Moving to Richmond?

Gassage

Acton will be the next big thing, buy around there.

xSkarloey

mellowsun;608551" said:

Why, oh why, does anyone choose to live in London?





It's kind of convenient for jobs, arts & culture, transport links. Less so for guitar shops these days though!

All of the above. Plus as someone in Richmond I can honestly say that I have all of the advantages of the amenities London has to offer, but also with the Thames and Richmond Park so near I can go to either and feel like the city is a long way away.

randomhandclaps

Gassage said:

Acton will be the next big thing, buy around there.

Acton is also great if you are into learning new languages.

Sambostar

It' can't be that cheap in Richmond surely.  3 Bed properties are going for £900k in Wiltshire.

mellowsun

TTony said:

Why, oh why, does anyone choose to live in London?

Also, it's a money-making machine. If you have the means to enter the market, it seems unlikely you'll lose money. 2007 was supposed to be the peak, but prices have risen 60% in some areas since then.

It's a crazy market, but some people have made a fortune.

Sambostar

And that 'Fortune' can just as easily dematerialise, but it matters not unless you BTL or want to vacate the country or downsize.

However one thing is for sure, it will be hard to accumulate the wealth for a house in a market inundated by cheap labour.

Tone71

Richmond is nice, I'm getting married in the park in the Summer.

Its our old stomping ground, the Bull and Bush was a firm favorite drinking hole back in the day.

Property wise, you`ll never loose money but its expensive, Twickenham and Teddington are close behind and the folk of Petersham positively turn their noses up at the riff raff of Richmond.

octatonic

TTony said:

Why, oh why, does anyone choose to live in London?

Every property we have has made at least £50k a year for the last 5 years.

Some of them have trebled in value.

littlegreenman

I can't even get on the property ladder where I live in Litherland (one of the poorest areas in the UK). Fortunately I don't want/need to, without dependents I see owning property as waste of my cash.

If I had kids then yes I'd be chasing a mortgage and stuff, but with no-one to benefit from it I'll be spending my moolah on guitars, bikes and other such useless crap to make my life more bearable.

Frankieabbot

Try Mortlake.

octatonic

Even in Mortlake you are going to pay over the odds.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31797927.html is the most affordable 2 bedroom house at £580k.

There are a few in the 600k range but everything else is going to be £700k+.

Virtually everything in West London is going to be well over half a million now, the only places left are a few in West Ealing and then out to places like Southall.

Personally I'd be looking for a 2 bed conversion flat in West Ealing (on Cross-rail)- live in it for 4 years then sell it.

You might double you money in that time.

I do think London is going to flat-line for a bit though- the double digital growth has cooled significantly.

We'll know more after the election.

TTony

mellowsun said:

Why, oh why, does anyone choose to live in London?

It's kind of convenient for jobs, arts & culture, transport links. Less so for guitar shops these days though!

Convenient for the arts & culture, and the wide range of arts & culture - I have to give you that one.  We probably come into town 2/3 times a year for a show or whatever - show, overnight in hotel, some touristy stuff the next day.  But it's an effort and not the sort of thing we can do without planning.

Jobs - not so sure on that one.  Richmond to the City must be 45mins?  From the middle of Suffolk, it's 80mins, and that's on a reasonably comfortable inter-city train where I spend the journey in a seat (!) with tea/coffee/OJ/water provided at-seat, without having to stick my head into a stranger's armpit.  OK, so that costs me (£1k/mth), but against the cost of living in London, it's a trade-off I'm happy with.

Transport links - my closest runway is about 5 miles away.  Although, to be fair, it's grass and doesn't have a lot of (or any) scheduled services.  And the A12/A14 are best avoided unless absolutely necessary.  (It's hard to drive out of East Anglia without using either).

But on the plus side, there's a 100 acre field at the bottom of my garden, and another 100 acre field beyond that, and another 100 acre field beyond that (repeat for 3 miles to the next village).  We have "peace" and "quiet" out here where the only sound is the wildlife (or the once-a-day bus).  I probably know and can have a sensible friendly conversation with at least half the people in the village.  We can take the dogs for a walk across the countryside for hours on end.

Houses are affordable, schools aren't full, I can get a doctor's appointment tomorrow.  When you see someone carrying a shotgun over their shoulder, you'll talk about what they've bagged today, rather than call the anti-terrorist squad.

Our local farmer lets us borrow 5 acres of his land for the dogs (my wife's hobby is dog agility) for the price of "bake me a cake now and then".

Postman knocked on the door one morning.  "Hi Tony, if you're wondering where your car keys are, you left them on the roof of your car" (they'd probably only been there 48hrs, so no biggie).

That's all worth far more to me than making £50k a year on the market value of my home.

octatonic

Sounds like you live in the right place, Tony.

I'm in the process of getting out of London.

After 15 years of living  in London property we are moving to the Cotswolds.

Sure, we haven't had the last 15 years with all the peace and tranquility of the country but also I probably wasn't after that, until now.

Personally I wouldn't pay £1k a month on a train fare.

£12k a year is a decent investment property mortgage.

Have you thought of riding a motorcycle?

My commute went down from 60 mins to 25 mins when I bought a bike and I enjoy every single minute of it, even in the rain.

TTony

octatonic said:

Personally I wouldn't pay £1k a month on a train fare.

£12k a year is a decent investment property mortgage.

Have you thought of riding a motorcycle?

My commute went down from 60 mins to 25 mins when I bought a bike and I enjoy every single minute of it, even in the rain.

A bike - are you crazy???

(yes, I know you are).

80-odd miles up & down the A12 in all weathers every day??  No chance.  I wouldn't even drive it.  I'd rather sit in (relative) comfort on a train - the £1k is a business expense and it's not unknown for me to spend the day working for clientA, and spend the travel time working for clientB.

The Cotswolds is arguably prettier than East Anglia and it's closer to more places.  It's popular-er and pricier, noisier and busier, but compared to London, it'll all seem very quiet and very cheap!  I like what I've seen of it.

About 15 years ago we had an opportunity to choose where in the country we wanted to live.  We're still pretty happy that - for us - we made the right choice.  Fortunately (for us) it's not the right place for everyone else!

Axe_meister

Paying for a mortgage is another way of saving for your pension.
All of a sudden you will be rent/pension free your actual pension will go a lot further then.

Renting is far more expensive in the long run and you don't get to make the property your own.

RobDavies

Brentford is currently the most developed piece of real estate in London. 

There are places springing up all the time - its unrecognisable from five years ago. 

 Bear in mind that the football club will be vacating Griffin Park in a couple of years for a new ground right next to Kew Bridge. Expect the stadium area to be developed into housing but I'm not sure how this will affect current prices of the current properties around the ground?...

A 2 bed place around there at the moment is around £450k

thomasross20

London, Cotswolds, 2-bed cottages for > £5000, 000 (+ interest) - are you guys all loaded lol!? 

Jeeeesus, it's so expensive down South! For £250k you can live 10 minutes from Edinburgh in a detached 5+ bedroom house!

I don't see how anybody, especially my age, is expected to pay off a half million pound house!

capo4th

Prices are simply mental in London our house 3 bed detached large garden large drive and garage has gone from 420 to 650 in 6 years. All very well but you then have to buy something else. 

Just me my wife and my son so space is fine but to get something more spacious that is worth moving to we would need to spend £800 850+

A staggering amount of money for a small gain in space. Then you have stamp duty £32000!!!! We are considering a nice loft conversion which would come in at £30-40k and staying put. I can be at London Bridge or Victoria in 25 minutes and London is where it's at having lived in the north and the Midlands nothing really compares to living on the doorstep of the best city in the world. Live music, arts, cultures, restaurants, bars, sport...... How young people will figure in the London market is beyond me. Deposits etc most will need their parents to release equity to get on the ladder but who wants a killer mortgage?

octatonic

thomasross20 said:

London, Cotswolds, 2-bed cottages for > £5000, 000 (+ interest) - are you guys all loaded lol!? 

Jeeeesus, it's so expensive down South! For £250k you can live 10 minutes from Edinburgh in a detached 5+ bedroom house!

I don't see how anybody, especially my age, is expected to pay off a half million pound house!

Not loaded, just bought before they prices went nuts so people have equity.

A house might be worth £900k or so but if you bought your first house at £100k and the traded up a couple of times then it is pretty easy to afford a £900k house because most of the equity appeared like *maaaaaaaaagic* just by waiting around.

The people that are affected are people trying to get in at the ground level, it is virtually impossible to do that now.

It we were first time buyers we simply couldn't buy the house we currently have and also once we leave London we probably won't be able to buy back into the same area in a couple of years time, so you have to make sure you're making the right decision.

The only reason we are considering a move to the Cotswolds is because of how much more you get for your money there.

It isn't cheap compared to Scotland of course but it is still kinda commutable to London and a nice barn conversion with 6 bedrooms, large gardens, huge living spaces etc is the same price as a 3 bedroom terrace in West London.

mellowsun

RobDavies said:

Brentford is currently the most developed piece of real estate in London. 

There are places springing up all the time - its unrecognisable from five years ago. 

Not sure that sounds like a good thing!

tbh the more I think about it, it makes sense for me to stay put. We live in a part of London (Enfield Chase) that is actually quite like what @TTony describes in his part of Suffolk: countryside on our doorstep (heron and a pheasant in our back garden this morning), know the postman and the shopkeepers by name etc. 30 mins to central London and as cheap as chips compared to the rest of London - which is the downside, as moving to any other part of London is a massive step up as prices haven't soared here as they have everywhere else.