Should I buy in London or wait?

setmefree2

Despite sluggish wage increases in recent years, Lloyds said that average earnings for people living in cities have risen by 23pc over the last decade, while city house prices have seen 22pc growth.

Marc Page, mortgages director at Lloyds Bank, said: "Over the last five to 10 years, affordability has marginally improved in most UK cities, as increases in earnings have kept up with house price rises in that time.
"However, the economic and lifestyle benefits often associated with residing in cities are continuing to drive demand, especially in the south of England. With city house prices continuing to rise, affordability deteriorated slightly last year, but the trend since 2009 is positive for the majority of UK cities."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/houseprices/10687271/House-prices-most-and-least-affordable-cities-in-the-UK.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2577119/Oxford-Winchester-affordable-cities-UK-Study-wages-property-prices-houses-cost-11-times-earnings.html

setmefree2

Cities worldwide are experiencing a similar problem: as the demand for urban housing is outstripping supply, property prices in most metropolises are soaring and scrambles for real estate are growing.

Fuelled by a combination of foreign wealth, ruthless practices by rental agents and all kinds of strategies from the deep-pocketed house hunters, it is becoming increasingly challenging for the professional middle classes, not to mention lower-income workers, to afford to live in cities. For the young in many world cities, owning a home – or even renting one – seems like an increasingly unattainable dream.

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/feb/10/the-rise-of-house-prices-in-cities-how-has-it-affected-your-life

setmefree2

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn wrote: »

Wow didn't realise London prices where that insane... You could have a little mansion for those prices oop north...

or a beach hut

Beach hut prices outperform London property

Beach huts, with don't even offer a bathroom, have risen more in value over the past two years than prime London propertyif the record price of £225,000 currently being asked for a hut in Dorset (see picture, below) is realistic.

The 13ft by 13ft hut is without a bathroom or electricity but its location - Mudeford Spit, near Christchurch - places it firmly in "beach hut Mayfair". It is being sold by Christchurch estate agent Denisons.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/houseprices/10945917/Beach-hut-prices-outperform-London-property.html



Makes those studio flats in Sheen and W14 look a steal.

lisyloo

Thanks for the advice chewmylegoff. Will certainly get professional advice. We aren't living there permanently though. We would only be staying in London for work, our home is Wilts. Don't know if that changes anything but would certainly check it out with a professional first. We onlywishto do the leagal and acceptable forms of tax avoidance.
Btw - our midweek hotels/apartments go down as expenses.

mobfant

padington wrote: »

You get visited by the rest of the world in London. I can't imagine that many International friends, distant family and favourite bands come passing through Swindon on a regular basis for a fun impromptu night out.

It's people that makes a place fun to live in, which in turn attracts more interesting people.

It's really important economically that London stays this way because it's not Swindon it is competing with, it's Hong Kong, New York, Singapore etc. if we want the best coders, scientists, robot makers we need one !!!!!!!g amazing city ...

... And that's why London will continue to be a powerhouse property investment, we can't afford to have it any other way.

So get used to the poor kids in London getting the best education, that dynamic is here to stay.

Except the opposite is true. House and rent prices are cited as something that pushes people away from rather than draws them to London.

We can't afford to have London continue as a powerhouse property investment. Risisng property prices are making London increasingly unaffordable for attracting employees, costs of renting business space e.g. in Silicon Roundabout, etc are going up, the creative cultural groups that make London so attractive are being priced, and key public sector workers can't live here anymore.

mobfant

lisyloo wrote: »

Thanks all very much for the info on the area.

Sorry if I was unclear - my current place (Wiltshire) is 2.5 hours.
We don't see the value in uprooting to move somewhere that's 75 mins away.

Brilliant if you work at Victoria but neither of us do.
Victoria -> angel is 30 minutes by tube and don't forget to add walk to Croydon station, wait for train, walk to Victoria tube, wait for tube and walk to office. So 5+5+20+5+5+30+5, so your 20 mins has just gone to 75 plus 2 season tickets, to live somewhere safe but otherwise completely uninspiring.

Thanks for the suggestion but it's just a different (less attractive) trade-off than central London. Yes it's safer and property prices are lower, but add in the 2 season tickets and the commute and it's a less attractive trade-off to my mind.

At the moment I think I'm not going to buy.
We're going to struggle to get a large mortgage simply because OH went self-employed 5 months ago, we would struggle to upkeep 2 properties and of course the job could all fall through (unlikely but we'd be stuck with a property we don't want).

However the bottom line is that
I don't want to pay 1/4 million for somewhere that's pants or 1/2 million for somewhere that's only half decent.
I have a lovely huge 5 bed detached in a lovely area to compare it with.

So - for those of you who are bullish, are we getting to the point where buyers will baulk at priecs and simply say no?
At least something for those of you who think prices will continue to rise to think about.

It sounds like you don't want to live in Croydon, which is fair enough, but your figures are way out. It's only 15 minutes to London Bridge and 18 to Victoria, and trains in rush hour are as frequent as tubes. So it's only ten minutes each way for the commute longer than living in say Bermondsey (because it'll take you x minutes to walk to any tube station, x minutes to wait for a tube, and the same minutes to walk to work etc).

But Croydon is uninspiring. I wouldn't want to live there, although it has a new Westfield coming which will bump up property prices.

lisyloo

Thanks mobfant. Yes initially wanted to be central but realised (thanks to this forum) that anywhere reasonably priced has bars on the window. Now looking in zone 3 starting in Wimbledon (12 mins to Vauxhall). We know that we are not both going to get great commutes, but I only have to be in the office twice a week whereas DH cannot work outside the office, so it makes sense to prioritise his commute.
Btw bermondsey is close to jubilee line, so if he could walk there ( London bridge) then it saves changing and waiting from overground. With Wimbledon there is also no changing only 1 train to Vauxhall.
Don't quite agree about the figures. If you have to get 2 trains/ tubes then changing/waiting takes time compared with just 1 train/tube/bus.
We'll work it out and let you know but I think Wimbledon at least is somewhere we would be happy living which makes a massive difference.

mobfant

Wimbledon is a great place to live, for sure. Enough going on, access to some great outdoors (the Common, Richmond Park), and good transport in to Westminster. Good luck with it!

padington

mobfant wrote: »

We can't afford to have London continue as a powerhouse property investment. Risisng property prices are making London increasingly unaffordable for attracting employees, costs of renting business space e.g. in Silicon Roundabout, etc are going up, the creative cultural groups that make London so attractive are being priced, and key public sector workers can't live here anymore.

One solution is to build but in London we've kind of run out of cheap space and thumper has some very serious mates supporting his borrow. I guess we can knock down swathes of ancient woodland and rolling countryside but you still won't be able to cycle to the silicon roundabout very easily from there either and pretty soon those new flats in Kent or whatever will attract more people and we'll be back to square one.

.... Or worse because now there would be even more people in London eyeing up the properties that are a bearable cycle away from the centre.

Trying to keep the properties which everyone wants so cheap that everyone can have them, is quite a hard task.

gfplux

You already live and work in London. If you are asking the question about buying you must be able to afford to do so.
Take the view that houses/flats are to live in. Not to buy and sell. Then it is an easy decision....buy now.
Six years in anyone's life is far too long to predict what you will do or want then.