Is anyone else currently buying in London? Isn't the frenzy putting you off?

jamie11

Fraise wrote: »

In 10 years from now nearly every property owner inside the M25 will be very wealthy.....lucky for some.

I can't disagree with that, but it's relative. They will only realise their wealth when they sell up and move away. Just moving within London means all the wealth is used to buy the next mansion.

Tiglath

My only quibble with London is the inadequacy of the creaking public transport system. Apart from that, I love living here

115K

Fraise wrote: »

In 10 years from now nearly every property owner inside the M25 will be very wealthy.....lucky for some.

I hope that is true!:D

padington

jamie11 wrote: »

I can't disagree with that, but it's relative. They will only realise their wealth when they sell up and move away. Just moving within London means all the wealth is used to buy the next mansion.

Nope you can recieve 20% of your house in cash if you give a company 40% of any of the upswing profit there on after. With this you can buy a bolt hole in the country outright with no need to sell your main house until you die and nothing lost if your main house loses value.

So these people that own 2 million pound houses islington can have 400k in their bank account right now and keep their house if they wish.

With schemes like this you can see how certain the big money boys are that UK property is a good bet and see how the prices will rise even more as this new money gets accessed and refinanced back into property.

ruggedtoast

Just to offer an alternative opinion to this.

In 2007 I lived in a flat in a great part of London. Border of zone 2 and 3.

We could have bought another flat in the block then which had an asking price of 225k but needed more than one bedroom to start a family so moved to a larger rental in a totally different part of London, and 220 odd grand in 2007 just seemed an utterly absurd amount of money to spend on a one bedroom flat.

It sold for 216. No surprise there. What is surprising is that the owners sold it on again for just 218k in 2012 and the asking prices in that area arent much different now. And in real terms are lower.

So London isn't always a one way bet.

padington

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Just to offer an alternative opinion to this.

In 2007 I lived in a flat in a great part of London. Border of zone 2 and 3.

We could have bought another flat in the block then which had an asking price of 225k but needed more than one bedroom to start a family so moved to a larger rental in a totally different part of London, and 220 odd grand in 2007 just seemed an utterly absurd amount of money to spend on a one bedroom flat.

It sold for 216. No surprise there. What is surprising is that the owners sold it on again for just 218k in 2012 and the asking prices in that area arent much different now. And in real terms are lower.

So London isn't always a one way bet.

Thats a bit like saying it rained in Spain once so Spain isn't a sunny country. Prices (like the weather) are volatile, but like the weather in Spain, London future prices offer a sunny outlook in general (for London home owners ).

AndyGuil

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Just to offer an alternative opinion to this.

In 2007 I lived in a flat in a great part of London. Border of zone 2 and 3.

We could have bought another flat in the block then which had an asking price of 225k but needed more than one bedroom to start a family so moved to a larger rental in a totally different part of London, and 220 odd grand in 2007 just seemed an utterly absurd amount of money to spend on a one bedroom flat.

It sold for 216. No surprise there. What is surprising is that the owners sold it on again for just 218k in 2012 and the asking prices in that area arent much different now. And in real terms are lower.

So London isn't always a one way bet.

Unfortunately you caught the previous peak of the market and haven't observed the fall in the price after 2007 but did observe it when it rose back up later. It will have risen significantly before 2007 and it likely will in future. Some areas are more attractive than others which does have a strong effect on the value. Being close to a station helps tremendously too. There are a lot of factors that influence prices. What we have seen is 2007 hit everywhere and London has come out of it strongly recently. The rest of the UK is beginning to pick up too.

ruggedtoast

AndyGuil wrote: »

Unfortunately you caught the previous peak of the market and haven't observed the fall in the price after 2007 but did observe it when it rose back up later. It will have risen significantly before 2007 and it likely will in future. Some areas are more attractive than others which does have a strong effect on the value. Being close to a station helps tremendously too. There are a lot of factors that influence prices. What we have seen is 2007 hit everywhere and London has come out of it strongly recently. The rest of the UK is beginning to pick up too.

It started rising strongly in 2009 actually, if the LR stats are to be believed. My point is that spreadsheets and reality arent always concomitant, and some properties in London are very expensive just now.

You can't just assume that because they have a London postal code they will be a good investment, because God knows, very few people buying in London at the moment are getting something they actually want.

ruggedtoast

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

Do you actually live in London or visit on a regular basis? Many people who do live, work and spend leisure time in the capital have a very different opinion of it than you do. There are some rubbish areas where crime is high, amenities poor etc, but a lot of the capital is the opposite. The area I live in is cleaner and greener than most cities in the country - and has better access to amenities and transportation and quite low crime rates. Many would argue that with house prices being pushed up it is becoming 'gentrified' and more sought after as people on low incomes/the unemployed etc are pushed out.

If you do live or spend a lot of time in London i think you might want to expand your horizons and look at some of the better areas because your opinion seems to be based on the worst bits of the city rather than the bigger picture.

I lived in London for years in a number of different localities. It was fun in my carefree twenties, not so much in my thirties.

I suspect the area you outline would now be out of reach for most working Londoners anyway.

ruggedtoast

Fraise wrote: »

Dreadful amenities in London???? I can't believe you think that. London has absolutely fantastic amenities, and it's just one of the many reasons people desire to live there.

You will get crime in some parts of the less salubrious areas of London, but certainly no more than other cities in the UK: Manchester, Hull, Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow, Belfast etc......

As for over crowding, how do you work that one out? Do you mean there's loads of properties in London, or that people live 9 to a bedroom? If there is any over crowding I haven't seen it, but if there is over crowding it just shows how desperate people are to live in London...

London also has some of the best restaurants, bars and nightclubs in the whole world, never mind the UK.

And what is so gorgeous about London is its architecture, rich history, beautiful scenery along the river, and all surrounded by huge green parks

I have lived in London and Tokyo and spent a considerable amount of time in many other capital cities around the world.

I dont agree that London has the best restaurants bars and nightclubs in the whole world. Have you been to the whole world? Because I'm not even convinced it has the best restaurants bars and nightclubs in Western Europe actually. Would much rather go out in Berlin personally.

What do you think I mean by overcrowding? Overcrowding means too many people crowded together.

London has good points as you mention, just - not enough.

As far as amenities go, try and see a GP at short notice or find a school for your kid and come back and tell me about London's great amenities.