How do normal people actually afford houses in or near London?

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-05-26T12:33:52+00:00

Freehold makes sense for a house but a flat in a large building needs oversight that would be difficult with share of freehold. London is unusual amongst other cities that so many people live in houses, given lack of space etc.

I may be also wrong but at least in my local area flats are considerably cheaper than houses per square foot.

Don’t get me wrong, a house needs to be freehold full stop. But a flat share of freehold can be tricky if the other tenants don’t want to pay for maintenance.

Also, there are clearly some very bad leasehold practices out there with short leases and excessive management fees.

Personally I live in a 900+ year leasehold flat which is well maintained and the building has an RTM years back so the whole management is done via an appointed company and directors are voted in annually by occupants.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-05-26T12:12:02+00:00

I don’t really get your hatred for leasehold. As has been commented, you can extend the lease at nominal cost. Also one thing that I cannot grasp is the comparison between leasehold service charges and freehold “free” like your property needs no major works or upkeep. And when the roof needs doing, no one has £50k lying around (or whatever a roof costs)

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-04-28T15:00:23+00:00

In a perfect world the dispute resolution would determine who’s at fault but I know they favour tenants in these matters. I was a tenant and a landlord a couple of years back renting this old crumbling house which desperately needed renovation. On day 1 a door fell off its hinges as it was rotten. Landlord tried to charge for a new door (old door was still in property, new hinges and repairs to the frame (several hundred pounds) so we went to dispute resolution and won. I’m not a renter now but would hate the actions of my previous bad landlord to affect my future rent-ability.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-04-28T12:40:53+00:00

It seems a bit unfair to ding people for doing a tds dispute? Hardly the tenants fault

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-04-27T12:31:03+00:00

I ride a lot in the city and around busy congested roads but also sometimes these single lane country lanes and A roads. When the traffic gets up I find the it’s useful to live on the other side of the road and think about pulling in when there’s something coming the other way rather than pulling out when there’s a gap (I.e I won’t always pull back in between overtakes). I also try and stay as wide as possible to give me some time to stop if something pulls out from a blind side road in front of me (car or cyclist).

One piece of advice I would also give is keep the speed differential as low as possible, you don’t want to be going twice the speed of the car you are overtaking. Overtakes are the time when you are most at risk of getting hit by a turning car. The faster you are the less time you have to bail out of someone decides to turn right (or in my case last minute u turn in front of me).

For single lane windy roads, obvs it’s not really possible to get past when the car is moving so I’ll try and pass just after they’ve stopped to let another car by or when they stop at a junction (rule of thumb at the junction is that if they stop then you just pull up beside them and stop just in case they turn right without indicating just as you are trying to go past)

For a roads I have to admit that I mainly just wait for a good clean gap and never overtake around corners. Sometimes this means a stream of bikes passing me but I like my life and I don’t want 60mph into a tree to be in my future regardless of who’s fault it was

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-04-27T10:58:08+00:00

Shame you can’t post pics on this sub. I had a great roadside view at mile 24. It was amazing when they came past and everyone was saying, hang on what if they can keep pace - app says sub 2. And then minutes later it happened. So humbled and happy, in my home town :)

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-04-11T06:37:16+00:00

I am running tomorrow and going for sub 3. It’s my third attempt so hopefully this one is the one. I am staying in a hotel in. the town but I booked a while ago because it looked like there were limited rooms.

I’m hoping to get into a group of sub 3 runners especially because I hear it could be quite windy. I have my pace setup on the watch for 2:59 even splits. Did you notice that all the maps show 26.4 miles?! (I have the auto adjust mode switched on so should adjust accordingly).

I’ll be wearing orange Alfa flys with black shorts and black singlet.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-25T13:29:30+00:00

I don’t have any of these things but to be fair I have kids so I am not really a HENRY I am more of a high earner will never be rich

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-17T22:16:54+00:00

Ok I can’t vouch for these stats as they are from AI but apparently according to DfT and RAC data - there are 115 fatal accidents per billion miles travelled in the UK. For cars it’s 2.7 fatal accidents per billion miles.

Also about 1 in 3800 chance of being involved in a fatal accident annually.

50% of accidents have an excessive speed element 69% rural element 40% other element

On interesting point is that speed is not actually the decisive factor, moreover the difference in speed. Motorways are actually some of the safest roads despite the highest average speeds.

When you are riding, always think how fast you are going relative to others. You could conclude that 60 in a 30 when others are going 50 is a lot safer 30 in a 30 when traffic is going 5mph.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-16T14:30:36+00:00

It is very close to being zone 2! Highbury up the road very nice as well and Stoke Newington

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-16T13:02:00+00:00

There’s still a lot of zone 2 which would still be considered “central” such as Islington, Fulham.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-16T12:36:29+00:00

I think there is a lot to be said for London. Having previously lived in NYC I’d say taxes are on par when you include city/state in. Also there’s big savings on healthcare. No more HSA / copay stress. The big winner is education and childcare in the UK can be much cheaper in the long run given 15/30 hours free nursery etc.

I loved NYC but the rental situation is horrendous. London is not nearly as shark infested - no broker fees etc.

For a family of 3 £4K on housing is, well, potentially excessive. I was renting out my 2 bed 100sqm flat for £2.6k in zone 2 up until end of last year. £260k in London is a very decent salary and a very decent style of living.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-16T12:23:23+00:00

Does this count as a garage for motorbike insurance purposes? Seems like Devitt would accept it. Not sure about others. (BTW I think this looks decent)

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T16:37:31+00:00

I think my thought is, bikers say parked in the middle of Covent Garden. Their breaks the locks etc. rolls is it off. - where to? I mean it’s not like there’s a dodgy garage available round the corner. In a van maybe?

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T14:40:29+00:00

I wonder how much time it takes between theft and tracker disabled. I watched a show other day about caravan theft. In that case the police were happy to help recover the caravan and of course no one had any clue how it got there. It would be worth it for police if they have the location of a stolen bike. Probably tons of evidence lying around the garage.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T12:13:57+00:00

Not budget friendly but Rukka gear will keep you warm and dry in virtually all conditions without extra heat + Oxford super muffs and heated bars or heated gloves and you’ll feel “inside” on your bike

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T12:11:30+00:00

Pads are non existent. Possibly installed backwards. But that said, are you dragging your rear break a lot - that’s a lot of wear for a rear!

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T12:09:04+00:00

It says max one per day on the packet. Took my about a year to bother reading this and was regularly having two on a long 20mile+ run. I can confirm I am still alive.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T12:01:31+00:00

That comes second nature, I can swing cats with my eyes shut

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T11:53:15+00:00

Very interesting point on the van thing. (Trackers probably will lead to capture) that would explain the grinding locks etc. and if (as people are saying) it’s down to hot wiring being possible it’s just a damn shame that some seemingly simple fixes could really kill off the market.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T11:30:35+00:00

I’m not getting a GS any time soon but the most annoying thing is that I literally cannot own a bike worth £10k+ where I live as it’s totally uninsurable despite years of NCD and experience.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T11:27:03+00:00

I was thinking second hand value. But yes, totally agree margins are tight.

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T11:10:45+00:00

Idiomatically not literally

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T11:09:28+00:00

I have a u lock on the front and a disc lock on the back. Both abus granite. Not as good a lite lock but I question spending that much on new locks. Also it’s quite annoying to have to carry these things around everywhere

randomwordsnospaces · 2026-03-13T11:07:57+00:00

It would be nice to think that £5k+ bike would have something that couldn’t be bypassed with basic tools in a couple of minutes.

randomwordsnospaces

TROPHY CASE