Buying a flat in London - could use some advice

rainbow_carnage

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

What about cloo's house up near Blackhorse Road tube? It's a freehold two-bed, has a downstairs bathroom but definitely has development potential for when funds become available:

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/32036236?search_identifier=6b78f44a9e646a5f45b38f4993c4f3c0

Freehold is always better than a leasehold......

That's way above our budget. We're looking to spend a max of £325k.

BitterAndTwisted

Rightmove is showing quite a few three bedroomed houses at that price unless they've all already been sold and not taken down yet, and not all of them viewed with an open-house. Time to start making friends with the local estate-agents I reckon....


http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=OUTCODE^752&maxPrice=325000&minBedrooms=2&maxBedrooms=3&displayPropertyType=houses&googleAnalyticsChannel=buying

kempstar

We are selling a 2 bed flat in walthamstow, you can buy ours if you want

rainbow_carnage

kempstar wrote: »

We are selling a 2 bed flat in walthamstow, you can buy ours if you want

Can you PM me the details? Thanks.

hazyjo

Would you consider North Chingford?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29010636.html

I'd rather buy there than Walthamstow. Another 10 mins on the overhead train.

(No, not my house, although I'm not a million miles away (and not selling!)! Was the best deal I could find on RM for the area.)

Jx

MGCP

Walthamstow seems to have become ridiculously popular recently and I'm not entirely sure why. The "Village" part is quite nice, although very small and it feels slightly like a life raft of Stoke Newington refugees adrift amongst a sea of fried chicken shops.

We ended up buying in Leytonstone instead as we got a far larger place for our money, the Central Line worked well for our respective commutes and it had good access to some nice open spaces. Wherever you buy around there though it is a hellish experience at the moment, although I think there are possibly signs that the madness reached a peak as I've seen some of the more optimistically priced places stay online for longer than they used to. Best of luck anyway!

hazyjo

Another vote for Leytonstone as a good alternative. It's next to Wanstead. That's got to be a plus. Would much rather that than the direct surrounding areas of Walthamstow.

Jx

rainbow_carnage

Walthamstow is popular not just because of the Village. It's because it's on the Victoria line.

We were planning to look at a flat in Leyton this weekend, but when I checked the commuting time (we both work near Goodge St), it was over an hour. We live in Finsbury Park at the moment. It takes me 25 minutes, door to door. In Walthamstow, it would be more like 40, depending on the distance from the tube.

It's fine if you cycle, but if you take the tube, Walthamstow is much more convenient than Leyton.

We've started looking closer to Blackhorse Road station. The area isn't as nice, but it'll get there in the next few years. And the commute is even shorter.

BitterAndTwisted

Be prepared for massive construction work at Blackhorse Road. It's all being redeveloped right by the station.

cattie

You mention you would love an ex Warner flat & I want to ask whether you have a preference for an upstairs maisonette or a downstairs one?

I bought such a ground floor maisonette some years ago, in a completely different part of London, so not a 'Warner' maisonette as only the ones in Leyton & surrounding areas were built by that particular builder so bear the name, but the noise transference from above was dreadful. Especially when the property upstairs changed hand & the new owner took all the carpets up in favour of varnished floorboards.

The result almost drove me to have a nervous breakdown as it was just like having extra people in my property. I heard every sneeze, telephone conversation etc. & ended up selling just to get away from it.

Since then I've either bought houses or only flats/maisonettes in purpose built blocks (not the modern flimsy built ones) , as these type of flats have been solidly built with sound insulation & awareness of noise transference , which the Victorian flats sadly lack.