Owning your own home

This explains part of it. Lots of cashed up people.

The IFS said it took an income of about £100,000 to be considered among the top 1% of high earners in Wales, the north-east and Northern Ireland. However, in London it was more than £300,000 a year.

In a sign of the extreme levels of wealth in the capital, it said a 50-year-old man in London with an income of £160,000 would earn enough to be in the top 1% for the rest of the country, but would not even be in the top 5% of men living in London.

From here https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/06/london-is-increasingly-home-to-the-top-1-by-income-study-finds

And none of these people have gotten furloughed or unemployed. They are doing office jobs remotely from their kitchen tables. Bankers, lawyers, accountants etc..

@umop3pisdn - thought as much...not quite islington-by-sea then....(Whitstable)

Want cheaper, don’t buy near the tube.

Yeah there is that. But you won't get much cheaper. How about this for £900k? Even more mediocre than the first location wise. At this point you are in 'other half thinks the area is a shithole' territory.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-90270596.html

I think the cut-off age is 68 now so that's equivalent to buying the flat in their early 30s to release that kind of equity and a 25 year mortgage.

It's not going to be everyone but I know a fair few people like that in my area. Sold their flat in crouch end/archway and used that to buy in Harringay.

More £900k than £1m but still pretty ludicrous. That then knocks on and the prices in West Green and Seven Sisters go up as those people with flats in Harringay sell up and buy houses there.

I think the real thing that is going to slow all this down is first time buyers to buy those flats. Saying that, with the aid of parents there still seem to be plenty there.

viable family house in an area that isn't a massive gamble - if you even remotely picky (i.e. you want a garden that isn't a concrete patch or off street)

I had a girlfriend from Madrid at University. Her mum was a doctor, her dad was a teacher and she had an older sister, and their family home was a 4th storey apartment with three bedrooms over maybe 100 square metres. My point is, I think the conception of a 'middle-class family home' is very different in other countries.

We live in a two-bedroom maisonette now, with two boys under 5, and no garden. But it is an area I want to live in, next to a great park, with nice neighbours, and good schools. Being British, I would love to have more space, a garden, access to wilds on my doorstep, etc.

It also pains me that a 'trust fund' friend from university, who hasn't worked in ten years, lives in a £1.4m house with three stories just around the corner, and has just put in a #40k kitchen and a loft conversion. Sadly when the revolution comes, I'm sure I will be shot alongside him.

In London, no, I wouldn't. But outside of London?
@Dammit - yeah, I'm not so sure about our demographic anymore.

We live in a three-bedroom 2 storey maisonette now, with two kids under 10, and a concrete back yard - which I regret but we do have an outside shed now (maybe if I could work out how to store and cutback on the bikes we'd get - i digress)
But it is an area I want to live in, next to a great park, with nice neighbours, and good schools ( I think - not sure, unsure if my eldest likes her school sigh). Being British, I would love to have more space, a garden, access to wilds on my doorstep, etc.

It also pains me that when the revolution comes, I'm sure I will be shot alongside t-v.

I think the conception of a 'middle-class family home' is very different in other countries.

I guess yeah, if you mean reign in your expectations, then I am.

What I thought I could get: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-80420155.html

I'll end up with: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74537273.html

It also pains me that when the revolution comes, I'm sure I will be shot alongside t-v.

I hope to work on the inevitable outsourced computer system that will be required to organise and facilitate this, and ride the gravy train right up until the point that I too eventually and inevitably get shot.

Stewart Lee did a great bit about leaving London and living in the country

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011675d/stewart-lees-comedy-vehicle-series-2-2-london (available for 25 days)

Both mine and my partners companies appear to be going down the route of 'majority' WFH with one or two days a week in the office - if so it sort of ruins our plans to stay in the 1bed flat we bought in 2018 for ~5 years.

We absolutely need more space for two permanent desks... 3 bed houses round here are 650-850k which is affordable if we could get a 90% ltv.. but im not convinced we'd get back what we paid for ours

the top 1% of high earners ... in London it was more than £300,000 a year.

That actually makes me feel slightly ill. 1 in a hundred working age people (or is it only the people in work?) in London earns over £300k. What's that, like 60k individuals?
While Trust for London says that 25% of working age people in London are living in poverty.
?!?!

100% also hoping for this. while I live and working in Surrey now I am sure I will inevitably work in the city at some point... would be great if 2 days in the office was completely normalised and I could move a bit further away from London - potentially even back to Bristol

Sorry I didn’t mean to kick off a whole thing. I don’t know about Kensal but I think it’s mad to let specific area totally outweigh logic of £/sqft etc.

I think there are more people that meet that requirement than people reckon. Lots of people at 30-35 will have had help getting on ladder after uni and are now on 2nd or 3rd home either combined salary or combining property sales.

Maybe we should have moved every two years, increasing both debt and equity each time, but frankly I'm glad we didn't.

Stamp duty would fuck you wouldn't it?

Not if it's a house 5-10 mins from a tube...and you've added another floor to it.

I think this is sensible.

Talking of location -

Kingston. IIRC @Scrabble lives down that way. Anyone else? Is it any good?

Mega late to the party here, am next door in Surbiton. We're a little out of place here in not having kids but the 18minute train to waterloo for my partner who doesn't cycle and nice cycle for me was a real pull. It's a nice place, great pubs, close to the river and well located for riding (be the roads a bit busy).

Best of both, get to central London quicker than most people in zone4/5 but still leafy. However I presume a house near Surbiton station is going to cost more than the equivalent in Kingston.

Ta!

Try doing the same but with much less money. My girlfriend owns the flat we're in now but it's part ownership and she wants to sell before we have to pay interest on the part the government owns. The plan is to try and find a terrace house somewhere with a garden and a 2nd bedroom that's actually big enough to be a bedroom, but with a budget around 325k. Looks like we may have to move to Dagenham...

Actually fuck it, this is the best place I've seen for the money by far

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-80452921.html

Edit: maybe not https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41128408

Ground floor flat in a terrace with garden would be more achievable I'd have thought. Could even get one you could then extend? I know flat lyfe isn't the best but with share of freehold it would be OK.

It's if big enough then yeah but there isn't really any on the market for our money, I assume they're all either being lived in or have already been renovated and are selling for 500k+