I am depressed

MINNIEMOMO

There's some areas of SE London which are still vaguely affordable, it depends on your budget really.

BikingBud

hazyjo said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

hazyjo said:

youth_leader said:

I was going to suggest Leigh-on-Sea @hazyjo, but thought prices had gone through the roof.  My Grandad worked at the Stock Exchange in the 60's and he moved out to Leigh-on-Sea, commuted into London daily.  

Yup it's pricey but cheaper than London and there are places nearby which are okay and reasonable. It's the C2C line which is cheaper than others. Go slightly north of London Road and prices drop. Still walkable to the station. If I knew their budget, I'll try to suggest something.

South of London Road and you struggle to park outside your own home, homes are also incredibly expensive for what they are and life is not all ha-ha-hee-hee on the Broadway either. North of London Rd and it's a bit of a faff from Leigh / Chalkwell stations if you're tired at the end of the day, as public transport runs east-west and not north-south. 

I'm within spitting distance of a station further down the track and do everything I can to avoid commuting. I'm also much happier out of London but then I have 15 years on the OP and got London out of my system a long time ago! So I understand why he is disheartened, but life cannot be put on hold. In his position I'd still be aiming for London, but somewhere microscopic or slightly bigger in zone 4, with a plan to upsize in 5 years.

Without a budget it's hard to expand on this conversation...

Wasn't so much a suggestion of areas, more to enlighten them re fares. I'm still loving Leigh though and will often recommend it.

If the budget is £200k, no chance. If it's 300-350k, buy in somewhere like Wanstead.

Depends what they're happy with. My nephew bought a really smart 1 bed flat there for around 315k.

Really smart! Is it self cleaning and does the shopping, cooking washing and ironing?

BikingBud

MINNIEMOMO said:

There's some areas of SE London which are still vaguely affordable, it depends on your budget really.

Genius

Are you a specialist advisor?

Do you work in developing government policy?

sammyjammy

OPs thread on pensions board suggest they earn £24k currently, never going to be able to buy in London as a single person so only option is to move away, easily done in CS.

[Deleted User]

hazyjo said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

hazyjo said:

youth_leader said:

I was going to suggest Leigh-on-Sea @hazyjo, but thought prices had gone through the roof.  My Grandad worked at the Stock Exchange in the 60's and he moved out to Leigh-on-Sea, commuted into London daily.  

Yup it's pricey but cheaper than London and there are places nearby which are okay and reasonable. It's the C2C line which is cheaper than others. Go slightly north of London Road and prices drop. Still walkable to the station. If I knew their budget, I'll try to suggest something.

South of London Road and you struggle to park outside your own home, homes are also incredibly expensive for what they are and life is not all ha-ha-hee-hee on the Broadway either. North of London Rd and it's a bit of a faff from Leigh / Chalkwell stations if you're tired at the end of the day, as public transport runs east-west and not north-south. 

I'm within spitting distance of a station further down the track and do everything I can to avoid commuting. I'm also much happier out of London but then I have 15 years on the OP and got London out of my system a long time ago! So I understand why he is disheartened, but life cannot be put on hold. In his position I'd still be aiming for London, but somewhere microscopic or slightly bigger in zone 4, with a plan to upsize in 5 years.

Without a budget it's hard to expand on this conversation...

Wasn't so much a suggestion of areas, more to enlighten them re fares. I'm still loving Leigh though and will often recommend it.

If the budget is £200k, no chance. If it's 300-350k, buy in somewhere like Wanstead.

Depends what they're happy with. My nephew bought a really smart 1 bed flat there for around 315k.

The utter insanity of a 1 bedroom flat costing £315k...

hazyjo

BikingBud said:

hazyjo said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

hazyjo said:

youth_leader said:

I was going to suggest Leigh-on-Sea @hazyjo, but thought prices had gone through the roof.  My Grandad worked at the Stock Exchange in the 60's and he moved out to Leigh-on-Sea, commuted into London daily.  

Yup it's pricey but cheaper than London and there are places nearby which are okay and reasonable. It's the C2C line which is cheaper than others. Go slightly north of London Road and prices drop. Still walkable to the station. If I knew their budget, I'll try to suggest something.

South of London Road and you struggle to park outside your own home, homes are also incredibly expensive for what they are and life is not all ha-ha-hee-hee on the Broadway either. North of London Rd and it's a bit of a faff from Leigh / Chalkwell stations if you're tired at the end of the day, as public transport runs east-west and not north-south. 

I'm within spitting distance of a station further down the track and do everything I can to avoid commuting. I'm also much happier out of London but then I have 15 years on the OP and got London out of my system a long time ago! So I understand why he is disheartened, but life cannot be put on hold. In his position I'd still be aiming for London, but somewhere microscopic or slightly bigger in zone 4, with a plan to upsize in 5 years.

Without a budget it's hard to expand on this conversation...

Wasn't so much a suggestion of areas, more to enlighten them re fares. I'm still loving Leigh though and will often recommend it.

If the budget is £200k, no chance. If it's 300-350k, buy in somewhere like Wanstead.

Depends what they're happy with. My nephew bought a really smart 1 bed flat there for around 315k.

Really smart! Is it self cleaning and does the shopping, cooking washing and ironing?

He wishes 🤣

Typing like I talk. Colloquialisms.

hazyjo

[Deleted User] said:

hazyjo said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

hazyjo said:

youth_leader said:

I was going to suggest Leigh-on-Sea @hazyjo, but thought prices had gone through the roof.  My Grandad worked at the Stock Exchange in the 60's and he moved out to Leigh-on-Sea, commuted into London daily.  

Yup it's pricey but cheaper than London and there are places nearby which are okay and reasonable. It's the C2C line which is cheaper than others. Go slightly north of London Road and prices drop. Still walkable to the station. If I knew their budget, I'll try to suggest something.

South of London Road and you struggle to park outside your own home, homes are also incredibly expensive for what they are and life is not all ha-ha-hee-hee on the Broadway either. North of London Rd and it's a bit of a faff from Leigh / Chalkwell stations if you're tired at the end of the day, as public transport runs east-west and not north-south. 

I'm within spitting distance of a station further down the track and do everything I can to avoid commuting. I'm also much happier out of London but then I have 15 years on the OP and got London out of my system a long time ago! So I understand why he is disheartened, but life cannot be put on hold. In his position I'd still be aiming for London, but somewhere microscopic or slightly bigger in zone 4, with a plan to upsize in 5 years.

Without a budget it's hard to expand on this conversation...

Wasn't so much a suggestion of areas, more to enlighten them re fares. I'm still loving Leigh though and will often recommend it.

If the budget is £200k, no chance. If it's 300-350k, buy in somewhere like Wanstead.

Depends what they're happy with. My nephew bought a really smart 1 bed flat there for around 315k.

The utter insanity of a 1 bedroom flat costing £315k...

Location location location...

Could've bought a house in a crappy nearby area I suppose...

sonub4ualt

Harrybrown100121 said:

Many thanks for your help.I think the solution is to get a job where I can from home at least two days a week. I don't think the CS will allow me to do this.

Might be worth trying an internal job transfer where some departments allow wfh. I lived in London for almost 9 years without saving penny due to cost of living and was renting throughout paying £1500 pm. I worked for NHS and applied for jobs in the midlands, was easy to transfer my job to a different NHS trust and have a mortgage now. Yes, I had to compromise on location, albeit  WFH for 4 days a week.

666666

Unfortunately this is the reality of living in London. It's depressing for sure. I think I would ask how attached are you to the idea of living in London. If you are very attached to idea of living in London, you might want to look at zone 3 and further and might have to also sacrifice space. I saw a few 1 bedroom or studio (35-40 sqm) around zone 3 areas for 270K-290K, if you move further out I have also seen quite a few places in Essex for 190K-200K. If you are willing to live outside of London, would it be possible to either ask to work from home a few days a week like people already suggested or get transferred to near where you live or find another job near where you live. I know a few people who moved outside of London because they want the space and they ended up looking for work near where they live instead of travelling to London. 

But I also agree with others who said don't get too obsessed with the idea of owning a home. You're still 33 so if you save from now on you might even be able to do it in a few years time. There is no rush to tie yourself down with a mortgage, especially if it's going to be a massive burden. I'm in the process of buying my first tiny place in London now and I'm in my 40s honestly I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. Gave me time to be free for a while and used the time to save more deposit money to lighten the mortgage burden. Good luck! 

F37A

Harrybrown100121 said:

I live near London and want to buy a property. I am 33 and single. I was looking to buy where I live but realised I can't buy where I live but looking further afield, it is a bit cheaper but the cost of commuting into London is around £500 a month which with a mortgage will be hard to manage.

This is the corrupt system in place. Sell all london properties to overseas billionaires / investors so governmet can gain but those that need to live near work can't therefore incurring health risk.