studio flat? would you buy one?

[Yellow Fang]

I suspect the answer to the OP's problem is called Portslade, or Southwick, or Shoreham.

I 'owned' briefly a studio flat in B'ton in early 84's, the lovely Helen and I were then, from '85 onwards, pleased to call a one-bedroom flat in Bloomsbury Place, Kemptown, home for a few years. The last time it sold, a couple of years back it went for more than I paid for a five bedroom house in the 'sham and I would not have been able to afford to buy it. Half of H's family live there and can't afford to move to bigger places because the market is just bonkers.

Brighton and Hove property prices are, frankly, nuts. Completely crazy. Are there any decent part-rental part-purchase schemes on offer down there.

Shoreham and Southwick are quite nice from what I remember. I wasn't keen on Lancing. Portslade's slightly rough, though TBH not bad. It's not like Mouslecoombe.

I'm one up from a studio: a one bed flat. TBH I don't spend much time in the living room. It's mostly a clothes drying and watching breakfast TV room. The only advantage of a one bed flat over a studio probably is if you have a guest staying, and that's not a particularly great advantage.

 

[biggs682]

looked at flats a long tine ago and the 1 big thing that i disliked was the lack of a private garden if a garden at all

 

[ASC1951]

. I know I could look at getting somewhere further afield, and cheaper, but I really do want to stay here. I don't really want to carry on renting, as renting costs are so high. To rent a studio here costs around £550-£625 for a half decent one. Not sure how this compares to elsewhere, but to me, that is a lot of money just for rent.

I hope Hove has attractions that make those rents worthwhile - for £550-625 a month you could rent a very nice three bed semi in most parts of Yorkshire, and be surrounded by some of the best cycling terrain.
You can have a much higher standard of living up here on the same income. Provided you have a job, of course, which are a tad thinner on the ground.

I wouldn't buy a studio flat. The market for them is much more volatile and you get less for your money than with any other sort of accommodation, never mind the additional problems of shared accessways and the deficiencies of ground landlords.

 

[brockers]

It might be worthwhile if you can get one with a garden (they do exist), but otherwise I'd worry you'd feel trapped/claustrophobic if you bought. Those prices are not far short of south London's (and the salaries are obviously higher here, and you don't have the £3500 to fork out on a season ticket if you're forced to work in London either).

I've considered selling my flat near Lewisham for some time and maybe buying a studio for a couple of years in a nicer part of town, but there'd be nowhere to put all the toys and tools now.

Funnily enough, I went for a quick spin on my motorbike down to Brighton today (the beach was almost heaving!), stopping off at Lewes via Moolescoomb before caning back in on the A22. I still have a mind to move down that way too..

 

[Bigsharn]

glad somebody else has commented that a studio flat is just a bedsit.

Pity nobody's commented that there's no such thing as a flat anymore, they're all "apartments".

 

[Arch]

It seems that I live in a studio flat then, if you mean bedsit! I rent, I don't know that I'd bother to buy one, unless I was wealthy enough to have a second/holiday home, which I don't approve of anyway.

I don't know if my rent is expensive, all I care is that I can afford it (just) and it allows me to live on my own rather than sharing a house, which I did my share of as a student. I won't be looking to move from here until we're ready for me to move in with NT.

For the moment, there's enough space for me, and for NT on alternate weekends. It could be tidier, but I'm a horder in the process of setting myself up in a little business. I don't have a garden or parking space, but I'm a couple of hundred yards from a nice park, and I do have a view (albeit partial, and currently covered in scaffolding) of York Minster, plus I'm bang in the city centre and yet on a quiet little street.

 

[Noodley]

I'm desperate to buy, but unfortunately don't have the funds...

God bless Maggie Thatcher!

I really cannot understand how people can be "desperate" to buy a house

 

[threebikesmcginty]

It seems that I live in a studio flat then...It could be tidier...

Let's just focus on that statement in isolation.

 

[Noodley]

...I don't know that I'd bother to buy one, unless I was wealthy enough to have a second/holiday home, which I don't approve of anyway...

Eh?

You'd only consider buying one place to live if you could afford to buy two, and one of them would be solely for holidays; but you don't approve of that. So, does that mean that once you can afford to buy two places to live that you will buy one? But you won't buy the second one.

 

[Archie_tect]

Calm down dear, it's only hypothetical.

 

[joanna]

thanks for all your comments. You have confirmed what I was already thinking. I'll have to review my options, and areas to look at I think! Have a great weekend and thanks again.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

After York of course :-)

Sorry to disappoint but iirc Winchester scooped the top spot.

 

[rich p]

Sorry to disappoint but iirc Winchester scooped the top spot.

But, but, but....Greg.....how can I put this?

Horsham's a dump isn't it !

 

[GrumpyGregry]

But, but, but....Greg.....how can I put this?

Horsham's a dump isn't it !

How is it Dell puts it? A small town that has slopped over its edges? LOL

I like it though. We have an entire cell of Taliban Wheelers up here too.

 

[rich p]

My business partner lives there and likes it too. Better than Crawley anyhow!