How do you resist the urge to buy in London?

Baby_Angel

We were renting in Outer London for about 4 years before we decided to buy. The rent never seems to go down, always up. The estate agents wanted a yearly reference fee (nothing had changed in circumstances) for extending contracts. Not to mention the usual problems of mice and repairs, that almost never get sorted. Now we pay exactly what we paid in rent, but we overpay, with the hope to pay off mortgage in 15 years rather than the initial 23 years agreed. We were late to buy, but we were realistic, went for a affordable house in a convenient location for commute. Good riddance to the estate agents!

We had no choice to move out of London due to work reasons and hence couldn't resist the urge to buy.

remorseless

having to be re-referenced every year seems a bit too much - I agree! Hopefully it's not standard practice, though having to re-sign lease agreements every 12 months seems normal (I am learning).

Walking about in London, yes the nice (from the outside) building, etc make me want to buy!!! I think I will be out of London in 3 years max...

Those terraces for £15K seem a bit too much having to manage them from overseas

RedheadFred

supermassive wrote: »

Why not BTL elsewhere in the UK? If you're on London wages, you can definitely afford it.

I think it would be more accurate to ask "How do you resist buying in Grimsby" - I quite fancy revamping a £15,000 house now!

remorseless

RedheadFred wrote: »

I think it would be more accurate to ask "How do you resist buying in Grimsby" - I quite fancy revamping a £15,000 house now!

:rotfl: as a project I agree, sounds totally awesome! Is Grimsby a rough area?

pyueck

remorseless wrote: »

I have been in London for just over a year and even though I have no intention to settle in London or UK really, I have this urge of wanting to buy real estate! Prices in London are obviously over the roof and the rental yield don’t seem too good either for BTL.

I am happy renting, I only spend a small amount of my income in rent with an easy commute to the office, the rest I save and/or invest. I already own a flat back home where I will be retiring in a very distant future and it’s mortgage free.

Should I bother getting on the real estate mad-wagon in the UK?

Why not go for this one:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-48784811.html/svr/1705;jsessionid=1F90E7DE806D89C94A40A78FA9FC776B


£1.8m for a 1 bedroom apartment in a pretty dodgy part of town.

To be honest I wouldn't touch this stuff with a bargepole. The rental yield on a place like this must be only scraping over 1% once the stamp duty on a place like this is taken into account.

Yes foreign money will buy them, but that can go as soon as it comes, the minute they discover they have been done over.

With some of these developments I wonder if people actually walk around the areas, there is no way Battersea Power Station should be one of the most expensive areas in London. Battersea Power station is in a very boring area, with a dogs home and railway station to one side, a massive council estate behind and beside a row of lifeless high rise flats. There is nothing nice around there at all, if you want to go to Battersea Park, live on Prince of Wales Drive! I saw one advert for it saying a short Walk from Sloane square, it would take at least an hour! From what I hear the vast majority of the flats won't have a Thames view, and even those that do it's not the most exciting bit of the river, just see Dolphin Square on the other side.

Anyway enough about my rant about new developments in London.

Jonbvn

RedheadFred wrote: »

I think it would be more accurate to ask "How do you resist buying in Grimsby" - I quite fancy revamping a £15,000 house now!

Don't rely on such guide prices being anywhere close the the selling price at auction. Those two houses have obviously been guided to sell at auction. A clue is if you look at the sold prices in the area, which are £40k+.

oli_ro

Baby_Angel wrote: »

We were renting in Outer London for about 4 years before we decided to buy. The rent never seems to go down, always up. The estate agents wanted a yearly reference fee (nothing had changed in circumstances) for extending contracts. Not to mention the usual problems of mice and repairs, that almost never get sorted. Now we pay exactly what we paid in rent, but we overpay, with the hope to pay off mortgage in 15 years rather than the initial 23 years agreed. We were late to buy, but we were realistic, went for a affordable house in a convenient location for commute. Good riddance to the estate agents!

We had no choice to move out of London due to work reasons and hence couldn't resist the urge to buy.

Same.

We were happy renting and like the flexibility, but we had to move due to my son's school.

The idea of dealing with letting agents:
- previous letting references
- credit search
- work reference
- employment contract
- bank statements
- pay fees for inventory, cleaning, etc..., etc..., etc ...

just send shivers down my spine.

We decided to buy even if we had to compromise on the space.

Monthly payment is lower than my mortgage and to be honest I don't care if interest rates go up or if properties prices go down.

jjlandlord

pyueck wrote: »

Why not go for this one:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-48784811.html/svr/1705;jsessionid=1F90E7DE806D89C94A40A78FA9FC776B


£1.8m for a 1 bedroom apartment in a pretty dodgy part of town.

It's not any flat. It's not any location.
It's also the size of many 3 bedroom houses.

It remains quite expensive...

Cyberman60

Too expensive for me in London although I have a 400K house 30 miles west of it. That's from 37K to 62K in two years and 97K to 400K in 28 years tax free. A great investment and soon to release equity !! :T

pyueck

jjlandlord wrote: »

It's not any flat. It's not any location.
It's also the size of many 3 bedroom houses.

It remains quite expensive...

Yes it's a nice flat, but I stand by what I say about the location, it's really just not a nice area of London. Personally I think the prices are unjustifiable, London is expensive but not that expensive!