WhyWaitForever - London - Property

Homes in central or easy travel locations

Property in London, as it is elsewhere, is about location, location, location. In 2000 CE the average house price in London is £185,000 ( €260,000 ) . The average house price in the City of Westminster or the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is £500,000 ( €740,000 ) . Information on property prices can be found on Property Prices .

The postcode of the property is useful in finding both the location of the property and the desirability of the area where the postcode is located. The most desirable areas of London have not changed since Victorian times. These are W1, SW1 and NW1. The Royal Mail Postcodes On-line link can be used for finding addresses from postcodes and vice versa.

Developers of Homes

Developers have a number of projects on the go. London is constantly being redeveloped. It is likely that some of the developments will be in the more desirable locations. Buying as early as possble (even when still at the stage of drawings and a hole in the ground) can sometimes have a number of advantages not least the price.

Estate Agents

London has a full range of homes available. Flats and apartments (never condominiums or condos) are homes in shared buildings sometimes with porters or security at reception. Maisonettes are houses split in two with an upstairs and a downstairs. Terraced houses are connected houses. A semi or semi-detached house is connected to a single neighbouring house.

A detached house stands in its own grounds unattached to any other property. Extension creep can mean the separation can be quite small. There are few houses with swimming pools or extensive gardens with room for a tennis or squash court. In the centre of London there are very few homes with garages or even off-street parking. Some houses have severe restrictions placed on on-street parking.

The initial step is to decide where you want to live. It is always best to find out as much as possible about the area ( WhyWaitForever - London - Travel - Maps contains links to street maps). You need to spend time in the area. London is a city for walking. Use your walks to find out about local shops, places of interest and transport (especially in the busy times).

London is an easy city to get around if and only if you have a street map. Every street is clearly signed but the street names reflect historical origins. This can be confusing to some used to the nursery book bland simplicity of streets whose names are numbered and which are laid out in a grid form in numeric order. Each London street sign states the name of the thoroughfare, the city (London or Westminster) or Royal Borough (Kensington and Chelsea) or London Borough (Camden or Tower Hamlets) and the initial part of the post code. Street signs in Pimlico which is within the City of Westminster would have the postcode of "SW1" on the sign.

After selecting the area an online visit to HM Land Registry - Property Prices should be made to find both the number of recent property sales and the average price of each sale. Figures are provided for the main types of housing detached, semi-detached, terraced and flats / maisonnettes. If a reasonable number of properties have been bought and sold and the average price is within your mortgage comfort zone (usually up to three times salary for an individual expecting to be promoted in the next few years) you can proceed to look at particular properties with a view to a purchase. This knowledge about property prices can be used by you to check the awareness and business acumen of those property specialists that you might need to deal with.

Listing agencies

This agencies list homes available through other estate agencies or from the owners direct or listed by the agencies.

Architects and major developments

There are some amazing developments being proposed for various areas of London. Most of the plans are never built. Some are.

London has been created by architects, builders and engineers. The city periodically goes through periods of massive rebuilding. These usually follow either natural or man made events. To the Great Fire and the Blitz should be added developments for Georgian Squares containing the beautiful churches and houses and the massive Victorian engineering projects for roads, canals, railways and water services. The introduction of electricity, motorways, high rise buildings and the demise of the docks all resulted in massive redevelopments.

Our current time is a period of prestigious single buildings built with minimum concern to blending in with their surroundings. This reflects the materialistic confidence of this age and attacks the staid conformity of the deferential society so recently confined to the bin of history. Both the Lord in his mansion and the rude servant in his hovel await with anticipation the wonders that are to come and hopefully technology will allow the benefits to be not just for the priviledged.

Homes as Property

In England in most cases property can be either freehold, leasehold or rented. In the first two the process of transfering entitlement to use the property from one person to another is known as conveyancing. Rented accommodation is usually governed by a tenancy agreement. Leashold and rented accommodation can be subject to service, repair or maintenance charges.

Local councils provide information on local taxes such as "community charge". They hold records on planning applications and or building regulation consents. A planning application is a request to undertake some work. It is the building regulation consents that confirms that the work has been carried out in accordance with the plans and with regulations. A council can order work to be demolished and the property returned to its previous state if either the work did not have planning permission or building regulation consents were not obtained. In conservation areas or in "listed" buildings even minor changes might not be allowed.

Parking a car even outside your own home can be very expensive. WhyWaitForever - London - Cars - Councils has links to the local councils in central London. Local councils set residents parking charges.

The HM Land Registry holds details on ownership of land and rights over property. HM Land Registry Direct is a link to the online properties database. In England the major property holders can have rights (sometimes trivial dating back to feudal times) over even "freehold" homes. The major property holders are the Crown, the Government, local councils and the Chuch. The Church divides the country into a number of Dioceses. Routinely mineral rights, water capture or extraction and even rights over the sky above a home are owned by one of these four institutions.

The UK Government Department of the Environment holds details on previous use of land, land fills, proposals for major road works and proposals for development of green field, brown field, industrial and residential areas. A useful site is Homecheck which provides information on a number of risk categories.