dnjc

will cost you at least 20k to move inc.15k stamp duty and be careful about cost of ground rent and doing up the place. electrics and heating can cost a few grand easily. as for the actual place, well, hard to go wrong in those areas really, not much can add, have lived in islington, not many bargins there any more. highgate a bit cheaper...stoke newington if you are a bit daring etc... try south london, much better

We bought our place in SE23 (HOP) a year ago. I don't regret it, it was a real dump but spent the year doing it up, looks pretty good now. We have 40% equity but who knows with prices in the future. It is all in all a bit more expensive than renting. We did not spend everything we had on the house, still kept savings back. I've come to believe buying a house is fine as long as you are happy with it, it's a very personal thing, numbers arn't everything.

HOP is nice both sides of Honor Oak Park. It is where we ended up buying, we got a doer upper but even that was a fight. NO shortage of people wanting the houses here. I was hoping for a better deal but did manage to get a deal.

In HOP they go within a few thousand of asking price.

not enough money for something decent in those areas. Too many areas to go into detail though, you just need to look around.

it is tiny!! 565 they were in fantasy land, the flats on clive road go for 340-400 and they are bigger than this. also where on clive road is this i wonder. i can't place it, maybe below tritton in the dodgy part?

Quite right The MT. And let'snot forget that whatever side of the fence we are on we are all invested. tomandlu, you are speculating on a crash,she is not interested. My wife and I had the same debate. In the end we went ahead but I persuaded her to buy a doer upper and do a lot of the work ourselves to hedge the risk. She went for that. Although it is me doing all the work of course

Is it just me getting bored of the halifax/rightmove/nationwide/LR figures or more to the point bored of the reporting of the figures. We need a bit more interesting insight into the market these days, with the huge divide of rises and falls by area and low volumes in particular .

erm, it's very nice but *very* small.

this is the best of what you can get in HH or WD. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33951613.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E85409%26maxPrice%3D400000%26includeSSTC%3Dtrue%26_includeSSTC%3Don%23_includeSSTC%3Don%26auction%3Dfalse%26includeSSTC%3Dtrue%26locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E70448%26maxPrice%3D400000%26previousSearchLocation%3DWest%2520Dulwich%26radius%3D0.0%26searchLocation%3DWest%2520Dulwich%26searchType%3DSALE%26useLocationIdentifier%3Dtrue%26box%3D-0.10311%2C-0.08873%2C51.44329%2C51.44904%26popupPropertyId%3D33951613&fromMap=true You could get one of these or equiv on croxted road for your budget. you have rosendale schoolon your doorstep- top notch primary. very thin on the ground in HH and WD at the mo, and you would be stretching it, better to stick to FH, HOP, ED.

for sure, there are loads. If the op wanted a 2 bed flat could have his pick, well, barring some parts of HH. Thought he was after a house though. Have not looked at flats in ages,would be fun to help op looking in those areas!

It is ok. Kilmorie school is too far away, you would be in catchment area. I like this house, I would consider this. The area is still a lot cheaper than ours in centre of honor oak and you get more garden and house. transport means a 10 min walk. going to see it?

hmm, you did not say how much. lots of nice 2 bed houses in south london, east dulwich, dulwich village, forest hill, honor oak park. but they are not cheap. 350+ for 2 bed in honor oak starting price....one went near me for 450... can be 600 in dulwich village/400-500 in ED. but still they all have fantastic primary schools and coffee. and forest hill/honor oak park has overground.

try honor oak park and forest hill. especially if you plan a family. they both have overground zone 3 and loads of parks.

I do not have any grand theories but I can tell you that after waiting for a crash for 3 years we gave up and found a nice area that we could afford to spend 400-500k k in south london and took the plunge ,we did not overstretch ourselves and left a good portion of money in the bank. i don't regret it and am loving doing up the house and don't feel too exposed at all.