What would you do with £65k in London?

bangersnmash

Consider going for a cheap 4 or 5 or preferably even 6 or 7 bed in the outer zones, particularly the east and Essex etc, and then lodgering it up ie getting lots of lodgers in.

That's what lots of people do and it can make all the difference both short term and long term. Sometimes it can make all the difference.

If you do it right you can even get all your mortgage covered and some profit.

Then if you want to you can take a six or twelve month holiday and go travelling or even pack in work altogether and just enjoy yourself doing anything you want.

Of course maybe you like your work, sure.

RoBro_2

Thanks Rich and Alex! 2+ beds, <£250k has been our mantra on rightmove and homesandproperty for the past few months

bangersnmash wrote: »

If you do it right you can even get all your mortgage covered and some profit.

Then if you want to you can take a six or twelve month holiday and go travelling or even pack in work altogether and just enjoy yourself doing anything you want.

Of course maybe you like your work, sure.

Bangersnmash, are you for real? This sounds like our dream life. The only problem is that I would forget how to work! Do you know anyone who has got this sort of plan to work?

Getting lodgers in sounds like a lot of effort, but we had considered renting out our property once the rental income would exceed the remaining payments...and either moving to a cheaper part of the country or looking for work abroad.

GDB2222

So, you get lodgers in, then go off on holiday for 6/12 months, and it will all go swimmingly? With the lodgers paying your mortgage and bills whilst you are away, cleaning the house, etc. Dream on!

hugheskevi

In my experience (and making very broad generalisations), North London is more popular and nicer than south London in terms of location, but in south London you get a lot more property for your money because of that.

So the more living in a nice area with more facilities, restaurants, etc, appeals, the more that might suggest North London. The more you would prefer a nice house and garden, the more attractive south London becomes.

Don't know if you have considered cycling as a commute? I mention it as I find commuting using the underground from South London a nightmare on the occasional time I have to do it, and would never entertain doing it long term compared to the alternatives.

Trains are much better for comfort, but are less reliable and more prone to delays and cancellations (lots of the companies serving south London are awful). So whilst they are great for back-up, and for a couple of months over winter, for me the convenience (and cheapness) of cycling as a commute is far better in my opinion.

You might want to look at a rail map of south London, and look at some of the areas along the various rail lines, and train travel times (many slow trains, some fast trains) and frequencies to get an idea of some of the things on offer.

Here is an example of the sort of thing you could get in one of the poorer areas (Norbury) - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37051766.html - that would be about 30 mins to central London on a slow train, including walking time to station.

RoBro_2

hugheskevi wrote: »

So the more living in a nice area with more facilities, restaurants, etc, appeals, the more that might suggest North London. The more you would prefer a nice house and garden, the more attractive south London becomes.

This is a very good question which we will need to think about.

As for cycling, while we both like the idea, I'm not sure we'll go through with it - too much hassle with showering/changing at work - plus I'm terrified of getting squished by London traffic.

I do like walking though! Thanks hugheskevi

abankerbutnotafatcat

hugheskevi wrote: »

In my experience (and making very broad generalisations), North London is more popular and nicer than south London in terms of location, but in south London you get a lot more property for your money because of that.

So the more living in a nice area with more facilities, restaurants, etc, appeals, the more that might suggest North London. The more you would prefer a nice house and garden, the more attractive south London becomes.

Don't know if you have considered cycling as a commute? I mention it as I find commuting using the underground from South London a nightmare on the occasional time I have to do it, and would never entertain doing it long term compared to the alternatives.

Trains are much better for comfort, but are less reliable and more prone to delays and cancellations (lots of the companies serving south London are awful). So whilst they are great for back-up, and for a couple of months over winter, for me the convenience (and cheapness) of cycling as a commute is far better in my opinion.

You might want to look at a rail map of south London, and look at some of the areas along the various rail lines, and train travel times (many slow trains, some fast trains) and frequencies to get an idea of some of the things on offer.

Here is an example of the sort of thing you could get in one of the poorer areas (Norbury) - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37051766.html - that would be about 30 mins to central London on a slow train, including walking time to station.

Haha:) The only thing I'll agree on is the tube network and that's coming from a tourist-like stance of the only transport in London is the tube when in reality we know it's also well served by buses and trains.

Traditionally, much of SE London has been slow to gentrify and things are only beginning to change now. Personally, if I was a FTB I'd see that area as offering me the best deal for that very reason.

SW London on the other hand is full of established, desirable suburbs: Putney, Richmond, Wimbledon, Clapham etc etc

The whole North Vs South debate always makes me laugh because if we're using the river as our compass then clearly 'East' London is north of the river. If you think I'm being pedantic then look at a map - opposite south London Woolwich and Greenwich you've got Poplar and Plaistow...

To OP - a scary but enviable task to be able to choose the part of London that feels like your kind of place without any real prejudices.

To hugheskevi I was going to say you need to head South more...but anyway, you don't know what you're missing out on!!:)

katejo

secreticicle wrote: »

Aiming to do the same thing. Moving from Crouch End to get a 2 bedroom house in Walthamstow.

Great transport links, lots of bricks for your £££. Amenities not amazing, but you have to compromise.
Check out the areas around 'The Village' and 'Coppermill Lane'.

Re: N2, East Finchley is great, just a little more suburban - depends what you're after.

I have a 2/3 bedroom terraced house in central Walthamstow which is currently worth approx 250K or slightly less. I won't repeat the benefits already mentioned by previous contributors. I live in central walthamstow, near Queens Rd station. Very convenient for me as I can do withou a car for most things. A similar house in the village costs more (probably over 300K). I previously had a leasehold flat here but would not recommend that. Lovely flat but too many problems with the freeholder.

RichCH

I'll show you some examples of 2 beds near me, there's so much variation to the style of place you will find. All in what I would consider to be nice roads as well. Ladywell station is direct to charing cross in 20 minutes and goes through London Bridge, Brockley is 20 minutes to Shoreditch High Street, 10 minutes to London Bridge.

There's not much around at the moment though, here's 4 of the better ones for under £250,000 though.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22276287.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22331199.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34217164.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34435336.html

RoBro_2

RichCH wrote: »

I'll show you some examples of 2 beds near me, there's so much variation to the style of place you will find. All in what I would consider to be nice roads as well. Ladywell station is direct to charing cross in 20 minutes and goes through London Bridge, Brockley is 20 minutes to Shoreditch High Street, 10 minutes to London Bridge.

There's not much around at the moment though, here's 4 of the better ones for under £250,000 though.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22276287.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22331199.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34217164.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34435336.html

Hmm, thanks Rich - to be honest I'm not sure if those flats represent value for money v a house in Walthamstow or a flat in one of the more central areas. That's only going on the pictures available and the size of the properties as shown on the floorplans though. Brockley is probably a much nicer area than other areas we have been thinking about, to be fair, and maybe it will give a better investment return at some point too?

katejo wrote: »

I have a 2/3 bedroom terraced house in central Walthamstow which is currently worth approx 250K or slightly less. I won't repeat the benefits already mentioned by previous contributors. I live in central walthamstow, near Queens Rd station. Very convenient for me as I can do withou a car for most things. A similar house in the village costs more (probably over 300K). I previously had a leasehold flat here but would not recommend that. Lovely flat but too many problems with the freeholder.

Thanks katejo for your advice. Walthamstow's definitely looking like a good option, one which we hadn't considered before posting here.

abankerbutnotafatcat - it definitely is proving hard to get a feel for an area with just one or two visits, especially if we just go to eat in a restaurant there, and don't know any friends who have lived there to get advice from. We'll probably get a much better feel when we start going to view places for real with an estate agent in December. Before then I suppose we'll have to narrow it down to a few areas we are happy with.

I didn't put this up before, so as not to prejudice the responses, but here is a list of areas we had been shortlisted before posting here just for interest. Very zone2-ish and not very imaginative, as you will see! Strikethoughs are for areas we are tentatively removing from the list.

East:

[STRIKE]Shoreditch, Hoxton,[/STRIKE] - Far too trendy. Nothing to do with the price at all! (/joke ).

Hackney/Dalston/Stoke Newington.

[STRIKE]Stratford[/STRIKE] - Poor value for money, and we're not sure we want to live in the epicentre of Westfield and whatever takes over the Olympic Village.

Bow/Mile End - looks good on paper, Victoria Park looked amazing when we did a quick drive-through, but seems a bit limited with respect to shops. I expect this will change in the future though, which might make this a good area to invest in? Here's one of the better flats we found: http://homesandproperty.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/16836708 *

[STRIKE]Leyton[/STRIKE] - there are some houses here in our price range, but a few people I've spoken to have just given it a big NOPENOPENOPE. To be fair we have not visited it.

South:

Brixton, Peckham, Bermondsey.

Clapham, Wandsworth Tooting, Stockwell.

We haven't done much exploration in South London yet, but we did live in Clapham for just under a year a few years ago and really liked it. If we don't have any positive reactions from other areas, we may focus our efforts on finding somewhere affordable here. Here is another flat we found, which is pushing the budget a bit, but could potentially be great: http://homesandproperty.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/17261585 *

[Adding to the list: Walthamstow, Ladywell/Honor Oak Park/Forest Hill/Brockley, plus any others in the thread.]

*assuming the pictures are accurate and the properties aren't built on an ancient Roman execution ground/collapsing/radioactive, etc.

abankerbutnotafatcat

The flat in Battersea (SW11) is ex-LA. What is your view regarding them?

Battersea is a trendy area with all the accompanying shops, coffee shops and restaurants and enjoys proximity to the river, lots of nearby green space and excellent public transport.

If you get a ex-LA place that is majority privately owned which many in the area are, other than being a bit utilitarian-looking (ok, ugly!!) there need not be a lot of difference from most blocks of (non ex-LA) flats. Ex-LA places are usually well-built with good sized rooms and (as a leaseholder from Wandsworth Borough Council for over 15 years) I consider WBC are an excellent freeholder and the cheapest council tax in the country still I think.

You could get a three bed place similar to the one you posted for £250k+