Monday 7 February 2011

House Search On Hold

After three months of house-hunting Rob and I have decided to put the house search on hold for a little while. With the wedding approaching and a series of other things to take care of, our search for the perfect house was becoming a bit too stressful, especially because it's proving to be impossibile to find a *perfect* house here in London. Well, first of all, when I say house, I really mean flat and a very small flat even. With our budget, which by the way I don't think is that low, we are finding it quite difficult to find a two bedroom flat with possibly an extra WC room or shower room in a decent location. 

Over the last couple of months we have been looking, almost every Saturday and almost every weekend we got very frustrated thinking of what London offers us in terms of accommodation. Don't get me wrong, I love London, I think it's a fantastic city but unless you have a budget of at least 700,000£ you can't really afford much! 

So the options are:
1) accept the London standards and buy a tiny two-bed flat in a dodgy area
2) keep renting but moving to a bigger and better place
3) keep renting where we are
4) move outside London
5) move elsewhere

None of these options is ideal. Number one is not even an option, really. We certainly don't live in the best of areas already but we are renting and it's not forever! We have no intention whatsoever to put our lives, and perhaps the life of our children, in danger. Option number two may be the best option really but this means paying almost double in rent of what we are paying now, so no chances of buying anytime soon. Option number three is scary! I am done living where we are. Originally, we thought we would stay in that flat for just a year and then we, somehow, got lazy and stuck. When we were looking for a place to rent more than four years ago Rob had just started his new job in London and I was still a student, so our monthly budget wasn't really high. Now we live quite confortably there as the montly rent is affordable but we are running out of space, I am bored with the place and we are not super happy with the neighbourhood. Option number four: a one hour-two hour commute? Are you kidding me? Not me, I am just not able to wake up and function early in the morning. Plus, if I had to live outside London in the countryside, what would be the reason for being in London then? I would miss all the vibe and all the good things that attracted me to London in the first place.  I am a city person, not a suburban housewife. Out of the question! Option number five: where then? Rob and I are incapable to find an alternative, a good alternative. We have been exploring our options but nothing seems too intriguing.
We have a pickle here, as you can see.

What would you do? Any wise advice?

2 comments:

  1. Move back to Pescara??
    Love, mum

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  2. It's a good idea Patrizia, but it's better if she buys a nice flat with extra room for me&you for every time we miss and want to visit her....every day!!!!
    London is better than Pescara for shopping all togheter...."the three fregnettone"!
    ;)

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