We: (a) don't buy places in Kensington; and (b) rent.

I dream fondly of the day I eventually I pay off my crippling debt and buy a small grape which I can call my very own.

...I moved to Hell Texas from California, is how I did it. Sigh.

"If you thought of this as the cabin on a boat, you'd say, 'It's pretty spacious,' " Scott said.

If you thought of this as being a fairytale castle, you'd say, 'It's pretty cheap'.

And, uh, we survive mostly by still living in flats that size but in areas of London far far away from any sign of life or transport. Every day is an adventure!

£167,500 won't buy you anything in London, and that's in one of the poshest neighbourhoods in Europe. Not that I'd want to live anywhere that small.

I started freelancing from home, stopped renting in London, and moved north.

more than $4,340 a square foot
That's nearly ten times the price of high end urban product here in Portland. ZOMG

"If you thought of this as the cabin on a boat, you'd say, 'It's pretty spacious,' " Scott said.

And if you think I'd live in a freakin' boat cabin for the rest of my life, I'd say, "You're nuts."

Although a friend of mine did that for 3 years in Marian del Rey. So, if you think of it as a fixer-upper that you're only going to have for a couple years, it could be doable. You just have to find the poor sap to pay twice what you paid when you move.

I was lucky enough to buy my first place 25 years ago and made a couple of astute moves. Having said that, I still have a huge mortgage on my current home, because I had to buy out my ex-husband when we split.

I have no idea how anyone without rich parents to help them or a megabucks City trader job ever gets onto the property ladder in the UK these days.

I live 15 minutes' walk from there and have a cupboard that big. You'd have to have a weird set of priorities to bother with such a thing.

London property prices are insane, but the UK, especially the south east, as a whole is bad and there's no sign of the relentless price increases slowing down. If I hadn't been left a sizeable amount of money in a will that was stipulated for use as a deposit on a property, there's no way I could have afforded the pokey place that I call home.

Here's what that price buys you in Portland. And mind you, this example is in the newest, poshest condo tower in town.

Discussion at metafilter also.

The price of this apartment in laughable. No matter how exclusive the neighborhood or the demand to live in London, it's obscene.

whoah. That's insane. How does that measure up to NYC and Tokyo prices, I wonder?

I saw an ad for a nice flat in Athens center about four or five times that big, for $220,000, which was less than I would have guessed it would go for.

whoopsie. That was euros, so about the same price as this place, actually.

In my neighborhood, that price would fetch you a 6-bedroom, 3.5 bathroom house.

Sweet, I've always wanted half a bathroom. Where do I sign up?

And here I thought living in an RV was rather cosy.

Oh god, don't get me started on London property prices.

That'd buy me a four bedroom house. (Maybe). But at least the beer is cheap in London. Right?

When the earnest young professional says to the agent, "The prices on these flats are outrageous! What can I find for less than half a million pounds?" The agent can now reply, "Well sir, I believe we have something at the middle of your price range..."

This is not meant to be sold, because it's how they demoralize prospective buyers out of bargain-hunting.

My wife and I were insanely lucky, and have been nervously surfing price-rises ever since. We bought a 3 bedroom house in Ealing for £110,000 in 1999 (borrowing as much as anyone would lend us), and sold it in 2005 for £250,000. With the profit (again borrowing as much as anyone would lend us), we bought somewhere in the Midlands for £355,000. Allegedly there has been a 10% increase in prices since we bought it.

It's lucky in many ways, but incredibly tense in others. A loss of earnings would leave us unable to pay the mortgage, and having to move. A move would mean pocketing (probably) £125k or so, but this isn't remotely enough to house a family of four in the sorts of areas that we probably have to live for work. Meaning that if we're forced to sell, we probably have to rent for a while until employment problems are resolved, and watch prices continue to steadily tick upwards, further out of range.

My wife is currently pregnant with our second child, and all in all the thought of essentially living off a large debt, without any contingency whatsoever in case of a downturn in employment isn't a nice one. Especially as it's likely to continue for at least 10 years, before we could have any stability at all.

On the other hand, soul-crushing debt seems to be the only possible way to own property if you have no capital these days. On balance I'd probably rather have the house + the grief, than neither.