Buying in Forest Hill - Bad time?

[AristaEss]

Hello, we are first time buyers looking to buy a 2 bed flat in Forest Hill potentially before stamp duty ends. We've found a few nice places that we like and were close to making offers, however on further research we found quite odd average house price changes.

To quote Rightmove "Overall, sold prices in Forest Hill over the last year were 1% up on the previous year and 5% down on the 2017 peak of £545,838". This coupled with a potential drop in prices after the stamp duty holiday / brexit / covid has put a sudden halt to our plans, wondering if the Forest Hill area is going to bounce back from this, especially considering they have been struggling to keep up with prices from 3 years ago.

I guess what we'd like to know is if people know this area and think its worth taking the risk? The property is half way in-between forest hill and catford stations and we really like the walk from forest to the flat, however there is not a great deal of interesting or useful shops! Everything looks a tad run down / dead but its very hard to know what its like outside of lockdown. Any help would be appreciated!

Forest Hill is definitely on the up but prices are very high. Catford is cheaper but it’s still very much ‘ripe for regeneration’ if you know what I mean. I wouldn’t live there but in 10 years time it’ll probably be great. Sydenham is nice and cheaper than FH.

My best friends live in Forest Hill. The area around the station looks a bit shit, but the residential streets are lovely and quiet and it's a safe-feeling area. They bought their flat maybe 5 years ago for, I believe, £250k and it's beautiful.

We live between Catford and FH - it's very friendly and the primary schools are all great. There's not much going on at the moment but there is a good coffee shop at the bottom of Brockley Rise, a newish grocery shop and two decent pizzerias. The Honor Oak pub is okay, the Blythe Hill is consistently voted Camra pub of the year, the Chandos again does good pizza and beer. I don't know what house prices are going to do but I can say it's a great place to live. I would say Catford has more potential than FH, and pre this lockdown has the last local cinema still going.

Or you can spend the same amount of money and live 40 minutes from central London on the train and live in 4-5 bedroom house with a large garden, great schools (so many grammar schools that they are actually short of pupils passing the exam to get in to one of them).

I live in between Forest Hill and Catford and for the most part love the area. However, Catford is an absolute dump and I cannot walk to or from the station without being catcalled/shouted at at least once.
Last week I walked to the Sainsbury’s next to the station in joggers and a big coat and it still happened! I won’t walk home from the station on my own at night, DP always picks me up.

However there really is no need to go there apart from for trains to Charing Cross and on the weekend we’d always go the other way towards Forest Hill, Honor Oak, Dulwich and Crystal Palace.

Personally I wouldn’t buy here with your budget. Our flat is a small one bed and is worth around £320k. There’s no way we would buy in the area as you get so little value for money compared to going slightly further out. Our budget for when we buy later this year is £450k and we’ll be looking at Bromley, Sidcup, Orpington and Bexley. I don’t understand why you’d settle for a 2 bed flat when you could go slightly further out and get a 3/4 bed house but that’s obviously just my opinion!

I use Catford station all the time (not during lockdown) and have never been cat-called, but I am over 50. I like the area, but very rarely go into Catford itself, and am more likely to go to Oxford Street for normal shopping.
I've lived in Brockley/Catford for the last 20 years, and it's great. Lots to do, nice parks, lots of local art galleries, and decent trains. My DD is at secondary school in New Cross, but her junior school friends are all split over most of the schools in the area. To be honest they all seem much of a muchness, as they all take children from quite a mixed area. My advice would be to make life as easy as you can for yourself. Try for somewhere near a station and primary school and nursery, on a train route that will get you into work. You get lovely places in SE6 on the Corbett Estate, but getting to the station will be a real drag.I echo the previous poster who said Sydenham, as you would have access to two pretty good secondary schools, and very good travel. I would imagine that when life returns to normal that the prices will crash, as (IMO) lots of furlough people will be made redundant or will have moved out. If I were you I would rent for a bit until things settle.