On 03/12/2019 11:05, whisky-dave wrote:
Depending on what you mean by plenty.
What do you mean by plenty can you show at least 3 properties in London that
a typical graduate on their first job can afford to buy a do up as a DIY project while working full time.



I moved to LOndon in Oct 1974 to work in the path labs of one of
the teaching hospitals, as a basic grade medical lab technician,
having just passed my HNC in med lab sciences and was paid £1,800
a year.

In those days rental flats were either very expensive upmarket
properties, or 'furnished accommodation', still expensive and
almost impossible to get one.

So most people resorted to flat sharing. This involved waiting
down one of the side roads off Fleet St at 10 AM to grab the
first daily print run of the Evening Standard, and then taking
part in that well known Olympic sport, getting to the first
available callbox (that worked) to start phoning the advert
numbers. This of course needed a bag full of coins, and a day
off work. No mobile phones in those days. Also no oyster cards
so getting to places to view flat-shares, and tube fares were
comparatively more expensive then (from recollection).

I was lucky and got a room with two crazy females with two
even more crazy cats. Apparently I was the only applicant
(there were about 30) to ask to see the pussys. (Cats !).

This flat was unfurnished, owned by the CofE and one of the
'girls' had got the tenancy some years before. At that time
CofE practice was to sell them when they became vacant, but
I think £30K was the going rate for a flat in that location
in 1974. I was VERY lucky to get a place there (W9).

So, nothing has changed. I could not possibly afford to buy
anywhere in 'London', and places like Brixton, Hackney, Kilburn,
the Old Kent Road, most of East London, Notting Hill,the entire
areas around Kings X or between 'South Chelsea' and East Croydon,
were the places that only the brave visited after dark.

Rent a flat or buy a flat there - madness, and anyway, house prices
and Londons population were falling in the 70's and the exodus
only stopped in about 1984/6 as banking deregulation started,
when docklands started to change from dereliction and slums to
glitzy tower blocks and the DLR.

Now there is a vast range of rental properties available which
weren't available in the 70's, but buying them is expensive.

Remember it was Nulab and G Brown who presided over the mother
of all housing booms between 1999 and 2007, during which time
they built zero council houses (preferring to leave that to
private developers and housing associations). They also put no
barriers in the way of overseas buyers with bags of cash buying
London properties, then selling at huge profit and paying no CGT
because, being non-resident for tax, CGT did not apply !

His BBC Labour Lordship Sir Alan Sugar made about £400 million in
property speculation during this period. More than he ever made
selling electronic junk. I wonder if he will vote for Corbyn ?.