To buy in SE London or NW London or Mitcham?

Halle71

We 'technically' live in Mitcham but are actually closer to Tooting and all it's amenities (we are the first CR4 postcode, in EA speak 'Tooting/Mitcham borders'). In the last 18 months there have been vast improvements to the area and house prices have shot up (purchased ours for £288K +£40k loft in 2009 and now worth £650K) but there is still a long way to go.
We bought a BTL a couple of roads away last year and it has already increased in value by about £150k so I suspect that you have missed the boat in N Mitcham but the other side of Mitcham Eastfieds station may still be affordable. There is a plan to regenerate Mitcham town centre so that may help the area but to be honest we consider ourselves as Tooting residents in all but postcode.
Have you thought about Croydon? I'm not sure what has happened with prices in the last six months but we considered it for another investment property last Autumn and prices were reasonable and there are massive improvements happening - Westfield etc.

princeofpounds

We bought a BTL a couple of roads away last year and it has already increased in value by about £150k so I suspect that you have missed the boat in N Mitcham but the other side of Mitcham Eastfieds station may still be affordable.

Being quite familiar with the northern line progression, I find it kind of funny how the gentrifying area has moved from Clapham, to Clapham South, to Balham, to Tooting, but now I learn I've already missed the boat in North Mitcham and Mitcham Eastfields is the place to be

At this rate by 2015 all the young professionals will have to live in Horsham... savvy buyers are snapping up newbuild property in Sussex ;-)

Halle71

princeofpounds wrote: »

Being quite familiar with the northern line progression, I find it kind of funny how the gentrifying area has moved from Clapham, to Clapham South, to Balham, to Tooting, but now I learn I've already missed the boat in North Mitcham and Mitcham Eastfields is the place to be

At this rate by 2015 all the young professionals will have to live in Horsham... savvy buyers are snapping up newbuild property in Sussex ;-)

It's mental. Go back to spring 2013 and there were a few, admittedly shabby round the edges, 3 bed Edwardian properties in our road and ajoining roads on at circa £280k. Today similar properties are on at £500k with good condition, extended properties on at £600k plus.
Now all we need is people to take a little pride in their frontage and not drop litter/let their dog poo in the street. Still a little way until gentrification.....

AlexMac

Assuming you do want to stick to London, take a look in SE7 and the western bits of SE18, or even further west to Greenwich and Deptford/New Cross (or try Zoopla's natty map drawing feature). There are a handful of places in your price-range. As long as you avoid tower blocks, ex-local authority places are a reasonable rental prospect and in my experience, Greenwich in particular are a reasonable freeholder, with service charges well under £1kpa for a 2-bedder. I've owned a couple of their flats, both within easy walking distance of a Zone 3 rail stop and they've never been hard to let.

But as Boudicca says, the wave has maybe crested in some previously marginal areas; and there's always the danger that tey fall fastest; my mate bought a flat in Lewisham just before the collapse of the late 1980's, and a year later it was worth 45% less than he paid for it!

And the local blog at http://853blog.com might put you off with its affectionate description of Woolwich as "arguably the capital’s shabbiest town centre… (with) some of London’s worst social housing, crumbling buildings and rat poison in its main square?"