House Prices #2 Property market, buying and selling

[HoGi]

Has anybody got any experience with shared ownership? My eldest has started his new job and he gets a free oyster card, after a few months. He's happy to stay at home and save but the mainline trains are expensive and he'd rather not 100% rent as he wouldn't be able to save.

For some people it is the only way to get on the ladder and have some stability.

A lady I work with used to own with her partner then they split up. She couldn't buy on her own due to her salary.

She has done shared ownership on a 3 bed semi, kids have their own bedrooms, no worry that the landlord will want to move you out to sell on etc. Freedom for pets/decorating etc. She got a mortgage on 30% and rents the rest. But she can claim housing benefit towards that rent.

So she is paying a lot less per month than she was renting and has the benefits of owning. She knows she will never own a bigger percentage of it as she can't afford more. For her the benefits far outweighed the negatives, that won't be the case for everyone.

 

[thegirlscout]

I grew up in a village in the South West and I cannot afford a property in my village within my community. It’s so unfair. Why are house prices so expensive!

 

[Homebird44]

There’s a bbc documentary on this - have a look on iPlayer. Around where I am the shared ownership houses are vastly more expensive. So you pay £150k for half a house that if it was for sale whole would be £260k but I’ve no direct experience.

Thank you, I'll let him know.

For some people it is the only way to get on the ladder and have some stability.

A lady I work with used to own with her partner then they split up. She couldn't buy on her own due to her salary.

She has done shared ownership on a 3 bed semi, kids have their own bedrooms, no worry that the landlord will want to move you out to sell on etc. Freedom for pets/decorating etc. She got a mortgage on 30% and rents the rest. But she can claim housing benefit towards that rent.

So she is paying a lot less per month than she was renting and has the benefits of owning. She knows she will never own a bigger percentage of it as she can't afford more. For her the benefits far outweighed the negatives, that won't be the case for everyone.

I think he's so blinded by the expense of the getting into work that he's considering it. Thank you for your reply

 

[Megansnarkle]

Has anybody got any experience with shared ownership? My eldest has started his new job and he gets a free oyster card, after a few months. He's happy to stay at home and save but the mainline trains are expensive and he'd rather not 100% rent as he wouldn't be able to save.

The biggest problem with shared ownership that I see is that it's fine if you plan on never staircasing up but if you do staircase you pay market rate at the time of stair casing, which has likely gone up since you bought and you have no control over that and no benefit from it in the same way you do when you own the whole thing. Honestly, if he's happiest to stay at home, at least for a while, I'd go with that.

 

[littlepup]

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/property-news/house-price-index-december-2021 Article re house prices, how they’ve gone up and the outlook. Basically gone up about 8% YTD, expect 3% by end of year but more houses coming on and growth definitely slowed. Flats haven’t seen the same increases, just 2.2% so could be a good buy with commuters getting back into the office.

 

[sushimama]

I have to write something because I feel like I'm going to explode.

We live in an apartment building in a very nice neighbourhood in our capital city and my boyfriend and I own a little 1 bedroom flat with a nice balcony. Next door there is a little studio flat, but the neighbour who lived there passed away two years ago. There are multiple heirs from another country and just yesterday we heard some noise in that flat (after it's been empty for almost 4 years) and my bf went and knocked. The agent told him that the flat is going on sale on wednesday. Bf called this morning and offered 5k under the asking price and the agent told him this won't work because another person from our building already offered that.

We decided to offer asking price along with paying the fee and the tax, which all in all would be around 10k over asking. Now I'm waiting for the agent to see us (later today) so we can present her our offer. But I can hear people are already in the flat next door and it is driving me insane because I fear she'll just call us in the afternoon to let us know that it's already sold. It's crazy that it's not even marketed yet and maybe we're already too late. If the ad goes out then we probably don't stand a chance because the prices are INSANE. They're already asking 4k per sq./m for a flat that hasn't been renovated since it was build 41 years ago and has been empty for the last 4.

The thing is that to us it's not a studio flat - we would knock down the wall between our flats and get another (baby) room. So we're not just looking for any studio flat in the area, this is the only flat that could make our plan come true. Otherwise it's pretty unusable and you'd need to spend at least 40k renovating it.

I'm soooo nervous I don't think I can survive till tomorrow lol.

 

[JoeBloggs]

I have to write something because I feel like I'm going to explode.

We live in an apartment building in a very nice neighbourhood in our capital city and my boyfriend and I own a little 1 bedroom flat with a nice balcony. Next door there is a little studio flat, but the neighbour who lived there passed away two years ago. There are multiple heirs from another country and just yesterday we heard some noise in that flat (after it's been empty for almost 4 years) and my bf went and knocked. The agent told him that the flat is going on sale on wednesday. Bf called this morning and offered 5k under the asking price and the agent told him this won't work because another person from our building already offered that.

We decided to offer asking price along with paying the fee and the tax, which all in all would be around 10k over asking. Now I'm waiting for the agent to see us (later today) so we can present her our offer. But I can hear people are already in the flat next door and it is driving me insane because I fear she'll just call us in the afternoon to let us know that it's already sold. It's crazy that it's not even marketed yet and maybe we're already too late. If the ad goes out then we probably don't stand a chance because the prices are INSANE. They're already asking 4k per sq./m for a flat that hasn't been renovated since it was build 41 years ago and has been empty for the last 4.

The thing is that to us it's not a studio flat - we would knock down the wall between our flats and get another (baby) room. So we're not just looking for any studio flat in the area, this is the only flat that could make our plan come true. Otherwise it's pretty unusable and you'd need to spend at least 40k renovating it.

I'm soooo nervous I don't think I can survive till tomorrow lol.

Have you checked that legally you can actually do that? I take it your not based in the UK but usually you would need consent of the building owner and you would legally need to change it to one dwelling instead of the current two.

 

[Clover123]

Have you checked that legally you can actually do that? I take it your not based in the UK but usually you would need consent of the building owner and you would legally need to change it to one dwelling instead of the current two.

Yeah I was about to say this- the leasehold owner might have an issue with that plus planning permission and a legal change. Might be worth checking that out if you haven't already!

 

[Affiliatedlink]

My hubs and I are cash buyers, we decided to downsize from a fair size house that was a pain in the arse and expensive to look after. The main reason though was through covid our jobs and income have changed dramatically. We always thought (like most) that cash is king, being a cash buyers puts you in a great place etc etc..but not anymore it seems. So far we’ve lost out on 2 properties due to ’final offers’, we bid a tad over asking up to our max, the one we really liked went ‘substantially’ over the asking price and we were the only cash chain free buyers so it means diddly squat. I’m currently waiting on another full asking offer we’ve made on a tiny house that need finishing off but the owners want to do more viewings this week, I don’t hold out much hope for this one either!

 

[littlepup]

My hubs and I are cash buyers, we decided to downsize from a fair size house that was a pain in the arse and expensive to look after. The main reason though was through covid our jobs and income have changed dramatically. We always thought (like most) that cash is king, being a cash buyers puts you in a great place etc etc..but not anymore it seems. So far we’ve lost out on 2 properties due to ’final offers’, we bid a tad over asking up to our max, the one we really liked went ‘substantially’ over the asking price and we were the only cash chain free buyers so it means diddly squat. I’m currently waiting on another full asking offer we’ve made on a tiny house that need finishing off but the owners want to do more viewings this week, I don’t hold out much hope for this one either!

A lot of people are selling simply to maximise their money right now. They’d never be selling if it weren’t for the boom, they just want the maximum £££ so will hold on for that. It’s a totally different market from 2 years ago and previous to that in my memory.

 

[Anne1448]

A lot people are also holding onto their property because they can't find a single home to move into.

If I bought a house for 400k 10 years ago with a fixed mortgage at 2% but now I have to pay 500k for a smaller house with a 4% interest rate, I'd rather wait before selling mine.

So we have even less supply than what we should have.

 

[JoeBloggs]

My hubs and I are cash buyers, we decided to downsize from a fair size house that was a pain in the arse and expensive to look after. The main reason though was through covid our jobs and income have changed dramatically. We always thought (like most) that cash is king, being a cash buyers puts you in a great place etc etc..but not anymore it seems. So far we’ve lost out on 2 properties due to ’final offers’, we bid a tad over asking up to our max, the one we really liked went ‘substantially’ over the asking price and we were the only cash chain free buyers so it means diddly squat. I’m currently waiting on another full asking offer we’ve made on a tiny house that need finishing off but the owners want to do more viewings this week, I don’t hold out much hope for this one either!

Are you a cash buyer without selling or only once you sell? It’s it’s the latter you really aren’t in that much better of a position than a FTB. While previously you would have been a prime buyer now it’s about the sale price, people are putting offers £50k above asking and people want as much as they can get.

A lot people are also holding onto their property because they can't find a single home to move into.

If I bought a house for 400k 10 years ago with a fixed mortgage at 2% but now I have to pay 500k for a smaller house with a 4% interest rate, I'd rather wait before selling mine.

So we have even less supply than what we should have.

My parents would ideally like to move but even by downsizing the stamp duty they have to pay doesn’t make it worth it.

 

[Megansnarkle]

Are you a cash buyer without selling or only once you sell? It’s it’s the latter you really aren’t in that much better of a position than a FTB. While previously you would have been a prime buyer now it’s about the sale price, people are putting offers £50k above asking and people want as much as they can get.

Even if it's the former, being a cash buyer isn't much better than a first time buyer with a mortgage, getting a mortgage doesn't slow things down too much, a motivated buyer could get searches running in parallel to an application. I'd go with a higher offer from a first time buyer over a lower offer from a cash buyer every time.

 

[Affiliatedlink]

I’m a cash buyer, already sold and living with friends.,every offer we’ve made is asking price or above. I certainly wouldn’t choose a first time buyer over cash. I didn’t think we are in the first time buyer bracket anyway.

 

[HoGi]

For me the main difference between cash buyers and FTB is the mortgage valuation. There is always a risk that will come in lower than the offer or low on the basis of a survey.

Also cash buyers might not want as in depth a survey which could show potential issues and effect sale price.

I would always prefer cash buyer if they offer the same or only slightly lower.

 

[littlepup]

For me the main difference between cash buyers and FTB is the mortgage valuation. There is always a risk that will come in lower than the offer or low on the basis of a survey.

Also cash buyers might not want as in depth a survey which could show potential issues and effect sale price.

I would always prefer cash buyer if they offer the same or only slightly lower.

Yes we’ve offered cash, no survey, completion as fast as solicitor can do (so 6-8 weeks). I’d rather have the money in the bank asap than wait and wait and potentially fall though but in this market it doesn’t seem to be the case.

 

[sushimama]

Have you checked that legally you can actually do that? I take it your not based in the UK but usually you would need consent of the building owner and you would legally need to change it to one dwelling instead of the current two.

Yes it's possible, we'd need 75% of owners to agree which is around 40 people so not the easiest job, but 4 floors below us there's already the exact same flat where they combined 1 bedroom and a studio apartment so it can definitely be done.

I am a lot calmer today after meeting with the agent yesterday. I think we have good chances. They decided they won't even put an ad out and because the heirs (there's 6 of them!) want to close it fast they want someone with money which we have, so I think we have a little advantage here. Fingers crossed.

 

[Rmd0609]

How’s everyone who is buying/selling getting on? Our house sold for over the asking price on Monday after being on the market 2 days which is great….. but we can literally not find any houses to buy! I thought selling your house would be the most stressful but seems like finding the right house for you is!!

 

[Italy2]

I'm scared to say anything now in the fear that I would get attacked by @heretoreaditall2019 again.

 

[littlepup]

How’s everyone who is buying/selling getting on? Our house sold for over the asking price on Monday after being on the market 2 days which is great….. but we can literally not find any houses to buy! I thought selling your house would be the most stressful but seems like finding the right house for you is!!

We’re looking at plots to self build now
There’s just no property around that’s not absolutley crazy priced. Every house we’ve offered on has gone for well over to a buyer from outside of the area still. I looked at one on Monday where the advertised 3rd bedroom was the conservatory. It’s a piss take

(edited to be clearer)