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London areas - where to buy?
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apologies if this is digging up an old thread though i didn't see the point of creating a new one!
i have recently got a job in london near brixton / stockwell (i will be moving down in a few months) and ideally i would like to buy a property after i have been in london 6+ months - now the question is - is there anywhere in london - that is nice(ish) - where i can buy for a 100k or less (as this is about the max i can mortgage)? now i am not a dreamer and i realise i am probably looking at getting a studio the size of shoebox, though this ok i just want to be on the property ladder and not flooding money into rent!
i was thinking around the area of the new olympics site - woolwich / stratford etc - though does anyone know anywhere else with investment potential?
i don't mind a commute of 30mins to an hour hence why i thought the above....
ideally i would like to rent in the area and then buy when the time is right...
also does anyone have any good sites for finding property especially aound this area other than rightmove.co.uk, hotproperty.co.uk and findaproperty.co.uk - and also that don't list retirement developments!
thankyou
Most commercial leases, freehold investments, retirement properties, a couple of houseboats and about 5 studio flats. I don't hold out much hope for you on that one, though if you want to check out those studio flats
I do know the Brixton area well and really, you won't get anything, not even further out. The one studio flat featured south of the river is a pretty run down area too. I'd much rather rent somewhere and have decent links into town and maybe just a walk into work.
Rent and start saving for the day you move out of London
The last time there was a fall in house prices, the rougher parts of London were worst hit, from memory at least. In fact I think one bedroom flats in Streatham (Saint Reatham) were the worst hit of all. At least that was where most of the sob-stories came from.
Anyone that lives there would know it's pronounced "Strehm"
I know Streatham pretty well having lived in West Norwood for a few years.
I lived in the nice bit of West Norwood for 6 years. I think it's one road!
Streatham (and there are some nice parts) is, I'm afraid, out of your price range. So is Stratford which was one of the areas you suggested in your post.
For Brixton/Stockwell you probably want to be living in South rather than South-East London (somewhere with a train line into Clapham Junction and/or Victoria), which is tricky as the SE postcodes are where most of the cheaper properties are, and even the enormous majority of these are over £100k.
As for SE London - from where your journey to work would probably involve an overground train to London Bridge followed by a trip on the Northern Line - I do have some ideas although I would be very reluctant to consider them myself. You mentioned Woolwich, and indeed you might just find somewhere round there in your price range (the trains are good into London, and the new DLR extension helps too.) That is NOT to say it would be a wise decision to do so, because a lot of the Woolwich/Plumstead area is dead rough! However, here's one I found for you (I have NO idea what the neighbourhood is like):
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-13561222.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy
In some parts of the London end of North Kent, further down the Woolwich train line, are Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith, Slade Green and Dartford. You can get a really nice newbuild studio or 1-bed flat round here for within your budget (I've househunted in this area in the past) but it's a very "bleak" area (IMHO) and the neighbourhoods I would be prepared to live in are very limited. If you feel like you MUST buy, make sure you have done your homework!