feel in a right dilemma, fed up! (sorry might be long!)

Sarahpuggy

Hi all,

Well..i feel like me and my boyfriend are in a right pickle. We live in Surbiton, (near Kingston Upon Thames, London) and we rent a 1 bed flat for £700 a month. It is literally two rooms and we are driving ourselves bonkers in this place!

Now, we almost bought a 2 bed flat back in October but it all fell through for various reasons, but now our circumstances have changed and there are other things to consider, and i really would like to get some opinions on this.

My great aunt died, and i am due to inherit about £30,000, which of course i will put towards getting a property. We are just waiting for her house sale to go through, so i expect i will have the money sometime in the next 6 months.

I currently work near Clapham and drive to work from here (takes 45-1hr), but we found out before christmas our offices are going to be moving this year, but all we have been told is that building work starts on our current building in August, and that a search is underway for a new office. So i have no idea where the new office will be, or when we will find out!

We are so eager to move out of this place, but im scared to commit to buying somewhere only to find my office is 10 miles in the wrong direction! Although, im sure it would make sense that they try to stay in a similiar area..I just wish they would tell us!

My boyfriend works in Surbiton and we know hes always going to be in this area, and its a very nice area, but SO expensive. We have a joint income of £48,500 a year, but couldn't really afford much in Surbiton. We are looking to Chessington which isn;t too far away, so if anyone has any advice about this area it would be great! its quite residential, but we have seen a semi detached house there (2 bed, 2 bathrooms, big garden, own driveway etc, needs a little work for £214,00) you could only just get a 1 bed decent size flat for that 2 miles down the road in Surbiton!

Argh i guess im just looking for some advice because this whole situation is driving us nuts. I know it makes sense to wait til i have my inheritence money and know where my offices are, but arrrggghhh i cant take this small flat anymore lol!

The only thing i can think is to borrow the money i would use as deposit from family etc til i get the money, and start looking for somewhere now..as I'vr already seen lots of new properties come on the market in the last week.

Has anyone ever been in anything similiar to this, cos i feel like im going loopy.

Thanks.

P.S. If Mortgage Mamma reads this, just want to say a quick hello and hope we can catch up on msn soon!

silvercar

From what you say, you are not getting your inheritance for a few months and you won't know for a few months at least where your job will be located. So the sensible thing would be to wait for a few months before finding a property to buy.

If your flat is unbearable then give notice and rent somewhere else for 6 months until you have your inheritance and know where you will be working.

Sarahpuggy

I know, that does make the most sense, its just so frustrating!

I dont think its really an option to move to another rented flat. It doesn't look good on your credit record to keep moving and the hassle of getting back the deposit from this place and pay a new one etc just seems too much before trying to buy a house aswell!

Thankyou for your reply, i guess im just hoping some other people are feeling just as frustrated about the house buying situation in this country!

Sarah x

thesaint

A nice dilemna?
I would look for somewhere now, it can take forever getting somwhere you both like.
As to the location, I think that as long as you love your house, it makes the commuting easier knowing that you are going 'home'. If it's too far to commute, sell up, it's a hassle but worth it.
If you buy somewhere that someone else would rent, you could rent your place out and rent somewhere more suitable to live?

Sarahpuggy

I agree about the commute. It would be so good to come home and have some space to breath!

The commute itself doesn't both me if it stays to an hour, and im fairly sure the office wont be moving TOO far in any direction otherwise they will lose a whole load of staff!

Thankyou for your reply

Sarahpuggy

Is there anything we can do in terms of getting a mortgage before i received the inheritence money? Apart from borrowing from family, which could be an option, but would like to avoid if possible. Just trying to think of all the possible options really.

We dont want to overstretch ourselves, and would want to borrow an absolute maximum of 4.5 times our joint salaries.

Thanks again.

thesaint

Hi,
You can get an 'agreement in principle' from a lender that basically says that they've checked a few details as to your financial standing.
You don't actually need the 'cash' you are putting down until the last minute.
If for some reason you don't have the money it all falls through.
If your family could help to provide a sort of 'bridging loan' then I don't see a problem.

meanmachine_2

Why do you drive to Clapham when it takes 6-8 minutes on the train?

Of course, that's why Surbiton is so incredibly expensive, because it's a fast route to Waterloo.

If you don't need that 17 minute journey time then yes, by all means look at Chessington etc.

All of those areas are much the same. All fairly decent.

Have you considered Tolworth? Or Raynes Park?

Personally, with that combined income I'd save like mad and use the 6 month hiatus to add to dear old granny's contribution.

Aim to increase the 30K by another 10K by middle of 07. Is that do-able?

Sarahpuggy

Thats not a bad idea meanmachine, and we were saving already before my great aunt died and i had no idea about the inheritence.

I dont actually work in Clapham, i work near stockwell (its easiest to describe as clapham), and it takes an hour from Surbiton to Stockwell which is the same as i drive, and driving is unfortunately alot cheaper.

yes Tolworth and raynes Park are also on our list, but haven't seen anything that good on the market for a while. We are checking all the time though.

Thanks for your reply, greatly appreciated

chant1l

You could get an offset mortgage, which allows you to take out about 80 - 90 % of the property value as a mortgage and when the inheritance arrives you can slot the funds in to reduce the amount of the mortgage. Barclays have one (in association with the woolwich). You could re rent another place, just make sure you get electorally registered and your credit rating should be fine.
Had you considered south London at all (Croydon,sydenham,crystal palace,streatham,tooting) as links to Stockwell and London are good and your money will go a lot further....

daveb975

I live in the same area, and have had similar problems with the price of property. In the end we bought a flat in Surbiton. We wanted to get a house, but this would have meant moving further out.

As mentioned above, it is only worth paying the premium for Surbiton over surrounding areas if you like/need all of it's benefits - fast train, river, parks, short walk to Kingston whilst being a nice green and safe area (for outer London!). For us, the only places that offered a better combination were even more expensive (Richmond etc).

Is it a fairly safe bet that your company will stay in London (Central or inner SW?). If so, and you OH continues to work in Surbiton, it may be worth looking at something further down the A3 corridor. This shouldn't add too much to your commute by car, and your OH can get a direct train to Surbiton from any station.

Some worth looking at include:

Hersham - The 'not so nice' end of Walton. Parts are fairly bad, but there are some good bits as well, and houses seem quite cheap.

West Byfleet - Good train into Waterloo. Quite a small village, though.

Woking - Parts of it are bad, but choose carefully and you could get a bargain here. Town centre is a bit naff, but is quite a good shopping centre, and Guildford is not too far away for the rest.

All of the more expensive towns down there (Esher, Weybridge & Guildford) have cheaper parts as well.

If you want to stay more local, you could try the less well-established areas as mentioned: Chessington, Tolworth, New Malden, Raynes Park, West Ewell. We looked in these areas, but my main reservation was that you seemed to have to pay most of the money without getting any of the benefits - you have to drive everywhere rather than having everything within walking distance. It is also worth avoiding the estates in Chessington and Tolworth - they may seem cheap, but are not worth it.

Good luck!