Have house prices gone down in London at all?

Quasar

Property prices have dropped here in London, but they are still very high. North London is more expensive than East London, but East London is also "rougher" although that depends largely on the specific area.

I'd say you are still looking at a £150-200k mark for one bedder in East London, but that can vary greatly from area to area.

Where I live, in West London, prices are higher still.

Cashew

Yeah I could probably pay less rent but when I was looking this was the best I could find. I can walk to work so save money on transport so probably doesnt work out that much more.

I probably wouldnt go further east than Hackney unless we are talking Essex on the central line.

fc123 wrote: »

SE London prices are deff down at least 25% minimium. Trust me, I am the oracle...oh, and own a house in London too.

Really - where abouts in SE London roughly?

sharkie

lostinrates wrote: »

Are you a key worker?

While I do feel that is good to give people more choice, I do feel the key worker scheme enslaves you to keep being a key worker i.e no change of career.

Not sure how it is now, but you could also only sell to another key worker and selling to to a limited market always drives down the price. In these times key workers may loose quite a bit.

I live in nw london Zone 5 and find the prices have dropped, but not by much. My blt in south london (just in Zone 2) not much is on the market, however tower block flats are much cheaper but houses are a bit cheaper.

Cashew I rent out rooms in a house in Kennington and hey go for between £100 to £140 per week. This includes all bills and tv licence and each room has their own fridge.

lostinrates

sharkie wrote: »

While I do feel that is good to give people more choice, I do feel the key worker scheme enslaves you to keep being a key worker i.e no change of career..

I am making no judgement about it here. FWIW I'm not a fan of the various schemes in general, but if they might be relevant to a person I think they are worth highlighting so poeple can do their on investogation, despite my moral standpoint. I don't like there existance, but they exist, and I dont blame people for doing what they think is right for them with in the system.:)

Cashew

sharkie wrote: »

Not sure how it is now, but you could also only sell to another key worker and selling to to a limited market always drives down the price. In these times key workers may loose quite a bit.

My girlfreind is a key worker and she looked into the scheme.

They give you rougly the same amount as you can raise via a mortgage and then you can buy any property. When you sell it you have to give back what ever percentage you borrowed i.e. you buy a flat for £200k (half of which is give to you) you sell it for £250k and you give them half or you sell it for £150k and you give them half. I don't think they thought prices would go down!

There are also houses built specially for keyworkers which I think you would only be able to sell onto a keyworker but in London, when my girlfriend was looking, there wasnt any of these.

She didnt do it in the end as the amount she could raise + the amount they would give wouldnt get anything!

fc123

Cashew wrote: »

Yeah I could probably pay less rent but when I was looking this was the best I could find. I can walk to work so save money on transport so probably doesnt work out that much more.

I probably wouldnt go further east than Hackney unless we are talking Essex on the central line.



Really - where abouts in SE London roughly?

Greenwich borough...but towards SE18......the nicer part.;)

Cashew

Cool, I know Greenwich. So if they have gone down 25% what is a one bedder now? £120k?

Idonex

It's odd. I would say not really on one hand as i haven't seen 2 bed places in East London come down at all really (what i was looking for). A few discounts here and there but people are still putting 2 bed places on for up to £350k. I've seen 2 bed ex LA flats for £330k. One bedders are still on for up to £395k in Hackney/Dalston haha.

On the other hand...I live with the gf now in her place in East London, goodish location and right near a station. She paid 160k for it in 07 and it was valued at 192k at the time (something to do with the bank taking the housing associations valuation) and one almost identical flat (slighty smaller) sold for £195k at the beginning of 08. Spoke to the Halifax today and they said they valued it at 102k (this is 50k less than a neighbours smaller flat sold for in 2002 according to net house prices) and won't allow us to remortgage due to negative equity. The best they'll do is charge us £128 for an 'on-site' valuation and if the valuation fits in their current lending criteria then they'll give us a new fixed rate product. If nto we don't get the fee back.

So there you have it. To the layman looking into house prices with estate agents the house prices in London haven't really come down at all. If you're the Halifax and you smoke crack then they've come down 50% and are now cheaper than they were in 2002.

beingjdc

At the cheap end of the market where I am (SE16) a 1-bed ex-council flat would have been about £115k when I moved to London in 2005, rose rapidly, I think one went for £140k in 2007 (there are four large identical blocks). The last one to come on the market was aggressively priced at £99,950. It sold fairly quickly, not sure how much for yet.

fc123

Cashew wrote: »

Cool, I know Greenwich. So if they have gone down 25% what is a one bedder now? £120k?

I am only up to speed on suburban family homes unfortunately.

However, my sister bought a 1 bed flat in purpose built block in 1993 (supposedly the bottom) for £45k in Shooters Hill.
Sold in 1997/8 for £41k.

I saw a flat in same block (can't see there would be a huge variation depending on improvements) last year for £105k. It was STC.

This could be seen as comparable in location BUT is only a studio
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-21511844.html?locationIdentifier=OUTCODE%5E2318&maxBedrooms=1&maxPrice=110000&displayPropertyType=flats&oldDisplayPropertyType=flats&includeSSTC=true&_includeSSTC=on&pageNumber=2&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DOUTCODE%255E2318%26maxBedrooms%3D1%26maxPrice%3D110000%26displayPropertyType%3Dflats%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dflats%26includeSSTC%3Dtrue%26_includeSSTC%3Don%26index%3D10

Greenwich central has always been pricey, more so now due to DLR and new chi chi devts along the river (used to be derelict industrial etc)