I spent time recently talking to first-time buyers who simply cannot afford London house prices, so they are leaving the capital. Nothing new there, I hear you say. People have always had to compromise – cut your cloth according to your coat, as my mother would say. Except it all seems more desperate now.
Buying your first home has never been particularly easy in London. When I bought mine, in Lambeth in 1995, the Bank of England base rate was just above 6 per cent. But by looking in a slightly less desirable area and saving hard I managed to buy a flat for about three times my salary.
Skip forward to 2023. House prices in Lambeth have risen so much that my flat, where
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