area (in rented accommodation!). The people we knew who were buying there were all couples and all high-earning professionals (lawyers, private doctors or very senior NHS, dentists, investment bankers, etc) who had both owned flats separately before getting together, selling up and buying jointly. Some of them had family help.

The only exceptions were a couple of minor aristocrats with trust funds.

A couple who got married in their early 30s, having both owned property they'd made a bomb on (in London) could potentially go to not far off £1m.

This, and inheriting from parents who'd been lucky with London property in a previous generation, have been my experience. As well as the foreign bazillionaires on Bishop's Avenue.

DH and I did look at a couple of flats we could have afforded - both ex-LA but in fantastic locations (one overlooking the heath, the other Primrose Hill) but decided to move out of London so our money would go further.

Tbh I rather regret it. I loved living there.

wordle that’s Golders Green, not Hampstead, needs to be an NW3 postcode to be Hampstead.

George Michael lived in Highgate, not Hampstead but having said that I think Highgate is actually nicer and certainly no less cheap

hampstead garden suburb is an area of beautifully preserved protected houses which were all built as a piece back whenever it was

hampstead round the heath is obvious why expensive it's near central and next to a massive beautiful green space

anywhere in london next to gorgeous massive green space is ££££ as land is such a premium and they are oasis in the building

really interesting prog recently about north london and how it's made up of joined up villages, there was some really good stuff about hampstead i'll see if i can find it

the man presenting was hell bent on pronouncing all the place names aorund here wrong but you can ignore that, other than that it was good

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bsrqj7/pubs-ponds-and-power-the-story-of-the-village-series-1-london

here worth a watch esp if you know any of the areas they cover

believability you're right!

For non londeners thats another one

highgate as an area is quite big and plenty of it not v posh

highgate village is the posh bit

estate agents are hilarious when they try to call things such and such borders and so on

it's dangerous if you are coming from anotehr area and don't know it that well prob

Yes I think if I was ever to buy in London I’d definitely be seeking some MN advice first. It’s all very confusing.

Hampstead does look very beautiful though.

loads of v beautiful leafy areas all over n london

i am on edge of it

loads of green spaces woodland hidden corners beautiful tree lined roads

some of it is gorgeous but of course ££££££££££££££££££££££

I don't get annoyed about the areas that have for a long time been host to the extra rich

it's what's happened in the "normal" areas with house prices that upsets me

I suppose the two are linked

what i'm getting at is that highgate village have for a very long time have been out of the reach of all but top %
ok maybe you didn't have to be monstrously welathy in 80s say but it was still for v highly paid types

now the bogstandard roads in bogstandard places are £££££ and that is a real shame to see

we've made ££ on our house furtehr our in 12 years BUT I'd be happy to see them all drop as it's not real money in my head and I don't like the idea of london as an enclave for the rich. it's a massive city should be for everyone

Growing up a lot of my friends were in muswell hill

it was nice then always quite trendy but till lots of "normal" families

now it's utterly eye watering

i wouldn't live there though I like to be near the tube

I had a former boss who lives there. He was in management consulting for PWC. His wife worked for a hedge fund. Although they both were from middle class families, together they are now essentially jet set, worth tens of millions. The result of high intelligence, long hours and just being part of that world.

TBF I woldn't mind a jetsetting lifestyle and hampstead pad

but the long hours wouldn't suit me

TBF you need to add a sprinkle of luck into the list of things that got them that stuff
and the faces fit obv as both from mc background

still well done to them