small_stakes

This shows how mad the prices in Balham SW12 have become. But they'll both sell. 1) 3 bed maisonette at the top of Tooting Bec Common http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/30410361 First listed £650,000 on 12th Sep 2013 Last sale £465,000 on 14th Oct 2011 +£185k or 40pc in <2Y No work has been done to it in between Oct 11 & now (checked the photos & spoke to the agent) 2) 4 bedroom extended terrace house on the same road http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/30452311 First listed £999,950 on 17th Sep 2013 Pretty sure this sold for £800,500 less than 3Y ago Limited work has been done to it since it sold the first time

Trouble is we're having to deal with letters like these ... from ****** balham ... "Dear Sir/Madam Re. Specific Request for a house on &c &c ... I have been asked by one of my applicants, M* C***** B****, to find her a house with at least three bedrooms specifically on &c &c. She's chain-free and has finance in place with a £3**k deposit. Although she would like to find a house as soon as possible, she's flexible with regards to moving dates. Please forgive the direct approach, but if you would like to speak to me in confidence about the possibility of selling, do call me on my direct line 020 8772 **** or e-mail me at ****@******.co.uk"

So it's totally depressing for any HPC fans ... this place, 1100 sq ft (so no loft conversion, side return not done, looks ok inside but certainly not done up) has gone under offer near asking of £790k: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-24229989.html If it sells for near that, it'll need £150k worth of work which means it'll be a lot more expensive than this one (which I've been inside, and is lovely) which had the side return/loft conversion/all mod cons inside: 10th Aug 2010 63 Pentney Road, London SW12 0PA Terraced, Freehold, -- Beds, -- Baths, -- Receps - Edit £800,500 Compared to local prices, it makes this place look like a comparative bargain: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-24229986.html Who are these idiots off, how come they have so much money (or are able to get such a big mortgage), and can I join them? Yours Bitter & twisted of Balham

Hi ... Yeah abandoned it for the summer. Not a lot on, and the estate agents seem to be desperate to get new instructions. I had a phone call from one agent asking if I still wanted to sell my flat (which I'd sold in 2009 ...).

I know a lot of people who are looking in the banking/hedge fund area in London, specifically in IT and accounting but also in other functions, and there really isn't much out there. I know lots of people who've taken 9-18 months to find work. Trading/Sales jobs are pretty scarce as well. Ironically the places that are recruiting right now are ... RBS and Lloyds. (I reckon if I lost my job it'd take me 3 months to find another job and 12 months to find a job on the equivalent money. So we'd probably leave London & go back to the west country, no stress.) But the interesting question is why is this bad job market not feeding through to the housing market?

Quite agree ... I thought my rental deal was a good one but yours is better (we're paying 2200/month for a 750k house). I look at buying like this ... we might only be in London for another 2-3Y so either we rent or we can buy and pay 1) >1Y rent in stamp duty on the purchase + 2) >2Y rent in refurb costs + 3) pay more in mortgage interest than I do in rent. So rental is probably 1/2 cost of buying a house. (Edit because a) becomes a smiley)

Ok so it only mentions Balham in passing ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertyadvice/8640663/Wandsworth-House-prices-on-the-rise-in-Nappy-Valley.html Think this is largely BS.

+1 (so long as they are lizards but look like Juliet Parrish from V)

The obsession with being near a tube line has always puzzled me. I come in on the Northern line every day, but a couple of times recently I've got the train back from Victoria & London Bridge at 5/530pm ... and they were empty! Certainly compared to the crush in the City trying to get on to the Northern line. I guess it must be some psychological thing that people want to be living near a station that's on the LU map.

Yep, dunno which bit of Lambeth you are in, but noticed that on the Balham side on the way home the other night. A few lights on Cavendish Rd were out. To be honest, I just assumed it was the usual story of Lambeth being a bit rubbish.

Quite interesting to see what px these sell at on Benjamin Mews ... both come on in the last couple of weeks. £615k http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34468682.html £639k http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30545155.html Nice cul de sac but at the light industrial end of Weir Road, between a couple of old houses converted back from offices to flats. Houseprices.co.uk says: http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?q=sw12+0ln Sale Date Price Type Tenure New Build Map Address Current Value Estimate 1 26/05/2006 £476,000 Ter. F No Map 6, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 6, Benjamin Mews 2 26/05/2006 £469,000 Ter. F No Map 4, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 4, Benjamin Mews 3 28/04/2006 £475,000 Ter. F Yes Map 3, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 3, Benjamin Mews 4 12/04/2006 £465,000 Ter. F Yes Map 2, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 2, Benjamin Mews 5 06/01/2006 £480,000 Ter. F Yes Map 5, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 5, Benjamin Mews 6 23/12/2005 £480,000 Ter. F Yes Map 7, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 7, Benjamin Mews 7 23/12/2005 £480,000 Ter. F Yes Map 8, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 8, Benjamin Mews 8 22/12/2005 £480,000 Ter. F Yes Map 6, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 6, Benjamin Mews 9 13/12/2005 £480,000 Ter. F Yes Map 4, Benjamin Mews, London, Greater London, SW12 0LN See current value of 4, Benjamin Mews

Property developer from Chiswick apparently who hasn't done his sums ... 1) On for £825k (since June, so no need to look in Firefox/PB yet): http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-risale/property-30258271.html 2) I think it's this one, sold for £500k in Oct 2010 (will check the address in a couple of days): http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?q=%09291%2C+Cavendish+Road%2C+London%2C+Greater+London%2C+SW12+0PH&n=10 3) Apparently he's in the building trade so has had mates do the work. Friend of mine who's seen round it says the value of the work is probably £120-150k. Call it max £650k all in. 4) So he wants £175k profit for flipping it after 9 months. 5) Problems: 1) Cavendish Road is a very busy road (Hyde Farm to the east is traffic calmed, so Balham/Streatham route is down Cavendish and along Fernlea or Emmanuel) 2) That house is on the boundary of the Henry Cavendish catchment area this year (by my reckoning) 3) The white block is the start of a row of shops (to be fair, Jenny's cafe is very good) 4) The rest of the houses on that strip are populated with ... some interesting characters - some ex LA, some still LA; not exactly rough, but worse than the rest of that area 5) Parking is a pain on that road & is probably getting worse if Lambeth carry out more traffic calming at that end of Cavendish So ... at least £150k overvalued in my view. I bet it goes for full asking though!

From reading the article, it looks like a lot of the stables are rented out already to a trainer so you'd just be renting the house. But if you bought it, you'd be paying for the whole thing. May be wrong.

Hmm, all gone a bit quiet ... I've given up looking for the time being, extended the rental for another year. Suspect the market won't hang around though judging by the px and what's going under offer. Within 1/2 mile of my postcode on RM, 380 on the market, 160 of which are under offer/SSTC &c. Seems a lot given the amount that's actually going through on houseprices.co.uk (subject to delays I know).

It's pretty astonishing how little people understood it, even after you'd explained it on the doorstep. Or maybe I'm just crap at explaining it ...