I'm not bothered about the house prices but the incessant apartmentisation of every bit of land (e.g. Thames Path, east of Greenwich) and general shitness of the city (e.g. Greenwich, weekend) has brought me to the same decision.

Depending on job and other situations, I'm hoping to be out of London this time next year - probably somewhere like Milton Keynes.

Same here. Been in London for 15 years, but rent's just going up and up and the idea of buying a place here is beyond laughable. Crappy little houses down the street here (Haringey) easily cost £300k+ (for a one bed flat, divided from what once was a single, real house). I suppose we could get a mortgage for that... but I can think of lots of better things to spend that much money on.

Sadly for me, my partner's Italian and working in an industry wedded to London (as does mine, to a degree), and for her the thought of moving to the suburbs or beyond is just not possible, so...

Yeah.

I don't particularly want to move to Italy either.

Doomed.