When the Docklands Light Railway was built in Lewisham – my manor 😉 – house prices generally sprouted a ‘1’ in front of them almost overnight. “But…but..you have no Underground system in South East London” my friends north of the river would say…despite the fact that British Rail runs from Lewisham to Charing Cross every 10 minutes and takes a grand total of 15 minutes to get to there.
Once the DLR came everyone suddenly saw places like Deptford/New Cross/Lewisham as ‘viable’ places to live, despite the fact that myself, and a few hundred thousand other people, successfully commuted from that part of London for decades by train.
Oh, how I wish now that I had had the finances, and will, to buy the 5 bed unconverted Edwardian villa with the 150′ garden that was going next door to me -in 1994 – for 85K GBP! Now it worth well north of 1/ 2 a millon…
But I digress.
I remember the housing crash of the late 80’s very well.
Although most of my friends were too young and feckless to buy during that toxic time, I did have a few friends that went into serious ‘negative equity’.
A mate bought a tiny 1 bed 1 bath near Lewisham hospital for an astounding 60K. About a year into the mortgage his interest rate soared to 15% for about 6 months, almost wiping him out.
Suddenly the whole thing unravelled and it was only worth about 35K. He ended up staying in it another 10 years before he started making inroads into the principal again.
He even considered renting out the bedroom – and this is a minute – maybe 600sq ft – apartment, to help with the payments, but fortunately the interest rates fell again from double digits, and he was able – just – to pay the mortgage again. Albeit he was till ‘underwater’ for many years afterwards.
Fortunately, he had bought wisely – in that the place was the right size and the right location for his long-term needs, so wasn’t left holding an ‘albatross’ while he had to find somewhere else.
