FTB in London Help

padders_2

After a couple of years living abroad in a number of countries I have come back to the UK and am looking to move to London. I am pretty keen to buy a house/flat asap. One of the reasons is I work from home and setting up everything I need in a rented property could be problematic, and having to move it all again an utter pain.

I am basically interested in what people are thinking I will get in prices. I will have £100k in desposit and looking to get between £200 and £250 mortgage on top of that. I am looking to get 3 bedrooms and rent 2 rooms at around £125/week for each room which should cover a % of the mortgage. A friend may be moving into one of the rooms which will make it all easier to start.

Do these figures add up? Is £300 to £350 enough for a nice 3 bedroom flat/house in a "nice" area in London. Any thoughts on where would be a good place to start looking. As I work from home I don't need to be near any particular work place but want to be very close to the tube.

Any comments would be helpfull. I realise now is hardly the best time to buy now, and would in many ways like to delay it - I certainly won't rush into picking a place, but I believe that so long the financials are sorted and I am very keen to get my own place things will be fine, even if prices do fall.

Thanks for any suggestions!

meanmachine_2

I suggest you look on the internet. It's a great new invention. Lots of info...

No seriously, for London, the best property site is findaproperty.com

Pick an area, then click on the left hand side for "three bedroom flat/house"

And yes, your budget should be more than adequate for what you have in mind.

johannamse

I know London quite well, so can advise on areas - but am not that up on what things cost where.

Are you sure it is not possible to wait a bit. We are at the very top of a very high peak and whilst we all have different opinions, the evidence for a decline is becoming overwhelming. Imagine in you brought a house for 350k in the next couple of months and then this time next year it was worth 310k? That would be half your savings wiped out. I know moving is inconvenient, but is it too inconvenient if it saves you 40k? People also say, that if you are investing for the long term you will be OK - but Japan is still having declining property prices 14 years fater its peak. Do you really know you could be happy somewhere for 14 years?

I dont want to put you off. If you decide to buy then negotiate a good discount and choose as area that you like. Do some research on the internet and look at some of the graphs. See https://www.housepricecrash.co.uk. BTW I have no vested interest in directing you to this sight, it just opened my eyes up a bit to lots of stuff I did not really understand. I hope this helps and good luck in any decision you make.

padders_2

Any suggestions on some areas to look into that might fight into this price bracket? Perhaphs places whose prices have not rissen as rapidly recently, or are looking to fall over next few months.

meanmachine_2

Areas to choose depend on whether you want a short tube journey or a long one.

Look at an underground map and compare zones/property prices.

Normally, the cheaper the area, the grottier it is. Unless it has poor links, in which case nice can also sometimes equal cheap (parts of NE London for example).

I wouldn't get so hung up on the tube though. The overground is often much quicker. For instance, 12 minutes by train can often be 30 mins on a slow tube line (like the District).

John_M_Business

padders wrote:

Any suggestions on some areas to look into that might fight into this price bracket? Perhaphs places whose prices have not rissen as rapidly recently, or are looking to fall over next few months.

I think you could get what you are looking for in Hammersmith and Fulham... and definitely in Barnes (but the transport links there are poor). I thoroughly recommend Hammersmith...

Another area to consider is Wimbledon / Southfields - but some people would view that as a suburb - it's quite a trek into town.

Finally, South of Clapham Common is another area that some of my friends rave about, but I'm not so sure.

In any of these areas you should be able to find a 3-bed for about £325k ish.

stratford_2

meanmachine wrote:

No seriously, for London, the best property site is findaproperty.com

.

Also look at Rightmove as there's often a lot of property on this and not on findaproperty (and vice versa).

padders_2

I have a friend living near Tower Bridge who suggested NorthWest West - Swiss Cottage, St Johns, Hampstead, Notting Hill. I have got the maps laid out now to try and work the different places out in my head. Even if i decide not to buy quite yet at least I am getting it worked out where I want to be for when I do bite the bullet.

John_M_Business

padders wrote:

I have a friend living near Tower Bridge who suggested NorthWest West - Swiss Cottage, St Johns, Hampstead, Notting Hill. I have got the maps laid out now to try and work the different places out in my head. Even if i decide not to buy quite yet at least I am getting it worked out where I want to be for when I do bite the bullet.

I think you'd be lucky to get three beds in Notting Hill, Hampstead or SJW for the kind of money you've quoted. Swiss Cottage is possible - but is not a great place to live. 'North Notting Hill' (i.e. Westbourne Park / Ladbroke Grove / North of the A40) is possible too. But that's about as 'Notting Hill' as Wormwood Scrubs is ...

padders_2

Yeah, I just tried rightmove for Notting Hill and got a single match at exactly £350 although that may be more of an indication of quantity for sale, there are only 12 3 beds avaliable pushing the price up to 700k.

lady_lucan

Define "nice". If I had the money I'd buy in the East End - unlikely to lose money after the knockon effect from the Olympics, plenty of rental opportunity, progressive gentrification... all the areas you've mentioned have already shot the bolt, surely?