Tagged: Croydon

Well, I’ve made it to one year of living in Croydon. Well, a little bit more. I’m not in Croydon through choice. Living in London on a fairly decent wage, but having no wealth, means you have a choice for your first home – a scuzzy flat in a half-decent area or a good flat in a more questionable area. That choice is assuming you want to own outright, as I did – there are government schemes also. But I saw enough of Croydon to think I could make a decent go of it here. OK, I appreciated the transport …

Yowsers, it is already a year of owning a flat – or at least owning a mortgage on a flat. The difference it has made to my life, and my level of happiness is quite notable. I don’t want to moan about house-sharing, but gosh it is nice to be able to wake up and put my music on without fear. Simple things. And, oh my, the amount of fridge space I have…no more fridge tetris! I’m nowhere near finished having transformed the flat into my home, hell, I don’t even have a name for it yet. But I’ve come …

Another one of those posts that I meant to write a long time ago – like 4 months ago, but hey, Welcome to Croydon. I arrived in November, after living in the south of Spain for nearly a month. Once the initial wonder of actually having my own place settled in, albeit I’d had my own place(s) in Spain for the previous month, I was wondering around in the cold and dark, wondering what kind of place Croydon was. I was a little unnerved – appreciating the M&S within walking distance, but really missing Spain. Christ, what am I doing …

You may have gathered that I’ve been busy looking for a flat to buy. So I thought I’d write about my options – maybe you are interested, and writing tends to help me. Before I go on. I do like Croydon. Seriously. No, I do not want to move to Reading, Hull, Spain (well I do but cannot leave family really), Crystal Palace, Brighton, Redhill, Woking, Kent and all the other places kindly suggested to me that are not London. And nor do I want to run a management company looking after 300 flats. Yep, service charges are a pain …

From Bracknell to Harrow and then Croydon? Why the hell am I even considering Croydon? Let’s back up a bit. I want my own place. Preferably I want to live in Marylebone. If not, then Hampstead. If not, then Hackney Wick. If not then Walthamstow. There’s a problem here. The average price for a flat in Marylebone is £1,551,010.The average price for a flat in Hampstead is £946,658.The average price for a flat in Hackney Wick is £489,164 (getting closer!).The average price for a flat in Walthamstow is £393,681. Oh yeah, and my budget is £250,000. This is worked out …