Would you buy a flat in London at the moment?

[teeseebee]

We are thinking about buying a one or two bedroom flat. It’d be our first purchase (late 20s). Our top budget is about £600k with a 90% mortgage.

Don’t need/want a house so looking to buy within Zone 3.

Would you do it?

@LindaDawn
You can have flats that have 999 leases that have share of freehold and those that don’t.

My daughter bought a flat in London that was leasehold share of freehold where the lease was almost 999 years & that was almost as good as freehold.

The 4 flats in the building have now bought the freehold between them and it wasn’t too expensive due to the long length of the lease ( about 1k). It was pros and cons because they previously had a management company to organise any communal work that needed doing whereas now they need to reach agreement for everything from at least 3 out of the 4 flats which brings it’s own challenges.

I think it's a great time to buy in London, it's due an uplift IMO!
Is it me or has it been flat for ages?

That’s one way of looking at it… you could well be right.

The London market has been depressed for a while and especially since we lost many international buyers during Covid and then the exodus of people moving from the city to the countryside during lockdown & more working from home.

Now businesses are expecting more workers to return to their offices … wouldn’t be surprised if London prices rose in the next few years but who knows?

This is more than offset by the pipeline of new supply that is picking up thanks to lower building standards as well as lower rates. Meanwhile City jobs continue to flock back to the continent since Brexit and the hike in income tax (band freezes and cap on pension deductions). And don't get me started with the exodus of non doms.

New London skyscrapers set to double by end of decade:

https://kandaconsulting.co.uk/the-high-rise-of-tall-buildings-in-london-why-the-ground-floor-is-crucial-to-delivering-new-skyscrapers/