Commutable Towns and Cities close to London

zagubov

There's millions of people have had to address their housing needs in the London area, and every one of them has had to severely adjust their willingness to compromise on price and desirability of location to suit their budget.

Another vote for thinking about leaving London. Finding a perfect ownership option on a single person's budget around here is about as easy as making a banquet out of six ice cubes and a pound of air.  Other cities have got far better ingredients, so have a look around.

lisyloo

We found one on a single persons budge but made big compromises.
once I’d accepted what represented market value it was a piece of cake, but you have to get to that point. Our area is not desirable but is safe.

Emmia

Consecca said:

Emmia said:

@Consecca A 90% LTV or a 10% deposit is likely to be at the upper limit of what lenders will do for you (you are borrowing 90% of the purchase price). Higher LTVs also tend to have a higher rate of interest - for example HSBCs interest rate for a 2 year fix fee saver is... 
2.04% at 90% LTV 
1.84% at 85% LTV 
1.79% at 80% LTV
1.69% at 70% LTV
1.49% at 60% LTV

I realise this might not look a lot different, but on a £100k property over 25years (2year fix)  you'll pay £372 a month with a 90% LTV  or £231 a month with a 60% LTV

Thanks for explaining that again @Emmia.  Intresting to see a condensed table of rates side by side, that makes it a lot more clear.  So really, say for example  we stick with your numbers, From a 10% deposit, I would be paying £372 just on the intrest alone before any of the actual cost of the mortage - that is crazy expensive!  How much ££ on top of that would the mortgage payments be? 

@Consecca The figures above are for a repayment mortgage, so the £372 covers both capital and interest, so after 25 years (or the end of the mortgage term, if it isn't 25 years) you'd own the property. 

An interest only mortgage, where the capital is not paid off, would be cheaper than this - however at the end of the mortgage term you wouldn't own the property, and you'd need to stump up the capital. HSBC insist on a minimum income of £100k, and a minimum deposit of 25% for this, and I expect that other lenders would have similar criteria. 

To compare the cost - a 75% LTV with a property value of £100k, on a 25 year mortgage with a 2 year fix with HSBC 
Interest only £81 a month
Repayment £293 a month 

You might find having a play around with a mortgage calculator helpful - I like the HSBC one, as you don't need to register or put your personal details in to use it, and so don't get mountains of spam as a result...  https://www.online-mortgages.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/find-and-compare?ES_STATE_RESET=true

Gemma3378

Consider Flitwick 

welwynrose

I recently moved away from Welwyn Garden City after commuting into London for decades not the cheapest house prices but a nice area

lisyloo

welwynrose said:

I recently moved away from Welwyn Garden City after commuting into London for decades not the cheapest house prices but a nice area

We need the budget details.
there is no point suggesting nice places like leafy hertfordshore when it might be way out of their budget. I suspect most nice places will be out of budget simply because they are competing with couples and older people further on it their careers who’ve had longer to save and get windfalls.

[Deleted User]

Gemma3378 said:

Consider Flitwick 

OP already lives there!

Windofchange

I was going off the average London salary which is about 36k. If you add 25k as a deposit to this (take off 5k for solicitors and other costs) then that would give roughly 4.5 x 36k which is 162k plus 25 which is 187. I rounded up to 200 to give benefit of the doubt. Depressing thing perhaps for the OP is that if they are earning average London money, even with their 30k of savings at some point in the future, they are going to struggle to find anything other than studios and very small / dirty 1 bed flats. 

If you doubled their salary to 80k a year, then they would have a more realistic 360 - 400k budget which would get them something nice, but it seems that talk of salary seems to have made the OP run away, so I guess we will never know...

lisyloo

Very difficult for one person to do it unless they are on a high salary.
they are competing with couples, higher earners and older people who just through age have advantages (longer to save, higher chance of windfall, further through career).
I think they’ll have to make a compromise somewhere.
as I said once I’d identified the trade off and accepted what reflected market value it was easy. I took somewhere that I initially turned up my nose at because I faced the fact that it represented market value and there simple wasn’t anything better - different yes, but fundamentally better - no.

numbercruncher8

For £200k you could buy a one-bed in several outer areas of London.
For example, South Croydon is a massive difference from Croydon itself. The commute to London is almost the same as East Croydon in terms of time, it's just that the frequency of services are fewer.

If you're on a low budget it can be done, but there isn't much room for snobbishness.