Ask an obvious question.

[hirez]

The other day someone pointed at a (agent-free, so presumably cheaper than average) listing for a one-bed flat in That Londons (Hackernee, IIRC).

Yesterday, I was invited, via the means of Linkedin, to apply for a job at a M$ subsidiary, also in That Londons.

I note that the cost of object (a) is some three times my mortgage. (Two bed house, garage, garden (of sorts), relatively quiet area handy for both bikepath and what passes for public transport around here.)

I would imagine that even M$ would baulk at paying three times current salary so one might continue living in relative comfort.

How is this actually supposed to work, because I'm buggered if I can see it..

Comments

[kathbad]

Move to Andover. Commute.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

Rent? This is how I'm studiously avoiding thinking about how fucked up prices in London are.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Yon place in Hackernee was a rental.

It may well be that there's some magic financial handwaving that I'm completely missing, of course.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

Ah. In that case avoiding Hackney might well be the way to go, it's currently in the process of being gentrified up the swanee. Come to Walthamstow. It's cheaper, and we haven't ruined it yet.

[hsb.livejournal.com]

We moved from a 2 bed 2 bath flat with nice big rooms but no private outside space (it had grassy bits and flowers and stuff, but basically it was all built in the 70s to separate out the car parking areas, so none of it was kid-safe). NuPlace is 3 bed Victorian house with a small decked back garden and only one bathroom. It's surrounded by estates, rather than being about 100 yards away and surrounded by newly built developer rabbit hutches. It cost a little under twice the old place (150k less than the ones 100 yards away) and we spent a year looking for something like it, where we wanted to move to, in our budget.

Coincidently, two friends have moved to different places out Stockport suburb/Stoke on Trent way. For what we sold our flat for, they have 4 or 5 bed mansions with front and back gardens big enough to grow veg in (and established veg plots), two bathrooms, off street parking, the whole bit. One couple have rooms they don't use yet, because they haven't worked out what purpose the additional room would serve in their life.

That said, we're in Zone 2 10 min walk from excellent public transport. You get a better deal zone 4 and out. And if you can afford to own, it costs vastly less than renting, which is part of why the London market is still a bit bubbly. Old flat now rents for twice our old mortgage (NB, we had 10 yrs of equity in it).

H