Northfleet/Gravesend Anyone

happy_2008 said:
As mentioned we have seen this as a good place to live and investment wise when the market rises :)
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By all means buy it to live in it but don't think its an investment for when the market rises because it isn't. You only benefit from housing market rises if:

a) You exit the housing market (Which you wont, where would you live?)
b) You downgrade to a cheaper property (You dont get much cheaper than a 2 bed flat)
c) You are buying properties for investment purposes not as your primary residence.

Think about it. Lets consider two properties. Property A is £100k, Property B, which is a nicer property in a better area, is £200k.

You buy Property A for £100k because Property B is £100k more expensive and you cannot afford it.

Over 5 years, house prices rise by 50%. Great! Your house is now worth £150k! Free money, right?

Well not really. It's time to move on to a new house. Now you want to buy Property B, the bigger house in the nicer area. But wait, it's also gone up by 50%.

So its now £300k. That £150k more than the value of your property, whereas before the increase it was only £100k more.

Dont fall into the trap of thinking that buying a house, living in it, and having the market inflate is a good thing.
 
DJMK4 said:
My car got broken in too in Gravesend

They do have a Sainsburys though
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I might have sounded a little harsh here, although my car got broken in to, the only thing they took were the speakers, they left my CD's which are quite personal to me, so not all bad!
 
Just a quick update for anyone interested we decided to buy a property in Purfleet in a new development!

happy_2008 may i ask why you chose Purfleet instead of Gravesend? My partner and I are looking to buy a property in a new estate in Northfleet but we are really torn and need to make a decision soon. The house is lovely with good sized rooms and outside space for our 2 little ones. (something we dont have at the moment living in west London). Having read some of the reviews on the area though i'm left feeling a bit concerned. The other thing is that the northfleet rail seems like a slow train and the ebbsfleet international comes at a premium cost for commuters into london so we are left to look at the commuter coach service. Whilst this is fine for us i wonder if it would be a concern for a future tenant/buyer if we were to rent or sell the house.

I'd appreciate anyones views on this :) (sorry if you live in the northfleet/gravesend area i dont mean to sound snobbish. Its just that coming from west london its a big difference for us in terms of area but very tempting given what we could get for our money especially as we are in a small flat at the moment!)
 
My partner lives near there too in Stone. Stone is a few stops closer to London but the journey is still extremely slow. It's expensive too, a monthly travelcard is around £250 so it would be more for you. Bluewater is good for shops and restaurants, we stop in Bexley sometimes on the way home as there are some nice restaurants there too.

EDIT: Have you considered living in Greenhithe? It's a bit closer to London and Bluewater and the faster trains stop there too.
 
Thanks uvarvu i've gone to blue water a few times, its a big plus to the area. Greenhithe and stone are our preferred areas, we however saw this property in Northfleet which seems to be a good value for money so we are wondering whether to go for it or to keep looking in our preferred location. It looks like it all comes down to personal choice but the commute into london from greenhithe does seem better.
 
Gogo said:
Thanks uvarvu i've gone to blue water a few times, its a big plus to the area. Greenhithe and stone are our preferred areas, we however saw this property in Northfleet which seems to be a good value for money so we are wondering whether to go for it or to keep looking in our preferred location. It looks like it all comes down to personal choice but the commute into london from greenhithe does seem better.
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I was going to suggest Stone/Greenhithe :)

BB x
 
I live in northfleet, I have had my car broken into 3 times within the space of 18months.
If you have a car dont move here, If you can live anywhere else dont move here.
 
wow 3 times in 18 months is a lot :(. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if security is any better in the new build estates
 
Pestilence said:
UpMyStreet's Neighbourhood Profile says the following:


"This is a profile for the central postcode in DA11 which is DA11 0RH. Neighbourhood profiles vary significantly from postcode to postcode.

Often, many of the people who live in this sort of postcode will be families and single parents living in council flats. These are known as type 52 in the ACORN classification and 0.86% of the UK's population live in this type.


In addition to Glasgow, neighbourhoods fitting this profile are found in West Dunbartonshire, Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

This type is really only found in significant numbers in Scotland and, in particular, Glasgow.

The vast majority of people live in purpose built flats, including traditional Scottish tenements. They are small one or two bedroom properties, and will be almost exclusively rented from the council or housing associations.

The population is young and there are many school age children with young parents. The level of single parents is one of the highest in the country at 21%. With such young families, many women are fully occupied looking after their children. Unemployment levels are high, with many long-term unemployed. Those that are working are in routine factory, manual or retail occupations, and overall income levels are amongst the lowest in the country. They have to consider their budgets when shopping for food, and retailers such as Aldi and Kwik Save are where they choose to go. They also buy a lot of mail order goods from the traditional catalogue companies, so that they can spread their payments.

With the limited money they are likely to have left, they will occasionally relax by going to the pub or a nightclub for a drink, going to bingo or placing a bet. Their most popular paper is the Scottish Daily Record, followed by The Sun and News of the World.

TV is important to many and cable TV is popular. Otherwise, for many, their interest in their local football team is one of the things that matters most to them."
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000fgdak
 
Big up the Gravesend massive. Live in a nice little flat down on the Canal Basin, so I get to take the dog for a walk every night along the promenade. Think it must be a dogging/drug taking hotspot, there's often a few cheap hatchbacks parked up looking guilty. That said, there's a patrol car which does the rounds regularly to see them off.

To be honest, parts of Gravesend are quite nice. The high street is a bit run down, but some of the roads running off of it down to the river are still quite nice with small shops and restuarants. I wouldnt say it's any worse than any other town in North Kent.

I lived in Stone until about 18 months ago too, and still visit my parents there regularly.
 
[TW]Fox;17810632 said:
By all means buy it to live in it but don't think its an investment for when the market rises because it isn't. You only benefit from housing market rises if:

a) You exit the housing market (Which you wont, where would you live?)
b) You downgrade to a cheaper property (You dont get much cheaper than a 2 bed flat)
c) You are buying properties for investment purposes not as your primary residence.

Think about it. Lets consider two properties. Property A is £100k, Property B, which is a nicer property in a better area, is £200k.

You buy Property A for £100k because Property B is £100k more expensive and you cannot afford it.

Over 5 years, house prices rise by 50%. Great! Your house is now worth £150k! Free money, right?

Well not really. It's time to move on to a new house. Now you want to buy Property B, the bigger house in the nicer area. But wait, it's also gone up by 50%.

So its now £300k. That £150k more than the value of your property, whereas before the increase it was only £100k more.

Dont fall into the trap of thinking that buying a house, living in it, and having the market inflate is a good thing.
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By your logic no one should buy a home. You buy what you can afford, you build principle, you save more, you have higher earnings, you can then put down a larger deposit on a larger house.

Take your example. Let's assume he puts in £20k. Over 2 years, his equity is ~£70k (let's assume any payments on principle offset by transcation costs, and lets be conservative that any savings are used in full for these costs too like stamp duty)

He has 70k to put down on the 300k property, that's nearly 25% deposit.
 
[TW]Fox;17810632 said:
By all means buy it to live in it but don't think its an investment for when the market rises because it isn't. You only benefit from housing market rises if:

a) You exit the housing market (Which you wont, where would you live?)
b) You downgrade to a cheaper property (You dont get much cheaper than a 2 bed flat)
c) You are buying properties for investment purposes not as your primary residence.

Think about it. Lets consider two properties. Property A is £100k, Property B, which is a nicer property in a better area, is £200k.

You buy Property A for £100k because Property B is £100k more expensive and you cannot afford it.

Over 5 years, house prices rise by 50%. Great! Your house is now worth £150k! Free money, right?

Well not really. It's time to move on to a new house. Now you want to buy Property B, the bigger house in the nicer area. But wait, it's also gone up by 50%.

So its now £300k. That £150k more than the value of your property, whereas before the increase it was only £100k more.

Dont fall into the trap of thinking that buying a house, living in it, and having the market inflate is a good thing.
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^ Great advice, and far too often forgotten by people in this country. :)
 
Since this thread was started back in 2010 has Gravesend improved?

Me and my girlfriend are looking at buying a place and Gravesend does suit our budget, this is despite having to buy a season ticket to travel back into London for work.
 
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