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Up until the last few years those places have been really cheap and really shit to live in. Most houses/flats were larger because even as a 2+ bed they were affordable to almost anyone. That, and HMOs dominated many areas, so a 4 bed house would be an HMO rather than being carved up into smaller flats.

Those suburbs out of central London were originally designed and built as commuter towns as public transport was expanded, so housing stock was designed more with families in mind. A lot of those areas were also retreats for the wealthy in the 17th/18th centuries so properties were large and spaced apart in original development.

Good lord £2k for a 1 bed is ridiculous especially those areas! I’m incredibly fortunate what my wife and I pay in Stratford for a 2 bed - going to hate when look for a 3 bed then see what the cost is plus the quality of it

I used to live in a 1 bed flat in East London. The very same flat is now a 2 bed flat.

Wonder how much housing stock is actually empty?

Because it’s more lucrative to turn one flat in to two studios

Why were you downvoted for this lol it’s just true

I imagine some landlord or bootlicker saw it and took it personally.

Same - I wanted to stay east as ive lived here the past 8 years, but I’ve had to move south. Only available was Leyton and Walthamstow which I hardly know. I’m slightly regretting moving out of east now… There’s either horrible places with no light or they’re just weird and horrible looking