Geed - "I have seen prettier prisons. After a hard days work, do you really want to be coming home to a low security young offenders institution?" - what an ignorant comment, it's no uglier and no nicer than many, many other flats in other areas I've seen. We don't all have the budget to buy a luxury penthouse apartment or detached five-bedroom gated house in our first buy. The building itself looks fine to me for my budget and needs, it's the area Im concerned about.
Jie Bie - thanks for all that detailed advice. Re walking through at 3am, it had crossed my mind that there's prob a lot of people passing through during the weekend nights since it's a "main street"..obviously a lot of drunk behaviour, shouting etc as well I guess. Re safety of a girlfriend, I actually have a boyfriend but as I plan to live alone it's still the issue of if it's a good idea/safe to be coming and going in the late evening. Re recent arrivals I had noticed a lot of Asian people in the surrounding area, which didn't bother me if they had been here for many years or even born here but if the area is flooded with recent arrivals from abroad (whether Asia or eastern europe) I've seen firsthand through friends in Govanhill what it can be like living in an area like that. As for the big LHA block that had been off-putting already.
I guess I should have thought there must be a reason a flat so close to city centre was £80k.
Anyway thanks to all for the advice, i plan to just carry on saving up over the next 2-4yrs and hopefully house prices will continue to stagnate and hopefully crash further down, too many are still ridiculously overpriced and I wouldn't dream of paying what people are asking (close to mid-2007 prices still in some places it seems but not selling). I have £10,000 so far and was thinking a 20% deposit of say £90,000 would be £18,000. Plus ~£4k for all furniture (still live with parents) and £1.5k for fees, giving total of ~£23k meaning I have a long way to go, do these figures sound reasonable?