Locked out of London

After all these years waiting for the ‘right time’ to buy a flat in London, not long ago I decided it was now or never.

But trawling through the abundance of miserable homes online, and visiting gloomy ones with bedroom windows overlooking trainlines, has been nothing short of depressing.

Granted, I’m sticking to an area a few miles wide, because that’s been my home for the past 10 years and, when it comes down to it, it’s where I feel happiest and I just don’t want to live anywhere else in London.

And granted again, it’s not the cheapest of boroughs, but I’m not looking for a Belgravia townhouse; I’m looking for a one-bedroom flat with enough room to fit the furniture and various other possessions I’ve accrued since moving here many years ago. I have what I would consider an average budget for the property I’m looking for, and I can pay a fairly decent mortgage for a single occupier.

Having worked in the housebuilding sector for most of my career, I’ve seen the stories (and written many of them) of happy homebuyers standing outside of their shiny new doors, keys in hand.

But so far my property search has, at times, felt the opposite – serving as a stark reminder that as a single buyer, without additional financial support from family, and with the absence of any kind of first-time-buyer stimulus in last week’s budget, buying even a small apartment in a part of London that you at least half like, is very hard. 

I haven’t given up (yet), but I am already thinking seriously about taking my modest pot of cash out of the city and seeing if there’s not somewhere else that I’d be a lot happier. 

I still think London is the greatest city in the world – whenever I’m somewhere else I can’t wait to come back – but the experience of trying to own a home here in 2025 has certainly tested that view. Let’s see what 2026 holds.