76zedfour

This seemed an incredibly over engineered way to avoid flood damage to me. Perhaps the basement was worth £300k in extra constructions costs to them? I would have built an upside down house with all ground floor windows above the historical max flood line together with any full height openings for living areas and balcony sitting on top floor well above the flood water. Then either have a mid height entrance hall and lobby allowing internal access down and up or perhaps just a floating lobby if one really prefers a ground floor entrance in normal conditions. I cant imagine I would enjoy living there during last winters spate conditions so maybe just a lock up and leave watertight policy is best for these riverside houses

change the page number in the address bar as a workaround

madley park? doubt anything there sells for less than it did in 2006

Have to say last week the shipping container house was fantastic, one of my faves. However this week the inward facing cow shed with opaque walls was ghastly. I suspected it might be not to my taste early on when first seeing the heavily tattooed vivien westwood clone whose house it would become.

That looks like a house with great potential and google maps does appear to show a nice area close to the sea. Apparently its also very close to the bungalow covered in yoghurt that was on Grand Designs years ago. I remember it as I am a bit of a Grand Designs fan.

They are quite seriously looking at IOW now. I don't think it would be wise to post what they are interested in but they did point out this one that sold in the spring for £195k http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=42436021&sale=51318050&country=england

They are both about 50 so I guess will need 17 years drawdown until state and his modest workplace pensions kick in so it seems its doable. Just had a quick text from him saying they have spent this weekend on the Isle of Wight looking at property and seem to think they can buy the sort of house they crave for the £250k mark there. I just browsed rightmove and it does appear you can get a detached 3bed within a few minutes of the coast for this money. I would imagine climate wise the area is hard to beat but isn't the ferry trip quite expensive from what I recall? Would you need to come back to mainland regularly? Has it got a hospital etc?

£500 million folly! And we have firefighters striking because their pensions agreements have been ripped up to save a fraction of this cost. How do stupid ideas get to the point where 500million quid is squandered?

Regarding your reference to a normal economy Elad I suspect that if living in the South East and substantially extending a home over a lifetime it would provide a larger pot relative to other parts of the country regardless. However HPI may make the scale of this difference at this particular moment favourable. @sscat, I did assume you inferred my mate was a banker and can now see what you meant. Will pass the blog onto him. My situation is slightly different to that of my friends but its prompted me to take a look at rightmove and what can be had around coastal areas for £200k. A lot of the areas I am familiar with are fairly expensive but there does seem to be some bargains relative to the South East it would seem if you look further afield. I might start another thread asking what does £200k get you around Britain for my own situation

As a sidenote how can I edit out the obvious spelling or grammar mistakes on the above posting? I cannot find an edit button anywhere.

I had to laugh at some of the critical replies regarding their equity to the point where I spoke to them today to mention I had posted their situation on a forum and it was attracting interesting replies. Here are some salient facts which they are happy for me to disclose as they are as interested as I now am to see if their plan has merit; They live in central Hertfordshire in a commuter town in a substantially extended end terrace ex local authority house worth £500k and have no mortgage. For anyone outside the South East £500k doesn't buy you a mansion but a fairly modest house in a decent commuter town. They bought it 30 years ago from a private seller and are neither speculators nor bankers. He is semi skilled earning average wage. She is part time low paid. They are the fit and active type. He has always paid into a work pension. They are looking for semi rural or edge of town away from city life. I think climate may rank fairly high on their requirements so in my opinion Scotland or NW Wales may be too wet or cold possibly although I have to say that Scottish house looked fabulous value to me at least. I have never thought of them as wealthy or different than anybody else but I do admire their foresight to realise their equity (obviously enhanced by the South East Bubble) could provide them a better or semi retirement lifestyle in another art of Britain. As another poster mentioned £250k is a huge amount of money when it is in cash and not equity. Any other thoughts on how long this can be made to last and how? @mod Did I post this in the wrong forum as on reflection its not really apart SE house prices?

I have some friends whose kids have flown the nest and are considering a change in pace of life. They have a fairly decent amount of equity in their house in the South East circa £500k and are in the early stages of considering selling up, and looking to buy a house outright for £250k, leaving the other half to be invested to provide an income drawdown for 20 years until they are pensioners and some modest work pensions kick in. They have mentioned Lincolnshire as a possible destination for no other reason than they can see how far their money stretches there. It got me wondering how many HPC'ers have taken the money and ran or are considering doing it and what area of Britain could provide the best balance of climate, access to healthcare, shopping and entertainment, possible p/t work, scenery etc. Can £250k provide you with £250 a week drawdown index linked for 20 years? With no mortgage and I suppose some chicks and veg patch etc is this enough to live modestly or will p/t work be necessary? Any thoughts, comments, experiences to share welcome......

30 years ago I remember my dad buying a house in Doncaster (Spotborough maybe?) for £25k. We lived in Hertfordshire in rented so he saw an investment opportunity for his capital. I remember spending a week of the summer holidays helping him to tidy the garden, paint a few walls etc. He sold it about 18months later for £50k. I seem to remember the train track to London electrified or speeded up around this time to generate what may have accounted for this rapid rise. It just shows that house prices will always cycle up and down. The skill is spotting opportunity, buying low and selling high.