Charlbury family searching for new home

Fri 22 Apr 2022, 21:20

I've been told that there's a lovely house that's been empty on Park Street for over 4 years called Collins House. No idea why it's empty. 'Would make a lovely home.

Fri 22 Apr 2022, 08:17

That “joint” figure is incredibly depressing for those of us who are on our own Malcolm! :-( Seems an impossible situation. I hope the Rushy Bank development goes ahead and has some affordable starter homes. 

Fri 22 Apr 2022, 00:27

The 5x multiple I recall being cited sometime recently was on a *joint* household income and on the *median* for  both incomes as well, not the average, which I seem to recall is lower. Just makes the situation worse. 

Fri 22 Apr 2022, 00:20

Re-timbering the roof wouldn’t have come to my mind readily- good idea if wall footings up to the load.

If no planning block on the visual appearance changes etc then wrapping up the whole house with a glorified tea-cosy from someone like Energiesprong UK might be a good move.

Otherwise to stay in the area of the town “back-to-back “ rental might be the only escape. I know first hand there is quite a bit of that strategy happening in Oxford. A classic indicator of a broken market… but does happen, if affordable. Madness. JMK must be spinning in his proverbial…

Thu 21 Apr 2022, 23:06

Have you considered replacing the existing roof trusses with attic trusses that have a greater pitch? A bungalow down from Londis did just this last year creating a habitable loft bedroom.

Thu 21 Apr 2022, 21:00 (last edited on Thu 21 Apr 2022, 21:10)

Malcolm, 5 x joint average UK income wouldn’t get you a 2-bed flat in Charlbury, sadly.

Currently on the market, matching Jo’s criteria, there’s one 3-bed bungalow @£800k, a 5-bed @£1.5m and a giant 12-bed place for £2.75m. Extend the search and there’s a tiny (but lovely) 4-bed place in Taston for £750k

So we all wait, then will fight each other when the right one comes up for 5 minutes, only to lose out to a 2nd home cash buyer wanting a nice retirement getaway.

Thu 21 Apr 2022, 20:02

Unfortunately there is no option to extend and can’t go into the loft either! Already looked into this thoroughly as ideally wouldn’t move at all! 

Thu 21 Apr 2022, 19:19

In danger of “let them eat cake “ comments, is there any scope to extension of your existing bungalow? Local planning “zoning “ of the town in a Conservation area being a potential barrier to. A lot of overcrowding areas have a lot of this happening. Not necessarily ideal. But… 

Loft? Home Office to the planners “corridored” to connect to the main building?

We were “generationally fortunate “ to get on the property sausage grinder machine when the price to income ratio was somewhat sane. Now it’s 5 times joint income?!

Planning councils/planning authorities/Building Control are going to have to be more flexible…

Thu 21 Apr 2022, 17:05 (last edited on Thu 21 Apr 2022, 17:06)

It’s the same the world over, popular places are going to command higher prices. We could buy a Scottish castle on a island for the same price as a 4-bed semi, but would you? I lived in what would be regarded as a grotty part of London years ago, now I’d need to win the lottery to buy the same 3-bed flat.

Thu 21 Apr 2022, 14:28

I feel for you Rachel. I grew up in Charlbury and the only way we could get back in once we had started a family was compromising and finding a much smaller property than hoped just to get the location.  

Thu 21 Apr 2022, 11:03

Yep, same here!

Thu 21 Apr 2022, 09:00

What James said - and worse, some of us are stuck in rented with nothing affordable to buy in the place we love :-(

Wed 20 Apr 2022, 17:28

Welcome to the bunfight, Jo. There’s a good few of us in that situation.

Wed 20 Apr 2022, 15:16

Hey. We are a Charlbury family looking for a bigger home, we currently own a property in Charlbury which we love but we have another baby on the way and need something slightly bigger. If anyone is thinking of selling soon as has a 3 or 4 bed house please could you let me know. Or is interested in finding out more about our 2-3 bedroom bungalow. Many thanks Jo Cope 07717173792