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Original poster

London mums - what's your property ladder like?

79 replies

mapotofu · 05/02/2023 20:17

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.

OP posts:
overwork · 06/02/2023 14:59

These are fascinating. You must all have had bigger budgets than me though as I'm currently pregnant in a zone 2, 400 sq ft 1 bed with no garden or balcony Grin I love the area though and the flat was perfect when I was single.
Hoping to stretch to 2 beds and access to a garden in the Dane area but by the sounds of these we already need a 3 bed house

donutpowered · 06/02/2023 15:10

overwork · 06/02/2023 14:59

These are fascinating. You must all have had bigger budgets than me though as I'm currently pregnant in a zone 2, 400 sq ft 1 bed with no garden or balcony Grin I love the area though and the flat was perfect when I was single.
Hoping to stretch to 2 beds and access to a garden in the Dane area but by the sounds of these we already need a 3 bed house

Don't worry you can make it work. When the baby is small they'll be in your room anyway. It's only when they are toddlers that they really start to accumulate stuff - lots of toys, scooters, bikes etc that you'll need that second bedroom. You'll be fine without a balcony as long as you have access to decent outside space you'll be fine. For the first few years it felt like our local park was our garden as we were there all the time. I've found having a child in London great and didn't felt lonely on maternity leave. Lots of families live in flats around here.

overwork · 06/02/2023 15:31

Oh Thankyou @donutpowered that's really reassuring, I appreciate you taking the time to respond!

ReamsOfCheese · 06/02/2023 17:47

Also following this with interest as we're in a 2 bed flat looking at whether to move further out and get somewhere bigger or stay closer to zone 1/2 for all the good stuff. Those of you without a balcony, did any of you go down the allotment route for the love of gardening or is that not a doable thing these days (that was what my mum did when we lived in a flat in Southwark when I was little)?

SD25 · 06/02/2023 18:00

overwork · 06/02/2023 14:59

These are fascinating. You must all have had bigger budgets than me though as I'm currently pregnant in a zone 2, 400 sq ft 1 bed with no garden or balcony Grin I love the area though and the flat was perfect when I was single.
Hoping to stretch to 2 beds and access to a garden in the Dane area but by the sounds of these we already need a 3 bed house

yes but your zone 2, 1-bed flat is probably the same price as my 3-bed zone 4 house! that's kinda the point of the discussion... so it's not about having more money :-)

Anonymouslyposting · 08/02/2023 10:43

We are in our first London property. We waited longer to buy our first place so we could skip the flat stage so bought a 3 bedroom terrace in SW zone 2 in 2019 - it’s needed a lot of work over the past few years though.

We then had baby 1 in 2020 and did a loft conversion so the house is now technically 5 bedrooms (though two of those bedrooms are tiny, you can fit a double in one of them but not much else and the other couldn’t fit a double without it touching the walls on both sides).

Baby 2 arrived a week ago and is currently in with us but will then have the smallest bedroom.

DH and I both work part time from home and part time from the office.

With our size family and working schedules we could stay here forever, which was a big plus in buying the house as we can stay put until finances allow or if the market crashes. However we have no garden, just a tiny paved yard and only really two non-bedroom/bathroom rooms (sitting room and kitchen) so we’d like to upgrade once the kids want more space. Ideally we’d move somewhere bigger nearby but I think that may be out of reach budget wise so we’ll probably move out in 3-5 years if the market/our jobs cooperate.

Tbh whether we could both wfh with a seven year old in a two bed (I don’t think flat vs house really makes a difference) would depend on how predictable our hours were. If we could log off at 5 that may be ok but if you work long hours I’m struggling to see where the seven year old will be while you’re working after school hours.

I’m sure it would be workable but personally I’d want to upsize even if it meant moving further out.

TomatoSoup69 · 08/02/2023 15:13

@ReamsOfCheese Allotment plots around me (North London Zone 2/3) have an 80-100 year waiting list, it's awful!

houseargh · 08/02/2023 15:23

From a one bed rental in zone 2 to a two bed house (with summerhouse home office) in zone 4. Hoping this is our forever home. We can do a loft conversion at some point in future if we really want a spare room. CBA with the whole ladder thing - sounds exhausting and neither of us is in the type of career where we can expect major payrises in future. We didn't even look into secondary schools when house hunting and didn't stress too much about primarys either - seemed like most schools were Ofsted good and the areas in the catchment of outstanding schools we couldn't afford, so at least for areas we were interested in it was all much of a muchness.

FWIW, I was always expecting to be in a two bed flat with a kid indefinitely (and we did nearly two years with her in the one bed!). Like you, we now work from home a lot so when we house hunted a third bedroom (or somewhere to put a home office) became a necessity. We could have gone for a flat closer in but have to say, I am really loving the space and feel of having our own (Victorian terraced) house - totally worth being further out (helps that we love the neighbourhood and it's still very Londony vibes)

houseargh · 08/02/2023 15:25

(should add, I have one kid, intend to stop at one)

Fretfulmum · 08/02/2023 15:49

I’m not sure if most of these posts are helpful for you OP as it seems most here had bought properties a while back and benefitted from equity building which you said you haven’t benefitted from. The ladder doesn’t really exist like it did pre pandemic due to high stamp duty charges, house price increases likely to be much smaller now, higher mortgage interest rates, cladding scandal on flats, WFH. gone are the days when you buy a London flat and upgrade to a house using the equity you’ve built up. There is no equity to build if you bought a London flat post 2016. House prices increase at a faster rate than flats.

You can live in a flat with a child but you may soon find things tight- kids end up with a lot of stuff! You may also crave easy access to outdoor space. We moved from a 2bed flat when DS was 2 when I started to get frustrated with being in a flat with him. Now we have moved into a 4 bed house in the suburbs. I would seriously consider moving to a home you know would give you sufficient space for a 10 year period to give time for mortgage rates and the economy to settle.

londonmummy1966 · 08/02/2023 16:12

Probably not at all relevant to you but started with a 3 bed semi out of LOndon. When we both got jobs in London it was not a good time to sell but the mortage cost of buying a 3 bed flat in Putney was less than our train fares so bit of a no brainer. Plan was to pay off the Putney mortgage in 5 years which we did by both working 2 jobs and saving like hell. At the end of the 5 years we sold both properties and bought a 4 bedroom house much further into the centre in a very beautiful but overlooked area.

What I would say is that if you don't particuarly want to move then you could consider renting a desk in a co-working space rather than wfh - think they start at about £12 a day.

SD25 · 08/02/2023 21:18

What two jobs can you work at the same time in London for enough money to pay off a 3 bed flat in Putney??

Cidegrey · 09/02/2023 01:00

Our first home was an 860 sq ft 2 bed flat in zone 1. Lived there 10 years and then moved to an 1800 sq ft 4 bed house in zone 2 (in possible catchment for CSG). We gained some equity in the flat, but most of the money to move up the ladder came from other investments/earnings. Our dd was 4 when we moved and we had one eye on secondaries when deciding where to live. Stamp duty at these prices is too high to be shelling out again for a move at secondary age, and logistics get too complicated when the dc have started school (you need to move by January of year 6 so would you change their primary school in their final year or make them commute? And we have a younger dd so would they change schools?). Plus I found moving house really stressful and just don't want to have to do it again for as long as possible!

DH wfh for 2.5 years and we were bursting at the seams in our flat. I'm terrible with decluttering (too sentimental) which didn't help. I stopped work since DH wfh so I spent a lot of time out of the flat with our dd - would have been hard if I was more of a homebody type or if both of us had to wfh. Now we have 2 dc - it would have been easier to live in a flat with just one. Our house is actually a bit too big for us right now - some space is unused, including one bedroom as the baby is in our room. But when we were looking we wanted somewhere that could fit 4 adults (because being in London, it won't be surprising if our dcs end up living at home into their 20s).

GreenestValley · 09/02/2023 08:05

SD25 · 08/02/2023 21:18

What two jobs can you work at the same time in London for enough money to pay off a 3 bed flat in Putney??

This sounds like it could have been some time ago… 80s or 90s I’m guessing?!

GreenestValley · 09/02/2023 08:06

So no, not at all relevant to the OP or really anyone buying their first home in 2023 😂

Flukeylukey · 09/02/2023 21:17

Lived in a 2 bed flat on border of zones 1/2. Had first baby there, loved the location for mat leave when there was so much on the doorstep. Decided to move when TTC again, and went for a 3 bed house in zone 3 with big garden and space to extend so that we in theory would never have to move again. Focused on primaries not secondaries as a lot can change in 10 years. At the time we didn’t feel that we had outgrown the flat but then as soon as we had the extra space we were v grateful for it after DC1 turned 2.

Original poster
mapotofu · 10/02/2023 07:31

Flukeylukey · 09/02/2023 21:17

Lived in a 2 bed flat on border of zones 1/2. Had first baby there, loved the location for mat leave when there was so much on the doorstep. Decided to move when TTC again, and went for a 3 bed house in zone 3 with big garden and space to extend so that we in theory would never have to move again. Focused on primaries not secondaries as a lot can change in 10 years. At the time we didn’t feel that we had outgrown the flat but then as soon as we had the extra space we were v grateful for it after DC1 turned 2.

Which area in zone 2 if you don't mind sharing?

OP posts:
londonmummy1966 · 10/02/2023 14:14

SD25 · 08/02/2023 21:18

What two jobs can you work at the same time in London for enough money to pay off a 3 bed flat in Putney??

It was quite doable in 1995 - two professional jobs and two well paid side hustles

TrudyProud · 10/02/2023 14:24

@londonmummy1966 amazing but definitely not relevant now. I was still in primary school. House prices back then were cheap as chips compared with now. Sadly

puppacup · 10/02/2023 14:42

Yes I could have bought a house in the early 90s if I worked f/t in my holiday/weekend job but unfortunately I was still at school. I'd be a millionaire now.

puppacup · 10/02/2023 14:42

sorry late 90s

TrudyProud · 10/02/2023 15:07

Exactly @puppacup . My mum bought a 3bed terrace as a single mum in zone 2 in the late 80s. I'm on >3x her salary plus DH salary and we are in a semi in Greater London. If I were an adult back then I'd be living in a detached house in Queens Park or Hampstead. Not bitter at all .... 🤣

puppacup · 10/02/2023 15:36

yep my in-laws house was about 30k in the 80s, about 1.5m today. Bought with only one income too.

SD25 · 10/02/2023 16:22

Crazy isn't it. Don't take advice from anyone who bought before 2010!

puppacup · 10/02/2023 16:33

true!