Where in London?

[Welshbeef]

kingston12 said:

Welshbeef said:

Maxf said:

Welshbeef said:

1000sqft is tiny.
You really need to be looking at upwards of 2,300sqft

For £5-600k? I think Birmingham is a bit too far from town

How much would that size be in Town?

It depends where you want to be, but reasonably good, reasonably central areas are going to be nearing £1,000 per sqft, so upwards of £2m for a house of that size, much more in the prime areas.

Wow and IMHO 2,300 sqft isn't a particularily big property just a nice size for a 4 bed.

[kingston12]

Welshbeef said:

kingston12 said:

Welshbeef said:

Maxf said:

Welshbeef said:

1000sqft is tiny.
You really need to be looking at upwards of 2,300sqft

For £5-600k? I think Birmingham is a bit too far from town

How much would that size be in Town?

It depends where you want to be, but reasonably good, reasonably central areas are going to be nearing £1,000 per sqft, so upwards of £2m for a house of that size, much more in the prime areas.

Wow and IMHO 2,300 sqft isn't a particularily big property just a nice size for a 4 bed.

I agree, but London is a bit different to everywhere else, only very well off people would live in a house of that size in central London even though it wouldn't be considered massive elsewhere.

Gentrification has meant that high prices are quite universal as well. Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that the OP would struggle to afford Clerkenwell or Islington on a £600k budget, and these are areas that were really cheap and undesirable not that long ago.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

princeperch said:

Id either stay where you are or take a punt on a rapidly changing area undergoing gentrification. Were it me, those areas would be e11/e10/e15 or somewhere in south london like Ladywell/brockley/catford or streatham

Is there much improvement underway, or likely, in those latter areas? I thought Catford was a long way off that yet?

[craigjm]

1000sqft in central London is a good sized place and you will be lucky for change from a million. Talking 2400sqft and 4 bedrooms for the OPs budget is just trolling to be honest. Add in a parking space on that 1000ft and you're talking 100k on its own.

For your budget OP I would be looking around Clapham if south of the river and the Essex road side of Islington / Walthamstow if north of the river

[hyphen]

princeperch said:

The problem is that with 500/600k you can get something nice in somewhere like Wanstead (which will be a decent sized flat or modest house) but it won't feel like you are living in town.

I've lived in town -on the kingsland road and then bow and it was great. But you get noise and light pollution, recidivist criminals living a stones throw from you, drug dealing and other low level crime incidences on a daily basis. Its almost part of the deal if you want to feel the urban edginess.

You cant afford clerkenwell or Islington or anywhere in between on that budget for a good 2 bedder.

Id either stay where you are or take a punt on a rapidly changing area undergoing gentrification. Were it me, those areas would be e11/e10/e15 or somewhere in south london like Ladywell/brockley/catford or streatham

As he said.

Its why I hinted towards the cheaper end rather than some of the other places mentioned like Clapham- all the estate agent ads will conveniently miss out the outside of the property/a quick walk around around will reveal the why it so cheap...

[okgo]

All making good sense, thanks. Welshbeef, there's little more boring than the pretending to be surprised how much it costs to live in London game.

Tend to agree princeperch that some of those areas will make cash fairly quick. Ideally I need another £100k it would seem, fairly minor in percentage terms but having towards 700 opens up a fair bit more it would seem.

[Du1point8]

okgo said:

All making good sense, thanks. Welshbeef, there's little more boring than the pretending to be surprised how much it costs to live in London game.

Tend to agree princeperch that some of those areas will make cash fairly quick. Ideally I need another £100k it would seem, fairly minor in percentage terms but having towards 700 opens up a fair bit more it would seem.

This area?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find....

[gibbon]

Welshbeef said:

1000sqft is tiny.
You really need to be looking at upwards of 2,300sqft

The guy wants a two bed flat, not a 4 bed family home.

[anonymous-user]

okgo said:

All making good sense, thanks. Welshbeef, there's little more boring than the pretending to be surprised how much it costs to live in London game.

Tend to agree princeperch that some of those areas will make cash fairly quick. Ideally I need another £100k it would seem, fairly minor in percentage terms but having towards 700 opens up a fair bit more it would seem.

When buying, isn't it axiomatic that you ALWAYS need another 100k.

I haven't looked at prices, but I'd look at buying something off plan in one of the developments between Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge on the south side. There must be thousands of flat being built there at the moment. Pick one, stick down the deposit, sit tight and wait.

ETA: hold on - are you looking for a weekday gaff and spending the weekends out of London, or a home? Aren't you coupled up and approaching the parenthood zone? If so, a 1000sqft two bed London flat may be the worst possible move you could make.

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 3rd December 19:39

[Murph7355]

We have a flat in Clapham (Northcote Rd). I'd be very happy to live around there and reckon you'd get a decent 2 bed flat for around that money, maybe a tad more. Quick jump to Vauxhall then the tube up.

Plenty of nice pubs, bars and places to eat. Chilled atmosphere.

Parking's a bit of a ball ache if you have a car. As is driving round there. But that's the trade off...

We moved out to the sticks when family was on the horizon. Wouldn't want to bring kids up in town.

[CoolHands]

My very tight-for-space, flat is about 600 square feet!

[Welshbeef]

CoolHands said:

My very tight-for-space, flat is about 600 square feet!

That's less than 7mx8m st that's small.

Kitchen
Bathroom
Bedroom
Hallway

[rlw]

Bromley.

Lots of stuff close to the station. Bromley South to Oxford Circus about 25/30 minutes.

[brickwall]

Murph7355 said:

We have a flat in Clapham (Northcote Rd). I'd be very happy to live around there and reckon you'd get a decent 2 bed flat for around that money, maybe a tad more. Quick jump to Vauxhall then the tube up.

Plenty of nice pubs, bars and places to eat. Chilled atmosphere.

Parking's a bit of a ball ache if you have a car. As is driving round there. But that's the trade off...

We moved out to the sticks when family was on the horizon. Wouldn't want to bring kids up in town.

Around Northcote Road is lovely, but 500k doesn't go very far. Can definitely get something nice if you've got 700 in the chest.

[Carlton Banks]

A good friend of mine sold his flat in Balham for £450k recently and that was a studio so I imagine a sensible 2 bed could be in reach. Balham also benefits from northern line and national rail.

R

[Welshbeef]

rlw said:

Bromley.

Lots of stuff close to the station. Bromley South to Oxford Circus about 25/30 minutes.

You see the thing is the times mentioned so far are no different from day going into London from Reading £600-700k will get you a decent 3bed house in a very good area. Door to door very similar.

Struggling with the want to live in a polluted city, and the challenges presented so far not wanting to live in a ghetto... seriously if that's the reality why would you? Is it simply because you want to be in Town as a post code and can have drinkie pops late at night without the worry of last train home v 24hr tube.

[nyt]

For around that money you can afford a purpose built 1 bed in the centre.
Shorter journey to work and easy taxi home if you like late nights.

For example, the Shad Thames area (near tower bridge): http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find....


Probably too far to walk to Tottenham Court Road but an easy cycle. I'm sure that there are other areas that are similar prices.
Remember that a Zone 3 Travelcard is around £1,500. That probably justifies a few extra thousand on a mortgage if you can walk to work.

[kingston12]

Welshbeef said:

rlw said:

Bromley.

Lots of stuff close to the station. Bromley South to Oxford Circus about 25/30 minutes.

You see the thing is the times mentioned so far are no different from day going into London from Reading £600-700k will get you a decent 3bed house in a very good area. Door to door very similar.

Struggling with the want to live in a polluted city, and the challenges presented so far not wanting to live in a ghetto... seriously if that's the reality why would you? Is it simply because you want to be in Town as a post code and can have drinkie pops late at night without the worry of last train home v 24hr tube.

I know where you are coming from, but Bromley isn't really 'town' by the OP's definition. It is also probably not really much more polluted than Reading, and it isn't on the tube.

In a totally rational sense, there is no real reason not to live somewhere like Reading instead of London, but the relative prices show that there are a lot of people in the OP's position who are prepared to pay more to live in town than outside.

[kingston12]

nyt said:

For around that money you can afford a purpose built 1 bed in the centre.
Shorter journey to work and easy taxi home if you like late nights.

For example, the Shad Thames area (near tower bridge): http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find....


Probably too far to walk to Tottenham Court Road but an easy cycle. I'm sure that there are other areas that are similar prices.
Remember that a Zone 3 Travelcard is around £1,500. That probably justifies a few extra thousand on a mortgage if you can walk to work.

This is probably what I'd do. As Welshbeef points out, a lot of the places mentioned don't really buy you that much of a different lifestyle unless you can jettison the public transport commute altogether or reduce it to a few stops on a single tube line.

As you say, mortgages are petty cheap as well when compared to transport costs. You could borrow an extra £100k for £2k interest each year, so say £4k extra on a repayment mortgage. I am not advocating ever-bigger mortgages by the way, but it is certainly one of the reasons we have got to where we are now, so difficult not to do it is you are going to compete in this market.

[Justayellowbadge]

Kensington Olympia area is in budget - take a look at somewhere like Sinclair Road.