Where in London to buy for our circumstances

[mysteryfairy]

Our main family home is in Yorkshire and on the east coast mainline (into kings cross). No plans to change this.

DH works in London, nearest tubes to his office are Bank/Moorgate. He stays in hotels in the week. His travel and hotels are funded from his earned salary as his contract is London based. My role is based in Yorkshire, but with frequent commutes to two London offices, one at Canary Wharf, the other by the Tate Modern so I tend to use train to Blackfriars bridge, but can take tube to London Bridge. My London travel is covered by expenses though I do have an option to take a small per diem instead of hotel costs.

DD is due to go to university in October 2020. Her top two choices are LSE and KCL.

I'm wondering about buying a flat...for DD to use for second year onwards and rent out room(s) to other students and then for us to use in the longer term. My rationale is that we would save the dead money of student rent and hotels and this plus the convenience might make it worthwhile.

I don't have a budget in mind other than ideally keeping costs low for London - under £500k for sure. I'm assuming would be wise to look south east or east.Would want it to be served by good public transport late at night so probably tube rather than Train? Schools not a consideration so possibly an area with poor school options would go in our favour.

Does this sound like a sensible idea? Only thinking about starting to look currently and would wait to see the Brexit fall out before committing. If it's a good idea where should I look?

Not sure your budget is realistic tbh.

Actually on second thoughts,zone 2 Brockley,New cross you'd get for your budget I think, 2 bed flat.

You could look SE (Sydenham/ Forest Hill etc) Not sure how it would work for dd at uni but there are certainly places that would get you a 2 bed flat for you budget. For example, I have just accepted an offer on my flat for 450k. Its a large 2 bed with access to 2 stations that go to Victoria/ Blackfriars/ London Bridge in 20-25 mins. Might be too far out for uni students though!

My sister lives in Forest Hill so had though that area was possible...i think that areas less desirable than forest hill possible... catford, lewisham?

Also wondered about further out towards Greenwich. Possibly exploiting cross rail?

Or alternatively east e.g. Leyton?

I've never paid any attention to where people buy in London so not sure where to start.

Think carefully re it’s really a good idea buying with the expectation your daughter will live there and rent out the other room(s).

It puts pressure on her having to be in that location, she will have to deal with the property, the dynamic with her friend(s) becomes lodger-owner rather than equal in a house share. What if she wants to live with 6 of her new found mates close to uni? Or a big group of them all want to get flats close together in a different location?

You’ll also be paying £30k I’m stamp duty.

I’d say 500k is a good budget for a flat. How many bedrooms are you after?
I know schools don’t matter but what about crime rates? Leyton has high crime.

Just had a look on Rightmove. You could get a 2 bed in Clapham. It’s on the northern line so very easy for Bank/Moorgate and London Bridge (but super busy at peak times). Or if you’re the other side of Clapham Common, you’d be close to Clapham Junction with its gazillion trains. All the stations are zone 2.
It’s an affluent middle class area with nice restaurants, greenery etc

Agree that your daughter may not want to live in a 2 bed flat in a good investment area. But you could probably make a lot of money from renting it out anyway which would offset the costs of her rent. I would look at penge/ anerley/ Brockley/ Honor oak. Anywhere on the orange line where prices haven’t quite caught up with the new transport. Public transport in Catford is rubbish.

For £500k you will get a flat in streatham/tooting maybe Balham which are all so much nicer than Leyton or catford

I'd suggest around Tooting. You'd get a nice 2 bed for that price and it's on the Northern line for both London bridge/Bank. Plus very trendy area for students.

Is Tooting popular with students? I would definitely feel safe there but the high road is a bit chaotic and definitely doesn’t feel like a lovely bolt hole location.

Streatham is pretty grubby - weeds in front gardens, rubbish in the street sort of thing but rental returns are a tad better than some other bits of zone 3.

OP, I just noticed you asking for somewhere ‘less desirable’. Do you mean that you’d like it to be a speculative buy or just would prefer a house for 500k or maybe a 2-bed flat for less? Eg 300k? You could go for ‘less deairable’ areas (maybe zone 3, 4 at the most) but it’ll probably be grubby + Met Police stats won’t impress. Or you could get that house/cheaper flat in zone 5 on the Thameslink (safe, leafy, clean etc) but it might be a bit far out for a bolt hole (30 mins into central London) and can’t imagine a uni student being impressed.

If you’d like somewhere nice, safe and very convenient, then 2-bed flat for 500k is definitely doable.

But you could probably make a lot of money from renting it out anyway which would offset the costs of her rent.

I am not sure that you would make a lot of money. Have you crunches the numbers?BTL investors have evaporated over the past few years and many are offloading. London prices have been in decline and predicted further fall depending on how Brexit goes could leave you in negative equity. But if you are looking at buying for Oct 2021 it might be more stable than now. The stamp duty might be more than your DDs rent? Watch out for service charges (£££’s ) and LH issues on flats.

Rental yields are low in London especially in the more expensive areas not to mention tax implications for those who already have a good career.

Price-wise, some areas have seen sharp drops but others have been stable or even increased in value. But anyway, if it’s a long-term game, there are always property recessions followed by rises. It’s a constant cycle.

Se London would work if the train line came through Waterloo for lse walking across the bridge, kings I think has more than one building not sure exactly where main campus is. For your dh he would walk across London Bridge. No idea on prices, was cheap when I lived there but I moved 15 years ago! (So missed out on the house price rises)

I would look around New Cross and Brockley, you have a good budget for that area. There are plenty of young people there, connections into town are good and Goldsmiths college is around there, so finding a flat mate shouldn’t be difficult.
I would probably not go as far as Forest Hill as students tend to want to be more central.

“Streatham is pretty grubby - weeds in front gardens, rubbish in the street sort of thing l

The whole of Streatham? Really? (Really not, as a matter of fact)

People do write some rubbish on these threads.

Streatham is not Dulwich Village for sure, but FFS with budget / transport / distance people cut their cloth.

Stockwell? It’s a bit grubby around the edges but is on the Northern and Victoria lines. Near Clapham and Vauxhall/Nine Elms regeneration area. Not much in an Uber after a night out in town either as is only just into zone 2.

@ShrodingersRat Sorry, didn't mean to offend and I know some people are happy living in Streatham. The rubbish and the weeds is what tends to stand out to me every time I visit, though. And the High Rd being a dual carriageway is pretty depressing. IMO you can get much nicer for the money. E.g. Forest Hill or even Earlfield seems only a bit more pricey.

This is an excellent idea IMO. The property market will be rocky after Brexit, but London property - as ever - will be protected from that somewhat and a good investment long term.

I live in a 3 bed semi around that budget in east London, zone 4/5 border. You’d go further in for a flat in east London. Not the closest, but not an awful commute. From Walthamstow to Kings Cross for example is 20min. Canary Wharf isn’t as easy though.

This place in Clapham looks nice. Lots of communal space.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71959648.html

Bit further out than you would probably want but - the train are pretty decent and they are extending the underground to it and did say Greenwich. What about Eltham?

I agree look at new cross. Good budget for there, you’ll easily get a large 2 bed in a new build block. Good transport

Haven't crunched the numbers seriously and it's hard to do so not knowing the Brexit effect and whether stamp duty rules may change again. Mortgage calculators from our bank suggest we could borrow a seven figure sum but I haven't actually discussed getting any mortgage.

Would definitely want a low maintenance flat rather than a house. We have a biggish house with all the associated hassle and so absolutely no desire to, for example, to have to see to a second garden.

We would, I hope, be unlikely to end up in negative equity as would put a substantial amount of cash (at least 50%) in.

We're pretty rubbish re managing our money and I suppose my thinking is also driven by the fact if we are able to buy at the bottom of any Brexit drop it may actually be an investment of sorts. Hence why gritty but up and coming might be attractive (as it is to everyone trying to buy I guess!).

We are both 47 so expecting to be working for quite a lot more years. I guess the heart part is that DH is increasingly weary of being hotel based during the week. His job used to entail a lot more travel so though he was notionally London based he spent half his time on overseas trips and having somewhere to go in London was less important.

This needs some work, but loads of space for your money - Catford.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83671793.html