Buying a House in Brighton - Possible/Sensible?

[StonehamPark]

What parts of Brighton are you looking at? Did not think there was a single house on sale for under £30k.

I'm guessing you meant £300k?
I had a quick scan on right move this afternoon looking at Hollingbury, Patcham and Coldean.
A few 2/3 beds for under £285,000.

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

I'm guessing you meant £300k?
I had a quick scan on right move this afternoon looking at Hollingbury, Patcham and Coldean.
A few 2/3 beds for under £285,000.

If I was you I would rather spend that sort of money on a two bed flat in central Hove/Brighton than a house on the outskirts. All depends on your circumstance and age I guess.

 

[BensGrandad]

My sister in law her husband and were looking at moving recently and said that Lancing is one of the cheaper places to buy in. They moved around the corner from where they were in Terringes Ave Worthing.

 

[BN9 BHA]

If I was you I would rather spend that sort of money on a two bed flat in central Hove/Brighton than a house on the outskirts. All depends on your circumstance and age I guess.

Thankyou Kirsty Allsop is that supposed to be good advice? £285,000 for a 2 bed flat, hmmmm.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

When you're working out your budget and trying to figure out what you can afford be honest with yourself. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you'll use minimal electric and gas etc, consider running costs for vehicles like tyres etc. It might sound obvious but it's too easy to think you can afford everything and mortgage yourself to the max, and then you're suddenly up the swanny when an unforeseen bill creeps up.

 

[Rogero]

Just going to say Shoreham myself. Great place to live.it is a bit cheaper and has good travel links. There is a good pub and restaurant scene and schools are good.you have the sea on one side and the downs for a good walk. I love it here.
Funnily enough one of the first things that I noticed was how flat it is out this way having lived on the hills of Brighton.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Just going to say Shoreham myself. Great place to live.it is a bit cheaper and has good travel links. There is a good pub and restaurant scene and schools are good.you have the sea on one side and the downs for a good walk. I love it here.
Funnily enough one of the first things that I noticed was how flat it is out this way having lived on the hills of Brighton.

I'll second that, I live on the border of Shoreham and Southwick on Kingston Lane. We've been here 3 years, very pleasant place to be.

 

[LamieRobertson]

We have a combined income of about 50k. Bought in Shoreham just before Christmas, flat on the river side of the beach, for under 200k. Had never considered Shoreham before but when we were looking found the equivalent in Brighton/Hove near the station to be at least 50k more. Love Shoreham now.

well done....u'd be lucky to get a place now....ive lived in Shoreham all my life and would loathe to leave

 

[Beach Hut]

Been in Shoreham for 20 plus years after re-patriation from Birmingham.

Very agreeable place to live and lots going on.

 

[HalifaxSeagull]

Ooop north you can still get value. My house is on the o/s of Halifax on the borders of the hills. Top
Notch schools, 30 mins from Leeds, 40 mins from Manc so loads of jobs etc. 4 bed detached in quiet area for £240k that would cost a fortune in Brighton!

That said, it's a bugger to get to the Amex!

 

[nicko31]

I remember an old school mate buying a 1 bedder in B'ton for £10k at auction in 1994, how things have changed.

The house price to local wage ratio must be amongst the highest in the UK...

 

[beorhthelm]

I feel quite sorry for young people who want to buy in Brighton, as they pretty much can't. A case in point, my 22 year old step-daughter who has lived in Brighton all her life has had to move to Horsham to buy a place with her boyfriend. Even though they are both in full time employment, they could probably have only just afforded a shed in Brighton, but got a very nice 2 bed flat in Horsham.

true, but no one in Brighton, or the south east for that matter wants to address the problem and build more properties.

We can get the same sized property up there for approx £175,000 but obviously the work (£££) is all down here.

so you pay more out in your mortgage. and it rather depends what your line of work/skills is, and whether the "work (£££)" is actually in Brighton. alot of the money in Brighton is of course in London, so you factor in £4-5k a year travel. in which case you start looking at the alternative commuter towns within 1-2hrs of London where you can get more property for your money than Brighton. and then consider if north of london might work for you. to be honest, on 45k combined, i dont think you have much hope of a sussex size mortgage unless you look at either small, flats, unfashionable areas. you might find you'll be better off in suburbs of London with the dramatically reduced travel costs, paying the mortgage instead.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

..

to be honest, on 45k combined, i dont think you have much hope of a sussex size mortgage unless you look at either small, flats, unfashionable areas.

45k and you can't buy in Brighton, jebus how times have changed..... Are young sussex folk getting priced out of their own county by London migrants like down in Devon and Cornwall.....

Shame....

My advise would be, for your joint income you could get a very very nice Range Rover and a caravan and I hear withdean or Preston park has space available at this time of year everones doing it.

 

[Weststander]

Why? Are you now doing vasectomies on the side?

 

[Mellotron]

When it came time for me and my wife to buy we could only get pretty horrible places in Brighton. For the same money we got far more space and a really nice place in Worthing.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I'm guessing you meant £300k?
I had a quick scan on right move this afternoon looking at Hollingbury, Patcham and Coldean.
A few 2/3 beds for under £285,000.

Are you willing to do work on a property ? If so it might be worth looking at Hangleton. I brought my place for £190k and spent £30k on it about 6 years ago. My neighbours bought theirs two years ago for £200k and have spent a similar amount on improving it.

There are lots of 1 and 2 bed bungalows with elderly people living in them. If you can be the first to the property when it goes on the market ( i.e. after they die ) then you can get a really good deal. Decent size homes with very big gardens. Get chatting to local estate agents and undertakers ( yes I know that sounds morbid and .... well ... wrong ) so that you are the first to know.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

true, but no one in Brighton, or the south east for that matter wants to address the problem and build more properties.

Not strictly true. A few years ago my brother and I had a property development business. We'd done quite a few successfully properties and so had backing from our bank with a substantial credit line. We started to look at new builds and conversions - funding no problem and finding sites no problem - what made us back off was the ridiculous numbers of hoops the council planning department made us jump through. We spent a fortune for no gain. So we went back to "do uppers". More housing is needed but until it's made easy to do the small property developers will not do it and to build the number we need small property developers have to be involved.

 

[Butch Willykins]

I reckon Housing will be one of the top three issues come the election in May, so I'd expect we'll hear more about potential schemes (such as help to buy) in the coming months. I'd imagine there will be some kind of assistance of first time buyers in the next parliment.

In the meantime, as others have said, speak to Uncle S. He was a massive help with my mortgage.

 

[pasty]

..

45k and you can't buy in Brighton, jebus how times have changed..... Are young sussex folk getting priced out of their own county by London migrants like down in Devon and Cornwall.....

Mental isn't it. I bought my first flat, a 2 bed, in Queens Park Road in about 1992 for £36K. When I sold it in 2001 to move in with my other half, I got £120K for it, and when we moved last year I happened to notice it was on the market again at £220K !!

Very nearly £200K increase in 11 years

 

[Springal]

Lack of new builds down here a problem. I work in Berkshire and nearly all my colleagues are moving in to new builds with help to buy, getting into £350k-£400k houses because of it, but we just don't have new builds going up