Not much has happened on the house search this week. A few set backs, a rubbish mortgage advisor and a search of a few more areas of possibility.
Our rubbish mortgage advisor C, - soon to be replaced - informed us this week of restrictions on the type of mortgage we want. After we have already put in an offer and had it accepted on a good flat in Bermondsey. Great. We’re waiting to hear back at the moment whether we can proceed or not.
The problem is mortgage companies are very cagey of lending on ex-LA properties and impose some hefty restrictions on the property type:
Not over seven floors (regardless of what floor the flat is on)
No concrete slab construction
Must have a a private gated entrance / entry system
Ground floor very iffy
Block must be over 60% owner occupied
So all those cheap (a relative term in London) large flats in Zone One and Two that we thought yippee about? Think again buster.
On Thursday night after much discussion we went and had a look at flats round Old Street. It still fulfills our commute criteria and as an area that is further up the ‘up and coming scale’ more likely to have ex-LA blocks with more owner occupiers. A friend bought a lovely flat behind Moorfields Eye Hospital, a two bed with ‘Manhattan penthouse-like’ views, just a couple of years ago and it looks like a yuppie loft now. All for £165K.
*insert big sigh here*
Needless to say the flats were horrid (the Foxtons woman showed us nothing in the area we actually wanted but further afield.) Bermondsey seemed safer somehow.
*insert another big sigh*
We had another pow-wow in ‘Canteloupe’ on Charlotte Road (over a very nice dessert wine which tasted like liquid Christmas Pudding) and thought of yet another area to live that would please the mortgage company: an entirely private, very posh, gated development that I used to live in with my major ex. If we can find a flat in the development that we can afford that is bigger than our current flat we will probably buy it. Sadly, a roomy two bed in SE1 now looks like a shoe box one bed in E3. Woe.
Tomorrow we are going to see a one bed in said gated development, and guess what?
It’s on the same floor and in the same building as my ex and his new fiancée live.
The viewing may prove interesting.
June 30th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
Eek - would you really want to live there, though, however gorgeous it was?
July 1st, 2006 at 10:30 am
Good luck, keep looking, you’ll find somewhere.
July 1st, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Eek again. Even if it was gorgeous…
July 1st, 2006 at 7:55 pm
as if house hunting weren’t hard enough….
July 2nd, 2006 at 1:42 am
When I was hunting for my first place I saw some very seedy flats that looked very nice outside. A few that were firly decent ones had recently been used as smoking dens, (or maybe the old tenant was a smoker heheh ), and would need decorating to get rid of the stench!
Good luck in finding somewhere!
July 2nd, 2006 at 9:19 am
Yep Heather the mortgage companies have a lot of ‘power’ when it comes to buying anything slightly off the norm. It’s silly as a larger percentage of people (especially first time buyers) are buying ex-LA. With London as expensive as it is sometimes it’s the only option.
Well you’ll be pleased to know the private development of majo- ex is as gorgeous as ever. However that particular flat (a mere 4 doors down the corridor from my old flat) was horrid and way over priced.
July 2nd, 2006 at 9:37 am
Phew. Well that’s one decision made easy, then.
July 3rd, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Alas. Sympathy. Will be interested to hear how the viewing goes..
July 4th, 2006 at 9:25 am
If you need a new financial adviser, I can give you the number of mine - he’s lovely.
Good luck with the viewing and work…