It feels crazy that nearly £900k isn’t enough to buy a nice house with a garden in a safe area of London!

[Propertyahhh]

A complaint post really.

I know, first world problems. But we have almost £900k to spend and it won’t get us a house with a garden in any London neighbourhood we like (Blackheath, Hackney, Muswell Hill, Crouch End, East Dulwich). So we thought we’d look at Bath, Bristol, Hove, etc and it doesn’t even stretch very far there. Tiny terraces with tiny gardens - if that.

Why is property so expensive?!?! How can so many people afford excess £1m to spend on houses?

I moved to Walthamstow when we wanted to buy a house with a garden in London. Plenty of houses with gardens for 900k or less here!

I like these ones. Will have to stop house window shopping!

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109993235#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109711871#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78722676#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/79407471#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/89896351#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109774499#/

@Propertyahhh Where in London do you need to commute to? We moved out from South London to Folkestone a few years back with youg children and commute (56mins to St Pancras and a lovely train journey). Best thing we ever did. There are loads of us DFLs (Down from Londoners) here and its a great, inclusive community. Kids (and us) are thriving and we can still pop back to the city if we ever feel like it (though as there is always much going on here we rarely bother). You have a healthy budget and would get plenty of change and a nice property in a great area...EG

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/102778682#/
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110305448#/
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/106323416#/
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107184872#/
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/91104427#/

Honestly can’t recommend the lifestyle highly enough!

What about this one in Forest Hill? It has everything you want plus the train goes straight to London bridge.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/108908438#/

How tedious.
Your budget will buy you a house the envy of most in 98% of the country.
Complaining that your budget isn't enough to compete with even richer people really isn't productive.

Well there are of course plenty of options under 900k however I take the OPs point. It's ridiculous that you need so much money for a very average property in an average part of London. And it's not a case of London always being so expensive. Many areas mentioned on this thread were areas where immigrants settled & many had only one parent working in a normal job.

The vast majority of people who live in London aren't earning 200k.

Most people I know who have a nice house in a "nice" area are older & got on the ladder early & gained huge equity.

It's not the same now, many who bought in the last 5 yrs haven't gained much equity & it's a lot harder to climb the ladder.

@Livingintheclouds

I'm buying a three bed house in Wimbledon for just over £900k - it is small by some standards, but perfectly adequate for a family of four. Same street as an outstanding primary, a lovely Victorian Park at the end of the street, and 15 minutes from the tube station. And safe. But to answer your question - saving and work. And you don't start in a £900k house. My first property was £80k, and through judicious buying and selling, saving, increasing my mortgage, and marrying my husband, we moved ever up.

I think I viewed this same property on FR but missed out!

OP neighbours & friends have moved to Tunbridge Wells, Cardiff, Bristol, Edinburgh, Wirral, Marlow. They had 800k plus budgets but wanted more for their money then London offered.

You’re looking in areas of London that have long ‘gone’ in terms of getting anything for less than a million+.

Buy where you can afford to!

But to answer your question - saving and work. And you don't start in a £900k house. My first property was £80k, and through judicious buying and selling, saving, increasing my mortgage, and marrying my husband, we moved ever up.

But when did you buy your property for 80k?
Plus mortgages have much stricter criteria these days.

Croch end have several in that price range what are you searchng for? 5+ Bedrooms.

If you have considered moving out have you looked at Sevenoaks, Tonbrige,Tunbridge wells?

Try Upminster, it's on the district line so easy commute into London

How about shooters hill? Se18, very rural feeling with woodland, golf and tennis clubs and the farm, a short distance from blackheath and Woolwich - which may feel less safe but has excellent connections to London. This looks nice, 4 bed detached here www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/58671383/?search_identifier=bd205476632d69b141a5233ece4dad82

Or this four bed semi just over the road from the woods www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/58517207/?search_identifier=bd205476632d69b141a5233ece4dad82

Expand your horizons and explore the city - lots of nice areas around the edges of London where you’d get a lot more for your money (and loads safer than the likes of Hackney, in which I once lived and loved but wouldn’t pretend it is some sort of haven!). Try the likes of Woodford, North Chingford, Highams Park, Wanstead, Bounds Green, Winchmore Hill and other parts of Enfield, around Ally Pally. These are all North/East London as that’s what I know but equally lots of similarly nice areas that fit your bill all around the city. They are just not the most fashionable neighbourhoods or better-known / more central nappy valleys, but they still have great green spaces, bars and restaurants, great transport links, good schools etc. Also at the moment getting waves of people with young families trading up their Hackney or Islington flats for more space.

If you like Clifton area in Btistol
look at Redland Henleaze Westbury on trym St Andrew & Bishopston Cotham areas

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109735400#/

Your 900k will get you a lot more than in London
Outside of Bristol look at Thornbury
Keynsham & Portishead

I am not about to dispute the bonkers-ness of the property market, but I think you must have expensive taste as everywhere you’ve listed I associate with being really pricey in London and then except Oxford probably the 3 most expensive places outside of London!

I don’t know N London well but I’d be looking at Greenwich, Lee, Hither Green, Ladywell, Brockley, Forest Hill - I’ve felt much safer in SE London than I did in Hackney but not lived there in nearly a decade now so it might have changed (and didn’t find it especially scary then tbh!)

Where is your DH commuting to? Lots of nice commuter towns in Surrey where £900k can get you a big house. Trains go to Waterloo and Victoria.

Crazy is the word. There's an 8 bed detached with a swimming pool on the market for 2/3 that amount near me!

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109392341#/

The last time it was possible to buy a place in London in line with earnings was probably 2010. With plummeting interest rate and massive world wide money printing, all assets have increased many fold what salaries did over the same period. Now fast forward 2021, say a Google programmer on 200k a year with his partner working insurance for 100k will only be able to buy afford a half decent 4 beds tiny garden in Muswill hill/east Dulwich once they gather 300k worth of after tax deposit (1.5m house with 100k stamp duty bill). Obviously the just retired teacher and architect sellers will be delighted with that price, while the high flying young professionals will feel short changed when looking at their older colleagues living in vastly better properties. To an extend, how much one earns it now practically irrelevant to where they can afford as the nice houses in zone 2/3 usually cost at the very least 2m+ (400-500k combined earning which not many people will achieve at the time they need the space).

Well 900k would buy us a house and enough money to last us the rest of our lives so London is the capital and over priced

Have you looked at Leytonstone?

It’s getting more hipster. Close to hackney. Into central London door to door in 40 minutes. On the central line, 2 stops from Stratford, 5 stops from Liverpool Street.

Can get a 3 bed house, with a good garden in the quieter bit for around 700k and less

Marlow. Nice area, large garden with garden room, easy walk to town or station, catchment for Grammar schools too.
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109971275#/
or this, gives you some budget to modernise /extend, has nice sized rooms www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110125097#/

Here's a few near Bath
Do you want to be more country or right in town?

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/104370635#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109015043#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109369817#/

For Bristol, previous posters have given great suggestions - search Redland, Cotham, Kingstown, St Andrew’s, Westbury Park, Henleaze, Sneyd Park. I live in one of those areas - Clifton is 2 streets away from me, it takes me 15 minutes to walk to the suspension bridge. You could find somewhere lovely for c£900k.

Those areas you mention have been out of reach of mere mortals for at least 10 years with some like Muswell Hill being unattainable for 20 years even.

How about somewhere like Barnet or Stanmore, both on tube lines and still reasonably achievable.