Diary of a first-time buyer

Melanie Ricky outside her dream flat in Elgin Avenue, W9
The Weekender

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At the ripe old age of 32 I have lived in London all my life and, although I'm a professional with a decent income that allows for the very occasional Balenciaga splurge, finding my first property - I've set my heart on a modest one-bedroom flat in W9 - has been bloody difficult.

A new report says that most first-time buyers take six years before they can put a toe on the property ladder. Well, I've been working for 10 years, and I'm still not quite there yet. During my quest, I've seen no fewer than 60 properties, and still haven't inked a deal.

I am tired of paying rent on a one-bedroom flat in Bayswater. I want to live in Maida Vale because my partner and friends are there, and I'm determined not to compromise with a flat out in the sticks - I want to be central and I deserve a compact pad in a nice area.

As a freelance journalist and fashion consultant, I cannot predict my income from month to month, so my mortgage broker has advised me to use my savings and some inherited money as a deposit.

As long as the sum is 25 per cent of the overall price, I will be approved for either a fast-track or self-certification mortgage (ie, the lender talks to my accountant rather than poring over my bank statements). This means I can afford a property of £265,000, but I would prefer to spend £240,999, so I don't have to pay the higher rate of stamp duty.

I need my monthly repayments to be between £800 and £1,000. I won't be able to eat, but hey. But, if I thought getting the finance sorted out was going to be hard, finding the flat has turned out to be much more of a challenge...

January 6, 2004
Sign up to www.findaproperty.com, a free website used by every estate agent in London. Maida Vale has good transport links locally, and is close to Paddington and the Heathrow Express - important as I travel a lot for work.

The first flat I spot is a £215,000 raised ground floor one-bedroom on Bravington Road. It's with Greene & Co, a local estate agent. They send Jess to show it to me. He's a rookie.; that makes two of us.

The bedroom is big enough for a double bed and a shelf unit. The kitchen is okay, and there's enough room to swing a cat, just. The living room has a "feature fireplace" made of plywood. I wouldn't light a match near it, let alone a fire. I decide it "has potential". Ha.

January 10
See Bravington Road again, this time with my best friend, who starts humming the Coronation Street theme. She asks Jess questions: How long has it been on the market? Is it lease or freehold? How many years left? Is the owner keen to move? Is she in a chain? Will she accept an offer? As a property virgin I don't "get" what she's on about.

January 15
Bravington is shelved. Too small. Back to findaproperty.com. This site soon becomes an obsession - every morning I scan it for apartments. Annoyingly, it's hopelessly out of date. Half the flats are already sold or under offer. This is extremely frustrating.

January 20th
I spot a one-bed in a Victorian conversion on findaproperty for £255,000 on Shirland Road. I go along and cotton on that the road is long. Very. I walk for 15 minutes and get to the Queens Park end, and a dump.

The living room is a bedroom with two single beds. The kitchen is in a cupboard. The bathroom has a three-piece suite the colour of satsumas.

Hideous. I can't live in Maida Vale proper unless I spend upwards of £270,000. I expand my catchment area to Maida Hill, West Kilburn and Queens Park.

February 4
Why am I seeing such horrible places? I've just been to Malvern Road and another "bright, airy splitlevel two-bedroom apartment" - another fabricated dump with cheap wood effect lino, tiny rooms and paper-thin walls.

The view is of a council estate. I want to spend a quarter of a million pounds, for crissakes! I chat with my mortgage broker - Wendy Docherty at Savills Private Finance. Wendy tells me to sign up to every estate agent in the area, and to tell them I am chainfree, ready to move, and have my mortgage ready to go. I do it.

February 20
Suddenly I am inundated with flats, and estate agents. There's "Mad" Maz at Pembertons. Lauren at Ashley Milton. Jess and Stephen Brown at Greene & Co. Jamie at Compton Reeback. Vicki at Vickers, and Grant at Howard Estates. I take a week off to look at flats.

February 20
The most promising place is from Jamie at Compton Reeback: a quirky first-floor pad on Chippenham Road on the cheaper side of Maida Hill.

It has a huge living room-cumkitchen/diner with a wrought-iron balcony, a bedroom with a galleried sleeping area and loads of room for clothes. The bathroom has garden views. It's £255,000, so I put in an offer.

March 8
Today I revisited a flat on Fordingley Road in West Kilburn. I realise it's perfect. It's run-down, but on the ground floor of a Victorian conversion. There's no basement, and it has a tiny north-facing (no sun) garden, but I don't care - I can grow ferns.

It has a good-sized living room and bedroom, decent storage, and a bathroom with a window in it, hoorah! Bathrooms with windows are VERY rare in my price bracket. So are kitchens with windows.

This flat also has the magic ingredient - a small study-cum-dining room. It is £255,000. I put in an offer.

March 10
Of the two flats I have on offer, Chippenham is cool and quirky and needs a new kitchen. Fordingley is practical and needs about £15,000 of work. But I might get cabin fever at Chippenham, living, eating, cooking and working in one room.

March 12
There's another flat for sale on Fordingley, same spec as the first one, but "newly refurbished" with a decked garden. It's 10 doors away but is £280,000, £25,000 more than the one down the road. I want this place.

I can see where my collection of Vogues will go, and my shoes. I imagine having drinks parties there. I put in a low offer. Instantly rejected. I put in another. I now understand why my friends say: "The flat finds you."

March 13
Offer two is rejected. It all goes quiet on offer three; I get a hint that I've got it. I dance around and tell a few people. Next day I'm still on tenterhooks. I stop looking at other flats.

March 16
Offer three is rejected. After a bidding war, Fordingley got a better offer than mine, which was my top whack.

March 17
Depressed. I go to findaproperty but get annoyed because I have seen everything. Discover www. primelocation.com. Oooh. Get obsessed with that instead.

March 18
By chance, I spot a flat at the affordable end of Elgin Avenue, one of Maida Vale's prettier streets. It's a first-floor split-level one bedroom in need of cosmetic updating.

It has huge windows, a lovely happy feeling, plus a wrought-iron balcony for sitting out on and for barbecues in the summer. The bathroom and kitchen have windows. No study area but I could create one.

March 22
I put in a decent offer a smidgen below the asking. Fingers crossed that this is the end of my odyssey.

You might think I'm mad not to buy something bigger out in Walthamstow, but I would rather be in a compact flat in a nice area than a big flat in a grotty area. After living in Hackney for four years, I don't do ugly.

West is best. I don't want to jinx it by saying any more. I'm not going to get excited, as it only leads to disappointment. My future flat will be truly mine only when the keys are tucked into the pocket of my Balenciaga Lariat bag.

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