How much for my north London flat?

[northlondon1]

We bought our 3-bed flat, a Victorian conversion, in Archway in 2016 for £815k. I'm getting such different views from two estate agents as to how the local market for flats is doing, and how much our flat would fetch now. One is saying as low as £750k, the other £850k. It's a beautiful flat, spacious (1200 sq ft), terrace but no garden.

We're looking to sell to buy a bigger place. It feels like the market for terraced houses in the area is on the up, and quite significantly.

Would anyone in the local area, particularly any estate agents, care to comment?

I'm a Muswell Hill resident moving to Crouch End/Stroud Green. MH is expensive because of the excellent primary and secondary schools (Fortismere and APS are both very good). However catchments are very small - 1/2 a mile or less and house prices are high. I know quite a few families in MH who live in 3 bed flats but I think all have gardens. MH is a great place for families because if all the green spaces, Ally Pally, Durnsford, Highgate Wood, Parkland walk, close to the Heath etc and all the shops, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, cinema, gyms and easy access to swimming pool and ice rink. But that is why it is very expensive property wise. Transport into town is less good. Crouch End is similarly attractive to families and younger people with more pubs than MH, lots of shops and cafes etc. It's a bit less green than MH. And it's less well served with secondaries - Highgate Wood does not have as good a reputation.

I am moving from a 4 bed house to a 3 bed flat as I'm downsizing now my DC are at uni but I wouldnt move to a flat without a garden having been used to having one in my house. But some downsizers might I suppose.

There are fewer 3 beds available that have a reasonable sized 3rd bed and some conversions are badly executed.

I personally think the lower estimates for your flat OP sound about right in the current market.

Where are you planning to move to OP? I just had a look at houses with gardens in the area around Finsbury Park, Stroud Green, Crouch End and Haringey Ladder and there are some stunning houses between 800-900K around Finsbury Park/Clissold Park and plenty of doer-uppers - some absolutely huge from as little as 750k.

Good question cowbells. We were thinking Cambridge actually. We had considered staying around here, but a) money doesn't stretch as far here, and b) I'm worried about secondary. Where's good for secondary, apart from Muswell Hill? I love MH but the transport would kill after a while. Commute from Cambridge obviously worse, but at least the house would be bigger... (£1.1m would get a decent 4-5 bed where we're looking)

I'm not a fan of Stoke Newington. I know there are good schools (though maybe only primary?) there.

Aww do it move to Cambridge
You won't regret it !!!

Hi Queenie! Are you my friend who's currently in Cambridge and keen for us to move?
Cambridge is beautiful. The only thing is work. If I do end up having to commute in 4-5 days a week, life would be quite miserable I think. Whereabouts are you in Cambridge? Do you work in London?

I studied there

Have very fond memories
I know work close to muswell hill
Cambridge is heaven
In summer it is so lovely

I know prices are high

Train into kings x would be tough more than 2/3 times a week

But a fab place xxx

Northlondon1 look into everything properly if you want to go to Cambridge. I love Cambridge, we moved from MH to Bedfordshire on the Cambridgeshire border so it was where I went to shop for nice things and also worked there sometimes, but commuting isn’t fun full time. My DH was working for himself when we moved but ended up working full time back in London, so commuted for 4 years.
You have to make sure you live somewhere that gives easy access to the station as the traffic is often bad in Cambridge, but if you don’t have to commute full time it’s really lovely, I’d live there (we did consider it).
We moved to a village and it didn’t really work for us, hence us now looking to come back to London, but it’s hard, we had ( sold it last July) a really beautiful big house which we completely renovated and now we are looking at tiny houses or flats, so it’s a big downsize, we’ve had to get rid of so much stuff, but it was a great experience and we don’t regret it, just didn’t imagine it would turn out like this.
However I do think it makes a massive difference if you have young children, ours were teenagers when we moved so we didn’t make the usual school type friends and most of our established friends stayed in London and really much of our live stayed in London.
If you have children in primary it makes a massive difference and really helps you to feel part of a community.
Lots of interesting decisions for you, good luck.

East Finchley near The Archer? Parents seem very happy with it.

Thank you itscold- definitely would have to be within 10-15 mins walk and ideally a bus too to the station. We don't have a car at the moment and would rather not have to get one.

Do you know what the state secondaries are like out there? I need to investigate this properly. We plan to make some recce trips out there to see my friend once lockdown eases, to get a better sense of the area. I'll miss London, having lived here for well over a decade now, but we can't easily do half the stuff we used to in London now that we have children, so we're ready for something a bit different. Plus my friend has space for things like an airing cupboard in Cambridge - something one can only dream off here

Dream of* ! Scrambled baby brain 🧠

Unless you have work in Cambridge why on earth move there? It's bitterly cold. The prices are inflated because of the uni. And it's an expensive, long schlep to commute into London.

If you want good schools I'd look in Kent where there are still loads of grammars, super fast trains from Sevenoaks or Tonbridge into central London city and west end take about 25 mins.

Is it more cold than other places in southern England?

I suppose we have a good friend there, so it'd be less random than any other city or town outside of London. Cambridge is nice, and surrounding towns are affordable enough for the grandparents to move to in due course.

Trains from Tonbridge are better than ones from Cambridge (I've lived in both) but Cambridge has a slightly better 'vibe'. Sevenoaks is very nice, expensive but still better than London, very frequent/fast trains. But - work out your total journey time when you think about moving. Are you likely to want frequent trains after 7 pm etc? If you do a job that means you could end up working late, consider doing the journey on a cold Feb evening when you have a headache etc. Also find out how much a season ticket costs when seeing how much you want to spend on a house, and parking at the station if you'd need that.

Another vote in favour of avoiding Cambridge. It's fine but the shops and restaurant scene is really bland and the uni buildings are pretty but dominate things to a ridiculous degree

It is colder yes because it's on the Fens. Very flat, bleak landscape and miles from anywhere of natural beauty.

What about Lewes or Brighton?

OP if you have links to Cambridge but need to commute to London what about Bishops Stortford? About halfway between London and Cambridge. It's a nice market town with good schools and decent shopping, facilities etc.

Thanks all for the alternative suggestions. The cold thing is not great... I don't remember Cambridge being extra cold the times I've been, but I've only been a handful of times. Recces definitely needed.

The problem with another suburb of London or home county town is that we would know literally no one. I know we'd soon enough meet parents through school, but I'm not sure that would be the same. I do have a very old friend in Cambridge with similar aged children, so it's reassuring to me.

Kickass, I love the feb night headache train ride suggestion. It's very sensible. My job will/does involve late nights, but since having children I've been able to do them at home. So my plan would continue to be to go home around 5, family stuff, work later.

I spoke to an estate agent recently when he came to do a valuation of my house. He said family houses are selling well but he's really struggling with flats - they aren't shifting. I expect it's the impact of more WFH.

by the way some parts of Muswell Hill are actually ok for transport - look at the Bounds Green side (we are 15 min walk from Bounds Green tube) and/or near Ally Pally (trains into the City). Have to watch catchment areas though as they are small, and homes are pricey near schools.

I can see that flats in MH would struggle to shift. I feel like a couple or single person - our likely market for selling - probably wouldn't move to MH due to transport links and the fact that it's a family hub.

@northlondon1 I don’t know much about Cambridge schools, but I can ask friends who’s children went to state school in Cambridge. I do know there is excellent state 6th form provision (Hills road) so I would imagine there are good state schools.
I don’t get the cold comments either, I never found it cold, obvs London is often a few degrees warmer than most places but I certainly didn’t feel it was all windswept and flat, what I did notice was it’s much dryer than London (especially where I was in Bedfordshire).
It’s such a difficult choice, but honestly wherever you go you will make friends through school.
I didn’t have any friends in MH when we moved there, had friends in North London but not actually MH, but I still have lots of friends there now, even though we moved away. So I wouldn’t be too worried about moving somewhere where you don’t know anyone.
I’m not really looking in MH because it feels like going backwards for us (and too expensive) so looking more on the borders and want to be nearer to the tube, however I don’t want to go over the North Circular.

I'd love to hear what your friends think, itscold, if it's not too much trouble. It's such a big decision, I want to have all the facts and get it right.

@northlondon1 I’ve sent you a pm 👍