Leasehold flat in South East London or Freehold House in Croydon?

Windofchange

JeffMason said:

Windofchange said:

JeffMason said:

....but London is nicer than Croydon.

This is like saying but a red car is nicer than cars. I can certainly think of parts of London that are far worse than Croydon despite all of its short comings. As pointed out above, Croydon is London anyway! 

Which specific bit of London are you talking about, and which specific part of Croydon? As above, I grew up and lived my early adult years in Croydon, so have a pretty good grasp of what areas to avoid, and what areas aren't actually all that bad. And there are a lot that actually aren't all that bad! 

The parts I mentioned in the first post. South / South East London - Forest Hill, Catford area but looking futher out too.

East Croydon has incredible connections and I've heard mixed things. West Croydon I've not heard one good thing about. South Croydon mixed again. Nothing much about areas other than those, and there seem to be lots.  

The places you mention have certainly had a bit of a renaissance over the past decade or so. Remember a time where you wouldn't want to throw up in Catford, let alone grow up, but that has very much changed. In terms of Croydon itself, you are right, I would avoid West Croydon and the area around there stretching into Broad Green and Thornton Heath, but who knows where the next hipster cafe will sprout up bringing with it huge house price inflation. 

I think for me personally, there are very few enclaves of Greater London where you can actually get some decent space for your money, and Croydon is one of those. It has fantastic links from East Croydon station to the city, and most places are connected to there by a decent bus or tram link route. I would agree with other posters that the town centre is a bit run down and dirty feeling, but there are areas such as the new(ish) restaurant district in South Croydon which have a great feel to them, and I can only think that this will spread in time. Westfield is supposedly coming to where the Whitgift centre currently is, though that has been pushed back / cancelled yet again as per recent press releases. Something has to happen to that area at some point in the near future however, and that will bring further regeneration. 

I have just (hopefully pending contracts) brought about 15 mins from East Croydon. It is a large family home that I could not dream of owning pretty much anywhere else in London. That for me is the appeal, and although I am very much buying from a point of view of having somewhere nice to live, I can foresee plenty of other child bearing age professionals moving to the area over the next ten years. There are literally thousands of new build modern apartments springing up around East Croydon Station to bring in the young hip crowd, and I think that the area is bound to go through some sort of gentrification in the coming decade. Ultimately, I don't massively care as I have a large house that myself and my family will I hope be happy in for decades to come. Very leafy and quiet residential street, and I couldn't be happier with my potential purchase. 

You may be of the same vintage of me and remember the Brixton riots, Chelsea smilers, the Wimbledon dog track. Thinking what a 5 bed house brought for peanuts because "I wouldn't live there if you paid me mate" house in Brixton would go for now!? I don't necessarily think that Croydon is on the same trajectory, but I don't see the appeal of London waining whatever the Remainers say, and with that there will always be a demand for housing. If somewhere feels like home then buy it, and if it doubles in price in the next decade then good for you.