Just a general moan about housing and a missed opportunity

arciere

We would have loved a house, but couldn't afford one (still can't). The options we had were: A) keep on renting and throw money out of the window, or purchase something more affordable.

We ended up going with option and managed to get a 2-bedroom freehold flat with private garden, next to a beautiful park in North London zone 3/4 (you reach central London in 30 mins), for £285K.

Not the house of our dreams, not the best flat, but yet something that we can say is ours.

lisyloo

I never had this problem in the west country, admitedly some decades ago but I think location is the main thing.
Would suggest you reconsider location (or possibly commute).


I have a colleague who commutes London to Birmingham 3 days a week on virgin trains and she's quite happy.


Do you have family you don't want to move away from?
Are your jobs tied to London?
Could you commute/homework?

Thrugelmir

dgerrard wrote: »

I can’t stop thinking about that stupid apartment, and what a better position we’d be in now if we’d bought something small back then, even though it was only 3 years ago.

Most people get on the property ladder by buying what they can afford. May not be a dream property. However when the front door shuts it's somewhere you can call home. Personalise the property as you wish etc. Moving up the ladder then becomes a matter of choice. Saving \ paying down the mortgage rather than enjoying life. Life is a series of choices. Meanwhile time goes against you.

SalsaDanca

Here's a 2 bedroom semi just under £300k that's for sale near me. A quiet village location, and about an hour from Liverpool Street (a ten minute drive from to Witham station, then 50 minutes by train). A village instead of a town, but it meets your main criteria.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54119988.html

lisyloo

Door-to-door times need to be considered.


My local rail station is 75 mins from paddington but home to office is 150 mins (almost exactly double).


The commute above obviously depends on how far you are from the terminal station and how close your office is to a tube/rail station etc.

[Deleted User]

Look for any areas that are on a high speed train route out of London..., I live in Gravesend - 16 mins from Kings Cross. There are lots of other stations on the line, further out, and I know you can get 2 bed semi's for the money you have available.

Then go and look at the places, don't just dismiss them on reading the blurb on rightmove etc. Quite often there will be something about a property that makes it so appealing it makes the restrictions you set up beforehand unimportant, that you can't see from the listing.

Tiglet2

Have you considered somewhere like Wickford, Essex? It's around 35-40 minutes on the train to Liverpool St and there are currently 41 three and two bed freehold houses listed for sale on rightmove at the moment. That doesn't include any flats. Wickford has a mainline station and most of the houses listed are only walking distance away. It's where I bought my first home, because it was all I could afford at the time.

TamsinC

Try Ipswich https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E689&minBedrooms=3&maxPrice=300000&propertyTypes=detached%2Csemi-detached&includeSSTC=false&mustHave=garden%2Cparking just over an hour commute

1886

Try looking at houses in Daventry, Rugby and Coventry. Milton Keynes will be more expensive but 45 minutes train to London, Coventry one hour Rugby slightly less

steampowered

If you can't afford a semi-detached in the location you want, try a terraced a 2 or 3 bed flat instead.

There are houses you can buy in London for the cash you are offering. How about somewhere like https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/47848203?search_identifier=32da4011b24d01301f5a9e5df51fca07 ?