[flooow]

I rent an ex-coucil house in SE London. It takes around 45 minutes to get into the centre. The local drug-dealers hang out next to the house, there is graffiti on the walls, and it is next to one of the busiest roads in London. There have been multiple murders on the estate since I moved in. It is in the 96 percentile for air pollution. It is apparently worth six hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

Assuming a £100K bung from mum and dad for the deposit, a 25 year repayment mortgage at 5%, and further assuming you spent 50% of your income on the mortgage, you would require an income of £122K to afford it. That would put you firmly in the top 1% of earners in the UK.

Despite your high income, and paying £45K/year tax, you would live in one of the most deprived parts of the country and your local hospitals and schools would be in special measures.

[jacobp100]

First time buyer mortgages are 35 years, you’d buy as a couple so it’s two incomes, and 1% is £180k

Also either your description is wrong or the valuation is wrong. 1 mile from e.g. Orpington would be around £500k for a 3 bed house

[matt-p]

In the new cross area it's a minimum of 600k for a three bed and I'd say it meets pretty much all of the above criteria.

[flooow]

Bingo

[matt-p]

It was a tragically accurate description then. Also worth noting it is one of the cheapest places in zone 2, and only has trains or overground. It does feel (and is) genuinely unsafe, particularly if you don't get home from work until it's started getting dark. It may be slightly cheaper to buy in zone 4,5 or 6 but most of the saving in house prices is going to go straight out the door on more expensive travel cards.

The poster above mentioned 500k in Orpington, well that's zone 6 so a travel card is an extra 140 per month per person so if there is two of you you're spending alot of what you've saved in the house price on that and you also both have to spend a extra 30mins in travel time each way, so an hour of extra lost time a day. Is it worth all of that to save 100K on the purchase price?

[jacobp100]

Orpington has fast trains so you can be at London Bridge in under 20 minutes and Charing Cross in slightly over that (+ walking time to the station). As long as you pick the right trains, it’s similar in commuting time - just a bit less flexible

I don’t live in Orpington, but I do live in zone 6. My door to door commute is also 45 minutes