This has just had an offer and been taken off the market for exactly 300K

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34154616.html

There’s plenty more around that price in the village as well…

Not a lot for your money, but then you’re paying for the good local schools I suppose.

All the political parties are just rearranging deck chairs….

All these incentives/ sell off’s etc are just playing at the edge of the market, the problem is and will continue to be a lack of supply.

All the targets proposed by the parties fall far short of anything that will address this. They need to build significantly more than the current annual requirements to address the deficit, maintaining that rate over several decades in a stable manner that renters, buyers, lessors, builders, financial institions can all understand.

a 1 bed lower ground or 1st floor flat c.500 sq ft

How many 1st time buyers do you know who earn roughly £100k (individually or as a couple) ?

£300k will get you on these. However, it would involve living in Sunderland.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44501201.html

As a first time buyer a year and a half ago we spent £60k then another £10k doing it up. I don’t know anyone who would be spending £300k on their first house.

My landlord is selling my 3-bed basement flat (cold, dark, needs new kitchen and double glazing) + on a main road in Zone 3 of London.
The neighbour upstairs expressed interest, and he said £750k. She bought her much nicer (as well as not being basement) flat a couple of years ago for £500k. I don’t know if she laughed at him but she definitely refused to put in an offer…

The highest local authority was Camden in London where the average first-time buyer’s property price of £614,315 was 11.4 times the gross average annual earnings in the area.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jan/06/first-time-home-buyers-property-uk

Blimey! The Architect certainly put the hours into that one, didn’t he Dezzy

Unfortunately, compared to some on that estate, the house I posted is a beauty!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-34023960.html
“Hmm, these are a bit ugly… I know, let’s paint them grey.”

All these incentives/ sell off’s etc are just playing at the edge of the market, the problem is and will continue to be a lack of supply.

Lack of supply compounded by mass immigration, especially in the South-East, which is rapidly becoming the arse-end of the universe.

I assume by “London” you just mean inside the M25 ? Or possibly zone 6 on the Tube ? Because in London proper £300k won’t buy anything at all.

FWIW, around here it’ll buy a 2/3 bed end terrace or semi.

^ those houses, quite a bit better than a 2 bedroom flat in that London.

and what about the average pay and prospects?

and what about the average pay and prospects?

It may shock you but there are well paid jobs and great career prospects outside of London, just imagine how much better off you could be if you are not chucking all your money on interest for a overpriced house/flat/box room probably with some decent biking near by.

If you are an actual first time buyer in Doncaster North constituency where Red Ed thinks you might need help with the stamp duty, £65k will get you this:

but there are plenty cheaper. There certainly isn’t either a boom in prices or a supply problem here.

For more than double the £300k you could snap up this 3bedder near us….

’needs a little tlc’

Residential properties
You’ll pay:

nothing on the first £125,000 of the property price
2% on the next £125,000
5% on the next £675,000
and considering that you don’t pay any stamp duty until £125k it’s really about helping people buy more expensive houses 🙂 great headlines

DezB, can you send your architect up north please, our local guy needs a hand.

2 beds, new build, yours for £130k

As a first time buyer a year and a half ago we spent £60k then another £10k doing it up. I don’t know anyone who would be spending £300k on their first house.

This is why I’m seriously considering moving up north, £60k would get me half of a crappy new-build flat in Cardiff! My current rented one was recently valued for a remortgage at £125k. It’s nice enough for a 1-bed ground floor on a reasonable estate but once you add on the management fees for the block it’s similar cost to buying a £150k house in a much better part of town. I could buy in the Valleys but that involves living in the Valleys 😕

All this will do is push up the prices of the lower stuff, pushing the bubble to possible bursting point. I’m aware this doesn’t apply to Wales (we have different rules) but it still is a bad idea.

Midlife – Presumably that’s kitchen and living room on the middle floor, master bedroom upstairs

My ex rented one like that with another bed, bath and utility room on the ground floor and I have to say it was a really nice layout.

jam bo – Member
^ those houses, quite a bit better than a 2 bedroom flat in that London.
and what about the average pay and prospects?

yes, some people in the North have jobs. Not all of them work down’pit either.

eee, we’re jus’like them posh-suthners wiv oor fancy-pants sat-down jobs an That.

ninfan – Member

Midlife – Presumably that’s kitchen and living room on the middle floor, master bedroom upstairs

My ex rented one like that with another bed, bath and utility room on the ground floor and I have to say it was a really nice layout.

Unfortunately not, WC, kitchen-lounge-diner all on ground floor, family bath plus bed2 on middle, master bed with en suite on top. Idiot architect, you don’t need a family bath so they could both be en suite, and downstairs is really cramped with a shortage of storage or walls to put cupboards against, I was in one last week.

yes, some people in the North have jobs. Not all of them work down’pit either.

eee, we’re jus’like them posh-suthners wiv oor fancy-pants sat-down jobs an That.

I’d keep quiet about that if I were you, otherwise the next coalition might take note and fix it for you. Everyone in the North should be an unemployed miner.

I don’t know anyone who would be spending £300k on their first house.

Not quite £300k but my niece spent £240k just over a year ago on her first house, it’s optimistically listed as two bedroom but if you put a bed in the second room you can’t open the door fully so it’s more of a nursery/office size.

Everyone in the North should be an unemployed miner.

How ignorant… We’re allowed unemployed steelworkers* and ship builders too.

*They take their clothes of in such an amusing way.

It may shock you but there are well paid jobs and great career prospects outside of London, just imagine how much better off you could be if you are not chucking all your money on interest for a overpriced house/flat/box room probably with some decent biking near by.

I don’t need to imagine. I wouldn’t live in or around london even if you paid me a 6 figure salary.

it may shock you that there is a wider choice than ‘the grim north’ and ‘Laaandan Town…’ 😉

DezB, can you send your architect up north please, our local guy needs a hand.

Some bloke I reckon. Used up all his grey paint down here.

I know I’m living in one of those other places

me too.

The highest local authority was Camden in London where the average first-time buyer’s property price of £614,315 was 11.4 times the gross average annual earnings in the area.

Maybe there was only ONE first-time buyer, and they’d just won the lottery?

Lets face it the high amount is to cover those buying in London and SE which is where the housing problem is the greatest.

300k where I live gives you something like a decent 4 bedroom Victorian Terrace or semi in a decent area.

The highest local authority was Camden in London where the average first-time buyer’s property price of £614,315 was 11.4 times the gross average annual earnings in the area.

Maybe there was only ONE first-time buyer, and they’d just won the lottery?

Def not the case – I know quite a few 1 time buyers in London all buying 500+, albeit in their mid 30s on decent salaries.

Personally I think its crazy – even though I am part of the momentum.

Admittedly the exchange rate is helping a little but this:

http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/tir-na-n-g-long-lane-coolgreany-nr-arklow-wicklow/3082779

Which I wouldn’t class as a hovel.

I the problem is, people need somewhere to live, and will make it work somehow.

The agent who came round to value our flat said it would most likely be first time buyers sharing it. So we’ve gone from it being a batchelor pad 20 years ago, to probably exaclty the same price per person now, only it’s 3x more expensive and 3x people living in it.

“house building” seems to be catching up here though, they’ve converted a lot of empty office blocks into flats which should help, allong with new builds.

The problem is, new housing in the UK is the smallest in Europe. I view that as a symptom of impending doom as we’ve reached a point where people can barely afford a home, so what thy can aford is getting smaller and smaller as that’s what developers can supply for the budget people have. But we must be pushing against a limit of what prople will actualy live in and at that point prices will have to stop rising.

But we must be pushing against a limit of what prople will actualy live in and at that point prices will have to stop rising.

I think London’s hit that limit. ONS stats show the 30 somethings are moving out. London prices are beginning to fall and the rest of the country, esp SE is now beginning to rise. I suspect it’s migration out of London that’s leading to the rise.

Whatever estate agents and sellers think, you can’t just push prices up and up an up. If mortgage repayments are so high that people don’t have enough left over to eat and for day to day expenses, there’s no sale. London I think is pretty close to that already – 80% of renters say they’ve given up all hope of buying – that’s from a Halifax survey published a couple of weeks ago. No buyers at current prices = no more rising prices…

The biggest issue is not demand or availability of capital and finance it is supply. The IPPR produced an excellent report a few years ago which is just as relevant today. Definitely worth a read if you want to see how screwed up our housing supply has been for the last 30 years. A broken market where profit margins control supply, not demand.

http://www.ippr.org/publications/we-must-fix-it-delivering-reform-of-the-building-sector-to-meet-the-uks-housing-and-economic-challenges

http://www.ippr.org/assets/media/images/media/files/publication/2012/02/we-must-fix-it_Dec2011_8421.pdf?noredirect=1

Near our London place £300K would get you a nice 1-bedroom flat, an OK 2-bedroom or a very small 2-bedroom terraced house. Near our Edinburgh place there don’t tend to be all that many properties on the market in that price range but there is a reasonable 3-bedroom terraced at the moment.

So many people here in London rent that it won’t be uncommon for 1st time buyers to be at the point of going near £300K (or even well over – I know some colleagues that are buying their first place now and spending a lot more than that). Up in Scotland I suspect it’d be pretty rare though – our first flat cost all of £23K (although that was 25 years ago!) and even in Edinburgh there are plenty of decent flats under £200K.

This and £21k change. It only has 10 acres though.

Not bad
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46551373.html

We’re currently wondering whether to make the jump from a 2 bed flat to a 3 bed house – but that requires a step up of at least £300K to do so.
Our alternative thoughts are instead to buy somewhere out of London for about the same additional money and get somewhere that we can go to instead… that somewhere might be France or Italy…

This fabulous “penthouse” apartment or one bedroom flat in the eaves if you aren’t an estate agent.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/15074039?search_identifier=dd41b69aabcca40f934d72b0ef0bb392#xrEHs2CBAdHOEHCR.97

£340k in Royal Wootton Bassett:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-48930268.html/svr/2718;jsessionid=A68A1A135643C3A14152FFB756FF6F45?showcase=true&premiumA=true
£225k in Chippenham: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51862484.html?showcase=true&premiumA=true
£230k will get you this in Corsham: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49562716.html?showcase=true