AleisterCrowley wrote:Yes indeed, but I get impression that moving between similar properties in London 'burbs and Cambridge wouldnt release a lot of capital.
Cambridge does look nice - better than Oxford, which strikes me as a sprawling south Midlands industrial town with an Olde Universitye theme park in the middle. They've ruined the Oxford station approach with that business school that looks like an out-of-town Tesco, and have built some ugly accommodation near Port Meadow
IMO it's perhaps not possible to generalise to that extent.
Please don't think I'm boasting or anything, I'm not, but just to give an illustration, this is what I consider a good example of supply/demand vs compound growth - In our case I could sell the 2-bed flat in London and buy a 3-4 bed house + garden in an established/desirable area of Cambridge [CB] and have significant funds left over. 2-3 year ago I subscribed by e-mail to receive new property listings for CB and have been keeping a casual eye on what's available where and what it costs, so have some confidence that I have that right.
For context: I bought my first home in London in 1992 after scraping together the deposit over 2 years by worked all hours [>80hrs/week] as a temp on a baseline £6-8/hr. I was hired, taking their 'temp to perm' offer on a salary of c£25k enough for a c£50k mortgage. And moved twice subsequently within a 400-600M radius to now owning the current place. That 1992 FTB was recently resold for c12/+ times what I paid for it. Circa 1/2 the value of my current place. Astonishing compound growth. So perhaps the point is if you've owned over a long period in London, moving out of town and getting more space is, within reason, pretty much a given. And the wider point there I feel is there were plenty of others like me in that one company alone. Temping, saving the income, getting hired and then buying our first home. This fits with the [then] thinking of you try and live near work when the demand on your time is highest, and only move for space/lifestyle when the commute can fit into the demands of the job. So maybe move to the suburbs when/if children enter the picture. Perhaps move further out come retirement. Maximising exposure to commutable London property over the long-term has perhaps become a proxy pension for when you finally are done with living in town.
Yes, I looked at Oxford too, and coming from the West Country know it pretty well anyway, I might expect to feel quite at home there but somehow don't. It is incomparable to CB. It used to get far worse traffic through the centre. And to me the layout of the centre is rather incoherent. Cambridge never really had that traffic problem, perhaps as through traffic to points north could also use the A1 and M1, which don't go through CBs town centre. Oxford has a bypass now but it's not that long ago that it didn't [AFAIR]. So to me CB is laid out in a more er.... 'classical' unspoilt way, and therein lies a good amount of it's charm. But now with the growth of Stanstead airport, and the improved railway network it is also becoming much more commutable, esp. because commuters can work effectively whilst travelling [computers+internet etc]. So the price step-down from London to places like that has certainly somewhat eroded in recent years.
ps no probs Moorfield!