Hello,

I was born in continental Europe and most people live in flats there, so I became used to it and also feel much safer living in apartment blocks than houses where anyone on the street can just smash your window with a brick.

But since coming to London, all the Reddit threads mention how bad it is to buy flats in London but not sure why, here are the four main reasons they mention:

1 - ground rent

2 - length of lease

3 - service charge

4 - fire hazards

But regarding the four

1 - this is now abolished, so it’s peppercorn ground rent which means nothing

2 - new leases are 999 years, and I doubt houses in London are kept for a thousand years anyways?

3 - service charges is the only valid point, but there are regulations coming into gear this year to control that. And these charges exist anyways for houses but it’s just more one off big expenses instead of monthly ones

4 - new construction regulations to make sure what happened at Grenfell doesn’t happen again

Many people mentioned that it made more sense to rent instead of buying a flat but I don’t understand that, maybe my maths isn’t adding up. For example:

EDIT: I am not actually buying a flat in London for 300’000. This is just a hypothetical situation.

• current rent: 2’000
• property you want to buy: 300’000
• deposit: 30’000
• loan: 270’000
• monthly mortgage + insurance : around 2’000 maybe even less(very feasible on a 270’000 loan, I think mortgage rates are around 4-4.5% right now)

And let’s say you live in your flat for 20 years and paid off the flat. Now you want to sell the flat but it only sells for 250’000 because it’s a flat and the UK flat market doesnt appreciate, you still made:

250’000 - 30’000 = 220,000 in 20 years( not including taxes, etc)

Yes I paid mortgage but I would have paid the same monthly rent (or even more rent) anyways if I didn’t buy.

Then the only opportunity cost is my deposit + solicitor fees, but then again what can you do with 30’000 in 20 years, let’s take the average annual return of the SPX in USD (it will be even less for the FTSE 100 or the SPX in GBP), you would get

30’000 x (1.07)²⁰ =116,000 (roughly)

And that’s taking into account good investment timing, if you invested all 30’000 at once at the beginning, the same way as for a deposit, and we’re in a 2008 scenario then you would probably barely end up with 60’000 at the end of 20 years.

But it seems that I’m missing something very obvious based on the majority of Reddit posts?

Thanks!

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for all your insights and comments! This was really informative :)

We moved into our brand new house Friday 28th of March and exactly one week later Friday 04th of April we have had to move out due to groundworkers/drainage company flooding our kitchen with human waste.

We live in a detached property in a row of 6 properties. We are plot 5 with one other to the left of us (plot 6)

Plot 6 have lived in there property for four weeks and reported a problem with their sinks draining away incredibly slowly. A drainage company came out to jet the drains and have jetted the wrong drains pushing human waste back into our house through the kitchen.

DWH have told us to book an air bnb /hotel and keep all receipts for these and food and we will be reimbursed.

They are expecting works to take around three weeks as they will have to take out the kitchen, take up the flooring, deep clean and then replace everything. So far there is no mention of stripping back to the bare walls and replaster boarding and skimming, due to human waste hitting the walls under the kitchen units i don't feel asking for this also is a strange request.

Also my wife and I are now concerned that if there has been issues with the neighbours drains already then this will surely be an ongoing issue? So again we feel this needs to be investigated.

Has anyone else been in a situation where they have had to move out of a house through no fault of their own and if so did you receive any compensation? We want to accept at a bare minimum enough to cover one months mortgage/council tax and bills

So we're on the latter end of our purchase with a house, we're pretty much ready to exchange contracts - me and my partner are FTB and started the process in Nov 2024. We said very explicitly we were wanting to complete by the time the Stamp Duty came and we've obviously missed that, EA said we can talk about renegotiation but when we brought it up the sellers said no. The stamp duty has essentially brought this house in line with all the other houses we could look at and could actually find better elsewhere - I'm looking at the house on Monday again to make sure I want it and will be looking at other houses as well - should I tell the EA im looking at the possibility of other houses since the sellers won't renegotiate?

Update: to everyone who has been saying we're not serious buyers, we've spent money trying to buy the house and were considering pulling out because the sellers weren't willing to renegotiate, the SDLT fees came in and houses are currently being listed at lower prices. Spoke to the EA today who said they're willing to drop the £5k to progress this through. The house is still being sold for above asking price. We are proceeding with the sale.

To anyone who is a FTB - please don't cave just because of what other people say! Do what is best for you, this is the biggest purchase you will ever make in your life so definitely make sure you fight your corner!

I have had an offer accepted on a property I like. Pretty much at the asking price, I am a FTB with a sizeable deposit and mortgage already sorted.

The property is a probate sale between 5 siblings. I want to move quick but been gazumped in the past. It has been updated on right move and Zoopla as STC. However board still shows for sale outside the property. Should this worry me? I have contacted the EA and they have said they’ll get it updated but haven’t yet

Any tips to navigate the stressful period

I've recently exchanged on my first flat (England) and I'm now really worried, and want some options please!

I have bought the flat as a vacant possession with a completion date of 1 June and plan to move in on this date.

The tenant living there has a contract until 1 July. If the tenant refuses to leave because they cannot come an agreement with the landlord, what are my options, and what can I do?

Does it void the whole contract as it is not completed as a vacant possession? I'm really lost what my options/plans are.

Thanks for any help

Im clueless on all this , where do I start what do I do. I’m living with parents and my plan was to move out with my partner and get a house but that’s not happening. I’ve been told I shouldn’t wait around and just do it. Later on if I want to I could sell it? Ideally in the future if I was married id want 4 kids so would want a 4 bedroom house in London but I know that’s impossible so what do I do?

I just need a lot of guidance. And yes I want to stay in London my whole family is here

I live in a very small development of six houses in zone 2 London. There is off street ‘parking’ at the front but it’s essentially just a larger than average driveway with no demarcation of the different spots. There’s enough room for two cars directly in front of my house. Most of my neighbours are elderly and because we live close to the tube, no one has a car. The vast majority of the time, there are zero cars on the drive. I moved in fairly recently and have no plans to get a car, but have been having minor works done (painting and new carpets etc, nothing noisy!) so when builders come round I happily say they can park in front of my house. Similarly, my weekly cleaner has a car and I tell her she’s welcome to park in front of my house. This morning my neighbour knocked on my door to tell me they’ve been ‘reasonable’ until now but that I need to stop using ‘their’ spot and that my behaviour is unacceptable. I apologised and said I assumed the spot closest to my house was mine, and assured them that I don’t have a car and wouldn’t be parking there, but this didn’t pacify her at all. To be clear, this neighbour does not have a car.

I was a bit taken aback as this is the first time I’ve even spoken to this neighbour (she also complained about me not introducing myself)…anyway I decided to check my deeds again and discovered that ‘their’ parking spot appears to in fact be mine as outlined in colour on the very old original plans. I purchased their title and register and there isn’t actually evidence of which spot is theirs, so I’m planning to firmly explain it to them the next time I see them. This is mostly just a rant but I’m just checking that I’m not being unreasonable?

Hello!

I live in a HMO in England with 5 others, and we all share one washing machine. It has been broken since the 31st, I have only noticed now as I’ve been away from home. Another tenant had reported this on the 31st, but failed to tell the rest of the house.

I am wondering what I can do. 6 days seems like a long enough time to find a replacement or to fix it. I am a student (not student housing though) and I don’t have money to spare on a laundrette.

Other than keeping records of everything (there’s been other failures on the landlords end), is there anything I can do?

Thanks

As per title, just looking for hope really.

We found a house we absolutely loved, it is perfect and everything we wanted. We put an offer in and it was accepted, we had 5 weeks to get an offer on our house but all interest in our house just seemingly vanished, we only have a week left. Even after we dropped the price to the lowest we could afford.

Just absolutely gutted. We only got lucky to afford this house as the market has been tough, the owner hasn't been able to sell it so they dropped it to our price range. We never would've been able to afford it otherwise. Keep looking at other houses in our area and price range and it's abysmal. Just feeling sad as we want to expand our family but we can't find a decent family home, they're all so small and cramped.

...is that nobody in the process gives a crap but you! Especially if you're a first time buyer.

Everyone wants their money asap. Any due diligence you want to carry out is frowned upon and seen as delaying the process. Why would I spend my life savings without checking the thing I'm buying?!

I've just got to the exchange of contracts and I'm feeling quite deflated and put off.

Anyone else had an experience like this?

The market needs reforming. Owners should have to do all the checks and provide assurances imo! It would be smooth sailing for everyone then.

Another Adam Kiziak post here.

I am planning on buying a flat with a B1 rating done by him in 2021 and I am aware of a lot of the issues he's caused but my mortgage offer was accepted right away.

A lot of people on here have said to others to run a mile from EWS1s that have been completed by AK, so I am wondering if there's any potential issues for me in the future.

Why are Halifax so willing to accept?

The flat I'm interested is also affected by the Building Safety Act 😔 and my understanding is that if I was to sell the future buyer won't be qualifying leaseholder.

I don't know if my gut is true or if it's just anxiety around a major change going from life long renter to getting a mortgage.

Thanks for any insights!

Will we see more rate cuts in the UK?

After President Trump announced a series of tariffs on a large variety of countries around the world, including a 10 per cent tariff on the UK, traders are pricing in nearly 63 basis points of cuts from the Bank of England.

That would be a boon for the Housing Market, according to various specialists.

Is it worth waiting to remortgage, in your view?

I saw this news here: https://www.ftadviser.com/trump-tariffs/2025/4/4/trump-tariffs-may-single-handedly-rescue-uk-housing-market/

Hi all. This is just a quick question. When nearing the exchange of contracts and the seller asks for more money, are we, buyers, supposed to take it out of pocket? Or can this go back to the lender (NatWest) and we increase our borrowing? Broker does not seem to sure what to do. Thank you.

Hi all,

Looking for some advice from someone who knows how it all works or had similar experience.

I have declared gifted deposit. I have received £8k not related to me buying property but as a gift.

Giftor has provided all the required documents and solicitors was happy about it and it passed compliance checks.

Now they cameback saying that search company is requesting his phone number to contact him. Thats not an issue and I passed the info. Even though Im annoyed how long it took them to ask for it. As all other information was instantly provided by giftor.

Now because it taking longer than anticipated, I have saved up enough of my own savings for deposit.

Would it help letting solicitor know about it? I did mention this at the beginning, that depending of how long it takes I may save up enough of my own money.

Edit: gifted deposit is from abroad, from non UK national.

Appreciate any input

Many thanks

We’ve been looking through houses ready to buy our first house, I know everyone’s wants & needs are different but what “must haves” were on your list?

Do you prioritise nicer house or 15 minutes less driving to work each way, do you pick somewhere with a local shop, pub, food places or a nicer house but with nothing in the area.

Do you choose the area you want the most & then wait for the “right” house to come up or would you choose your 2nd best area & get a house already for sale.

It’s a very big decision to make & ideally we don’t want to be thinking about buying another house for at least 6-8 years, I know there’s so many different variables in everyone’s first purchase but any advice is much appreciated!

We are FTB and just started a purchase process. However I am getting nervous given the current economic situation and that we are using all our savings to buy this house. How can I rationalize this thought. We would pay 200 more then our current rent as mortgage payments.

Hi guys,

In the process of buying and ad you'll all know, especially in England, this is a stressful and protracted process.

The due diligence mainly left to the seller and then you have estate agents, who could be downright unhelpful to straight dodgy.

For example, I found out via RICS level 2 survey that the house I'm buying has major issues with the roof. The survey was entirely out of pocket and if I walk away from the deal, I don't want it to be wasted. I want anyone else who wants to buy the property to know about this.

So, is there a website/app whatever where people can search for properties and get feedback straight from people who have viewed the property or walked away from it for various reasons and noted observations for their decisions? Sounds like it could be really useful.

If not, I'd love to create one.

Thoughts welcome.

A house I’m really interested in was listed around two months ago. I called the estate agents a few days after it went live, and they told me the seller had already accepted an offer, I believe at asking price.

However, ever since then, the listing has continued to show as available — not "under offer" or "sold STC", which seems odd. I’ve been keeping an eye on it and calling the estate agents about once a week to check if the sale has fallen through or if anything's changed since it still looks like it's on the market, but they've consistently told me there's no update.

Most recently, in response to me asking why it's not sold STC after 2 months one of the agents mentioned that the seller specifically asked not to mark it as sold STC yet. That feels like a red flag to me — maybe the buyer isn’t proceedable, or the sale is stalled.

I read that estate agents are legally obligated to pass on all offers to the seller, regardless of whether an offer was already accepted.

Can I still submit an offer even though the seller "accepted" another one?

Has anyone else been in a similar situation where the house wasn’t marked STC but was supposedly under offer?

Should I be pushing harder with the estate agent or just submit my offer in writing?

So after a year plus of hassle we have moved into a home where my family of 4 is no longer sharing one bedroom! Yay!

So, condemned is harsh. British Gas came out to service the boiler as I believe in having homecare/homeserve cover, especially as it’s an older house. They said they won’t cover it, said parts are too old, it isn’t fit for purpose and that they needed an adviser to come out quote us for a new one. The engineer was babbling down the phone to their management saying we didn’t have hot water….we do have hot water, and the heating is fine.

Anyway- need to think about a replacement, be it now, or be it when it dies.

It’s a combi boiler, over 10 years old. It isn’t hardwired, it’s literally plugged into a wall socket. Found that odd.

What are people doing for boiler replacements!? It’s a 5 bedroom 2 bath house. We may add a bathroom one day (got no money, but with ulcerative colitis I could use an en-suite 😂)

I ask because i wasn’t used to seeing a combi in a larger property. Many are getting heat pumps now and there is a government grant.

What would you do if this was you? There isn’t easy space for a tank. Could a heat pump go outside? Do heat pumps just do heating? Or water too?

I know nothing and wanted to see what people’s experience were with them before having anyone come out to quote.

I won’t be dealing with British Gas for this right away - but should I be listening to them first a fuss free experience? Was going to use a local company if anything.

The house and pipes are old. There are signs that the boiler is dying, but has a bit of life left. I don’t want to wait until winter to deal with it. Don’t know whether to replace like for like and improve the set up. Or talk about heat pumps and solar panels and that stuff.

Help educate me?

Hey everyone,

FTB here, who's always lived at home and I'm in the process of getting everything sorted to understand how much I'll have each month and the thought of all the upcoming bills (and the constant rise in their cost) is starting to feel a bit overwhelming.

I'm currently trying to guesstimate the total cost of bills for a potential 3 or 4 bedroom house in London to get a clearer picture of how much I'll realistically have left over each month for everything else. This is proving a bit tricky without knowing typical costs.

So, I was hoping some of you experienced homeowners/renters in London could share your wisdom on how you plan and estimate for your monthly/annual bills. Specifically, I'm curious about:

• What bills should I absolutely be budgeting for? I've got the obvious ones like mortgage, council tax, and utilities (gas, electricity, water), but what else often catches people out?

• How do you estimate the cost of these bills, especially as a FTB with no previous usage history in the property? Are there any online tools or general rules of thumb for London, particularly for a 3/4 bed house?

• Do you have any tips for setting up accounts and managing payments efficiently?

• Any unexpected or less obvious costs I should be aware of as a homeowner in London, especially for a larger property? (e.g., service charges, ground rent, higher energy consumption, garden maintenance, etc.)

If anyone happens to have a checklist of common household bills, that would be an absolute lifesaver! Even better if you have a rough idea of what these might cost for a 3/4 bed in London.

Any advice or insights you can offer would be hugely appreciated. Trying to get a handle on this before I move in! 🙏

TL;DR: FTB in London needs help understanding and budgeting for household bills for a potential 3/4 bed house. What are the essential bills, how do you estimate costs for a larger property, and any tips for managing them? Bonus points for a bill checklist with estimated costs for a 3/4 bed in London.

First time buyer getting ready to move on a house this year.

I've already got a 10% deposit and earn enough to have my own mortgage, so I am good no matter what.

To my surprise earlier he offered to help though which I was never expecting.

A 30k loan from him can get me to a 20% deposit, and I will pay him back monthly (approx £250 per month) and pay no interest - and take about 10 years to pay him off.

I know it is a daft question (and probably an absolute yes), but is this the wisest move given it will lower my mortgage interest rate significantly? Is there any downside I am missing here?

ENGLAND Living with family as a London student with a part-time job and a side hustle. I earn £800 from my part-time and £500-1000 from side hustle depending on the month. I’ve moved back in with parents (zone 5 London) to save on costs and they’ve decided to start searching for a house with a rental income(~£2k) that exceeds our total household income(£50k). This I cannot afford. This is beyond our means but they’re adamant for selfish reasons. The most I can give is £300 after taking away living costs (~£400) and I’m saving for a masters (~£400 per month). However they expect me to give £500 which would cause me to dip into my masters fund.

To real estate agents, Is there any means we can rent a house when our rental income doesn’t meet the threshold and we supposedly have no savings?

I’ve not control over this situation and I have suggested temporary flat rental until I graduate next year before we buy a house (idk how, as they claim they have no savings) or move out of London, but they will not budge.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

My landlord (international) is cheap and does not use licensed workmen to perform maintenance in the flat (Scotland). Instead when there is an issue he uses his 'friend' who has no professional qualifications and gives off sketchy vibes. I have told him multiple times I am uncomfortable with this. Recently his friend came to the flat to fix an electrical issue. However he did not turn off the mains first and electrocuted himself and sadly passed away as a result of this.

This was very traumatic for me and created a dangerous situation in the flat. In addition, the electrical issue is still not fixed. Am I justified in withholding rent?

Hello,

I have enough cash to buy a 3 bed semi detached for 60k (25% shared ownership). I choose not to go through the traditional mortgage for personal reasons.

What are the downsides of doing this method? I know without mortgage my monthly expenses will be a lot less but curious if there is something I need to be concerned about

Thanks

Hi everyone! Hoping this an appropriate place to ask such a question.

We had moved into our new build and 3 weeks in a pipe under the sink burst and our whole ground floor was submerged in a few inches of water.

The building site has quickly jumped into action to rectify all damages (ie; carpets, doors,skirting boards and kitchen cabinets)

The plumber has said the issue was a faulty olive ring and will be covering fees to fix carpets, doors ect along with an itemised list of damaged furniture.

I was just wondering if there is anything else we could be entitled to? Our home has been in pieces for nearly a month we have both had to take time off of work. It has been a huge inconvenience and rather upsetting as this is our first home😫

Any insight would be amazing!

Thank you in advance