FTB in London - this is driving me crazy.

Loughton_Monkey

ringo_24601 wrote: »

An hour, door to door, is a big commute? heh

I had an hour a lot of the time when I was working.

As an aside, when I worked in Korea, I lived exactly 6.0 miles from the office. By Korean 'law' all cars had to be fitted with 'automatic central locking' that switched in at about 25 km per hour [about 15 mph].

My journey was never less than an hour. Typically 1hr 10 minutes, and often 1½ hours. The central locking switched in only on the residential side road where I lived, about 15 seconds from when I got home.

Come back London traffic, all is forgiven. I can assure you that this is frustrating, typically at around 8 p.m. when you are just gagging for that large G&T!

AndyGuil

The problem with living outside is that it may well be 50 minutes to London. Unless you in/next to the station then you have another leg of the journey to go. If you are in London then at least you are already on the tube which massively reduces the commute time. Then there is the cost. It is hugely expensive to commute to London. In comparison the internal transport is much cheaper.

ukcarper

Where I am a yearly season ticket is about £3500 that gets you about £60k on mortgage at 3.5%. You can get a reasonable 3 bed semi for £250k what will the same cost in London.

AndyGuil

You are not going to get a semi for that much in London. However what you do get will increase in value far more. If housing is the major concern then there is going to be a compromise somewhere.

ukcarper

AndyGuil wrote: »

You are not going to get a semi for that much in London. However what you do get will increase in value far more. If housing is the major concern then there is going to be a compromise somewhere.

There is a lot more to life than the amount you property increases in price. If you can afford to live in London and that is your preference that is obviously what you should do. But not everybody can afford to live in London whereas a large percentage of those that can't could afford buy and commute in fact that is what a very large number of people have done.

AndyGuil

ukcarper wrote: »

There is a lot more to life than the amount you property increases in price. If you can afford to live in London and that is your preference that is obviously what you should do. But not everybody can afford to live in London whereas a large percentage of those that can't could afford buy and commute in fact that is what a very large number of people have done.

Many don't need a large house so living closer and having lower commuting costs can be a big advantage.

ukcarper

AndyGuil wrote: »

Many don't need a large house so living closer and having lower commuting costs can be a big advantage.

True I would not discourage people who want to and can afford to from living in London but if they can't or need a larger property than they could afford I think commuting is a viable alternative. I personally preferred the benefits of living further out and commuting as a lot of people do but that is of course a personally choice.