Kidbrooke

Addick Addict said:

MrWalker said:

Canters - don't forget to check this site  - check the street you are interested in.

We did before buying a place, and noticed one potential purchase was on a street with a huge ASB rate - turned out it was a route from a flat roofed pub to the 'hood. ;-)

https://www.police.uk/pu/your-area/metropolitan-police-service/blackheath/?tab=CrimeMap

Thanks for this and some extremely revealing results. Figures for number of crimes in March:

Bexley 73
Chislehurst 84
Sidcup 104
Eltham 137
Bexleyheath 195
Bromley 325

Wouldn't want to live in Bromley. Imagine how bad their figures would have been if we hadn't all been in lockdown for most of the month!

It's an eye opener to explore, and compare rural Devon etc. There are real patterns to crime by month - compare vehicle crime in winter for example, and it seems much higher where I live than in Summer.
At the start of lockdown I imagined plummeting crime numbers but clearly its not been anything like as significant as I'd imagined.

I would add if you was buying a new place from Berkeley they are one of the best you can buy from.

They are very particular (as they should be) in how they build and that it is carried out in the correct method which in the new build industry most certainly not the case with most.

Just a thought. If you are thinking about buying a flat in a block be careful re cladding. After Grenfell all blocks have had to get new safety certificates & many are struggling to get an assessment in line with the new 2018 regs. I have a client who cant remortgage her (posh London) flat atm as the Management Company have had it tested & it doesn't now conform & lenders wont touch it. 

Addick Addict said:

Covered End said:

Addick Addict said:

MrWalker said:

Canters - don't forget to check this site  - check the street you are interested in.

We did before buying a place, and noticed one potential purchase was on a street with a huge ASB rate - turned out it was a route from a flat roofed pub to the 'hood. ;-)

https://www.police.uk/pu/your-area/metropolitan-police-service/blackheath/?tab=CrimeMap

Thanks for this and some extremely revealing results. Figures for number of crimes in March:

Bexley 73
Chislehurst 84
Sidcup 104
Eltham 137
Bexleyheath 195
Bromley 325

Wouldn't want to live in Bromley. Imagine how bad their figures would have been if we hadn't all been in lockdown for most of the month!

That'll be all the chavs in Penge :-)

Penge is treated as a separate entity and had 193 reported crimes in March. But, clearly, Penge does have any number of undesirables that no other area would seriously want. I bet they support Palace and/or Surrey CCC too!

Penge might suit @cantersaddick .....

cantersaddick said:

RaplhMilne said:

Ferrier Estate....... Beirut , Aleppo , and South Africa Townships rolled into one. But, luckily for you , is now Kidbrooke Village. 

I would love to know what this means.

I lived on the ferrier estate for many years, and it was very rough at times, the ex wife and eldest kids now live back on there in the guise of kidbrooke village, nice townhouse by the railway line/station, IMHO, nice housing and flats etc, but you can’t polish a turd.

PopIcon said:

I live in SE12, but Kidbrooke is my closest station. The Blackheath Quarter area is nice, loads of green space, plus both Cator and Sutcliffe Parks are on the doorstep. A new kids park opened up on the western side of Kidbrooke Park Road, which pretty much opposite the Depot.

Also a new bus, the 335 started running from Weigall road last year, goes through the Standard and up the o2.

I like it, its a vast improvement on what was there before. I personally think they could still do with extra transport links.

In this so called "Blackheath Quarter" is there a chippy ? A corner shop? A Costa  ? cashhpoint? Dare I say a GP surgery ?

SporadicAddick said:

Surely one of the finest examples of pub architecture ever created. In fairness, when it was built, it was next to a supermarket, newsagent, post office, doctors surgery, library and a branch of NatWest - everything that was required for the local community. We moved onto the brand new Ferrier in c. 1974. Even now my mum says how lovely it was, how spacious the flats were and how the people were all, actually, very nice. Unfortunately, it didnt stay that way for long (we moved out in 1976...)

As a family, we done the same, in when it was constructed, out in 1982.
Great times as a kid. Delta 5 a sides.
Lying in the chalk marks where people committed suicide off the tower blocks.
Didn't realise at the time quite what it was all about. Surprising how little amount of blood is lost when committing that form of suicide.

golfaddick said:

PopIcon said:

I live in SE12, but Kidbrooke is my closest station. The Blackheath Quarter area is nice, loads of green space, plus both Cator and Sutcliffe Parks are on the doorstep. A new kids park opened up on the western side of Kidbrooke Park Road, which pretty much opposite the Depot.

Also a new bus, the 335 started running from Weigall road last year, goes through the Standard and up the o2.

I like it, its a vast improvement on what was there before. I personally think they could still do with extra transport links.

In this so called "Blackheath Quarter" is there a chippy ? A corner shop? A Costa  ? cashhpoint? Dare I say a GP surgery ?

No, yes, yes, yes, yes

If any of you have seen the Hoolie film, “the firm” lhe ferrier estate was used, as was the wat Tyler pub, it was also used in some scenes in the classic ray winstone film “nil by mouth”

It really brings it home the struggle to get a home House /flat when the prices are so awful.

My house is a pretty ordinary brick built 1910 3-bed detached with garage and pretty big garden. Quiet back street 1 mile from station, 2 miles from M1.  Bought in 2007. £90k, current value £100k. No significant profit, but I've not had to pay rent for all those years and can do what I want with it. Not seen as a good area, but there is very little crime and neighbours are great. 

When my dad bought his Sheffield house in 1976 it cost about 10% more than his house in Welling. Basically 3-bed semi swap. £12,500 or there about. Now Sheffield house would be worth around £275,000, no idea on a Welling semi (Budleigh Crescent).

London prices are so depressing for anyone starting out. A friend's daughter just bought a flat in a house in Deptford for £320k as a starter home. WTF. Soon nobody starting out on the ladder will be able to buy anything in the South East. It is a real problem. Especially for NHS staff, teachers, police, normal folks incomes.

The facilities in the area are improving. The former Homebase store is now an Aldi. Another gym has opened.

I was lucky back in 2000. I needed to move back to London. I found a 2 bedroom house in Red Lion Lane for £115,000.

Easy to a bus to Blackheath, Eltham or Woolwich for trains. Useful when services get disrupted. Walk to The Valley.

There are flats in the road which offer better value than apartments in the Royal Academy site.

My house has doubled in value.

The Prince-e-Paul said:

It really brings it home the struggle to get a home House /flat when the prices are so awful.

My house is a pretty ordinary brick built 1910 3-bed detached with garage and pretty big garden. Quiet back street 1 mile from station, 2 miles from M1.  Bought in 2007. £90k, current value £100k. No significant profit, but I've not had to pay rent for all those years and can do what I want with it. Not seen as a good area, but there is very little crime and neighbours are great. 

When my dad bought his Sheffield house in 1976 it cost about 10% more than his house in Welling. Basically 3-bed semi swap. £12,500 or there about. Now Sheffield house would be worth around £275,000, no idea on a Welling semi (Budleigh Crescent).

London prices are so depressing for anyone starting out. A friend's daughter just bought a flat in a house in Deptford for £320k as a starter home. WTF. Soon nobody starting out on the ladder will be able to buy anything in the South East. It is a real problem. Especially for NHS staff, teachers, police, normal folks incomes.

You need to see see past the headline number, I don't think it's that much different in buying your first place in London now compared to years gone by. It's always had it's difficulties whether thats interest rates in double digits, the need to save with a building society for a number of years before they'd allow you a mortgage, having to move into mid kent etc etc as my parents did (after renting a room with an aunt to save a deposit).

I think the harder part now for buyers is the deposit, so make the most of LISA's etc but it can be done.

London is very different to the vast majority of the country. My sister has a beautiful place in a nice part of Nottingham, down here would be £2m easy, she paid something like £360k in about 2006, probably barely worth £420k now and suspect she's spent more than £60k on it. London/SE see's the lions share of the capital gain, and also falls of course when they happen.

suzisausage said:

bobmunro said:

suzisausage said:

I feel like people have been saying for years that soon no one will be able to buy anything in the South East. but they still seem to be, even though prices have gone up so much. 
Our first flat in Lee was a 1 bed and was 180k.  That was a massive stretch for us on our 2 ok salaries. We couldn't have afforded Deptford or the other areas nearer to London we were originally wanting to move to.  When it came to selling that and buying a house, we had to move further out in order to afford a small 3 bed terrace house.  People are finding the money from somewhere which means the prices continue to rise. 

I suppose the big issue in London, as with some other parts of the country, is the affordability of housing local to the area where people were brought up or close enough to their workplaces - so are forced to look further out. But that was always the case.

We bought our first house in 1985, both worked in central London but even areas like Plumstead and Welling were out of our budget, or that our budget would only stretch to a pokey flat. So we moved to Kent, as did a lot of south London first time buyers. The commute was a nightmare but we managed to buy a house that offered so much more for the same money.

oh yes, absolutely - I guess it's hard to get my head around if I had 320k to spend on a place why not get a house even in zone 4/5 rather than a flat in zone 2?  We did the same in 2006 by buying our first flat in lee instead of staying in Sidcup, and work and social life was our priority. Someone I know bought their 3 bed house much further into Kent for the same price as our 1 bed flat at the same time and probably thought we were mad.  I guess it's the mindset changes when you get older. 
i want a bigger house now - and am weighing up the extension/moving pros and cons but the thought of moving is so awful, I don't think i can bear it. I think that's why I struggle to think of people buying expensive flats closer to London when i am reminded of the faff of moving! 

I know exactly what you mean. We have no intention of ever moving again!!

Rob7Lee said:

The Prince-e-Paul said:

It really brings it home the struggle to get a home House /flat when the prices are so awful.

My house is a pretty ordinary brick built 1910 3-bed detached with garage and pretty big garden. Quiet back street 1 mile from station, 2 miles from M1.  Bought in 2007. £90k, current value £100k. No significant profit, but I've not had to pay rent for all those years and can do what I want with it. Not seen as a good area, but there is very little crime and neighbours are great. 

When my dad bought his Sheffield house in 1976 it cost about 10% more than his house in Welling. Basically 3-bed semi swap. £12,500 or there about. Now Sheffield house would be worth around £275,000, no idea on a Welling semi (Budleigh Crescent).

London prices are so depressing for anyone starting out. A friend's daughter just bought a flat in a house in Deptford for £320k as a starter home. WTF. Soon nobody starting out on the ladder will be able to buy anything in the South East. It is a real problem. Especially for NHS staff, teachers, police, normal folks incomes.

You need to see see past the headline number, I don't think it's that much different in buying your first place in London now compared to years gone by. It's always had it's difficulties whether thats interest rates in double digits, the need to save with a building society for a number of years before they'd allow you a mortgage, having to move into mid kent etc etc as my parents did (after renting a room with an aunt to save a deposit).

I think the harder part now for buyers is the deposit, so make the most of LISA's etc but it can be done.

London is very different to the vast majority of the country. My sister has a beautiful place in a nice part of Nottingham, down here would be £2m easy, she paid something like £360k in about 2006, probably barely worth £420k now and suspect she's spent more than £60k on it. London/SE see's the lions share of the capital gain, and also falls of course when they happen.

Strange you mention Nottingham, as it's where I got onto the property ladder in the late 80s. A new build 1 bed flat for £19,500 close to the City centre, with a 100% mortgage! To AFKA's point, I soon experienced the pain of a 15% interest rate. After selling up 12 years later, I think I ended up with £5,000 profit after my wonderful endowment policy failed to pay off the full mortgage, but this formed a vital piece of our deposit on a 3 bed semi in a new estate just outside Blackheath, which cost £155k in 1995.  When we returned to London from our European travels in 2014, we looked at Blackheath again but had been priced out in the meantime (the local estate agents blamed overseas buyers, especially Russians, who had suddenly discovered the delights of SE London). We found we could get literally double the size of property for the same price just three miles further out, so did that instead. 

Anyway, @cantersaddick, the new Kidbrooke development reminds me a bit of the Blackheath/Lewisham borders estate we moved into in the mid-90s. It was probably the best financial decision we ever made (though the bar is set quite low on that).

BUT the biggest selling point of all is that you'd be within staggering distance of one of the most sociable cricket clubs on the planet where your cricketing comeback could only flourish under the captaincy of @PaddyP17 or yours truly. You know it makes sense.