Alan Prout

Hi,

When you move back to the UK, where are you thinking of looking for property? Areas in the North are still fairly cheap and they're not all 'bad areas'.

I only ask because we have a gorgeous 5 Bed Edwardian semi-detached for sale on the East Coast for 170,000 GBP. Great for families/parties or even a B&B business which will give a very good income.

We have it advertised in the classifieds section of this site if you fancied taking a look.

Babs (Mrs P)

honeymommy

My knowledge of Pinner is countryside and fields. Rather upmarket, but that memory is from childhood.
Langley is ... Hmmmm... A bit sort of cross between a village and a town...(built up over the last 15 yrs). Well it has it's not do good areas, but has some really nice areas. I wasn't keen after being here 6 months, but that was mainly due to being in California with wide open spaces and beach. I can say I am happy here. There isn't a lot of trouble. The other side of town by the M4 has a few streets with asbo's, but it doesn't cause problems where we are. I haven't seen any trouble since being here. Our neighbours are nice, and the kids have nice friends. I find it quite central for London and Reading for shopping days out. Thorpe park just up the road, and best of all Windsor only 15mins by car or about the same by train plus the walk to the station. There are nice parks to go to as a family. The kids are members of the local golf club and go fishing nearby with their uncle to a stocked lake... Hubby commutes 20 mins to work near heathrow, and I work 5 mins away at a hospital... So I guess you could say it fits us well.

If I had a choice I would live outside a town, but thats not possible with 4 kids as school runs would be a nightmare.

Oh Northwood is about a 30 min commute from here, by the way..

Always21

Back to the subject of Interest Rates, the rise caused the exchange rate to jump to 1.9 US dollars to the pound. :scared: This is a nightmare a month before I move back! I can keep the money from the house sale in a US account until the rate is better, but will need to transfer several thousand right away to get set up with all the essentials. Unless this changes in the next few weeks I can expect to halve the figure I transfer.

BAY

Swings and roundabouts though isn't it ?

Prices may drop but with higher interest rates your monthly mortgage would remain the same. The only thing if prices drop would be that any deposit would go further.

eurotramp

Thats right...and we have a pretty good deposit

AtlantaJohn

Not in rush hour, my parents live in Moor Park right by Northwood and the Nato base. When I stayed with them last month while working in Teddington it was taking over an hour just to get on the the M25 some mornings (3 miles). It can take half an hour to turn right by the green man pub in Moor Park if you know it. Total drive time was 3 hours one day to get home leaving at 3 seriously for a distance of 12 miles!

AtlantaJohn

You know being born in the area you are looking at I would imagine it will be one of the last places to drop unfortunatly. I can see the surronding parts of Watford and Harrow etc dropping but not Pinner, Rickmansworth, Northwood, Moor Park etc. Too many cash buyers, overseas buyers and rich people already living there who wont be affected by a point or 2 interest rate movement. I not saying it won't eventually but it may be a lot more resilient than othe areas. As a matter of interest my parents neighbours consitently rent a 4 bed house in Moor Park to Nato personel on two years contracts and are very happy with the deal.

eurotramp

Moor Park eh...yeah right ...I bed they are I really dont want to know how much they charging them...but..what do they do if the camp is closing down?
Hubby is a civilian working as a IT Manager in Northwood camp and in 2007 there will be a big review in all the NATO Headquarter and there is talk that they maybe closing all but 3 down

Very depressing they fact that we cant buy anything decent at the moment and I refuse to buy something I'm not happy with.

Moor park is so far of the scale that I would have to win the Lotto even for renting

The traffic is exactly the reason, that there is no point to move outside the M25....

Anne18

From someone trying to sell in the Midlands interest increase totally annoying!!! Prices are not rising here for resales only new builds. Market is dead.

eurotramp

Sorry...but every property sells for the right price.
Why must be a market death..only because prices are not rising....did they not rise enough in the last ten years

BAY

Agree. The value of something is the price that someone is willing to pay, not what you demand it to be. Just keep dropping the price until someone agrees to pay it then you find what the value of your house is

AtlantaJohn

Not sure how big a place you are looking for but what do you think about Rickmansworth especially in the old town part?

Wow if they downsize the camp it will hurt the area however a lot of Americans that we know in Moor Park commute into London and work at the Embassy etc. Seems like the whole area up to Amersham and Gerrards Cross is very popular with Americans working in the city.

Anne18

Nothing to do with right price in our case, we have had 4 buyers, current one in chain, others could not raise finance or frightened by solicitors in regard to Grade II listing. Property was valued by 4 agents and on market well below their assessment. Obviously have been watching market in this area, a large number of properties have been on the market for over a year and they have dropped their prices. I would agree a lot are overpriced to begin with but main problem when selling you have a lot of people putting in offers 50 -100K below asking price! Bottom end of market prices are all over the place, new build house we sold 18 months ago is at same price now and same for similar properties in the area, older 3 bed semis have gone up £5 - 10K in 2 years - certain areas only, new developments seem to be selling mostly due to incentives and buy to let market and their prices have risen.

Best of it is we are 1 hr by mainline train from London and takes 2 hours by car to Oxford Street!

eurotramp

If they close the NATO headquarter...the camp will be still there, but just a normal British army camp and they dont rent from civilians....but still all the Ami's from London left for melking ...

I would like a 3 double bed..or 4 bed with a garage and a decent size garden in a quit area...thats all....but no more than 350k

AtlantaJohn

Its pretty difficult to get anything fitting that description thats detached under about 500 these days thats an easy commute to Northwood and in a nice area. Even excouncils in places like South Oxhey are heading towards 300! Maybe something in Croxley Green or Oxhey Village may just squeak into that range?