Owning your own home

Catford is a myth.

Scary for sure.
I did due diligence late last year for work on a specialty mortgage broker focusing on jumbo loans. Lots of London houses bought with 5x joint HH income mortgages to professional couples earning £300k+ between them (two law associates, consultants / bankers etc). Frightening monthly payments.

Yes, it can. My in laws have one partly because their garden is south facing

The group reliant on Daddy's money don't need to or can't develop the earnings capacity to graduate beyond the Hackney flat. I'm talking about successful career people from more humble origins.

Still with that level of income that’s an wholly uncomfortable amount. Makes me glad ours is less than a third (though we don’t live in a 2m house).

I suspect my mortgage payments are far below average - around £500 per month.

This is £100 more than I was paying for a box room with a single bed in it 20 years ago.

Does mean that the jump required to move up the ladder is intimidating.

I’m not 100% sold on the area

Location, location... what's that third word again?!

How close would you be to a decent flat white? Or a great pastry?

If I had to drive to either of those I'd be out.

🤔

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Hmmm

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How close would you be to a decent flat white? Or a great pastry?
If I had to drive to either of those I'd be out.

This is absolutely key isn't it. You need to work out what it is that's important to you at that stage of your life. Bread, coffee, a nice pub.

Back when I was young and pretty, the baseline criteria I had for moving into a place was whether you could obtain all the ingredients for a mojito at 4am. Everything else was details.

Give it a few years and there'll be a run on houses which are conveniently close to osteopaths and ear-hair removal facilities. Decent investment opportunity there. Get in on the ground floor is my advice.

Bread, coffee, a nice pub.
osteopaths and ear-hair removal facilities

Why not both? (as in London)

I went to midlands couple of weekends ago, reminded me that I should NEVER leave London even for a weekend. Unless its for France.

can you not get bread, coffee, nice pubs, osteopaths and ear-hair removal facilities in the midlands

I went to midlands couple of weekends ago, reminded me that I should NEVER leave London even for a weekend

LOL

maybe you can; i was here

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The state of those attachments >>>>>>>>>

+1 for fuck leaving London and never going to the midlands.
Nice mews house in Barbican on TMH atm if you wanna go halves?
@NickCJ we are both kinda guessing on that front, but pals of mine who are closest to owning 2mil places got there by making money on places in Hackney first and they defo dont pay 10k for their mortgage, but I understand the point you are making, large finical commitments that are reliant on consistent large incomes are terrifying. I think we'd be in real financial trouble now if we had bought the house I wanted to buy (stretching ourselves) and not the one we ended up in which my wife thought was way more sensible.
Who could have foreseen a global pandemic, plus losing a job, plus having a kid, minus a single fucking penny from the government for best part of a year.

Jeezus christ. Shit houses and flash cars, the epitome of bleak.

viewing user amey's attachments like

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an LFGSS member will soon be opening a cafe near the middle of that map.

a bit south in Codicote you have Spokes, with their 5£ coffee+ cake combo

Who could have foreseen ... having a kid

I mean, the others are on the nail

I grew up in Datchworth.

The whole area >>>>>>>>>>>

Well, when its medically impossible for a couple, its less expected.

what do you mean ?

Totally agree, I suppose my point was just to challenge the idea that £1k was not a useful amount of money for someone living in one of these places.

Your chums in Hackney did well but I remember queuing up outside to view places like this in open houses for roughly the same prices back in 2013. Some bits of the 2-bed flat market have seen minimal growth in almost 10 years so not everyone was gifted massive equity by the market.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120290054