Overpriced Property?

rick_chasey

That's the irritation. I earn decently, as does my wife, and although our rent is sky high for what it is, it's very manageable and between us we have north of £50,000 saved (which includes me paying off my student loan).

However, in order to buy a house fit for a family and keep our jobs we'd have to move to a relatively undesirable place (think commuter town which exists exclusively to visit London, eugh) with over an hours commute by train, costing c. £4,000 a year each, or just jack in the whole South East life and start again up North.

Luckily my wife has a job that does exist up North, so hopefully I'll have enough savings to take a year out to retrain and help look after mini-Chasey (fingers crossed) meanwhile. Ultimately, that'll be long term beneficial for the family, but it's a shame.

But that's the conundrum, and it's an irritation that it has to be that way, because, for what we both earn, it really ought not to be that way.

Then again, it could be worse, so I'll just get on and do it. But then most of my friends who are doing PhDs or have lower paying jobs (and/or are single) are in a world of financial pain they can't get out of. Only jobs are in London, but they can't afford to live or commute there.

homers_double

I think anyone loiking for a job circa 09 -10 would have been screwed.

I had one and was still screwed, working 5 days and being paid for three.

veronese68

Rick Chasey wrote:

However, in order to buy a house fit for a family and keep our jobs we'd have to move to a relatively undesirable place (think commuter town which exists exclusively to visit London, eugh) with over an hours commute by train, costing c. £4,000 a year each, or just jack in the whole South East life and start again up North.

Chap I work with has just bought a house in Ramsgate as his wife is pregnant and he can't afford anything decent near work. It's an insane commute considering we are near Feltham, he would have been better off buying near Goo and using the M3, not sure what train services are like from down there. As it is he rides to the station, gets a train into London, tube across town, another train out of town then rides to work from the station. Absolute insanity, but that's what people are driven to.
We were lucky when we bought 20 years ago, no way we could afford it now. No idea what my kids will do.

rick_chasey

They'll move out of London.

I look at my friends who have managed to get decent jobs there and it's the dream.

There's some issues around the intractability of local government around the most common sense of decisions, the quality of schooling generally is pretty patchy, and career progression outside of education is piecemeal, but the quality of life looks excellent.

I could earn a third less up there and have more money in my pocket, in a decent area.

bompington

Yep.
I am a teacher. When I graduated, there were any number of jobs starting at twice the salary I got in my first year teaching (and I didn't start on the bottom of the pay scale either). All those jobs were in London.

So Mrs Bomp and I have two of the most recession-proof jobs there are (teacher and doctor), and a house bigger than the one in the OP (our back garden is effectively 5000 acres of farmland and woods) but it cost a fifth of the price. Within an hour's drive I can swim or surf at amazing beaches, climb or ski down mountains, see world-class concerts, ride mile after mile along beautiful near-empty roads.

London's dynamic culture and business success is clearly quite something, but the polarisation in the country is alarming. I'm just glad that we are catching the positives from it.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

How much house you get for £120k just outside Hebden Bridge, compared to Southampton and other places along the south coast, is positively mental. I don't understand how house prices have roughly trebled down here over the last twenty years!

While at the same time, finding a decent place to rent for less than £700pcm in Southampton is almost impossible these days, which leaves very little money to save a deposit to get on the property ladder.

The whole housing situation is getting very messy and successive governments have done far too little to prevent these spiraling costs as they population has grown by ~10 million since 1990.

rick_chasey

It is tough ripping the life you've built for your entire (post uni) adult life apart.

mr_goo

Veronese68 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

However, in order to buy a house fit for a family and keep our jobs we'd have to move to a relatively undesirable place (think commuter town which exists exclusively to visit London, eugh) with over an hours commute by train, costing c. £4,000 a year each, or just jack in the whole South East life and start again up North.

Chap I work with has just bought a house in Ramsgate as his wife is pregnant and he can't afford anything decent near work. It's an insane commute considering we are near Feltham, he would have been better off buying near Goo and using the M3, not sure what train services are like from down there. As it is he rides to the station, gets a train into London, tube across town, another train out of town then rides to work from the station. Absolute insanity, but that's what people are driven to.
We were lucky when we bought 20 years ago, no way we could afford it now. No idea what my kids will do.

Plenty of commuters from Bournemouth and New Forest who catch train to Waterloo every day. Not just city type jobs either. As for driving up M3 corridor. That is chock a block every morning and evening with commercial towns like Basingstoke, Farnborough, Woking and Bracknell (near by) all commutable for those that are up for it.

The most extraordinary commute I know of was a consultant engineer I used to call on in Kidlington just outside Oxford. He commuted every day from Doncaster...... By car!

rjsterry

Mr Goo wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

However, in order to buy a house fit for a family and keep our jobs we'd have to move to a relatively undesirable place (think commuter town which exists exclusively to visit London, eugh) with over an hours commute by train, costing c. £4,000 a year each, or just jack in the whole South East life and start again up North.

Chap I work with has just bought a house in Ramsgate as his wife is pregnant and he can't afford anything decent near work. It's an insane commute considering we are near Feltham, he would have been better off buying near Goo and using the M3, not sure what train services are like from down there. As it is he rides to the station, gets a train into London, tube across town, another train out of town then rides to work from the station. Absolute insanity, but that's what people are driven to.
We were lucky when we bought 20 years ago, no way we could afford it now. No idea what my kids will do.

Plenty of commuters from Bournemouth and New Forest who catch train to Waterloo every day. Not just city type jobs either. As for driving up M3 corridor. That is chock a block every morning and evening with commercial towns like Basingstoke, Farnborough, Woking and Bracknell (near by) all commutable for those that are up for it.

The most extraordinary commute I know of was a consultant engineer I used to call on in Kidlington just outside Oxford. He commuted every day from Doncaster...... By car!

On holiday in Seaton (along the coast from Salcombe) I was chatting to the proprietor of a coffee shop, whose wife commuted to London from Axminster 2 or 3 times a week. A quick Google tells me that's a three hour commute each way. Not sure quite how the quality of life and cost arguments stack up for that.

homers_double

NitrousOxide wrote:

How much house you get for £120k just outside Hebden Bridge

Yes but you need some sort of incentive to put up with the hippies and morris dancers.

veronese68

Mr Goo wrote:

Plenty of commuters from Bournemouth and New Forest who catch train to Waterloo every day. Not just city type jobs either. As for driving up M3 corridor. That is chock a block every morning and evening with commercial towns like Basingstoke, Farnborough, Woking and Bracknell (near by) all commutable for those that are up for it.

Therre are a couple of people that do the M3 commute at our place, we are very close to the top of the M3. But they tend to come in stupidly early and leave early for the exact reasons you describe. I must admit I'd hate it.
It's more that commuting from that sort of distance the 'wrong' side of London seems like madness, it adds an hour each way getting across town and out the other side. I must confess my thoughts are that he won't be able to stick it out. He managed through the summer, but I reckon the dark nights and bad weather will get to him. I may well be wrong though, but I couldn't do it.

Ben6899

I'll have two.

mr_goo

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

rick_chasey

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

If you had the money, you probably wouldn't be able to live in the middle of Taunton.

That's the point...!

mr_goo

Rick Chasey wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

If you had the money, you probably wouldn't be able to live in the middle of Taunton.

That's the point...!

Don't you mean ' wouldn't WANT to live in the middle of Taunton'.

haydenm

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

That's bloody nice that. Seems like quite a good price for what it is, only 5ha of land though. I was under the impression prices for more reasonable houses were fairly high in Somerset though, maybe not in relation to the rest of the south

This is what you could get here for a tad more cash, not ostentatious at all:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 36450.html

On the commuting thing, a couple who lived a few doors down from the GF's parents used to commute to London on the train... from the outskirts of Hull.

rick_chasey

Yeah. People do do it.

But I once commuted from a commuter town to London for 4 months as part of an internship, along with my now wife. Was roughly 2 hours door to door. It was awful. We both agreed that we would never subject ourselves to a commute that took over an hour door to door. It's just not worth the extra stress and grief.

I've since promised myself I will live within an hours cycle of work, but I need to be able to cycle.

mr_goo

HaydenM wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

That's bloody nice that. Seems like quite a good price for what it is, only 5ha of land though. I was under the impression prices for more reasonable houses were fairly high in Somerset though, maybe not in relation to the rest of the south

This is what you could get here for a tad more cash, not ostentatious at all:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 36450.html

On the commuting thing, a couple who lived a few doors down from the GF's parents used to commute to London on the train... from the outskirts of Hull.

Very nice that too. I just cannot understand the mindset of quite a few of those that have huge slush funds to spend on 2nd, 3rd and more properties.

This is the typical nonsense that gets build down at Sandbanks. It is described as rectilinear steel framed. I would describe it as RECTALINEAR..... and this oversized glass box won house of the year. To me it is completely architecturally bereft.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36619890.html

haydenm

Mr Goo wrote:

HaydenM wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

That's bloody nice that. Seems like quite a good price for what it is, only 5ha of land though. I was under the impression prices for more reasonable houses were fairly high in Somerset though, maybe not in relation to the rest of the south

This is what you could get here for a tad more cash, not ostentatious at all:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 36450.html

On the commuting thing, a couple who lived a few doors down from the GF's parents used to commute to London on the train... from the outskirts of Hull.

Very nice that too. I just cannot understand the mindset of quite a few of those that have huge slush funds to spend on 2nd, 3rd and more properties.

This is the typical nonsense that gets build down at Sandbanks. It is described as rectilinear steel framed. I would describe it as RECTALINEAR..... and this oversized glass box won house of the year. To me it is completely architecturally bereft.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36619890.html

I really couldn't imagine living in somewhere like that, it would be like a long stay in a posh private hospital.

The guys I 'know' a few people with silly money, some have more tasteful houses than others...

mr_goo

HaydenM wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

HaydenM wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

That's bloody nice that. Seems like quite a good price for what it is, only 5ha of land though. I was under the impression prices for more reasonable houses were fairly high in Somerset though, maybe not in relation to the rest of the south

This is what you could get here for a tad more cash, not ostentatious at all:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 36450.html

On the commuting thing, a couple who lived a few doors down from the GF's parents used to commute to London on the train... from the outskirts of Hull.

Very nice that too. I just cannot understand the mindset of quite a few of those that have huge slush funds to spend on 2nd, 3rd and more properties.

This is the typical nonsense that gets build down at Sandbanks. It is described as rectilinear steel framed. I would describe it as RECTALINEAR..... and this oversized glass box won house of the year. To me it is completely architecturally bereft.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36619890.html

I really couldn't imagine living in somewhere like that, it would be like a long stay in a posh private hospital.

The guys I 'know' a few people with silly money, some have more tasteful houses than others...

On the actual Sandbanks peninsula there are some properties where if you stood on the balcony and stretched your arms out, you could touch the neighbouring house. According to one architect I have spoken to, the owners (nearly all being Londoners) think nothing of it, as to them it is considered open space and they are used to living on top of one another.

The little beauty was on the market last year for £250k with no running water or toilet It's at Mudeford sandbank. Which has become another London target for those that want a summer home where they can slum it. And to prove how the London influence changes the local infrastructure. My wife and I used to take our two kids when they were younger on the Noddy train out onto the sandbank. Have a walk around and nice cuppa of tea and a sticky bun (all at reasonable prices) in the little cafe. The little cafe is now a bistro serving high priced exotic hot drinks or champagne and daft food like deep fried panko coated lobster tails served fresh pesto and samphire..... All at stupid prices.

capt_slog

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

I recall looking at houses like that years ago and thinking, "wow, I'd love to live there".

Nowadays I look at them and think "It would be a bugger to heat"

surrey_commuter

Capt Slog wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

I recall looking at houses like that years ago and thinking, "wow, I'd love to live there".

Nowadays I look at them and think "It would be a bugger to heat"

8 bedrooms would pay for itself with AirBnB plus a few quid from farm subsidies

dinyull

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah. People do do it.

But I once commuted from a commuter town to London for 4 months as part of an internship, along with my now wife. Was roughly 2 hours door to door. It was awful. We both agreed that we would never subject ourselves to a commute that took over an hour door to door. It's just not worth the extra stress and grief.

I've since promised myself I will live within an hours cycle of work, but I need to be able to cycle.

A mate has just bought a 5 bed house in Brighton and commutes into London each and every day. 2 hours door to door IF the trains are playing ball.

I don't get it. I can understand someone wanting to get their foot in the door at the beginning of the career, but he's well established and they've bought it to start a family.

briantrumpet

Mr Goo wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Or you could have this for £1.3m. If I had the money, I know which one I'd go for...... Must do lottery.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42265815.html

If you had the money, you probably wouldn't be able to live in the middle of Taunton.

That's the point...!

Don't you mean ' wouldn't WANT to live in the middle of Taunton'.

Interesting fact - not a single German bomb dropped on Taunton in WW2. I guess the Germans thought that it was not worth bombing, or they just felt sorry for Tauntonians. At least Exeter has some excuse for the rubbish post-war rebuild.

rick_chasey

Dinyull wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah. People do do it.

But I once commuted from a commuter town to London for 4 months as part of an internship, along with my now wife. Was roughly 2 hours door to door. It was awful. We both agreed that we would never subject ourselves to a commute that took over an hour door to door. It's just not worth the extra stress and grief.

I've since promised myself I will live within an hours cycle of work, but I need to be able to cycle.

A mate has just bought a 5 bed house in Brighton and commutes into London each and every day. 2 hours door to door IF the trains are playing ball.

I don't get it. I can understand someone wanting to get their foot in the door at the beginning of the career, but he's well established and they've bought it to start a family.

Rather unfairly, I tend to think these people don't really like their families that much.

dinyull

Rick Chasey wrote:

Dinyull wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah. People do do it.

But I once commuted from a commuter town to London for 4 months as part of an internship, along with my now wife. Was roughly 2 hours door to door. It was awful. We both agreed that we would never subject ourselves to a commute that took over an hour door to door. It's just not worth the extra stress and grief.

I've since promised myself I will live within an hours cycle of work, but I need to be able to cycle.

A mate has just bought a 5 bed house in Brighton and commutes into London each and every day. 2 hours door to door IF the trains are playing ball.

I don't get it. I can understand someone wanting to get their foot in the door at the beginning of the career, but he's well established and they've bought it to start a family.

Rather unfairly, I tend to think these people don't really like their families that much.

They married about a year ago and have only just started trying for kids. His wife has just got a new job more local but he has no intention to move.

It hurts my head - I'm born and bread in Newcastle and anything over a half hour commute (via bike ideally) would annoy the hell out of me. I know the money is (mostly) good in London but it can't be good enough for 20 hours commuting every week. That would drain the life out of me.

kingstongraham

Rick Chasey wrote:

Dinyull wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah. People do do it.

But I once commuted from a commuter town to London for 4 months as part of an internship, along with my now wife. Was roughly 2 hours door to door. It was awful. We both agreed that we would never subject ourselves to a commute that took over an hour door to door. It's just not worth the extra stress and grief.

I've since promised myself I will live within an hours cycle of work, but I need to be able to cycle.

A mate has just bought a 5 bed house in Brighton and commutes into London each and every day. 2 hours door to door IF the trains are playing ball.

I don't get it. I can understand someone wanting to get their foot in the door at the beginning of the career, but he's well established and they've bought it to start a family.

Rather unfairly, I tend to think these people don't really like their families that much.

Why? All weekend, they are with the family and they aren't in London. It's also quite a sacrifice to make for the family to not have to be in London at all.

I wouldn't do it, that's for sure. When I worked more than 2 hours from home, I got a hotel.

dinyull

That's assuming they (not my mate) have no interests outside of their family. Trying to fit in hobbies, mates and family in a weekend is asking a lot.

rick_chasey

KingstonGraham wrote:

Why? All weekend, they are with the family and they aren't in London. It's also quite a sacrifice to make for the family to not have to be in London at all.

I wouldn't do it, that's for sure. When I worked more than 2 hours from home, I got a hotel.

I've worked with a few people who would regularly pressure someone to go for a drink with them untill 8 or so. Over a year of doing this or so, one of them slipped that he just wanted some drinks because hated having to bathe or put his kids to bed.

He then moved further out so now he didn't have to take us out for drinks to miss that.

He then also cycles most weekends and does about 5 cycling holidays a year without the family.

The others would also moan about their kids and being home over the Tuesday night beers. A couple were ex Army, so maybe that figures (preferred the life away from home).

I'm really quite keen to fly out the office door and leave my chair spinning if it means I get to see my wife for a bit longer after work. I don't think they felt the same.

DeVlaeminck

I used to do Derby to Paddington 4 days a week, slipped into it as initially it was a day, then two etc then it became most of the week. It's surprising how quickly you get used to it, roll out of bed at 5:30, out of the house in 30 minutes, 6.30 train, head down on empty train wake up arriving in London on packed train, leave work at 5 (or as soon as the boss left - he used to catch the same tube as me so I often had to hide on the stairs until it arrived so he wouldn't know I'd left straight afterhim) home by 8. I was early 20s at the time but there were men with families that had been doing this 20 years - we worked for the railway so all travel was free and people were racking up huge commutes.