dave_f

Jeremy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The inability for first time buyers to buy a home > is shocking, but statements like "the fact is that > people are leaving London in huge numbers" or > "London has lost its' reputation as a city of fun > and opportunity" just sound like one person's > rather bitter experiences rather than any real > substance. I know what you're saying, and I don't mean to sound bitter. These are not just my views and experiences, they're coming from endless conversations with friends. I'm actually choosing to stay in London because I love it here, but I'm one of the only ones out of a very large circle of acquaintances. I'm actually a second time buyer, but I'm from Brighton, the property I've sold down there is just about enough to cover a deposit for a flat in London. Friends that are first time buyers, or have no parental support are struggling to find anywhere suitable to live - especially young parents with 'normal' jobs. The choice is either to rent - we currently pay ?1700 / month for a flat in West Dulwich - or buy and pay about half that. If we were expecting a baby, I'd have to think about leaving too. Granted, I don't know many people who work in finance - perhaps the situation is much better for city workers because their wages are more suited to London life. But when you fill a city with nothing but bankers and trust fund hipsters, and exclude everyone else, the place loses its' charm very quickly. Have you been to Dalston recently? It's the new Camden Market - the whole place has been taken over by 'marketing professionals', fake street art, overpriced food and drinks, new-builds and rip-off clubs. I teach at a university a couple of days a week, so I have contact with people in their 20s, and the fact is that to many young people, London doesn't have the appeal it had to us in the 90's / early 2000's. Anyway these are just my views and experiences, I know London is a multi-faceted and complex city full of people from all walks of life.

I thought I'd contribute to this discussion as my first post here - we are actively looking to buy a 2 bed flat right now, so I can see fairly clearly what's going on with the lower(ish) end (400K) of the market. At those prices, anything worth living in is being priced about 30K above actual value. A lot of flats out there around the 400K mark are ex-rental dives and dodgy conversions that have been on the market for months, which are not even worth half the asking price. There is a massive shortage or good property out there. We have been shown some horrific damp basement toilets in crap areas, and told they were incredible investment opportunities. We have had offers accepted at around ?15K below asking price, and when an offer is accepted, agents are in a desperate rush to push things through, because they know the offers are fragile, and buyers will continue to look further. People have stopped panic buying and properties are not flying out as quickly as they were before. Offers are being retracted, and estate agents are a lot more desperate to sell than they used to be. The fact is that people are leaving London in huge numbers, and many of those that stay behind cannot afford to go above a certain threshold, regardless of how much estate agents think the market can increase. I think prices will keep going up, but at a rate that is much more sensible. The question is whether there is still any point thinking about investment value in London, when the trend is that people are leaving, and London has lost its' reputation as a city of fun and opportunity, and is instead seen as a ridiculous and overpriced nightmare. Almost all my friends have left, and these were all people who were successful, creative and in full time employment. Is it worth buying into places like Lewisham, Ladywell, Hither Green, etc - will those areas keep gentrifying like the rest of London, or has the gentrification been the result of the crazy panic buying of the last 2 years, and will those areas remain borderline sketchy for the foreseeable future?