£200k deposit and can't afford a family home

[Catcakes]

We have a sizable deposit, household income just shy of £100k and we can't find a basic 3 bedroom house (that's not a flat) that we can afford. Our budget is circa £600k but everything in our range is either a total dump, in a dodgy area, or we get totally outbid. I know the housing market is bad but seriously, what the hell is going on? We have don't have time or money for a big renovation. Where is everyone getting all their cash from to afford these basic houses?!

And yes we're in the SE and sort of in the London suburbs. And no we can't move to the north East 😂

I struggle to believe that everything you've viewed valued around £600k is an absolute dump 🙄

Hi
you can move further out you don't need to move to the "north-east"

Where are you looking? Location is everything… maybe you need to look slightly outside your area with a view to moving in future.

Sorry, I meant specifically. I’m in the SE and the areas really vary.

Where are you looking?

Really

Every town/postcode in london has it trash, mid and very nice areas.

OP needs to lower their sights or put up the money

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E126&insId=1&maxPrice=600000&minBedrooms=3&radius=3.0&googleAnalyticsChannel=buying

Going by your rough clues to your location, I’ve just found all these houses, none of which I would call a ‘dump’ 🙄

You wouldn’t call ‘any’ of those houses a dump? I definitely would. 600k for Croydon? Wow.

Uh oh, OP. Hope you've got your hard hat ready. Not only do you have a frankly massive deposit and a decent household income, you've suggested you need to buy a house that costs more than £600,000 to avoid buying "a dump".

Can you not get a bigger mortgage so you can set your budget higher than £600,000?

I mean, I haven’t been through all 1081 listings as I don’t care to, but I haven’t seen anything horrendous on the first page or so. Feel free to go through them all and report back though x

Expensive yes, I'm a northerner and those prices hurt my soul! But nor a dump, some of them are very nice

My heart bleeds for you🙄

@BodyKeepingScore Every single property we've seen so far needs major, major work. At least 50k+ of work to be livable. Mainly down to damp, but also electrical and heating problems. And there was dog urine soaked flooring. One of the houses we saw still had an outhouse toilet.

Perhaps you need to increase your salaries to match your aspirations 🙄

You must be looking in the wrong areas, we’re in the south east in an area commutable to London and you can easily get a 4 bed for £600k, a 3 bed is more like £400k - £450k.

I mean…

These are fine but also not really houses that should cost £600k.

£600k, 3 or 4 beds, house, there are 91 properties within 10 miles of Surbiton or 1,627 possibles within 10 miles of Fleet in Hampshire.

You must be very very picky. You need to flex your requirements a little.

OP you’re not going to get naice central location (ie zone 3 or less) and a naice 3 bed house in London for 600k. That’s just life. Plenty of perfectly decent places of course.

Personally (and we did this ourselves) just go out a bit, somewhere commutable to a central station in 40 mins or so. Example:https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147737201

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141606812#/?channel=RES_BUY

This one has a Princess tower!

It on top of both a railway line and the south circular but it has a princess tower!!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147863042#/?channel=RES_BUY

We were looking in Dorking area, which when we last looked about a year ago seemed more affordable. Now looking further out and it's just all... very dull. I wanted to be excited about buying a house but the state of the properties we've seen it's just filling me with dread now! We both work in London 2-3 times a week and have family in Surrey/Sussex/Berkshire.

Also sorry, just to clarify, nothing wrong with the North East, it's great. Just said that because I notice that Mumsnet's answer to high house prices in the south is to move up that way. Which isn't really a practical solution.

No inside toilet? Really, gosh!

Near Eastbourne,my perfectly pleasant 3 bed terrace is valued at £240k. Lots of the local new builds are going for 350 though.

5 minute walk from the station

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146758955

I'm not asking for sympathy, I'm actually asking why isn't it easily possible to find a livable home for this sort of money. It's ludicrous.