London mums - what's your property ladder like?

[mapotofu]

Hubby and I are currently living in our first property - 2 bed flat, new build, near Tufnell Park. 2 bed felt huge initially, we thought we could live here for 10 years until our (future) kid is 5yo. Then Covid hit and now we're both WFH 3-4 days a week. Hubby in the spare bedroom, I'm in the living room.

We're thinking to try to have a baby in a few months. I'm overplanning as usual and I'm thinking that soon we need at least a 3 bed place. School is another thing I'm massively overthinking - there are plenty of nurseries and good primary schools nearby, but not secondary schools.

Buying and moving are such a hassle, so I'm thinking instead of buying a 3 bed flat, then later move to a house near good secondary schools, I just want to stay put until we have enough money to move to our forever home. But that might still be in 8-10 years. Is it feasible to live in a 2-bed flat with a 7yo when we're both WFH?

Would love to hear from you: how did your property ladder look like as a couple/family - from your first home to where you are now? Mainly interested to hear from Londoners.

We lived in London in a very small two bed house. Moved out of London into a 4 bed semi once we had a 5yo and a 2yo. The London house felt small but doable with 1 kid. When baby no2 arrived it was tight but didn’t feel too bad as baby was in our room and I was very organised about how spaces were used.

Lock down with us both working from home and a 4yo and a 1yo was hideous and was what pushed us to move.

We were Fisrt time buyers when we bought the 2 bed.
I found moving expensive and horrendous and so for the next move we went for our long term house (the next move will hopefully be a downsize once we retire) so we didn’t have an ‘ ‘interim’ move to something bigger in London but that we’d eventually outgrow.

Moved from small 1 bed rental flat in zone 2 to a 3 bed house with garage and garden in Bexley Borough. Plenty of good schools and transport links straight to Charing X and Victoria in both Bexley and Bromley.

Have a look as you get more for your money south of the river.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=STATION%5E2078&minBedrooms=3&maxPrice=600000&minPrice=450000&radius=3.0&sortType=1&propertyTypes=detached%2Csemi-detached%2Cterraced&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

I’m not sure I’m an exemplar but fwiw:

1. Bought two bed ex-council flat in under the radar bit of z2, solo. Could comfortably have raised a family there.
2. Flat’s value rocketed, released equity to buy and rent out a small house in Kent
3. With DH, and with me now pregnant, bought a three-bed flat in a bit of south London with good schools/feeder system. Lived there happily for five years but garden wasn’t direct access and pram needed bumping up the stairs endlessly.
4. TTC Dc2, conceived twins. Stayed in (3) as a family of five long enough to find something within our budget and taste near DD1’s school.
5. Sold 2 and 3 in order to buy a four/five bed house nearby. Still z2 london. Hopefully primaries are sorted for all three kids and the girls will have a choice for secondary. My son will be stuck with what he gets!

I’d say plan but build in some flexibility if you can. You can bust a gut finding the perfect home only for you/OH to get a once in a lifetime promotion in Japan or something.

Thank you all - these are all very helpful! More feedback and recommendations welcome :)

Currently living in 750sqft with a 10 year old and 5 year old. The only issue is them sharing a room. If I only had one child it wouldn’t bother me at all, you just need to have less stuff. It can be quite liberating

@socialmedia23 it is indeed still council owned. So far so good re major works (and they’d have to be major enough to make a news story to make up the difference to the next cheapest house- and leasehold is likely to be reformed in the next decade I think). Honestly, it’s brilliant. And the only way we can afford this postcode.

I think a 2-bed flat with two people WFH and a 7-year old would be tight.

I started out in my own 1-bed flat which I still have, we’re currently in a 3-bed flat with one DC and renovating a 4-bed house to move into. We’ve always stuck to West London and rather naively I’ve never really factored in schools but DC is only 2.

Not entirely sure where you've been doing your research but for the record you couldn't ask for a better choice of secondary schools in the TP area, including both state options and grammars (if you're on the Is side of Brecknock Rd) and plenty of nearby private choices too.

I know kids at Burghley, CSG, Parli, WES, (and Mary Mags, Haverstock, and Highgate Wood a bit further afield), all are extremely happy with provision, pastoral care and academic attainment.

If you are buying with secondaries in mind, note that the cut off distances for many of the above schools are well under a mile as they are so heavily oversubscribed.

That's good to know! Do you/your partner WFH?

That's good to know! Do you/your partner WFH?

I've used Locrating to check and it seems that my flat is always just outside the catchment areas of good/outstanding state secondary schools, with the exception of selective schools that have wider catchment areas 🤔
I'd love to stay in TP if I could afford to buy a bigger place here though. Space is the #1 immediate issue, secondary school is something down the line. I'll check those schools you mentioned again, thank you for the helpful answer! (unlike the one above calling me/Mumsnet people weird and fool)

Never heard of locrating? Use this page: www.islington.gov.uk/children-and-families/schools/find-a-school (and the equivalent Camden page) to check your distance and download their admissions booklets to check the last admitted distances in recent years. Ten years ago you were more likely to be in a blackspot for primary than secondary tbh, though the drop in birth rate and expansion of TP primary has alleviated that recently. That can all change before you get to schools age though and reputations change a lot in 5-10 years.

Yes we do but we both have the option of going to the office when we want to so we try to do that. But we do end up at home together a couple of days a week. We find it ok.

We had a two bed maisonette in Balham, but after covid decided to make the move and brought a four bed in Wimbledon!

Bought 2 bed top floor flat in Zone 2 in 2005. Met partner who moved in in 2009. Had first child in 2014. We both sold our flats (OH's flat was in Manchester) and bought a 3-bed small house also in Zone 2, in 2015 when DD was a toddler. We now have a 9 and a 5 year old and are looking to move to a 3/4 bed larger house in a better catchment for secondary schools but still in Zone 2/fringes of Zone 3.

Locrating website will be the foundation of our search when we try and move later this year. In my experience there are absolutely loads of great primary schools all over in London so I would focus on secondary for sure.

We moved further out for more space. We were living in a 2 bed flat in a block on zone 1/2 borders.

Moved to a 3 bed terrace with small garden in zone 3 when pregnant with DC1.

Then to a 4 bed semi with bigger garden and better school options in zone 4 when we had DC2. It was also a do-er upper, which was stressful, but meant we got a property for a good price.

Anything is doable. I know families fairly happily bringing up kids in small flats. It’s about what your priorities are, what you’re willing to sacrifice and what you can afford.

If you look for good secondary schools, it will focus your mind!

We bought a small 2 bed house in Greenwich for our first - before we were even engaged. It was 800 sq ft and had two bedrooms, one bathroom, one small living room, dining room and small kitchen.

• was more than fine when it was just the two of us
• was ok when we had our baby - who initially was in our room and then moved to the other room. We had a few toys and bouncers in the dining room.
• but lockdown happened and we had a 9 month old. I worked in my bedroom. dH worked in dining room. Baby was in dining room playing. We did everything else like watching tv etc in living room.
• it was doable but would have been tight as baby got more toys eg a play kitchen and a little desk that we had to find space for. It’s a first world problem though and if you are savvy about using space you can do it.
• we moved to a suburb on the sw London/Surrey border - into a large extended 3 bed semi with a big garden and a conservatory, and a 4th bedroom/study downstairs. We now have our second child and tbh the space we now have is wonderful and I do think it who’s have been too hard in our smaller house. Our eldest has space to run around in and a playroom and we have separate spaces downstairs to wfh. I personally couldn’t have lived in the two bed with two children anyway.

Watching with interest because mortgage rate increases seem to be making moves virtually impossible at the moment.

It's difficult for anyone who bought fairly recently & as pp said stamp duty makes moving £££. We had a flat in SW London z3 but there aren't great secondary schools there (great primary's though). We then bought a house in Z4, ideally we would have bought a bigger house for more money but we were constrained by what was on sale & secondary catchments.

We moved from a 1 bed flat to a 3 bed house before Covid and arrival of first child. We're in Zone 4. We would seriously miss the 3rd bedroom now, for WFH but also for people staying over - once the 2nd bedroom is a nursery you can't really use it for anything else.
Obviously everyone has different priorities but I would say definitely third bedroom over area if that's the choice. Our area is average and we sometimes miss being in better area where we could only afford 2 bed but reality is if the situation was reversed we'd be going mad and life would be more compromised. We also have a kitchen diner and separate through reception room and space is invaluable for toys and DD running around. And we only have one...

We are in West London. Our property ladder was a 2 bed garden flat which we had pre TTC. Like you we thought we'd have one child in then TTC no2 in a bigger place. However after lockdowns and once DD arrived we realised how much space we needed.

We sold and bought a 3 bed 1bath semi (still london but further west) which we are renovating to a 4bed 2 bath (finishes in a few weeks 🥳). The box room will be an office , the master will be a guest room and office until DC2 arrives, the 2nd bedroom will be DD room and we'll be in the loft as it has the en-suite.
Once we save up again we'll look to build a summer house/garden office as we have ample space.

London schools are facing a big funding crisis which is supposed to get worse due to the huge drop in pupil numbers.

So either don't think about secondary as you don't have a dc yet or move somewhere that has a raft of options.

Also as your dc get older they do need the space, it's less stressful. We had a garden office built for wfh as DH is hybrid

We had a second floor 2 bedroom flat and moved to large 3 bedroom ground floor flat with a garden when our first was 6 months. Now have 2 DC in same place. I can’t help you on the space, but if you live in TP you will almost definitely be close enough for Parliament School for Girls, William Ellis for boys and Acland Burghley for both. Maybe close enough to get spot at Camden School for Girls depending on where you are. Get the Camden school admissions guide book - that shows last distance. But even that is only on offers day - catchment gets much bigger by September. We are actually considering moving to that area for the secondary schools as we are wrong side of Camden!

We are in a three bed flat with one child. No garden but do have a good sized balcony. Not having garden hasn't been an issue as we have a really nice park close by. We also have a parking space which is really handy. It's a big jump to afford a house around here and we aren't in the position so will stay put for now. Luckily we have good schools in the area and great neighbours.