“What would you do with £30k?” thread a bit later to decide where to keep that in the mean time.

Buy-to-let in S’hampton if you’ve family / friends that can be around, and if you know people in the trade. Otherwise plonk it in an ISA. Or invest in gold, or Star Wars Lego. Having owned a rental while living abroad it can be done, but also can be awkward. I looked into a buy-to-let on the IoW recently and decided against; the market is still not a happy one and I don’t foresee any astronomical spikes in the near future. If you do it, do it for the very long term or as somewhere you want to return to would be my advice.

So as I said, we have another couple coming with us. Based on a £2k a month flat that’s £500 each, which is 1/4 of my take home a month. That seems perfectly reasonable?

I used to spend 1/4 of my takehome on commuting once I moved out of London, but still worked in EC1A. That’s doable.

Start saving now, if you want to ever buy anything in London. Tiny 1-bed basement flat near us is going for half a million quid. Some other neighbours recently sold a 2.5 bed place for £750,000.

My sister recently sold in Palmers Green. Not near a tube, so a lot cheaper. Still looking at over £200k for a one bed flat tho.

“Still looking at over £200k for a one bed flat tho.”

Maybe with a very short lease, or something truly dire. Ex local authority offers better value, but invariably come with hidden future costs and service charges. You certainly won’t find a decent ‘family’ home in London for much less than £500k now.

Mefty where are the trail centres in Surrey?

I imagine there are lots of couples on 60k+ each working crazy hours living in a (“studio”) bedsit.

Crazy stuff London. The lower/mid end can’t keep rising in prices. Only the buy to let vultures and Russian s will be winners though

“I imagine there are lots of couples on 60k+ each working crazy hours living in a (“studio”) bedsit.”

They’ll be buying, and something reasonably nice. Like our new neighbours. Although many chose to live relatively cheaply for a couple of years, to save up for a deposit.

“Crazy stuff London. The lower/mid end can’t keep rising in prices. Only the buy to let vultures and Russian s will be winners though”

Everyone keeps saying this, yet prices still rise. Although the recent small drop in prices post Brexit does mean our new neighbours are suddenly in negative equity. I imagine things will settle down a bit and prices will rise again, but perhaps not as steeply. I really do feel huge sympathy for anyone working in London, trying to get their own home. Too many buy to letters, overseas buyers and ‘developers’- place down the road, big old townhouse formerly comprising 3 flats, is being turned into a 5 flat block. Japanese urban living, here we come.

Maybe with a very short lease, or something truly dire.

She was just inside the postcode that the Tottenham riots affected, so insurance went up quite substantially. Not sure about the lease either. It sold for £220k if memory serves.