Single first time buyer in London

hazyjo

theEnd wrote: »

Are you sure?

Exactly my point, but the OP seems adamant - despite not knowing what the figures might be. Good luck with that!


Jx

Mark1987

Mh, ok. Much clearer now. I expected the whole procedure a bit easier.

Buying is a risk for sure but at the same time renting is a wasting of money. The problem is to understand what to buy and where.

hazyjo

Mark1987 wrote: »

Mh, ok. Much clearer now. I expected the whole procedure a bit easier.

Buying is a risk for sure but at the same time renting is a wasting of money. The problem is to understand what to buy and where.

Actually, mainly the problem is 'when' rather than what and where. If your re-read what I paid in 2006, sold in 2011 and what it's worth now, you'll maybe understand. The area is popular. The timing was wrong.


We'd all be millionaires if buying/selling was that easy.


You pay for a roof over your head with renting. Not sure I'd call that wasting. As I've said, you can also be wasting money by buying. You do realise (as said above) you pay a vast amount of interest to the lender for borrowing that money...


Jx

Mark1987

True but I'd rather wast money for something that will be mine one day than for someone else's house. If you rent you never have the possibility to raise your capital. If you buy you can, even if risky, of course. Honestly I don't know much about that but I feel like if you buy in London, it's difficult to see house prices going down. I mean the town is always growing, expanding, new transports, etc.. In the worst case you can sell the property for the same amount you bought it. Am I too optimistic?
Renting a 1-bedroom flat in London is not less than £1000-1200/month but if you buy you can pay even less than that for a place that will be yours. Buying it's like putting money in a piggy bank in a certain way.

Snakey

Hi Mark

The nicer the area, the less space you'll get for your money. There are areas where your £250k won't even buy you a studio.

A studio flat doesn't have a separate bedroom, just a large (in theory) main room where you also sleep. The advantage of a two-bedroom flat is that you can rent out your spare room if you need to, although to get top-end rent you'd ideally need a second bathroom too.

Don't get dazzled by the number of rooms - property owners in London are creative with their space (partition walls, mezzanine floors etc) so always look at the square footage, I've seen two-bedroom flats that are the same size as a studio. In central London a lot of flats don't have a separate kitchen and that's in the living room as well.

The other things to watch include how many windows the place has (check out some of the threads on here about mould and damp, and also think how miserable it is to be stuck somewhere without enough natural light - bear in mind flats don't generally have gardens), how long the lease is (shorter = worth less, and if it's below 50 years you won't get a mortgage), how high the service charge is. Also public transport links.

Finally, London is a mature and busy market and there is no such thing as a bargain. If something looks cheap for what/where it is, it is not because the buyer has priced it wrongly and nobody else has noticed that it's for sale - keep digging until you find the reason. Ideally, you would be a unique individual of distinctive taste and find that the very thing that puts other people off is actually a plus point for you, but that's not very likely (and even if it were, you also need one eye on resale).

As for whether you should buy, well you should definitely have bought nine years ago, but c'est la vie. I'm not sure I'd buy if it was really only going to be for five years - that's quite a tight timescale for riding out any potential bumps in the road - although there would be nothing to stop you from renting it out of course, and in the meantime you can use the money you save on the rent to overpay on the mortgage.

Mark1987

Thank you for all the info.
Realistically, are there possibilities in London to buy a nice flat/terraced house for 170-180k? Even far from the center, maybe zone 3-4-5?
I just don't feel to be tied for too long with a 250k property, I like to change jobs and places very often.

StumpyPumpy

"Zone 1, London" through "Zone 3, London" are valid locations on Rightmove and "Zone 1, London" to "Zone 7, London" are valid locations on Zoopla. Have you considered looking on the property websites to give you an idea of what is available?

hazyjo

You can also just use 'London' if you at least want a London postcode.


Unfortunately there's way too many for anyone to list them. As an example, this is one:


http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47048230.html


I'm sure if you picked a few out, people wouldn't mind telling you if the area was one to avoid or if any looked promising.


I do think you are drastically underestimating how much things cost. Also, just because a property is outside of Central London does not mean it'll be cheap. Not a case of the further out you go the cheaper it gets. Popular/nice areas are always going to cost a lot.


Jx

Mark1987

Thank you. Yes Rightmove and Zoopla are full of ads, it is for sure a good starting point. I have a couple of doubts now:

- What is the usual amount of years for a leasehold? I heard of 99 and 999 years. How is it possible so much difference?

- Having my plan in mind, to buy and sell as quick as possible, do you think that a 1-bed flat can be a good solution?

Mark1987

For example, what do you think of a similar offer?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47670142.html

Is it common to find terraced houses for less than 200k?

or something like this can be a good solution to avoid the mortgage and save money?
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47236252.html