House Prices

[heretoreaditall2019]

So a house went up on Rightmove for sale last week with 2 photos, one at the front and another of an overgrown garden. I rang the estate agents today to ask whether they would be putting more pictures up soon so people can have a better idea. The estate agent told me that they won't be putting any more pictures up yet because the house is cluttered at the moment and they have the keys for a viewing. Apparently they have already had an offer on the house but it's under negotiation because it's too low. I asked her how can people make an offer without pictures in a week and she said oh they have viewed the house. I think they are just lying. Why do estate agents lie so much!?

I’d imagine it’s probably someone with the cash / resources to quickly turn it around and rent it out so they don’t really care what it looks like as it’ll never be their home, they’re probably happy enough to proceed knowing it’s 3 bed/1 bath and avg rents down that road are £xx.

We’ve had it with 2 properties down ours, one of them has massively backfired on the bloke who didn’t do any of the work needed on the property (which is disgraceful really, it’s a nice road and the house sticks out like a sore thumb because it’s not been touched since the 70s - previous occupier died). He wanted the most money he could for it, so rented it out to “unhousables” who’d been evicted previously or summit (his words, not mine!) for bounty money off the council - he is charging them an extra 40% on what my neighbour rents their nice modern house for. Somehow they’re not paying him rent though, but obviously no one can get evicted due to covid, and he’s now on the brink of bankruptcy apparently as he has a huge mortgage on the thing

 

[hollowcrown]

How can houses be so unaffordable but also being sold so quickly? Is the problem on the supply side eg. there's not enough housing, and there's a deluge of people moving out of shared housing or what?

 

[Columbo]

My partner also grew up in the care system. He struggles to hold down jobs for longer than a couple of months which obviously doesn't look good to employers. He's 35 and recently found that working a pattern of seasonal jobs works for him - however the pandemic has thrown some spanners in the works for that too.

It's so easy for people to tell you to prioritise when they don't know your situation.

I know right? I mean if only my husband gave up all those flash holidays we’d have a house by now

I’m glad your partner has found something that works for him Even though my husband is in a stable job now we still have very little left over to save. If growing up in care has taught him anything it’s that bricks, mortar and a mortgage might get you a house but it doesn’t make a home. Yes we’d love to have a place that we can put our own stamp on but it’s not the be all and end all that people think it is.

 

[Yel]

A lot of people want to get their foot on the ladder as they’re worried prices will spiral even more.

I do think that's a very dangerous mindset, especially now. They fell in 2008 and end of the 90s.

But if I was 20 years younger I'd be on the streets at how the young have been totally screwed over and the market manipulated so that you need to be exceptional to get a normal house and retirement will be all but a dream.

 

[Emzykins]

I live in a 3 bed detached house, it's owned outright and was our pension fund, we want to move to a 2 bed bungalow but they are 50 thousand more than our house in the same area, so that's that plan out of the window

That’s the same where I am. My grandparents wanted a 2 bed bungalow and it was cheaper for them to buy a 4 bed detached house. It’s a joke. My mortgage is double what a bungalows would be and I’m in a 3 storey new build (£180k). There’s just no logic in these prices especially when bungalows are often made for the disabled/elderly. The worlds gone mad!

 

[Tublet83]

Houses are selling so fast around here. A house on a street that’s flooded several times in the last few years has sold in 2 days.

Doesn’t mean the sale will go through though - the flooding will be picked up in the survey and I would be surprised they will get a mortgage on it

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

The market where I am up north (nice area in a big city) is still absolute nonsense tbh - we’ve now lost out on countless houses which have been sold for well over the price they’ve been valued at (talking 20k-50k). It’s completely unsustainable but also means there must be loads of people in negative equity and/or willing to pay the shortfall in cash? I mean in some situations it may be worth it but this has literally now happened to us six times in the last six months and I’m sure it’s not just happening round here.

You may find it’s the people who have lived in the South moving North, so they have more money from sales of property etc available to them....

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

The reality however is that usually the rooms are smaller than in older homes, the layouts don’t work well, there’s often not enough storage and things are badly designed so it’s not easy to add in. I’ve also known of people who’ve never had their snagging finished, so their new build still has issues years down the line.

Yes! Nodded to all of this! The ~way people lived~ has changed dramatically over the last 100 years which is why you see such a variance between the style of house from Victorian to post war to new build. Each have their pros/cons but new builds are the only ones I’d say to never touch as the build quality is just fucked, plus there’s been a few financial scandals around part ownership, HTB, and bad ground rent (or block management fees for flats). Just major yikes.

When my bathroom was getting done they had to rush to an emergency where another customer had fallen through her bathroom ceiling into the kitchen, in a new build. It was a couple of years old (!!!) but they’d never fitted the shower tray properly so for years water was going through the floor (or whatever you call it) and rotted the beams and she fell through. We had similar in the flat we rented the shower was leaking out through the wall due to a dodgy fitting and the smell was foul, pretty much every flat had it so you could smell it in the halls.

Agree with Lana I’d love a husband who could do odd jobs around the house as often labour is the most expensive part (minus kitchens and bathrooms or floors!). Does he want to come round mine and put some pics and mirrors up pls

 

[Pixipoppy]

Seen a couple houses by me go for £20-30k over the asking price lately. So disheartening. Will first time buyers ever get a bloody look in?!

 

[BettyCrockerr]

Why can’t banks and building societies start looking at what people have been paying in rent for the last God knows how many years. They could see they have never defaulted and could easily afford a mortgage instead of paying someone else’s.

This is something that has been raised a few times at government level and I think in time will have to become a part of the mortgage application process. If you’ve rented for years, have never defaulted, have a good cedit history and have a stable income then that should be enough without the requirement for a ridiculous deposit.

 

[JLXRD]

And for those wondering my family actually grew up on benefits, neither went uni and neither were in well paid jobs. The fact you’ve assumed the opposite “speaks volumes”

I said if all the things listed don’t apply then you are privileged, I didn’t assume anything even having both your parents, having any kind of job, receiving benefits to help look after you - is a privilege not everyone has.

 

[hnoz]

This graph says it all, I bet on Mumsnet they're still talking about house prices not falling at all

View attachment 152333

Its comparing apples to orangest though, those other dates were market recessions. 2020 was a government shut down essentially, the stock market stopped, housing market stopped, all in person retail was closed, manufacturing all but stopped. It wasn't because house prices fell or confidence in markets was rocked.

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

Guys I have found a house that I really like and would be perfect for us. It is exactly what I want and the location is perfect! We would have to save up a little bit more for the deposit though and would like to wait until the market settles to make the offer! Hoping it is still on the market in a few months time.

That’s fab! Hopefully it’ll still be available when the time is right, but if it isn’t park it and move on. Don’t keep comparing everything to the house that got away....you may never find anything if you do and miss out on lots of great properties as a result....everything happens for a reason!

 

[Pixipoppy]

I despair at the property prices here at the moment, cardiff is generally cheaper than a lot of places in England but prices have still risen so much. I saw a property on right move the other day, end terrace 2 bedrooms priced at £200k, thought it looked reasonable... then I realised the house in the picture wasn’t the property for sale. The £200k property was a small garage/building next to the house. What the hell! That’s like something you’d get in london not bloody South Wales!

 

[Yel]

I'm gonna sound heartless here but I hope the housing market crashes so I can get on the property ladder. Its SO hard for my age group to buy decent houses in decent areas especially when grad jobs are barely over 23k for the first year. I don't want a new build as they're too small for my liking and the bigger ones are obscenely expensive where I live (700k+).

I don't think you sound heartless.

No more heartless than the people that shout for joy when their homes increase in price, without thinking about the untold misery this causes for lots of other people.

We'd have a much better economy if cash was invested into productive businesses rather than speculating on housing and pushing up prices.

I won't cry a tear if all these buy to let investors lose their hat, it's ludicrous that it was allowed to grow so much and propped up. People are bowing money to speculate on houses. It's been in shoe shine boy territory for a while - when the person shining your shoes gives tips on shares, you know they're in a bubble.

Not that I know how this bubble will unfold, probably not huge falls but a long period of high inflation if I had to guess.

 

[kazizzle]

So its hard to say if 20% over is reasonable or people are panic bidding because they know 20 people have viewed the house and 9 have put in notes of interest.

I wonder if people with remote working are moving here for more property for your money / more access to green spaces etc.

It’s a really odd situation. I don’t think the value of houses are changing that much, it’s just that the market is so competitive that people are way overpaying. Which is a huge concern in itself.

My friend has just bought a flat as a first time buyer, luckily she went to view it and the owner said, if you offer this today I’ll take it and it’s yours so she didn’t have to offer a ridiculous amount, but we both know of so many people who have been outbid lately with people offering way over the asking price.

My neighbour had her house valued the other day with a view for putting it up for sale and I’m really curious to see what it goes for. The house on the other side of me (I’m a mid-terrace) went for quite a bit over asking in December.

 

[JoeBloggs]

Lloyds Bank aims to be a large UK landlord with 50,000 homes

Bullish internal targets contrast with cautious public comments on new rental business

www.ft.com

So the government has mismanaged the economy so much that property is now a more lucrative investment than...investment banking.

They are all at, John Lewis is moving into the rental market. All be they are proposing to build their own homes instead of buying current stock.

 

[Begborrowsteal]

Maybe a little controversial here but I'm of the opinion that anyone who's claimed benefits to pay their rent shouldn't be allowed to use that time/payments towards money off when purchasing their council house. Because the tax payer has paid the rent not the tenants. Why should people be allowed a discount on a property when its tax payers who have earnt that discount within that period? When most tax payers cannot afford to save to buy a home themselves. Council houses shouldn't be for sale in the first place but knowing the likes of my aunt has bought a house with a market value of 200k for 18k after 30+ years on benefits and only now has got a mortgage because of a significant discount earnt with tax payers footing the bill makes me sick when me and my husband work our arses off and cannot buy.
And just for clarification shes only recently (past 2 years) worked. Shes otherwise lived a life on the dole constantly having children as the older ones leave home (which I'm aware is a whole other debate).
Call it jealousy if you will be it just doesnt sit right with me that councils allow this.

I understand, but I wouldnt get into benefit bashing areas. How the rent is paid is irrelevant, as eligibility and circumstance dictates that, but the right to buy a council home shouldnt even be an option.

Im also of the belief that the tenancies should be monitored better, means tested better. I know of several families who were housed after going down the homeless route (the people I know had the means to rent and previously owned homes) and now have a forever home. They have the income and means to rent or buy if they wanted to. Theyre in family homes that we are in real desperate need of. It just isnt fair imo. As with anything, if theres a way to take advantage, sadly there is a minority that will. I also know a vulnerable single mother who had to fight tooth and nail to get a social rent property. Its just not managed well enough.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

is paying a mortgage should be wary. Although we don’t get any decent returns on our savings, we still save like mad, simply because we want to be used to not living on that money if interest rates were to suddenly rise and increase the cost of our mortgage.

See this is an interesting conversation! Agree completely, beyond an emergency fund I’m seeing increasingly less point in amassing cash savings beyond that and mid term stuff (eg if you were saving for a kitchen or something). So we’re splitting it between overpaying the mortgage (and hopefully finishing it in a decade, if neither of us have a breakdown in the mean while), investments, and then crypto. Crypto is risky and I know a hot topic lots of ppl disagree on but I can’t see how you can get any remarkable returns on anything anymore, it’s potentially the only equaliser for the generation(s) that missed out on the insane property boom.

Then with baby - we’re contributing steadily to max out her NS&I but everything outside of that is going into crypto. So something that’s very safe then something utterly chaotic

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

This could be 'deliberate deprivation of assets' and they can reverse it or back charge, even to the person who now 'owns' the property. I would need to be done well in advance of any care being required.
If the house is gifted or sold and the money gifted it would be part of the estate for inheritance tax purposes (if applicable) but it'd probably be cheaper than paying for care. Again though if it's done just before care is needed it could be investigated and reversed.

They’ve probably been quite clever about the timing. If you’re fit and healthy and don’t believe you’ll need care then they won’t touch them. Her Nan could only be in her late 50s/early 60s so years away from it. I see both sides with this, not sure what the answer is.