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

kmmr

Some people just don't like London. I love the busy'ness, the wealth of people, the amazing choice of just about everything.

But some people love to complain about everything. Although if you love to complain - London's perfect for that too!

demontfort

Yes if I had £10million in the bank I could live in a plush Mayfair penthouse and hang out with the London glitterati at art galleries/movies premieres drinking overpriced Guatemalan beer and eating Sushi. However I don’t so for me London is just another grey,grimy, crowded big city and in terms of the daft house prices right now it provides very poor value for money. You notice how most of the real Londoners chose to move out to the suburbs or Home Counties.

I don’t hate London I just acknowledge its many flaws and unlike some don’t see the place through rose tinted glasses. Whilst there’s a lot of truth in what I say my post is also partly a reaction to hearing the same baloney about Michelin starred restaurants,art shows, farmers markets being wheeled out time after time by a small minority of people who live in London. Honestly it sounds like a Foxtons marketing brochure, I can play London Lover buzzword bingo (up and coming,vibrant, Michelin, dynamic blah blah blah) with some of these posts.


So if you believe London is so great and it really works for you good luck to you but for me I’m going to keep saving up the pennies and move away to somewhere bigger and better. I’ll probably keep the flat though and rent it out some aspirational young Londonmug.....good luck to him/her finding a Michelin starred restaurant in Leyton,we do have two KFCs though.:rotfl::rotfl:

totallybored

demontfort wrote: »

Supermarkets – Packed to the rafters with people panic buying as though the world is about to end. If there is a hell on earth it’s Asda Leyton on a Saturday afternoon.

I can't disagree with that, possibly the most soul destroying shopping you can ever do only to be beaten by Croydon Lidl.

ruggedtoast

SecondTimeBuyer wrote: »

Actually you can. In my area there are 3 doctors surgeries that take people for my postcode, I looked at reviews online at each one when I moved in and selected the doctors surgery which suited my needs (good availability, late opening hours, and good service) the most.

The michelin star point is that London has fantastic restaurants, even on a budget you can eat amazing food at any number of the night markets. For less than £20 I can eat a lobster dinner, have a couple of drinks and get home.

So why don't you 'Keep it real'

You can't even choose one GP within a single doctor's surgery let alone choose surgeries based on preference. You have 3 doctor's surgeries that will take you within Putney, because you live in Putney. Move to Mile End and try changing doctor, or even specifying one. Welcome to the world of the 'micro appointment'.

The only thing Michelin star restaurants demonstrate is that there are a reasonable number of people who don't mind paying £50 - £200 plus a head without drinks for a meal.

For actual normal restaurants, that actual normal people eat in, London doesn't compare well to Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, or a ton of other cities I have been to. It's certainly miles behind Tokyo or Beijing. It does ok in the low to midrange compared to New York but mostly due to a lot of chains that exist in every high street, that are ten times worse in the States.

pineneedles

I moved to London to study over a decade ago and still often tolerate it more than love it but my partner would not consider living anywhere else. We'd have difficulty finding jobs anywhere else.

After years of saving for a deposit we were finally hoping to buy something this financial year but the timing seems to have been really unfortunate. We probably should have tried to buy something with a smaller deposit a year ago, but it's too late to regret that now.

The frenzy would definitely put me off if I saw we had any alternative other than try to buy somewhere before the prizes go completely crazy and/or until the interest rates go up and we can't get a decent fixed rate mortgage, and we're stuck renting forever.

We've got £90k for a deposit in combination of savings and a £12k gift from parents and were hoping to use this as a 40% mortgage on a property up to £225k in value. But so far:

Property 1 (August) asking price £215k - were told on day of viewing there were already two bids above asking price and in the end we weren't sure the flat was worth more than that and didn't bid.

Property 2 (September) asking price £200-£225k. We offered £220k and lost out.

Property 3 (October) offers over £240k. This was a bigger flat than we initially were after and needed a lot of work but would have been a superb project. Offered £250k, lost out to a cash buyer offering "close to £300k" according to agent.

Property 4 (November) Offers over £200k. Offered £225k and lost out to another buyer offering "several thousand" more according to agent.

We've viewed perhaps twice as many properties in this time but the others have not been suitable. All of the above have gone to best and final offers and have had multiple offers above asking price.

So it does seem we're getting caught in the frenzy fuelled by competitive bidding and each offer we've made has been further away from the asking price.

But had we offered, say, £235k on the latest property and won the bidding, I would now be thinking "none of the other 9 bidders thought the property was worth that much"! So it might be hard to feel like a winner and more like a fool.

What annoys me is that the high demand seems to allow the estate agents to know next to nothing about the property they're selling. The last one didn't know whether there was a dedicated car parking space for the flat in front of the building and suggested this was probably informally agreed with the neighbours. Others have not known whether there is a chain involved, whether the freeholder lives in the building or not or whether the flat has access to the loft. It's very difficult to make an informed decision on how much to offer when all you can go by is what you've seen.

Hey ho, will keep looking, and hope that Help to Buy doesn't make things even worse after January.

padington

pineneedles wrote: »

Hey ho, will keep looking, and hope that Help to Buy doesn't make things even worse after January.

It will and made even worse when 28 million possible extra people can come and join the party ...

Tiglath

demontfort wrote: »

If there is a hell on earth it’s Asda Leyton on a Saturday afternoon.

Believe me, it's worse there on a Sunday; we gave up shopping there completely.

zarf2007

demontfort wrote: »

Yes if I had £10million in the bank I could live in a plush Mayfair penthouse and hang out with the London glitterati at art galleries/movies premieres drinking overpriced Guatemalan beer and eating Sushi. However I don’t so for me London is just another grey,grimy, crowded big city and in terms of the daft house prices right now it provides very poor value for money. You notice how most of the real Londoners chose to move out to the suburbs or Home Counties.

I don’t hate London I just acknowledge its many flaws and unlike some don’t see the place through rose tinted glasses. Whilst there’s a lot of truth in what I say my post is also partly a reaction to hearing the same baloney about Michelin starred restaurants,art shows, farmers markets being wheeled out time after time by a small minority of people who live in London. Honestly it sounds like a Foxtons marketing brochure, I can play London Lover buzzword bingo (up and coming,vibrant, Michelin, dynamic blah blah blah) with some of these posts.


So if you believe London is so great and it really works for you good luck to you but for me I’m going to keep saving up the pennies and move away to somewhere bigger and better. I’ll probably keep the flat though and rent it out some aspirational young Londonmug.....good luck to him/her finding a Michelin starred restaurant in Leyton,we do have two KFCs though.:rotfl::rotfl:

I think the fact you live in leyton says it all....i'd be negative about london too if I lived in that dump....as for the midlands, I lived in birmingham for over a year (originally from durham) and quickly concluded that if there is ever an argument for nuking a city, birmingham is it (2nd capital yeah right).....at least in the north east you have citys such as newcastle and durham and decent surrounding countryside, the midlands is just a joke.

While london has its faults I would take it over the midlands any day. I do like the north east but the reality is this countries wealth is and will always be in London and the south east.

bownyboy

We bought 3 bed semi in Surrey in March 2009 at what is now seen as the bottom of the market (had no idea at the time!). We were lucky as prices in just 4 years have shot through the roof. I'm seeing £650k being advertised for similar 3 bed semi's (we paid £399k).

It's our forever home so means nothing, but I do wonder what it will mean for the make up of the village as the years go by.

demontfort

zarf2007 wrote: »

I think the fact you live in leyton says it all....i'd be negative about london too if I lived in that dump....as for the midlands, I lived in birmingham for over a year (originally from durham) and quickly concluded that if there is ever an argument for nuking a city, birmingham is it (2nd capital yeah right).....at least in the north east you have citys such as newcastle and durham and decent surrounding countryside, the midlands is just a joke.

While london has its faults I would take it over the midlands any day. I do like the north east but the reality is this countries wealth is and will always be in London and the south east.

I assume you live in Knightsbridge or Hampstead on the Hill then?Cue the template shallow minded London property owner response, “No I live in one of the most sought after streets in the up and coming Wandsworth Village,we have an award winning organic candlestick maker on the high street, an art house cinema run by a co-operative of Namibian dwarves that only shows Norwegian films and my flat has doubled in value in the last month.”

Well I don’t think much to Leyton either, it is a dump and always will be. But at least I got a decent flat,relatively cheap with a great view. Rather than these clowns who pay half a million for half a cramped terraced house in some mediocre part of South West London with council estates on their doorstep and then spend their time telling people how great their dump of an area is.

The difference is I accept my lot and don’t delude myself that just because I own a pile of bricks and mortar In London then I’ve made it.As for the Midlands I like it and know I could buy a nicer house there than you could ever hope to own in London. In the case of the North East you need to go back there and open your eyes. Once you get out the town centres the deprivation in Newcastle and indeed parts of Durham is terrible, yes there may be a few swanky wine bars and pretentious restaurants but in my mind that doesn’t make an area or city good. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: