Bollocks.

I have today heard from your buyers solicitor who have advised that as a law firm they have made the difficult decision to not exchange and complete on transactions until the government removes the restrictions on non-essential movement. They will be in a position to proceed as soon as the restrictions have been lifted.

Can they do this?

Although just seen Peekays post about movers so maybe inevitable 😒

A mate who owns a conveyancing solicitors firm told me today that the removals firms are stopping after tomorrow.

He also says that a lot of sales/purchases are being cancelled mid way through.

I suspect it will be rough times for sellers and any of the trades involved in buying and selling houses for a few months at least.

Hadn’t thought of this. I have to sell my Dad’s house which has been sitting empty since Xmas, once the probate or whatever it’s called comes through from the solicitors. Bugger.

The .Gov advice page at the link below has just been released

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-advice-on-home-moving-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak

We recently had an offer accepted on a house, mortgage is also sorted and we were looking to conclude the missives in two weeks.

The land registry has stopped processing all deeds so nothing will complete until they are back at work – they sent all their staff home on Monday for a minimum of 12 weeks.

So, unless you have the keys and are sat in the removals van I doubt much will proceed for at least a three months.

I’m not looking forward to confinement in the pokey 1 bed flat we rented while looking for a new home.

We completed on a sale/purchase today, and I’ll be honest probably the most stressful day of my life!

We managed to negoatiate getting the keys early (on Tuesday) because of the likelihood of movers not being able to deliver their service – they were booked to pack on Thursday and move us today.

In the event they phoned on Wednesday and said they’d had a cancellation and could they come then, they moved the limited stuff we’d managed to throw in boxes (them packing was off the table). They came back yesterday morning and moved all the big stuff, but left us to move all the leftovers. It didn’t look like much, but my god there was so much stuff!

Our vendor had always said (since accepting the offer) that he needed to complete by March 27th or the whole thing was off, house off the market, so with all our possessions in the house, and zero chance of getting them all back out again any time soon I basically shat myself when I read this thread last night.

However… we’re in. I had Domino’s for dinner sent by my boss, and I’ve got a beer in hand. Me and mrs njee20 nearly got a divorce, and I’ve basically not spoken to mini njee20 to say anything other than “sit there and watch Ben & Holly, and don’t move” for about a week. But we’re in. I’m keen to never, ever do that again. It was a simple chain (we sold to first time buyers, and our vendors were moving out of a second home, and not buying), which helped. We moved about 200 yards, which helped with ferrying stuff. But jesus… just no, never again.

Well, congratulations. I think.

That must be a real relief.

Still waiting to see what becomes of our move once everyone has had a chance to digest the government guidance early next week.
I spoke to mortgage company today and they have extended the offer for ah additional 3 months which gives a little bit more breathing space.

I think that’s congrats Njee? Even if it’s only on the Dominos for dinner ;P.

My (very much) younger brother has just bought his first flat with his wife. I hope they don’t get burned, but I suspect they will – if they stay there 10 years, they might be ok otherwise they will be bringing up a family in a two bed flat. Better than some obviously, but not ideal.

If it really hits the fan and the old folk all get it, there will be a lot of property on the market – if my uncle and father die, I’ll have a third of a couple of properties, I would hope to responsibly rent rather than sell but that will depend on a people in a different scenario to me…

I also saw an article on Wired about the bottom falling out of the “pro” air bnb market in London. Hard to feel sorry for those folk who’ve been making profits of people’s hardships over the last few years…

Yeah conceptually I’d have delayed, but our vendor were so militant that it was today or never. I think if you can agree to that it’s definitely the lower stress option, even if it means short term disappointment. Thank you though, been a long time coming!

Completed yesterday and we’re in surrounded by boxes but the internet is working as is the telly is (almost) so we can keep the kids entertained whilst we get on with things. Damn it was a stressful day not helped by the announcement at 7am (an hour after we’d started our prep that morning) that anyone who was between exchange and completion should postpone if at all possible EVEN THOSE AIMING TO COMPLETE THAT DAY!! By 10.30 at least we’d affirmed that it was still on but overall it was up there with childbirth in the stress stakes and I never want to do that again either. This better be a nice place to live as I think I’ll be here for a while. The consolation of dropping house prices is that it’s the same for pretty much everyone and what we’ lose on paper would apply to the next place.

;0)

The land registry has stopped processing all deeds so nothing will complete until they are back at work – they sent all their staff home on Monday for a minimum of 12 weeks.

Got a source for that? I cant find anything online saying they have closed for 12 weeks or wont be processing deeds. It just says they are working out what to do and will update.

Apparently the council here are still working in a limited capacity so we are still looking to exchange and complete in around a month all things being well. Im not hopeful this is realistic but solicitors seem to think it is, all be it anything can change. A 12 week delay would completely blow it.

So we completed yesterday and got in as well. My god what a stressful day, the single most stressful day of my life including child birth!!
It was not helped by the mortgage company pissing about and having to re-offer the mortgage – my broker will be getting an email to find out who dropped the ball on this as he stress levels went through the roof!

And of course, of all the stresses with a move day our childcare plans went out the window when I couldn’t take the kids to the grandparents!

We are not going through this process again any time soon!!! Just glad we are locked in for 5 years, gives some room for the market to recover before remortgage time.

Vast numbers of AirBnB’d property appearing on rental market apparently. No-one is going to be moving or even viewing for some months and could be even longer until overseas travel starts ramping up again.

Will be interesting to see how many of those are highly leveraged and whether there will be a slew of repossessions or disposals of second homes.

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https://www.ft.com/content/c08ec3d9-079e-40ff-baae-11388c650f6c

The UK government has in effect suspended the country’s property market, stopping estate agents from marketing new homes and banning visits to those already for sale, as it seeks to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

The government’s move on Thursday evening followed calls from banks to freeze the market. In talks between lenders and ministers, banks have expressed concern about the impact of the pandemic on valuations. They are also concerned about granting credit when the economy is in freefall, according to senior bankers.

They have told ministers it has become impossible to survey properties, according to people briefed on the discussion. Bank call centres have also been inundated with anxious homeowners requesting mortgage holidays.

The government had already urged buyers and sellers to delay moving unless it was unavoidable for “contractual reasons”.

But on Thursday, it went further, saying no visitors were allowed into properties while the ‘stay-at-home’ measures were in force, including estate agents, surveyors or potential buyers. The edict in effect blocks any new transactions taking place after the current round of pending completions.

I know someone who works there – everyone in both offices were sent home (this is the land registry in scotland by the way)

I think it’s a separate entity (and Land “Register”) in Scotland.

Yep, mate of mine was due to exchange on Friday, been up for sale for ages as well, huge house and he’s split with his partner, all postponed due to land register etc being closed.

The vendor and their solicitor seem very keen too to progress the exchange, but my mortgage company’s surveyor said that it is unlikely they can do their survey for another couple of months.
Could be whole different world by then.

Absolutely not.
Wait until the bottom of the market.
Covid 19 and Brexit will destroy prices.
Save like mad and pull the trigger when we’re at ground zero.
I reckon we’ll approach half current values. IT WILL BE THAT BAD.
Low interest will never trump half values. Interest will probably stay low too after both disasters.

I reckon we’ll approach half current values. IT WILL BE THAT BAD.

Great advice, does it come with a tin foil hat too? 🙂

Our sale/purchase is pretty much all done & dusted, solicitors have all but tied up the loose ends, and it has been relatively stress free so far.

The biggest issue we will have is no exchange/completion date, as we’re now waiting for our buyer who needs a mortgage survey (which is bonkers, as she is only borrowing 10% of the value of the house – don’t know why she wouldn’t get an unsecured personal loan!).

We can’t get a survey done on the place we’re buying, even with my other halfs father owning his own surveying business, so we will just sit it out now, until things start moving again. Be interesting to see what the position is with mortgages when everything starts up, we might get lucky, because they will be desperate to get things going. Fingers crossed for stupid low rates & long fixed terms 🙂

I reckon we’ll approach half current values. IT WILL BE THAT BAD.

Maybe if a quarter of the UK population dies of it.

UK house prices fell about 15% for about 8 months in 2008 before rising again.

During most of the 2000s house prices had risen at a rate multiples of inflation / wages, because everyone thought it was a no-risk gamble and would go on forever this coupled with self-cert / 105% / sub-prime mortgages created a huge house price bubble which was only ever going to burst.

The Credit Crunch and following Great Recession was a cataclysmic event when we discovered, to our horror that our economy was fundamentally broken and none of us were as rich as we thought we were.

Post-Credit crunch the Governments of the day have propped up house prices by massively restricting supply of new homes (well until about a year ago) So even though there are 5m more people living in the UK as there were in 2008, only around 2m new homes have been built.

IF we have a recession post-Covid (this will really depend on how long we’re on lock-down) it’s likely to be V-shaped, because fundamentally the economy, one built slowly over 12 years without the ‘benefit’ of reckless mortgage lending is sound and the Government has hopefully avoided mass redundancies through the 80% furlong rules and whilst consumers spending might different (by the look of the number of couriers I see every day, empty shelves in the shops and long virtual queues to even get onto online shopping sites) it’s not slowing. Add in massive government spending I wouldn’t bet on a double quarter drop in GDP.

reckon we’ll approach half current values. IT WILL BE THAT BAD.

Do you have a credible source on that ?

After a few wobbles over the last 3 weeks, we were all set to exchange at the end of this week. Chain all in place, with mortgages, surveys, searches, enquiries all resolved for everyone in it. Contacts all written, signed, sent to solicitors but not dated to allow exchange to go ahead.

This evening one of the solicitors further down the chain has announced that they now won’t exchange until after restrictions lifted.

Really mixed feelings. Being able to exchange without being certain on fixing a completion date would potentially have left us in an uncomfortable position, but everyone within the chain would have been the same. Although it would have been good to have some certainty that we were definitely going to move.
We really want to get in there as baby is due in six weeks and don’t want to have to worry about moving with a newborn, hence exchanging now and gambling on restrictions being lifted enough to allow the move sometime in 4-5 weeks would have been acceptable to us.

Not overly concerned about market changes. Nice area in with a strong demand for housing and limited supply. For those fortunate enough to financially see this period out and becoming more used to remote working a few days a week, and in London the remainder, it is a very attractive area. I imagine many people currently confined to apartments in London will look to get out to somewhere nearby but leafier should this happen again.

(There is some big, serious stuff going on in the UK and world right now, and me worrying about house moves is trivial compared to what some people are going through)

I think you might end up thanking that solicitor for sparing you that in a month’s time.

To answer OP’s question – no.
The fallout from this will be considerable and the effect on house prices will, I think, be significantly more than 2008/9.
Not a doomsday scenario but….large scale business failures with resulting job losses, banks ignoring exhortations from gov to be supportive, tax increases, brexit isolation, hoped for trade deals will recede into the distance, recession (two consecutive quarters of -ve growth so….almost guaranteed) are all likely to happen in a concentrated hit.
The aftermath will probably provide great buying opportunities for those with the funds.
To quote Warren Buffet – it’s only when the tide goes out you see who’s been swimming naked; the tide is going out a very long way on this.

Do you have a credible source on that ?

Nope. Just a layman with a gut feeling based on age and experience.

And like other posters have mentioned, the system not functioning, may save you thousands.

A slight alteration of the question, would you buy your house at the moment, if you could pay off your mortgage?  Let’s assume you have the savings to pay off the balance.

On the one hand, you’ve already agreed to pay/owe the balance so you can’t really pay less.   But owning the house outright if the value falls, is it merely just an erosion of equity or are they other issues to consider?

is a best to leave some and have a really small mortgage should you want to move, as with the current scenario, that ,any be easier than getting a new one.

If a first time buyer I’d hold out and await the oncoming crash…you will save a fortune

Maybes aye maybes naw . People have been harping on about the mega crash since ever anyone bought a house.

I think we will see a blip down. Then the demand of people who have readies fighting over the bargains will drive the prices back up.

As someone who is only 2years into a mortgage for just over £200k and still with a high LTV ratio I hope prices dont tank! My only solace is the huge amount of overpriced new builds going up in my area which are the same or worse as my home but priced about £60k more!

My only solace is the huge amount of overpriced new builds going up in my area which are the same or worse as my home but priced about £60k more!

there will definitely be some new build bargains to be had I think, developers will be desperate to sell just to get some money rolling in! Not for me personally but happy days for anyone prepared to live in one 😃 I can’t see more desirable property being affected much, especially here in the SE where it’s at such a premium.

A slight alteration of the question, would you buy your house at the moment, if you could pay off your mortgage? Let’s assume you have the savings to pay off the balance.

Depends – if the balance needs to be paid in full in, say , 6 months time then there’s little difference. I’d err on the side of caution and hold the cash. One option is to look at the policy- can you make overpayments and then use the overpayment to get a payment holiday if need be, so you’re reducing interest but have access to the funds.

Whether you own the house outright or part mortgage, what difference does it make (apart from LTV clalcs) if the value drops?

Might be worth keeping a small mortgage, IIRC the Nationwide have stopped new applications unless you’ve got a ridiculously low LTV or are an existing customer.

Might be worth keeping a small mortgage

Well, we have 56 months of fixed to go, but by then enough funds to pay off the balance – was my optimistic view. I think now I suspect the equity (plan was to waiting for the kids to leave in 10 years then move) won’t be as high, so we should leave ourselves an open loan capability for the next move rather than got though application/deposit etc.  Also of course my pension fund is 20% lower than it was a month ago.

We were rather hoping the equity + savings would pay for the new house in 10 years and leave us with no mortgage but I’ve revised that to “very small mortgage” in the first few years to ease the purchase process, and to account for the fact my Sales commissions are likely about to be a lot lower….

It could be worse, we are in a fortunate position.

“A collapse in the housing market” has “different” meaning if you’ve bought a Persimmon built house.

As someone who is only 2years into a mortgage for just over £200k and still with a high LTV ratio I hope prices dont tank! My only solace is the huge amount of overpriced new builds going up in my area which are the same or worse as my home but priced about £60k more!

if its a consolation, I was in a similar position in early 2008 – large (4x income, >£200k, 90% ltv) mortgage on a 2 year fix, prices plummeting. At the end of my fix, my lender (natwest) offered me their choice of new deals on the assumption that the value of the place hadn’t changed (ie, I was now on 80% products). I don’t know if every provider offered this, but it was a relief when it happened (as they’re 80% deals were better than the 90% deals elsewhere)

Think 5 years for loan to end & 10 years before a potential move are sufficiently far in the future. Can’t really plan one week to the next at the moment! Might have another virus in 6 years time!

Should your house value drop and so does the one you want to buy, there should be minimal difference between the various scenarios.

“A collapse in the housing market” has “different” meaning if you’ve bought a Persimmon built house.

Not just collapsing to worry about- the number of houses they built without fire-socks!

Daughter completes on her flat tomorrow, buying an ex rental and currently living with us, so no actual “moving” taking place, we did advise her to put it all on hold but it turned out she’d already exchanged so that horse had already bolted 😕

Uk housing market is really lots of mini markets. The 90s crash was due to rising unemployment and increasing interest rates. Also, when houses are cheap no-one wants them.

New build market has had bubble written all over it, part exing your old one just confirmed it. New developments with poor infrastructure.

Ex btw stuff – may have to be sold at a discount if empty and racking up finance and council tax bills.

Good properties well priced will always sell quickly.

It looks like things are beginning to open up again.
We were just about to exchange before everything stopped. Pretty desperate to move from this house to the one we had planned, but need to do some serious thinking over the next couple of weeks whilst the chain and other involved parties gets back on their feet.

If your financial position hadn’t changed, would you look to revise an already accepted offer? Feels a bit cheeky, but money is money.