First time buyers in London

Curiousbuyer123

Does anyone else find that estate agents assume you’re young and dumb? Just had an awful experience with misleading estate agents and a terrible level 2 survey so the search continues.

Anyway - does anyone have any recommendations for nice areas/boroughs in London to purchase a property as a first time buyer? Our budget isn’t huge so our previous residency (Islington) is out of the question but somewhere in zone 3 that is easy enough to get into the city would work great. Currently my partner is full time in bham and I’m between bham and Guildford as I work in London, all advice welcome! It seems south is a bit cheaper/you get more for your money... 

Cakeguts

Where is bham?  Is that Balham or Birmingham?

zagubov

Unfortunately the better-value parts of London (mainly in the south-east) won't be any use.
Sounds like you need to be in a town outside London; Watford, Reading, Bedford, Luton., Dunstable, MK etc.

Curiousbuyer123

@Cakeguts Birmingham! 

@zagubov sadly commuting is still around 400/500 pcm from these places our budget is ok just not huge - we have put an offer in on somewhere but survey was so bad we need to re-consider, maybe a flat with service charges so the building is better maintained 

AdrianC

You want to live in zone 3 for a nice easy commute to the city, but your partner will be commuting from zone 3 to Brum...?

If neither of you's planning on a job change, I'd be looking at the M40 corridor... And I mean Buckinghamshire-Oxfordshire-Warwickshire.

How bad was this "terrible" survey, anyway?

Curiousbuyer123

No I’m so sorry guys I think I didn’t explain properly - I have bad dyslexia so bare with haha my partners office is in London he can WFH for the foreseeable whereas I need to be in office at least 3 days a week so the commute from Birmingham is tiresome and expensive hence why I’m living in Hampshire with relatives until we find a place, hope the extra context helps sorry for the confusion (I should read things back before I post ha) we both moved back to bham during pandemic as I had no job at the time and we wanted to save money @AdrianC

Curiousbuyer123

@AdrianC every single point in the survey was classed as a 3 or a 2 and we predict approx 20k of work to be done to bring it to a decent standard, so not ideal really parents etc have advised against so the search might be back on

Philomel

What kind of property are you looking for? You're right that South is generally cheaper especially south east, though I wonder if docklands flats might be a good shout at the moment with people moving further out after the pandemic

AdrianC

Curiousbuyer123 said:

@AdrianC every single point in the survey was classed as a 3 or a 2

2s are perfectly normal. 1s are rare unless a place is damn near brand new.

Curiousbuyer123

@Philomel just a 1 bed flat! Will have a look thank you the big thing is we’re diving into the unknown neither of us have lived south before and most of our friends live north and east do not sure which areas are good haha we see a really cheap flat and you start to wander what the problem is/is the area awful haha 

Philomel

I would suggest taking a weekend to wander around some of the areas you might be interested in. If your friends live east then Brockley, Honor Oak, Forest Hill, Sydenham are all on the overground for easy travel in that direction. Crystal Palace too which imo is a nice area. I've just bought in Sydenham but I grew up here so I'm biased!

One bed flats probably best type of property to look for atm as lots of people are looking for more space after lockdown so I'd cast a wide net, you might be able to get something more central than you'd thought