crabb

Not Shepherd's Bush but there was one on Upper Tooting Road that opened earlier this year - clearly a latecomer to the party, and all very cheap looking. Lasted about four months and is now a clothes shop. Can't remember the name but it was obviously done on the cheap possibly using the owners' BTL portfolio as was mostly lettings - no photos in the windows just brief descriptions. Basically a cut price operation, you're right, these kind of EAs will be (and are) first to go.

Yep, those are the ones and I'm well aware of their history! There is just the 2 of us though and we are not planning on having kids so from a location pov they would be perfect. You're right though, it is so sad to see how much they are going for now...doubt they'll ever go back to 90s prices though! But even though we are pretty high earners there's no way we would be able to afford a 'proper' house ie in Chasefield or Gassiot Rd, and we'd just be rattling around in there anyway. Oh if only I'd been born ten years earlier! :angry:

Well, I've been watching Tooting and Balham on and off for the past 8 months or so and there's definitely a downward creep - we're keen on the Totterdown estate/conservation area and since Jan prices on the average house there (2bed terraces) have come down on average about 22k from Nov/Dec - most of them were on for about 290k end of last year, the majority are now between 265 and 270, and last week I saw the first one for 250K - won't be the last I'm sure!! We like those houses and the area but will not be buying there until next year at the earliest - don't reckon they are worth more than 200K especially as being a conservation area you can't do anything to the outside of the house so no extensions etc. As for the rest of Tooting ('the new Notting Hill' according to a supremely stupid Times article a while back) 1 and 2-bed flats are slipping similar to Brixton and there is a patch of land up the high road near the hospital that was supposed to have flats built on it - the signs have been up about a year but so far the ground hasn't even been broken!) I think it's Wimpey who own it. Balham is also sliding though not as much as Tooting which did come a bit late to the party to be fair (except for the parts around the commons)

no photos of the inside either, always a worrying sign!!

That sounds familiar - when we were renewing our tenancy agreement last month the LA asked the landlord (with whom we are on very good terms) if he wanted to increase the rent as they reckoned he could get between 5 and 7% more. He turned them down on that as, in his words, 'look like there's trouble ahead and I don't want to lose great tenants' (he forwarded us the emails with the comment 'What do I pay them for again?!')

I certainly don't want a 'project' personally, I'm rubbish at DIY and I work long hours, I need my downtime! When we buy a place (and that won't be for a while yet, at least 18mths or so) we will be staying there a good few years and as we don't want children we won't need to 'trade up'. Hopefully we will be able to find somewhere where all that's been done to our taste and we won't have to do a lot - I can understand if you do home improvements to, er, improve your home, but if it's just so you can sell it on then what's the point, why all that work when you won't get to enjoy the fruits of it. Oh yes I forgot, it's all about investment and profit and moving up the ladder. Not that I'm bitter, like!

I normally just lurk, have actually registered because I was so incensed, even if this is a troll! Me and my OH both work damn hard - long hours in demanding jobs - we do earn a very good wage, in fact our combined salary is in the area of £85,000 p.a. which is well above the average even for London and also puts us in the top 5% or so of earners. Yet we are living in a rented 2-bed flat with no garden, an hour from our workplaces. Why? Because although we have good wages and savings, we still can't afford to buy a decent place (and I'm only talking about a 2-bed terrace here, nothing fancy) without lying-to-buy, getting a 100%-plus mortgage etc etc. It's not just 20-year-olds on minimum wage who are priced out. It's people like me who are in our 30s and earning what most people would consider to be good money, who are penalised because we were born a bit too late and because we refuse to go down the route of lying or selling ourselves body and soul to the bank just so we can say we own a crappy 1-bed box in a crappy area. I am happy to rent until prices come down, and not being bitter or anything but I will be laughing my socks off when people like you come crying back here because you 'lost' all that money (which is just a number anyway, doesn't actually exist until you realise it by selling). I've worked hard all my life and surely I deserve a decent return on that? Pooh to you Handel. And I don't think much of the Water Music either.