Good areas for FTB in London

hazyjo

I lived in Highams Park, E4 for several years and liked it. Like a little village, but still quite 'Londony'. It's under the same postcode as Chingford, which is a couple of miles up the road. It's on the overhead straight into Liv St (which stops at Walthamstow - 2 stops down the line from Highams Park).

There's a big lake there, some forest on the outskirts... it just had a nice feel about the place. I sold a 2 bed Victorian house there this year for £228,500 (he did get a bit of a bargain though!) and you'd probably manage to still pick up a 2 bed house for under £250k. Some roads aren't as nice as others - could help if you did consider the area. I really liked having Chingford up the road. North Chingford is far nicer than Chingford Mount.

Have had a look on RM and there's not much for sale in Highams Park at the mo that I'd buy, but decent houses are often up for sale. They don't tend to hang around for too long in the more popular roads.

Jx

littlesaint

Thanks for the info tiny_tear and hazyjo. I'll definitely have to check out those areas a bit more, unless prices in SW London become a little less crazy!

tiny_tear

as a reference for you I sold the aforementioned 1 bed flat with communal garden and parking space for £145k about a month ago, so I think you will get a nice 2 bed house in your budget...

thomasdown

littlesaint wrote: »

Hi,

It's a while since I posted on this forum. Last time was regarding a S21 notice that was served at the time of signing a tenancy agreement and I got loads of help with that, so thanks.

Since those days, I have moved in with my boyfriend, who is now my husband. We live in a one bed flat in Tooting. We love the area we live in and it's really improved in the past few years, however both rents and sale prices have gone up considerably.

Our flat is too small for us and earlier this year we decided to stay in our current place and invest the money saved into our deposit. We now have more than 10% and hope to have 20% by March after a gift from my husband's parents and further saving.

We'd like to invest that in a two bedroom flat or maisonette - a purpose built period flat rather than a conversion - ideally first floor with a garden. Our budget is £250,000 absolute max and really, we'd probably struggle to get more than £240,000 really.

There are some properties in the area that we could afford that come under our budget, but we would probably have to do some hard bargaining to get the better ones. So we are thinking about looking elsewhere.

I am interested to find other areas that are safe, have some nice bars and the odd decent Indian restaurants. My friend lives in Walthamstow, which I see has houses in our budget as well as flats. What about places like Leytonstone?

What do other forumites think? It would need to be in North, East or South London - anywhere in easy reach of the city really.

Hi there,

I noticed you said you didn't want to move too far east, well me and my fiancee were 1st time buyers until recently where we bought a 3 Bed Semi in Hornchurch (Essex). Upminster Bridge and Hornchurch tube stations (district line) both about 3 mins walking? We are 24 and 26 years old and skipped the buying a flat/ smaller place step. House cost us £220k was up for £235k. District Line takes 40- 45 mins to get into Central London and from Upminster station which is about a 5 min drive which is on the c2c main line, it takes my fiancee about 20 - 25 mins to get into Fenchurch Street?

You need to weigh up where your friends/family etc are? Which I'm sure you've already done?

If you want more for your money you need to move into Greater London which you probably already realise?

You mentioned Walthamstow which is about 20 - 30 min drive from where we bought? For what we paid for where we are we would only get a 2 bed flat which we didn't want to do?

That was our decision and you may not wish to do this which I think you won't because I get the feeling you like the hussle & bussle of the London living?

Hope this helps?

littlesaint

thomasdown wrote: »

You mentioned Walthamstow which is about 20 - 30 min drive from where we bought? For what we paid for where we are we would only get a 2 bed flat which we didn't want to do?

That was our decision and you may not wish to do this which I think you won't because I get the feeling you like the hussle & bussle of the London living?

Yes, we do like London living but would possibly consider a town on the London fringes with good transport links into London, but a nice pub and cultural scene - not too towny. We haven't found that place - although we welcome suggestions - I think we'd be happy in London a bit longer though.

kissingthepink

Have a scout around Crystal Palace. It's not too far from where you are now and has direct trains to London Bridge, Victoria and is also on the Overground. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you find. Good luck with your search!

Soundgirlrocks

kissingthepink wrote: »

Have a scout around Crystal Palace. It's not too far from where you are now and has direct trains to London Bridge, Victoria and is also on the Overground. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you find. Good luck with your search!

SE19/SE25 it's the way to go, they are on the boarder of SW17 and half the price!

littlesaint

kissingthepink wrote: »

Have a scout around Crystal Palace. It's not too far from where you are now and has direct trains to London Bridge, Victoria and is also on the Overground. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you find. Good luck with your search!

I like Crystal Palace - would be more than happy to move there. I like the park and there seems to be an indie vibe. Good commute for dh too. We've looked online before. Only problem is it doesn't seem to be an awful lot cheaper than Tooting.

While there are a lot of properties in Tooting that meet our requirements, they are just 10 - 15% more than we can pay, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of properties like that in Crystal Palace. There seem to be a lot of 60s maisonettes and one bed conversions.

The best properties in our price range seem to be further towards Sydenham and Penge. Am I being too fussy or am I misjudging the market. Any Crystal Palace tips welcome.