Owning your own home

If you overnight in town, you can get away with missing one evening of kids.

My parents postman retired at something like 52 or 55 on a full state pension. I can't remember exactly now. But whatever it was it was less than one of their ages at the time.

Fair enough.

I mainly wanted to call out this ridiculous notion that all French live, and prefer to live, in apartments where the only access to outdoor space is communal areas covered in shit from their miniature dogs.

My parents postman retired at something like 52 or 55 on a full state pension. I can't remember exactly now. But whatever it was it was less than one of their ages at the time.

It's quite common for British pensioners in their 60s/70s to employ retired French public servants in their 50s as guardiens. You provide a little house on your property and a small stipend in return for light gardening / housekeeping / swimming pool duties. Works well for both parties.

two days a week of barely seeing your child for a couple of years

This was me, except 3 days a week, for 18 months - don't think it had much of a negative effect overall (my wife may disagree) - the days you're WFH do seem to make up for things if you're able to hop away from the desk for nappy changes, taking the baby when mum needs a poo during working hours etc. etc.

You are right, i called out the original post too. And while there are about 10 large cities where families are happy to live in flats (Lots of factors for that, including the borrowing system, school system ...), there are loads of trajectories when it comes to retirement, family seaside home, buying a plot and getting their house built somewhere, etc...

French people are also obsessed with actual home ownership and suburban "pavillonaire" extension has been a thing for 40 years

Don't do that yourself. Beds is interminable

Sounds like Marseilles.

someone help us if their is more than one

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123181016#/?channel=RES_BUY

Decent opportunity if you can get the current tenants out.

Current forum recommended surveyor for SE London?

where is said house? link?

edit: found it - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/66048801#/map?channel=RES_BUY

tbh it isnt a huge commute twice a week; park at somewhere like royston and you can get to kings cross really quick. you wouldnt need to overnight etc.

but yeah location isnt great. you are still a 40 min drive from cambridge.... think you would get bored really quickly.... very very nice house though

Feeling glum because my house chain is taking ages and the top of the chain are new build developers who're threatening to tank the whole thing unless we exchange pronto, but there's still a deed of variation to get pushed through on my property before we even get to exchange...

Fuck this whole process.

@tenderloin have u asked why it's back on the market after 2 yrs?

They might have been in the same position as u. Move out of London for a cool house then realised there is no decent coffee or a Gail's within easy reach. I'd possibly make a phone call to find out why they're moving. There may of course be legit reasons.

they heard the buzz about #catford and wanted to get involved

have u asked why it's back on the market after 2 yrs

To lock in a £200k gain and keep the "party barn" for free? They may have bought during the stamp duty holiday as well... jammy

Without wishing to sound glib, the 200k is neither here nor there really as they'll probably need that to buy somewhere else. I've no idea about the barn and the development potential so you might be right there, I was more interested in the non financial aspects of their decision. I.e they have to go back to town more often and its not workable or there is nothing to do apart from have a night out in Bedford. That sort of thing.

I lived in Royston as does @Soul now, I think that area isn't great, but been a while since I was there.

Cc @Tenderloin

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14972930/­

One and a half hour commute twice a week is very, very doable

My sister lives just down the road. Its a bit of a wasteland out there, but there is an M&S in Biggleswade.

@Tenderloin @Ottomanotter might share insights on how life is in deepest Hertfordshire :)

Yeah, I wouldn't chose to live there. The nicer bits around there are all the other side of the A1 and towards Cambridge.

You can get pretty quick trains in from Sandy though, which is just around the corner.

So I’m waiting for a call from TMH

I’m not sure they even bought it to live in - seems to have been used as a location shoot. They’ve split out the extra barn as far as I can tell and have added £200k to boot.

The commute is fine - I can work 10-5 on those days to see my daughter at start and end of day. The cost isn’t cheap but 🤷‍♂️ is what it is I suppose.

I’m not 100% sold on the area and I do really like where we live but there is some pluses to living there and I like the idea of kids growing up in the countryside like I did.

They want £100k extra for the barn

So cheeky £350k on a 2yr flip 🫤

It might be interesting for u to download the title to the house and see exactly who owns it and if they have finance on it etc

Also don't your missus parents live nearby ish to the proposed new place ?