If you bought property in Zone 1-2 London, what do you do?

[meemeethemeerkat]

How old were you? Did you have financial assistance from family?

I work as a tax manager. no help. Age 27

Similar, we bought in zone 2 in the early 2000s when nobody wanted to live in Camberwell and people imagined you’d get shot walking down Coldharbour Lane (it was never actually that bad). Junior doctor and IT worker.

Couldn’t afford it in the same jobs now. Pay has stagnated (a junior doctor earns about the same now as they did in 2005) and house prices have quadrupled. Plus that was the days of 100% mortgages, so no need for a deposit (we did have one, but it was only £5k).

Bought in my late 20s, 20 years ago. 95% mortgage. No help or inheritance or anything. Had to get a lodger to help financially for a while. City lawyer.

Inherited a lot.

Entered a PBPR in SE London Z2 in 2002. 50% share. I bought with my then husband. He's a postal worker. I'm a tubeworker. Bought other half in about 2005(?). I still live here but selling soon. No outside help, we lived with my FiL until we got a healthy deposit. I was about 23 at the time.

I bought a run down ex council house at the edge of zone 2 a long walk to the station or tube. It was back in 2010. I had saved like mad so had a large deposit. No family help.

That was a decade of saving from a tech consulting career (so pretty well paid, but not 3 figures). I did have holidays but when working away saved as much from the per diem expenses as I could and lived cheaply.

In some ways I'm proud of having managed to buy. But in other ways I did miss out on some things to save that money. Now I have a house I'm resisting trading up so I can live a bit more now.

There needs to be a balance, I don't know if I always get it right.

Yes! 3 years ago, turning 30 a week before completion and on my own.

Deposit of 85k since graduation saved while living in shared house. Worked in finance.

No family help financially, first in family to go to uni and no contacts in the sector. I don't think anyone in my family actually knows what I do.

Work in Finance.
Bought as a single woman in 2020, at age 31.
2-bed flat.
Saved a deposit over 7-8 years.
No family help.

Nice 2 bed flat in zone 2, age 27, no parental assistance. Worked in sales

Bought a house in zone 2 when nobody wanted to live here (Peckham late 90s). Smallish inheritance but could have managed without. Both in media jobs (tv and publishing). Impossible to get the equivalent now.

I think this thread is pointless unless people say WHEN they bought (i.e what year)
Buying in the mid 1990s is a lot different to buying in last 10 years…

I had my first flat in the border of zone 2 & 3 and that was 16 years ago. It was a shared-ownership property though in a 'regeneration' part of East London, the only way I could afford to buy at the time.

Had help with deposit from parents and I worked as a Press Officer.

I sold it at a profit and bought a small terrace house on the Kent coast.

Unfortunately I have that type of CRO too!

I bought in 2019

How times change, we bought in Catford (freehold, 5 bed, driveway) because we couldn’t afford Brockley/Ladywell/Lewisham and the Brockley mummies look down on it 😜

Catford really is horrible (sorry).

Brockley and the CP branch of the overground (Honor Oak, Forest Hill, Crystal Palace) have become very gentrified and ‘yummy mummy’. Reformer pilates studios, Everyman cinema, art studios, and £4.20 for a bloody oat latte in FH last week!

DH's flat from before we met was very nice in zone 2. He bought it in the 90s 🙃