Then of course there’s the issue of university graduates in two or three years’ time, leaving uni with £27k+ debts already, and they’ll all be wanting good jobs with good salaries, their own homes etc. Will they simply move back to their parents’ homes? Will parents need to downsize to release funds for their children’s education? Or will they all stay put, and we could see a return to large home occupancy figures? And what effect would that have on social dynamics?

Interesting times ahead, methinks.

thank you everyone, i used to keep a close eye on the property market but knowing i wouldn’t be in a position to buy for a few years i stopped checking up on it.

we’re kinda tied into the property we rent for the next 22 months after agreeing to stay for 2 years if the landlord let us have a dog. could of course get out of that but our notice period was amended to 2 months instead of one. not the biggest problem in the world

staying put would give us an extra 2 years of savings into the deposit fund providing things dont go too pear shaped, but in the end if it was worth buying sooner rather than later we’d rather look into it sooner rather than later!

EDIt – we’re currently paying about 150quid a month less than anybody else locally in similar sized properties, the landlord’s only put the rent up 25quid per month in 4 years cos he wants to keep us as tenants

The banks are being helpful though, as always. To both individuals and the economic health of the nation. So they’re taking the governments loan guarentees, meant for lending to small business for investment, and are using it instead to fund buy-to-let mortgages, and property speculation in the the already overheated housing market in the South East.

Great to see the lessons of the past have been taken on board, and there’s no chance of a repeat of past disasters. Phew!

tis what i’m worried about binners, buying before a massive crash and return to (relatively) more sensible house prices. a low interest rate is tempting but it can only really go up. i’d like to think we’re not stupid enough to base our repayments on current interest levels and max out what we could afford leaving no room for the rates to rise or our income to drop!

EDIT – of course there’s no ‘good time’ to buy a house, only with the benefit of hindsight can you work out when was a good time if you sold at a profit. plan is to buy a home, not a house that needs to be shifted for more money in X years. granted life could change that plan if we needed to move area or something!

I don’t think prices will go up any time soon in real terms, certainly not like they did 2001-2008. As far as I can tell the only people that can really afford to buy are those with equity gained over the last 10-20 years, those with parents in a position to help with deposits, or BTLers. First time buyers don’t seem to have a chance.

On top of that there’s nothing but price rises – petrol, food, electricity, gas. Funny how the papers never rejoice when they go up isn’t it?!

I think as long as you’ve got a credit history and have never missed a payment you’ll be fine. I wouldn’t worry about specific patterns of use. As long as you’re reliable, don’t have a mountain of debt in loans / credit cards and have a lot of savings (10%) they’ll give you a mortgage.

Nationwide will do a 95% LTV to existing customers (I think existing Mortgage customers so not sure if thats of any use) but the best rates are only available when you’re looking at 15% LTV upwards.

Good point binners. Let’s not forget all that unexpected inflation that creating billions of pounds out of thin air produced! Notice how the stock market bounces every time there’s more printing announced?

biggest thing i’m concerned about is our foolish decisions to work in public sector type areas! wife works for probation on a fixed term contract (keeps getting renewed but never for more than a few months at a time) and is seconded into the prison service…. no job security at all. not sure the mortgage people will like that

Yesterday I saw an ad in the paper for a shared ownership scheme; the ones where you get a mortgage for part of the property rather than the whole thing. Some new development somewhere, can’t remember. For a 1 bed flat, the price was £70k. For a 35% share. 15 years or so ago, you could have bought a similar property for not a lot more than that. Crazy.

Marginal value increase but not much. The great price crash was never/is never going to happen.
You may as well get on with it now if you can as there’s nothing much to gain from waiting.

tis what i’m worried about binners, buying before a massive crash and return to (relatively) more sensible house prices. a low interest rate is tempting but it can only really go up. i’d like to think we’re not stupid enough to base our repayments on current interest levels and max out what we could afford leaving no room for the rates to rise or our income to drop!

In the recent past, people have bought as stepping stones, first rung of the ladder etc. This really isn’t something you can do right now.
Wage inflation used to mean that any risks you took with stretching yourself were short lived and the risk diminished with time and salary increases.
There’s little or no wage inflation these days so you need to factor in a higher possible interest rate, 10% maybe and do your sums on that. Buy a home rather than a ‘first rung on the ladder’ investment and be prepared to stay there for a long time.

I reckon that in the next 2-5 years prices will come down.
There were a load of buy-to-let landlords who decided to take interest-only mortgages, assuming that the house price rises would allow them to sell on for a profit at the end of a short 10-year mortgage, They won’t be able to do that, so will have to sell for a loss.
It’ll drag down prices elsewhere, too.

thx1138

only person winning there is the developer. those shared owner ship things should be illigal.

Sold my last place, a semi in Surrey, for £165k in 2000, buyer then sold it in 2008 for £685k !!!

Yesterday I saw an ad in the paper for a shared ownership scheme; the ones where you get a mortgage for part of the property rather than the whole thing. Some new development somewhere, can’t remember. For a 1 bed flat, the price was £70k. For a 35% share. 15 years or so ago, you could have bought a similar property for not a lot more than that. Crazy.

There are both houses and flats for sale in Doncaster for £35k and under. Full thing, not shared ownership. Prices at the bottom end falling quite significantly.

only person winning there is the developer. those shared owner ship things should be illigal.

I was wondering what would happen if the developers suddenly went bankrupt/did a moonlight flit with all their ‘tenants’ money. What saddens me, is that although the ads show sleek, well furnished places in the best light with loads of photoshopping, in reality they’re often not all that well built (thrown up quick, lots of cheap materials and cost cutting). And may have very short guarantees. I’ve seen a fair few flats in such places, and they’re no better than many local authority places, in some cases even worse! And very small too; for £70k you are going to get 35% of a tiny shoe box.

Sold my last place, a semi in Surrey, for £165k in 2000, buyer then sold it in 2008 for £685k !!!

What would it go for now though?

Sold my last place, a semi in Surrey, for £165k in 2000, buyer then sold it in 2008 for £685k !!!

Where was that? I’m in a fairly nice part of Surrey but you could get a reasonable 4 bed detached for that cash in 2008. I bought in 2007 and, according to Zoopla/Mouseprice, mine is worth a few % more than I paid – the house I sold in W. London is 20% more.

I’d buy now if I didn’t have a place but just when things seem to be picking up there always seems to be something that comes along to cause a crash – Europe’s bound provide more bad news sooner or later.

Edit –

What would it go for now though?

I’d say a little less as my house peaked in early 2008 I think, dropped back a bit now 5 – 10% maybe?

thx1138 your basically getting all the bad points of renting and none of the good points of buying bar knowing its harder to be kicked out and the option at later date to buy more of the equity.

it must be in the paperwork somewhere but i dont see how its much better than yer basic pyramid scheme.

What would it go for now though?

Zoopla reckons 700kish.

Where was that?

Monkswell Lane, Chipstead.

I cheated a bit because he owned the land at the end of our garden which had some stables and a paddock.

He extended the house (digging up our old rock garden which had the cat buried in 🙁 ), put in a swimming pool and sold it with the land and stables, which looked to be in good shape as well.

Plus it is 1/2 mile from Fidelity, so maybe he sold to someone there.

I moved to Horsell and bought for £220k, and zoopla now reckons £393k, and that prices have gone up more here than where I was.

On rightmove with photos:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=17078786&sale=13284908&country=england

Got pictures of my bike on a stand in that kitchen…

Many people are in denial; a friend bought a place in a fashionable part of town, and then spent a fair few quid extending it (loft) and putting in a guest room/office. His wife now wants to move near her parents in Essex. In order to be able to afford to buy the kind of place they want, they need to sell at a certain price. Obviously you’d think that the extra work done would have added significant value, even taking into consideration the amount spent on the extension.

The place has now been on the market for over a year, with hardly any interest. And he refuses to drop the price, as he is determined to make money on it. He bought at the top of the market, and can’t understand the concept of ‘the value of your investment may go down as well as up’.

The place has now been on the market for over a year, with hardly any interest.

On some of these property sites you can sort by recently added – it then shows the date of listing – which is somewhat illuminating.

thx1138 your basically getting all the bad points of renting and none of the good points of buying bar knowing its harder to be kicked out and the option at later date to buy more of the equity.

it must be in the paperwork somewhere but i dont see how its much better than yer basic pyramid scheme.

Yeah, I couldn’t help but be suspicious of it. And feel sorry for those naive/desperate enough to get sucked in.

The place has now been on the market for over a year, with hardly any interest. And he refuses to drop the price, as he is determined to make money on it.

There seems to be something special about houses where people forget that it’s not about what the vendor thinks it’s worth; it’s about what the buyer thinks it’s worth

Moses:

They won’t be able to do that, so will have to sell for a loss.

Or they just keep them and keep renting them out.

And he refuses to drop the price, as he is determined to make money on it.

Or he doesn’t want to move closer to the MIL 🙂

There seems to be something special about houses where people forget that it’s not about what the vendor thinks it’s worth; it’s about what the buyer thinks it’s worth

to be fair there’s been a few classified users with the same approach over the years,

IHN; his problem is that he wants a particular type of property, in an area with very low availability, which means a premium price. He doesn’t want to ‘downgrade’, as he really believes he is entitled to a certain return on his investment.

A point I keep reminding him about, is that at least he has a home. That seems to go straight over his head though.

Or he doesn’t want to move closer to the MIL

Possibly!

I bought at the right time. In the first quarter of 2009. Properties in east mids were hitting rock bottom and we picked up a 3 bed semi for 136000. Next doors, identical but they have a garage, was bought for 189000 just 12 months previously.

It’s been up and down in value since we bought it but always above what we paid. I’m not particularly worried about making big bucks on it as it’s our home but I’d be worrying if it started to drop below our original purchase price. Currently it’s around the 160 mark.

Oh sweet baby Jesus and the orphans! Please tell me we’re not about to enter another period where its deemed appropriate, socially acceptable even, to consider house prices a legitimate topic of conversation?

in the end if it was worth buying sooner rather than later we’d rather look into it sooner rather than later!

In the long term view it’s always better to buy sooner than later. Property prices are only going one way long term and that’s up. Sure there will be small drops now and again but there’ll be no long term decline. Land, they don’t make it anymore.

In areas of the North East you’ll soon be able to buy an entire street of back-to-back Terraces for a bottle of Tesco own brand vodka, 20 Lambert and Butler and 2 packets of Space Raiders

Not to mention any number of the tiny new shoeboxes they seem to keep throwing up to satisfy all the demand – oh wait – there’s no demand.

The eagle eyed among you may have seen my house in the classified over the weekend. I’ve lost 25k on it – it’s only a couple of thousand more than smaller 3 bed roomed houses that have about 30% of the garage space. I’ve had about 5 viewings since september 2011.

I’ve found something else I like and fortunatelly I still have enough for a good deposit. For now mine looks like it’s going on a buy to let – and I’ll leave it empty.

In the long term view it’s always better to buy sooner than later. Property prices are only going one way long term and that’s up

You’re not familiar with the north of England then?

There seems to be something special about houses where people forget that it’s not about what the vendor thinks it’s worth; it’s about what the buyer thinks it’s worth

It’s about both. The house is worth a certain amount to him and if he can’t get that amount then he shouldn’t sell. It depends on the reasons for selling, some people aren’t that fussed about selling but if they get a price that covers the cost of what they want to get next then they would.

Zoopla reckons 700kish.

Interestingly Mousprice pretty much agrees but for my house Mouseprice reckons 11% more than Zoopla.

I moved to Horsell and bought for £220k, and zoopla now reckons £393k, and that prices have gone up more here than where I was.

That’s really quite incredible, sound right to you?

Turnerguy – that’s some investment. So excluding finance and maintenance that is a compound return on over 19% which seems a tad surprising.

House prices in SE at end of 2000 were on average 4.91x earnings. So lets assume this is applicable to your house. That would suggest that your earnings (theoretically) would be £33.6k. Now lest grow your earning at 6% every year to 2008 and you/new owner would be earning £60.2k. Apparently the house price to earnings ratio at end 2008 for SE was 5.15x making a theoretical value for the house of circa £310k (CAGR of 6.5%).

Your buyers was either very canny and smart or BSing you perhaps? Alternatively my maths could be BS!

You’re not familiar with the north of England then?

this is a good point.

House prices only rise when there is a thriving local(ish) economy or the house is in a location desrirable for 2nd home owners.

You’re not familiar with the north of England then?

They may have dropped but they’ll go back up and eventually surpass the previous peak.

Over population and protection of the green belt is seeing to that.

We do roads, sewers and foundations for the main house builders in the North West……….after a a few years of scraping this year looks to be a bumper one 🙂 quite a few large sites that have been shelved are now being released 🙂

I’d say there are large areas of the post-industrial north which are now in such terminal decline, that unless something pretty drastic happens economically (and lets be honest, can you see that happening any time soon?) that the idea of continuing house price rises is frankly ridiculous

soon? no. 20-30 years, yes.

to consider house prices a legitimate topic of conversation?

only if you’re willy waving.
ahem… I sold my flat in London last year, which was bought in 2007, just before everything kicked off, for 20% more than we paid for it.
conversely sold a second property this year in Durham for 20% more than it was bought for 12 years ago, missing out on 50% higher valuation in 2005/6.