Owning your own home

We're on our second new build place (moved in March).

There are plenty of positives to a new build; walls are straight, things are to code, everything's fresh / new, if you're buying off plan you can customise (a bit). Depending on the builder / time of year / area, there's also plenty of incentives & discounts to go for. For our current place we got nearly 6% off of list price as well as stamp duty paid which helped give us a nice lump of capital to buy furniture, clear moving debts etc.

There are definitely negatives though. We've got with one premium / small development builder (this time) and one more mass market builder and both have had quality, design and after sales support issues...

In our flat in Hither Green, the sales person was useless and lost our options form. He filled a new one in with guesses and the kitchen and main bathroom had to be ripped apart and refitted. There were also plumbing issues with poor quality / cheap parts. The new house had poorly installed bathrooms (apparently they fired their bathroom fitter after he did our house) which resulted in mould under the flooring, tiling having to be re-done and shower screens leaking. This was all resolved but not before having to email the CEO.

Overall though, both were definitely a net positive; we love the current house.
Royston isn't quite Stratford for London connections but there's some nice 4 beds still available...

I know you're joking, but it may be worth adding a mention of the Clays Lane Housing Co-op, which was on land that's now part of 'Chobham Manor', conveniently renamed to erase the memory of the old housing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clays_Lane_Estate

There was also a Travellers' site nearby.

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Few pages back but my wife, cat and I relocated from Hitchin, Herts to Valencia six months ago. So far so good, the lifestyle here is like night and day compared to the UK - still beach weather in October!

We own a place in the UK and while we might buy here eventually, rental law here is so good for tenants we feel happy renting a place. You essentially can’t be kicked out for 5 years and rent can only go up by an official rate, currently 1.something %.

We just got our residency which was simple enough, and are already set up to pay tax and social security. Beauracrcy isn’t all that, especially if you work with the right people.

Personally if I had nearly a million quid to spend I would not buy one of those houses in the Olympic park. I know someone that lives in one actually (friend of a friend ) and I think he paid 800k for his a couple of years back .

Personally if I had that sort of money I would put it into a place like this .
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-85926668.html

It's a little bit more suburban but only just over a ten minute ride from the the Olympic park, and a much more family friendly and interesting place to be.

I'd also be worried about the service charges applicable to that house. I work with someone who has one of the flats in the Olympic village and he was complaining the other day about his service charge and the additional charge everyone has to pay to contribute towards the upkeep of the Olympic park too. It sounded pretty painful but I can't recall the exact figures he was discussing.

Where would I park my camper van that doesn't exist yet but might?

Leytonestone is full of crazies. Wanstead flats is nice though.

Fully prepared to learn about gouging 'service' charges and would use that to negotiate heavily on price. If it ever got anywhere near that stage. The place might be shit.

I'd also be worried about the service charges applicable to that house. I work with someone who has one of the flats in the Olympic village and he was complaining the other day about his service charge and the additional charge everyone has to pay to contribute towards the upkeep of the Olympic park too. It sounded pretty painful but I can't recall the exact figures he was discussing.

Presumably he read his fucking lease before putting the money down on the flat? Or did these charges just appear out of nowhere?

Sorry I'm grouchy because I just head to talk to Vaillant, pricks.

Step one: try to book service online
Step two: booking online fails inexplicably, instructed to call them
Step three: as instructed, call to book service
Step four: offered the choice of 'trying again' online or paying an extra £10 for the same thing over the phone

Fuck you Vaillant

Thats not bad.
You could also buy my old neighbours house...
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63393939.html
but my god its narrow.
(Parking round the back for camper van).

Oh he read his lease (he's a barrister as it happens) but the charges from what he has said have spiked quite significantly over the last couple of years. I've no idea what the figures are, but if it's done on square footage basis then the park contribution he's referring to might mean you're in for a reaming on a house of that size.

Oh and the parking round those houses is pretty bad too. That's if your campervan isn't nicked or crashed into in the meanwhile.

but my god its narrow.

hah no say

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Oh and the parking round those houses is pretty bad too. That's if your campervan isn't nicked or crashed into in the meanwhile.

In Leytonstone? Yeah it's awful.

If you mean in the OV ...the place has garage which is then gated up the road. But yeah. As noted up thread it means you are limited to one motor, which is fine by me, probably not fine with a lot of other people.

Actually the parking around bushwood where I linked to the house in Leytonstone is pretty good (I don't live there but I don't live too far from there)- more than enough spaces for everyone. Personally I wouldn't be happy parking a vehicle of any particular value in Stratford.

Huh. I could bore you with the parking stories my Leytonstone friends shared but yeah, it's a crap shoot which is why off street parking would be awesome...

wouldn't be happy parking a vehicle of any particular value in Stratford

In a garage, on a private road, behind a locked gate? Is Stratford that much of a hot bed for vehicle theft? Serious question.

I am sure i read a few years back that stratford was one of the worst (if not the worst) area in the country for theft and other associated offences - that prob has something to do with its proximity to westfield though.

certainly where I am in leytonstone the parking is fine now we have a controlled parking zone. I can always park pretty much outside my house.

My neighbour in Leytonstone used to scream at anyone who parked outside his house (NO CPZ then) and reserve his space with bizarre arrangements of wheelie bins and planks. His car had brake fluid poured over it a few times.

Where would I park my camper van that doesn't exist yet but might?

If my street is anything to go by, people with mountain bikes all drive VW Californias.

You can count at least 3 of them on a typical day.

People who ride mountain bikes avoid Californias due to the insane outlay that makes it impossible for the value of the bikes in / on the vehicle to be > cost of the vehicle. They typically modify T5s then (optionally) slap a Cali badge on.

One of my neighbors used to put his bins out side his house to reserve what he regarded as his space. another neighbour (who had a shitty old car) used to drive into them and knock them over and just leave them there.

The cpz solved all of this rubbish over night. I've Personally never understood people's obsession with parking directly outside their house.

I'm looking at that place

nice house on a nice road next to the flats. i'd be aiming for 825 I reckon.

but my god its narrow.

Funny that ad should have so many wide-angle shots in it. :)

I got sent this one yesterday. 4 bed new build with gated parking for under £700k https://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-75154615.html

Although I thought most people with camper vans stored them at some secure storage place rather than at their house.

For that price I think I'd just buy a full sized house rather than one with a load of design features to try and hide how small it is.

The problem I find with every new build in London that I look at - in the places that I can live - is that they seem to be carved out and hemmed in with very little space around them; as if the plot of land they are built on is just too small for what they are. This seems to have that problem. I'd find that view from the kitchen incredibly depressing. The view from the balcony equally so.

The OV place didn't seem to have this problem, at the level of detail I was looking at, anyway.

The way they prioritised an open car park over, say, larger gardens, boggles the mind, too.

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