Would you buy in the "up and coming" area

cwcw

So glad I'm not a Londoner... for a quarter of a million pounds you get a small flat in a rough area and spend your life working and commuting to and from the shoebox on a dirty, smelly and over crowded train in a tunnel. For the same money, I bought a large 3 bed house with 120ft garden in one of the best suburbs of the city I live in - low crime, affluent population, best state schools, etc. I'm home before 5pm most nights (by car) and we live within 5 minutes of beautiful countryside. Please don't take this as boastful or trying to criticise you either, but I'm trying to make the point that it really is ludicrous to have such disparity. The economy really does need rebalancing and spreading more evenly.

lessonlearned

Whilst I cannot comment on the specifics of your area, I would say that in principle, yes, I most certainly would buy in an up and coming area. I have done so several times and have never come a cropper.

Just make sure you do your homework first.

Lilly_L

lol how do you know im a hardcore tube spotter geek

Joking aside think my obsession with tube that its every 2min coz i lived in Island Gardens, DLR was absolutely dreadful. after like 9pm its every 10min and so slow moving. each stop I swear was probs 5min walk and 4 min on the DLR. Just pathetic. I was so scarred for life I decided I must live close to the tube from then on lol another reason if this property eventually becomes my pension/investment having a tube station 5 min away always hikes up the rent

In fact my auntie lives in Forest Hill overground seems a bit better than DLR tho you ll have to change at Canada water if you want to get anywhere. whereas Bow is a few stops to Oxford Circus/Holborn and Caning Town is a few stops to London Bridge/Waterloo.

Lilly_L

Hey thanks. Could you give me a few factors that I should focus on when deciding if the area is truly up and coming? all I have looked at is the new transport Link(London Cross rail) and the big regeneration scheme by the Newham Council. Is there anything else I should look at?

I_have_spoken

a few factors that I should focus on when deciding if the area is truly up and coming?

EAs opening up in the highstreet, replacing fried-chicken places
Pubs painted slate grey and becoming gastropub "Pub and Kitchen"
Skips outside houses getting done up and HMOs returned to family homes
Organic butcher opens in what had been international fone shop
Bookies getting converted into coffee shops
Children can be heard saying 'please' and 'thankyou'
More women cycling about
New reg. cars parked by "yummy mummys" block the high street
Rumours of a Waitrose opening, flyers go up objecting to a Tesco metro

Lilly_L

Thank you!! I ll walk around and look for those signs that was very thorough! I do know they are opening a Morrisons and building a new Town centre. Still waiting for the posh Waitross to land tho

just for my guilty pleasure I'd rather they keep the KFC and Dallas chicken ..... lol

Callie22

I was in Newham recently and I didn't think it was too bad (although I would say that as OHs family are currently selling a probate property there lol). But it didn't seem like *that* bad an area, and I have spent a few years in some less than salubrious parts of London. It seemed to have a bit of a centre and some character - OHs aunt lived there for eighty years and never had a problem.

Lilly_L

hahaha i know it does look like a dump but I really thought the people may be poor but they are a nice bunch. and you cannot beat all the grocery shops along Barking road

demontfort

As a fellow London FTB, reading these post reminds that despite all their well paid jobs the average London FTB is thick as 2 short planks with their constant blabbering on about up and coming, vibrant etc. Classic case of more money than sense.

I have just bought a place for £245k in London, the same price the vendor bought it for 6 years ago. I could have spent more than double that but the way I see it that would have just been even more of my precious money and the bank's money down the drain.

So what about my new place, is it a luxury pad with contemporary Villeroy Boch splashbacks blah blah?.... No it's an overpriced shoebox. Is the area swanky with organic Nepalese farmers markets and Michelin starred pop up artists creches?....No it's dump and just like most of East London will be a dump for the next 50 years. I cycle through supposedly genteel Victoria Park and South Hackney every day and they look like the worst parts of my home city of Coventry. If you want to pay £500k for a flat or 2 up 2 down there then be my guest. Even areas in West and North London which are even more expensive are traffic choked, dirty, crime ridden holes.

But at least I accept my lot and I'm not kidding myself with all this up and coming tripe that London buyers keep spouting off about. In the end I'll do my time and I'll be delighted if I can offload my flat to some mug at the same price in 5 years. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

kwmlondon

cwcw wrote: »

So glad I'm not a Londoner... for a quarter of a million pounds you get a small flat in a rough area and spend your life working and commuting to and from the shoebox on a dirty, smelly and over crowded train in a tunnel. For the same money, I bought a large 3 bed house with 120ft garden in one of the best suburbs of the city I live in - low crime, affluent population, best state schools, etc. I'm home before 5pm most nights (by car) and we live within 5 minutes of beautiful countryside. Please don't take this as boastful or trying to criticise you either, but I'm trying to make the point that it really is ludicrous to have such disparity. The economy really does need rebalancing and spreading more evenly.

Yup. I know it's over-priced, polluted, hard to get around and STILL I would not live anywhere else. It's not because I'm stupid, or ignorant (I've lived in other places, rural and urban) and after moving here I knew I'd never want to live anywhere else.

I know more of London's faults than you do, and STILL I chose to live here.

Join me in celebrating the fact that we have different tastes!