All House buyers or any flat buyers?

cathh70

devotee wrote: »

Yeah but if you actually lived in London 3 bed Victorian terrace would cost you over 600k and 4 bed detached over 800k, so not in everyone's reach.

Yeah, I agree, London is a different kettle of fish. In most of the rest of the country though, prices are nowhere near that.

neverdespairgirl

I grew up in houses in south-east London - a 3 bed Victorian semi, then a 5 bed Victorian semi, then a 6 bed detached Edwardian house.

Since the age of 20, I've lived in a small 3 bed flat in central London. We (my other half, our son, and I) have just bought our first place, also a flat, in Bloomsbury. It's a large 3 bed flat, with a small garden, and two floors.

I have no problem living in flats. The soundproofing in our current flat is perfect, we never hear a peep from our neighbours unless they ring the doorbell!

Fangg27

I'd never buy a flat due to short leaseholds and service charges. I'd happily rent one though.

neverdespairgirl

Fangg27 wrote: »

I'd never buy a flat due to short leaseholds and service charges. I'd happily rent one though.

the flat we've just bought has a 983 year lease (the time remaining) and the service charge incl buildings insurance is just over £1,000 a year. Ground rent is £50 a year.

Fangg27

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

the flat we've just bought has a 983 year lease (the time remaining) and the service charge incl buildings insurance is just over £1,000 a year. Ground rent is £50 a year.

That's a decent deal but the vast majority of flats near me for sale seem to have 99 year leases and service charges of £100+ pm.

devotee

Fangg27 wrote: »

That's a decent deal but the vast majority of flats near me for sale seem to have 99 year leases and service charges of £100+ pm.

Why would the length of the lease have an impact on anything? If it's longer than 75 years makes no difference to banks and lending. And it can always be extended if you of course plan on living for another 100 years or so.

Service charge has its plus and minus points - you pay someone to do all the maintenance so you don't have to do it, but you don't decide when things are done. I don't mind someone doing all the gardening, planting, window cleaning and fixing any problems. Anyway, If you have a house you have to do all those yourself and they always say that you'd need to budget about £1000 per year for maintenance of houses older than 30 years.

Fangg27

devotee wrote: »

Why would the length of the lease have an impact on anything? If it's longer than 75 years makes no difference to banks and lending. And it can always be extended if you of course plan on living for another 100 years or so.

Service charge has its plus and minus points - you pay someone to do all the maintenance so you don't have to do it, but you don't decide when things are done. I don't mind someone doing all the gardening, planting, window cleaning and fixing any problems. Anyway, If you have a house you have to do all those yourself and they always say that you'd need to budget about £1000 per year for maintenance of houses older than 30 years.

You have to pay to extend the lease then you have admin charges plonked on top. It's also less work to not have to extend a lease in the first place.

I also like to maintain my own garden and property rather than relying on a freeholder who will probably pass the job on the the company who lines his pockets. Owning a house would give me the peace of mind of knowing I am in control of what is done to the property and how it is done.

If flats were significantly cheaper than houses then I would possibly buy one but at the moment there isn't much difference so I'd pick a house every time.

claire16c

I would never buy a flat. I lived in one at uni and the noise problems drove me insane.

Also, my friend at work lived in a flat, and the hassle it used to cause her when someone went wrong put me off for life.

For example the person above her never got their plumbing fixed properly when it went wrong, so she got constant leaking into her flat.

Then when the whole building started to lean and she was getting a crack along one wall, there were huge arguments over who was responsible to pay. But because she lived on the ground floor, the crack was showing worst in her flat, meaning she could never move until it was sorted as no one would have bought it, but the people up the top didnt see the problem, and there was supposed to be a joint maintanence fund but getting the permission to use that was a whole 'nother story. I worked with her for 2 years and it was going on the entire time and still wasnt sorted when I left.

Then she had noisy neighbours move in.

Total nightmare.

The my other friend had neighbours who she was convinced started doing drug deals, people coming and going to their flat all day. Then their washing machine leaked through into her lighting 3 times. Oh and they used to love to put a rattling tumble drier on at 1am..

And then when it was a nice hot day, she had no where to sit outside/have a bbq etc.

So no, never living in a flat again!

But, like others have said, in London, and also in many parts of the south east houses are very expensive. For a 2 bed house where I live you need at least 200k unless you pick a slightly 'bad' area. Or the 2nd bedroom is the size of a box.

devotee

Fair point, I know some service charges to be £3000 per year for the privilege of having a concierge!

Sadly where I found my flat the houses are around a million so unless I win a lottery the flat it is!

MrandMrsB

There are some very posh recently-converted flats in our part of the UK that are already almost worthless. The service charge is about the same as the rent would be, so nobody is even willing to pay £30k for the gorgeous large 2-bed apartments! Several years ago when new they were sold for around £200k!