Nightmare about buying

quantumlobster

To expand on the commuting point: I have a car and drive to work. This probably costs me £150/month in fuel, insurance, VED, and maintenance, which is close to the price of that season ticket. However, for the commuter to whom I was chatting, that £2500 is what it costs them just to get to work, whereas my monthly expenditure also includes pleasure activities like going out, visiting people, and going to the tip. (I love going to the tip!)

tl;dr: going to work costs a lot in London because it's a single-purpose expenditure.

zagubov

quantumlobster wrote: »

OP: you and your partner do not, IMHO, have a combined income that supports living somewhere nice in London. Commuting into London from the suburbs is something you should specifically budget for. I got talking to someone on the train who commuted from Croydon into central London. It's about an hour each way and the season ticket was £2,500. And, of course, if the trains are late, you're late - there's no plan B.

You have options. All require effort and commitment on your part.

1. Get a job that pays more.
2. Move. The further away from London you go, the cheaper property gets. Round here, for example, £250K is "nice 4-bed executive detached, in a nice place" money.
3. Buy in a not-so-nice area.
4. Buy a not-so-nice house.
5. Stay where you are, and keep saving to increase your deposit, thus avoiding options 1-4.

I don't know your personal situation, so can't comment on the feasibility of any of these.

OP, there's more to life than London. Another vote for widening your horizons and looking well outside the area, otherwise you'll have a poor quality of life you'll barely be able to afford.

Davesnave

zagubov wrote: »

OP, there's more to life than London. Another vote for widening your horizons and looking well outside the area, otherwise you'll have a poor quality of life you'll barely be able to afford.

This was the point I thought I'd made.


Over the 40+ years that I worked, I never had a particularly high income, but my quality of life, and that of my children, was pretty good. Theatre, cinemas, bars restaurants etc all within walking distance, as was work and schools. 'Proper' countryside was only 10 minutes in the car as well.


You can have it all, or most of it, anyway.

agrinnall

Dia8012 wrote: »

agrinnall
Easy to say my friend we are both working and u know finding the job for both in new area is not that easy. In London at least with 1h commute u can reach to work but from outside is really risky specially with this train situations recently thinking to live outside the zone is scary.

There are 55 million people living in the UK outside of London, most of whom don't find it at all scary.

Dia8012

quantumlobster wrote: »

OP: you and your partner do not, IMHO, have a combined income that supports living somewhere nice in London. Commuting into London from the suburbs is something you should specifically budget for. I got talking to someone on the train who commuted from Croydon into central London. It's about an hour each way and the season ticket was £2,500. And, of course, if the trains are late, you're late - there's no plan B.

You have options. All require effort and commitment on your part.

1. Get a job that pays more.
2. Move. The further away from London you go, the cheaper property gets. Round here, for example, £250K is "nice 4-bed executive detached, in a nice place" money.
3. Buy in a not-so-nice area.
4. Buy a not-so-nice house.
5. Stay where you are, and keep saving to increase your deposit, thus avoiding options 1-4.

I don't know your personal situation, so can't comment on the feasibility of any of these.

Do you mind to name any area regarding option 2 please? I think in 2019 4bed detached house even in village in Wales is more that 250K.

Bossypants

There are currently 163 detached houses of at least four bedrooms for sale in Greater Manchester for 250k or less:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E79192&minBedrooms=4&maxPrice=250000&propertyTypes=detached&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=detachedshouses&includeSSTC=false

Edit: Almost a thousand in Yorkshire: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E61326&minBedrooms=4&maxPrice=250000&propertyTypes=detached&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=detachedshouses&includeSSTC=false&dontShow=sharedOwnership%2Cretirement

Most counties apart from the South East have at least a few.

Cakeguts

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68142088.html


https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-78058142.html

zagubov

You can leapfrog many steps on the housing ladder by moving to more normally-priced parts of the UK.
You'll have a house that will be freehold, cost you less than 30% of your combined income, will have a garden and no upstairs neighbours. Room for kids, cars and maybe even your kids' cars.
Embassy receptions and west end first runs, not so much. Is that a deal-breaker?
Trying to live a satisfying life in cramped London on a limited income, is like trying to use a combine harvester to trim a window box. It won't go well.

quantumlobster

Dia8012 wrote: »

Do you mind to name any area regarding option 2 please? I think in 2019 4bed detached house even in village in Wales is more that 250K.

I'm in the North East, in a location with excellent road and rail links to Newcastle, York and Leeds, and within 20 minutes of the Middlesbrough/Stockton conurbation (I know, right? Yay!). I can be in London in 3 hours.

A selection from the area:

Not a new build, on a pleasant estate: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67826356.html
Newer, also on a pleasant estate: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-73471454.html

A bit closer to the seaside: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65449759.html

New build, in a posh bit (yes, really) of Middlesbrough: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69124252.html

I don't know much about property prices in villages in Wales, though.

getmore4less

Dia8012 wrote: »

Do you mind to name any area regarding option 2 please? I think in 2019 4bed detached house even in village in Wales is more that 250K.

update your rightmove skills
centred on a city + 40miles 4b+<£250k detached house inc SSTC.
There will be some that are not fitting the criteria(Listings wrong).

there are a couple in this search
London.

Loads
Birmingham

more manageable list if you go to
5bed min
still some left at 6 bed.

wales using a map search

still over 300 if focus on £240k-£250k

or do most of the country and seewhere the places are concentrated