First time buyer - budget areas in London

Fraise

Shortypie89 wrote: »

Hi all

I'm hoping for some advice on areas to consider buying in in London. A bit about me, and my criteria:

- looking for a property under £250,000 (stamp duty purposes)
- preferably with two bedrooms
- zone 2/3 - hopefully close enough to cycle to work
- I currently work in the city and am in my mid-twenties
- planning on living here for at least the next 5 years, if not more

Areas I am considering, from general searches on property websites:

- Bethnal Green (and nearby East London spots)
- Brixton
- Clapham
- Stockwell
- Camberwell
- Peckham
- Walthamstow

If anyone has any other ideas, or can seriously recommend / warn me off the above, I'd be very grateful n.b. I grew up in North London and don't know any of the above that well.

I can't speak for Walthamstow but I can tell you that Clapham in particular was up and coming about 15 years ago! You will find the odd grotty road there, including the rough council estates, but you find those dotted around in every borough of London and the suburbs, in fact, every city all over the UK. Most of Clapham is very expensive and sought after, including much of Brixton. Even Camberwell has its sought after gentrified roads with the most beautiful period houses..

You will find it hard to find a decent 2 bed flat in Inner London or Greater London unless you seek out the less desirable areas or maybe an ex local authority flat.









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gaz141

I moved to Mitcham as was all I could afford. There is a lot of money being spent on the town at the moment and lots of new house developments completed / being built, and is zone 3. The "old" village area around the cricket green is lovely as is the Common, it's just a shame that the council have allowed the town to go downhill due to lack of investment / interest, however, maybe things might pick up due to the money being pumped into re-generation

AlexMac

Lots of previous posts on this topic - including one where I said:

"While the North-South 'iron curtain' may prevent you from even considering SARF London, try my part of the world (Blackheath SE3, Brockley SE4, Greenwich SE10 or even the posher bits of other SE postcodes), ... in travel Zone 3, with about 5 times more good cheap restaurants than Wansted.

Or I guess you could also take a punt on areas a bit further out where public transport is set to improve;

Just as my 1997 SE7 purchase doubled in value in 3 years after they built the Dome (now O2) and associated North Greenwich tube and bus hub, SE18 has been dire with Woolwich more renowned for pound shops than cappuccini, but recent extension of the DLR and promised further rail links might just mean that the Plumsted slopes begin to emerge from the slime?

Strapped

Where is "work" and how far can you comfortably cycle to it?

abankerbutnotafatcat

OP said he/she worked in the city which I took to mean the square mile but now I revisit it I note the lack of capitalisation.

Clapham gentrified 15 years ago? And the rest. Clapham SW4 was always a middle class haven, for all i know back to its mention by Jane Austen but I'm happy to hear that it was slummy at some point! The High Street was just inexplicably shabby.
CJ/Battersea SW11 gentrified from its former industrial background (power station and docks based) once the former ceased production in the mid '80s. It had definitely reached at least the trendy stage by the mid 90's.

Fraise

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

OP said he/she worked in the city which I took to mean the square mile but now I revisit it I note the lack of capitalisation.

Clapham gentrified 15 years ago? And the rest. Clapham SW4 was always a middle class haven, for all i know back to its mention by Jane Austen but I'm happy to hear that it was slummy at some point! The High Street was just inexplicably shabby.
CJ/Battersea SW11 gentrified from its former industrial background (power station and docks based) once the former ceased production in the mid '80s. It had definitely reached at least the trendy stage by the mid 90's.

You're right, most parts of Clapham were always middle class but even the grotty parts started becoming sought after about 20 years or so ago. There still are some grotty parts in Clapham, namely around the council estates, but even those parts are expensive to buy.

Clapham Junction and Lavender Hill were quite deprived areas at one time, but they're worth a fortune now. The wealth seems to spread from the centre of London outwards over time. Years ago people who could not afford Chelsea went to Battersea and in turn those who couldn't afford Battersea went to Clapham, onto Balham, then onto Tooting.....next it will be Mitcham probably.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Fraise wrote: »

You're right, most parts of Clapham were always middle class but even the grotty parts started becoming sought after about 20 years or so ago. There still are some grotty parts in Clapham, namely around the council estates, but even those parts are expensive to buy.

Clapham Junction and Lavender Hill were quite deprived areas at one time, but they're worth a fortune now. The wealth seems to spread from the centre of London outwards over time. Years ago people who could not afford Chelsea went to Battersea and in turn those who couldn't afford Battersea went to Clapham, onto Balham, then onto Tooting.....next it will be Mitcham probably.

Haha - that Chelsea to Battersea to Balham thing was exactly what I was brought up on (wasn't Fulham in there somewhere?) and that is how gentrification tends to work I think. I think it has yet to reach Mitcham though...we moved out to Surrey where it starts again!

To OP nearly all of us have to compromise when house buying and with a £250k budget in London you'll have to compromise more than most. How about a little further out say Crystal Palace or East Croydon? You could buy a Victorian terrace in East Croydon for that budget. I don't know this particular area but just as an indicator (btw, no idea why they call it a farm house...)

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27486897.html#backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DSTATION%255E3056%26insId%3D1%26maxPrice%3D260000%26minBedrooms%3D2%26maxBedrooms%3D3%26displayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26radius%3D0.5%26includeSSTC%3Dtrue%26_includeSSTC%3Don

BitterAndTwisted

Addiscombe is about three tram-stops from East Croydon and it's really quite nice there. You can get into central London from EC in about 15 minutes. A proper high street where the shopkeepers know you by your first name, a little park off Bingham Road. I have friends who live round the corner from each other there and it's somewhere I would definitely consider if I was house-hunting.

egoode

You can find 2 bed apartments in SE London for under £250k however they will usually be ex-local authority properties or they are a period property but on a very busy main road but generally I would think you will get more for your money in the SE than anywhere else and with the Overground and DLR the transport connections have improved a lot over the last few years. Check out Brockley, Nunhead, New Cross and Honor Oak. However also be aware this is becoming a really popular place to buy so competition is insane! If it's a good quality property and fairly priced don't expect to get much below asking price and often they go for over the asking price.

Shortypie89

Strapped wrote: »

Where is "work" and how far can you comfortably cycle to it?

Currently Farringdon, but I work away a lot (out of London / out of the country) so having larger transport hubs accessible would also be handy (though which direction I'll be sent in is unpredictable so hard to plan around it!).
I don't need to cycle every day, but when I do, I'd say around 40 mins max one-way is practical.

Thank you everybody for all the advice - much appreciated. I know I can't get much for my budget at the moment, but I'm not sure that I'll be in a better position if I wait (if house prices rise anyway and my my wage is spent on expensive rent). I don't need somewhere glorious, but somewhere to call my own.