ITT: advice sought about buying a flat in SOUTH LONDON. Yeah, that's right. South. I need to get to work in Surbiton / Kingston (and my boyfriend's central - a short walk from Blackfriars / Holborn / Temple) - we did originally think about Walthamstow cos of cheapness and abundance of nice conversions but it's going to be a bit of a ballache for me espcially if the Victoria line's down.

Anyway -- we're having problems finding anything. We'd like a 2 bed flat, not fussed about outdoor space, ideally a period conversion (definitely not ex-local authority), and our original budget was 250k as we wanted to keep it under the 1% stamp duty. But we can stretch to 300k, there seems to be more choice, obviously.

At the weekend we looked around Herne Hill and Dulwich but what you're getting for that price is rubbish. Other options, I guess, are Camberwell as I can get a train from Denmark Hill / Loughborough Junction and change at Clapham; Peckham Rye... and I guess anywhere I could change at Wimbledon. Possibly looking at Crystal Palace now too.

I guess what I'm asking is DiS's opinions of those areas and if you can think of any other where the commute wouldn't be a complete ballache for me. Ideally I only want to change once and around 45 minutes as the journey time on TFL is okay. Also general housebuying advice; ie WTF to ask the agents, what to keep an eye out for in properties etc...

TL;DR. Yeah. Sorry and thanks y'all.