House Prices

[PacificOcean]

Where are you Woodford/Buckhurst Hill?

That's pretty good for a 3 bedroom house, the agent quoted me £260k for my two bed.

Just re-read your post, and are you out as far as Harlow if you have to use ONE for transport?

I'm in the lovely Enfield Island Village in Enfield Lock. I really like it here. It's a newish development but they have done it very nicely and it looks like Docklands with the locks and canals but without Docklands prices.

It's also a charming 15 minute walk up the river lea to the quaint-ish Watham Abbey.

 

[sir.clip]

Feel free to clarify, sir clip!

You must understand that as a single man born in London & still living in london town there is only a few routes I could go to get housing.. Rent or Buy..


I am not from a well to do background, I've worked all my life
I applied for council housing/shared housing around 13 years ago..
I've been down every street & avenue & know all about Council housing & how to & how not to get housing... I am last on the list & will never be applicable for london housing.. unless I act up to certain requirements/points systems to actually apply for council housing.
I can not qualify by beeing just me...
I would have to develop a drug/drink addiction Or mental health problem to become applicable..
I know the workings of public housing & if you are a single guy in a council property that is not privatly owned & let .Then I'm slightly dubios as to how you got into that property..... Sorry mr.william!!

People I went to school with are task masters in housing & benefit fraud
I know the scams & how to squeeze the social system so it may well pay for your beer & festival days Or maybe just to give your children a better lifestyle...
But i also have a strong view that there is a time to celebrate the gifts that society gives you & a time not to... & i think in a post about house prices It is a wrong place to blow the look at me council house boy trumpet.....

I share my mortgage & the property with one of my sisters.....
As we both where turned down for Shared ownership scheme in brixton.. Why ?
cos we are not ethnic!!!!
One day i wish to move out of London & into the cheapper areas outside..
London is a shit hole that is over priced, over populated & most are here just to make money... But its where i grew up & its where my family live.
Some freinds are left But most are strung out on drink & drugs

We all pay money into a system that supports all walks of life, & I have no problem with that... but if the lucky few that are supported throw it back in our faces, do we not have a right to tell them to sling there hook or just shut up cos they are not respecting others least fortunate positions..?

 

[William of Walworth]

to present the other view to Roadkill -

I do want to get back on the housing ladder. I don't have a pension, so the money i spend on accomodation providing for me in my old age (either as a roof over my head, or equity to sell - seems like the way forward.

i'll be laying out that money anyway, in rent. the differences betweeen rent and mortgages on equivalent sized properties fluctuate (atm, rents are lower but that's not the norm) - and so i may as well lay that money out for 25 years and have something to show for it.

whether i will be able to get back on the ladder is another story, and depends on all kinds of things. I'm hoping in maybe 3 years' time / whenever I get my debts paid off?

Trouble with that is that prices may have rocketed even further beyond unaffordability (ie for normal folks) by that time?

I can only sympathise.

 

[William of Walworth]

I bought my tiny flat in 1999 when no other soul wanted to live in Crystal Palace, things have changes a bit now and the flat is now worth about £110k more.

So I'm on the move again to another unloved part of deepest south east london where I can get a well built 2 bed house with a 90 foot garden and large rooms.

I really do think people should consider getting a roof over their heads in unpopular parts of the city, transport links to popular areas are not so bad and you really do get much more space for your money.

The more people that follow that (in itself very sensible) logic, the fewer affordable (or half way affordable) areas there will be.

Once upon a time (from about early 1950's to about 1970??) Islington and Camden were in those "rough dingy affordable but with potential" categories.

People, such as well paid senior opionators in newspapers, often use history of how once rough/unloved areas of London came up big time, to (complacently) urge young people now to go out and pioneer in currently cheapish areas as they themselves did.

They miss the point entirely IMO. The point being that by now, almost no prices in London/the SE, anywhere, are affordable except with great difficulty, to anyone except VERY well paid folks.

There is no upward/downward cycle of property prices either, those arguing how Brixton was very prosperous in the 1880s/1890s, then went sharply downhill (property value wise) in the 20th century, then more recently came up again, as if that history will in any way be repeatable, are talking complete bollocks IMO.

 

[The Pious Pawn]

I like your posts sir clip they make me laugh fuck em all .

 

[XerxesVargas]

The tradition is that house prices double every 7 years in the UK - it's a rule of thumb but its pretty good.

Oh William - you bastard. Renting off the council eh? You're probably one of them "illegals". Sheesh.

 

[marty21]

Then I'm slightly dubios as to how you got into that property..... Sorry mr.william!!
As we both where turned down for Shared ownership scheme in brixton.. Why ?
cos we are not ethnic!!!!

i've no idea how come william got his flat, but i do know, back in the early 90s, it was easier to get council accommodation, i have a mate who got a council flat in haggerston around the same time, his was a hard-to let property, on a dodgy estate, councils at the time did sometimes let hard-to-let properties to anyone willing to take them on

no shared housing because you're not ethnic?
that's bollocks and racist

 

[moon]

The more people that follow that (in itself very sensible) logic, the fewer affordable (or half way affordable) areas there will be.
.

This is true, but I cant even afford to live in CP anymore so where else am I supposed to move to in order to get more space???? Its not logic, its simple economics and yes prices will go up eventually but I cant wait for more affordable housing to be built in London, I have to move now.

sorry that wasnt meant as a rant..its just that the reality of the situation is economies of scale...or whateva.

 

[vipper]

I chose to buy because it was right for me to do that, just as it right for WoW to be a council tenant.

Hoorah to that and well said.

Mrs Vipper and I bought because we wanted to, because we were fed up giving money to a landlord and wanted to look after our own place, and wanted to invest the money in something that hopefully grow. We went into it with our eyes open and understand the risks involved.

It has grown and we are looking to move to something larger in the countryside. That's right for us, but not for everyone.

 

[secretsquirrel]

I'm in the lovely Enfield Island Village in Enfield Lock. I really like it here. It's a newish development but they have done it very nicely and it looks like Docklands with the locks and canals but without Docklands prices.

It's also a charming 15 minute walk up the river lea to the quaint-ish Watham Abbey.

<rain on your parade mode/> Isn't that where it used to be a munitions factory and there's rumour of loads of toxic stuff just lurking below the surface? Just don't be surprised if you start developing any 'mystery' illnesses </rain on your parade mode>

I've rented all my adult life. Too crap with money/too poor when I was a student/early 20s and prices in E.London were dirt cheap. Then prices started to soar and I missed the boat.

Now I live in Devon. To rent, I can get a nice house in a good part of town for what would just about equal a shoebox in the outer reaches in London.

To buy I'm still fucked. Frankly, me and fucthest8 have pretty much reached the conclusion until one or some of our parents pops their clogs and we (hopefully) get enough money for a deposit we're probably better off continuing to rent... <- at self for depressing, morbid train of thought

 

[PacificOcean]

<rain on your parade mode/> Isn't that where it used to be a munitions factory and there's rumour of loads of toxic stuff just lurking below the surface? Just don't be surprised if you start developing any 'mystery' illnesses </rain on your parade mode>

I thought that, but they only made light weapons there and didn't use heavy metals.

However, I will keep an eye out for any extra legs that shouldn't be there.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

Looking at the way things are in this country (I don't mean just housing), moving abroad is looking like an ever increasing tempting prospect. My mate just got back from Thailand with his mrs and he was telling me how cheap it is and how much he loved it there, more laid back people, gorgeous weather etc. I done a little research and he's right it's ridiculously cheap, you can buy a huge 3 bedroom house with a private swimming pool and a mile from a ridiculousy gorgeous beach for £50,000. I don't ever see myself getting a mortgage in this country and have often thought about just leaving it, it's very tempting and I might just do so when I reach my 30s.

 

[Hollis]

I see that side of it but I'm not convinced.

I've known people whose mortgages have been less than my rent, but they were still laying out a small fortune for a shoebox, whereas my rent got me a half-decent flat. Nor am I convinced that renting is even usually more expensive: sometimes, perhaps, but once you factor in maintenance etc I don't believe renting comes out more expensive.

In the long term? Well, maybe you'll end up with a property to sell to provide for old age, but for me that seems a long time off and I'm not disposed to worry about it now. Besides, you might be able to sell the house, but you won't see a fair bit of the money if there's still a humungous mortgage outstanding on it.

In much of Europe, house-buying is much less prevalent than it has become here in the last few decades (and it's a pretty modern British fad) and people seem to manage okay. They don't have the inevitable panics about debt and negative equity that happen every so often here, for a start...

I'm not suggesting that no-one should buy their own house - just that the 'property ladder' is a bit of a con, there are a lot of risks involved, and it's as well to remember that renting is a perfectly sensible option for many.

It depends... but if you buy in London and get remotely lucky, then you can move to somewhere else in the country and either effectively retire earlier or downsize your job if thats your thing.

 

[Hollis]

I bought my tiny flat in 1999 when no other soul wanted to live in Crystal Palace, things have changes a bit now and the flat is now worth about £110k more.

So I'm on the move again to another unloved part of deepest south east london where I can get a well built 2 bed house with a 90 foot garden and large rooms.

I really do think people should consider getting a roof over their heads in unpopular parts of the city, transport links to popular areas are not so bad and you really do get much more space for your money.

Dagenham here I come.

 

[Hollis]

Property/the 'housing market' is a total and utter con, I appreciate I'm extremely lucky in being able to see and say that, so no finger wagging please. It was somewhat easier for me to get housed in 1991 than now, but even back then I got lucky.

A strange comment. Someone earning £40k could get on the housing comment if they wanted to btw.

 

[kyser_soze]

I bought my tiny flat in 1999 when no other soul wanted to live in Crystal Palace, things have changes a bit now and the flat is now worth about £110k more.

So I'm on the move again to another unloved part of deepest south east london where I can get a well built 2 bed house with a 90 foot garden and large rooms.

I really do think people should consider getting a roof over their heads in unpopular parts of the city, transport links to popular areas are not so bad and you really do get much more space for your money.

The trick is to find a nice house in a not-so-nice area - even the grimmest bits of London have good individual streets/areas that get marked down price wise cos the rest of the place is the pits. And you get high insurance, chance of being mugged etc.

 

[moon]

To be honest i dont mind where I live just as long as the house itself is ok, i grew up on some of the most notorious council estates in London so dont really feel too threatened in dodgy parts of london.

 

[Hollis]

To be honest i dont mind where I live just as long as the house itself is ok, i grew up on some of the most notorious council estates in London so dont really feel too threatened in dodgy parts of london.

Yeah.. moon.. gives us a rundown of all the dumps in SE London okay?

 

[moon]

SE London is lovely

 

[Hollis]

OKAY.. 'the unloved parts of deepest SE London'.

 

[Hollis]

The trick is to find a nice house in a not-so-nice area - even the grimmest bits of London have good individual streets/areas that get marked down price wise cos the rest of the place is the pits. And you get high insurance, chance of being mugged etc.

I would agree with this.. Key things also to avoid are disastrous home improvement projects.. When I was looking the number of properties that had been utterly wrecked by moronic extensions/conversions/diy projects. Ought to be a criminal offence. Trust the archietect. End of.

 

[hendo]

I would always buy rather than rent, given the choice.

- If you buy, you own, and you don't need to depend on any changes in tenancy law which would leave you at the mercy of a landlord.

- Nobody walks into the place except me and mine.

- I'm responsible for the repairs it's true. But landlords who live up to that responsibility are rare in my experience.

- If I move on from a rented place all I take away is my furniture. The last three times I've sold I've taken some money away too - which I've invested in, yes, more property.

- It's true to an extent that buying a place is effectively a bet on the UK economy. But looked at over the last fifty years, far more people have come out winners than losers.

That being said, I now think the price of housing is unfeasible, and in five years time we could be seeing social unrest, or a fall in prices, or both. I can't see how you can deny an entire generation access to affordable
housing, and the independence and investment in the future that comes with it, and maintain stability - and I don't just mean stability of price. The generation struggling to afford 230K for their first flat will not be able to afford a house to have a family in. This will lead to anger.

 

[moon]

OKAY.. 'the unloved parts of deepest SE London'.

Maybe on Friday..after I've moved..with pictures

 

[Hollis]

I don't just mean stability of price. The generation struggling to afford 230K for their first flat will not be able to afford a house to have a family in. This will lead to anger.

Okay - but you can still get 1 bed flats in places like East Ham for £100-£120k.

The big mistake I think alot of people make is being too choosy on areas first time around.

 

[Spion]

As we both where turned down for Shared ownership scheme in brixton.. Why ?
cos we are not ethnic!!!!

You thick twat. You should have gone up the road to Southwark. The council were handing out 'hard to let' flats left, right and centre up to the mid 90s at least.

 

[spanglechick]

Okay - but you can still get 1 bed flats in places like East Ham for £100-£120k.

really? hadn't realised anyhere that close to the city / docklands was cheaper than fecking croydon.

 

[Hollis]

really? hadn't realised anyhere that close to the city / docklands was cheaper than fecking croydon.

Oh yes.. use the findaproperty.com website..

 

[story]

i'm glad we bought 10 years ago when prices were sensible, we'd have problems buying our flat now if we were buying it today, no intention of buying again in the forseeable future, way too much hassle

They didn't seem sensible at the time though, as I remember. Prices then seemed superhigh, but compared to now they were piddling.

I wonder if it will be the same in the future.

Not if London is underwater, of course!

 

[spanglechick]

Oh yes.. use the findaproperty.com website..

all the ones in that price bracket seem to be studios, though.

 

[trashpony]

Okay - but you can still get 1 bed flats in places like East Ham for £100-£120k.

The big mistake I think alot of people make is being too choosy on areas first time around.

The big difference from 10 years ago when I bought my first flat is that it cost 56k. Which is alright if you earning 18k which I was. If you're earning 18 - or even 25k now - 100k is waaaaaay out of your price range. And even if they did give 4x salary mortgages, you'd be fucked if the market tipped a teeny tiny bit.