House Prices

[ClockworkDolly]

You are quite lucky though - my own house sale has taken longer than yours, for example. Bigger chain with some complicated issues (divorcing couples) and in a VERY in-demand area post-lockdown, so things like conveyancing had a massive backlog.

Our house sold for asking price because the asking price was fair. Neighbours up the road with a worse house (ours is fully renovated) went with the Estate Agent who massively inflate prices. They still haven’t sold, despite finally dropping the price.

I should also add that I don’t have a mortgage which also speeded up the process.

 

[Anne1448]

Thought this article was interesting:
Half of people who bought homes during covid regret it according to a survey.

I am absolutely not surprised. I don't know how it is in the countries that you guys live in but it is crazy here in Ireland. When a house hits the market it is either sold before viewings are allowed or people are bidding 50-80k over the original price. My roommate is a property developer and I can hear him on the phone taking bids way over the asking price. Sometimes houses don't even hit the market because agents have so many customers that they just talk to one another. It's like exchanging pokemon cards.

If people do not have at least 10k extra for any additional repairs they are screwed.

 

[Yel]

it’s always cheaper to buy if you can get the deposit together.

That's not the case here with today's prices. Even with the ultra low interest rates it's cheaper to rent than a standard rayment mortgage once you factor in basic maintenance.

Plus there's the fact that a mortgage is a long term repayment so God knows what the future holds so no one really knows.

 

[hashbrown123]

I'm not surprised, the government has repeatedly whacked landlords over the head with a spade in recent years with extra taxes, fees and unnecessary regulation that just hammers the good landlords and does nothing about the scum landlords that ignore the law at every turn anyway. And then utterly thrown landlords under the bus during coronavirus by suspending all the legal procedures, which has given carte blanche to less moral tenants to just stop paying any rent at all; and offered "mortgage holidays" which in reality do absolutely nothing but just shove problems a few months down the line ... those mortgage payments still have to be paid in full, just a little bit later on. And mortgage holidays do sod all for service charges or letting agent fees which all still need paying.

I'm not at all surprised at any landlords just giving up on it all and being happy for properties to simply sit empty for six months till things are a little bit more back to normal, it's just not worth the risk right now.

Yeah I can’t blame the good ones that do care and follow their side of the rules. Just a shame good landlords and good tenants get shafted really isn’t it. Just wish I’d have started looking before corona but I personally think living through lockdown has heightened the desire to move! Hopefully we don’t have to wait 6 months!

 

[Mrs McCarthy]

But what's the alternative? You can't get a decent family home for less than £300k and that's in Yorkshire. Even if you settled for a 200K house, a 20% deposit is £40k before you've even taken other fees and costs into account. How are people supposed to rent and save at the same time if they want a decent home?

I am in Devon, and you can buy a not very good three bed in not very good area for around £200k. That’s what we had to buy, and what all our friends had to buy, and none of us could have done it without the help from our parents. The ones who don’t have help from their parents are still renting and they think that they will never be able to afford to buy, because with renting they can’t save for a deposit.

 

[JodieGreen123]

Obviously everything is just a guess at the moment, but I think you’ll see prices in towns and cities drop considerably. I do wonder if the countryside will be less affected as people are now realising that you can work full time from home and still have a job in London etc

 

[Lanavalentine]

I blame Homes Under The Hammer.

 

[ClockworkDolly]

You are quite lucky though - my own house sale has taken longer than yours, for example. Bigger chain with some complicated issues (divorcing couples) and in a VERY in-demand area post-lockdown, so things like conveyancing had a massive backlog.

Our house sold for asking price because the asking price was fair. Neighbours up the road with a worse house (ours is fully renovated) went with the Estate Agent who massively inflate prices. They still haven’t sold, despite finally dropping the price.

There is a massive backlog with Land Registry at the moment too.

There are always those sellers who demand the asking price, irrespective of whether there are people out there who will pay it. They are the ones whose houses sit on rightmove for sometimes, years. They cannot see it, they’re far too stupid for that, or they really have no intention of upping sticks at all.

 

[Lanavalentine]

So you tell me that the people I know who rent their properties to supplement pensions or care are not common, and yet the data you just posted proofs that 33 percent of landlords are retired. Do you not think that you contradict yourself?

No I don’t. I don’t think retired = renting a property privately to pay for their care home bills?!

 

[Homebird44]

What annoys me about where I live is that all the new builds tend to be shared ownership to make them look ‘affordable’. It’s not something most people I know looking to buy would ever be interested in. If anyone has done shared ownership I’d be really interested to hear your experience, I’m not really sold on the idea myself.

My sister did it. It was a good way on getting on the housing ladder. They bought more of a percentage from the housing association. They sold a few years ago and now have a straight repayment mortgage on a house they are renovating.

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

We’re in Yorkshire, we bought our house at the start of the year, it’s the most expensive house on the street (that’s not a boast, we liked the house and the area, it was move in condition and we had a lot of equity from the sale of our London flat and we wanted a home for the long term so we paid above asking). 2 properties in the street have gone up for sale, both needing work doing and have sold for more than we paid.....I’m definitely surprised a the price rises

 

[Italy2]

Out of curiosity, are you saying, for example, something like the lottery is wrong then? I mean, people who win millions and decide to give up work etc. Do you brand them as disgusting and greedy?

Lottery is once in a lifetime opportunity where 1 in a million people ever get one. There are hardly James and Charlie winning the lottery up and down the roads in council state homes. How many people do you know who have won a lottery and given up work? I don't know any! My point is that people shouldn't grow up with the mentality with finding shortcuts to obtaining things in life. There is no shortcut in life. If you want an apple, then you have to go and get one, it just doesn't fall in your lap.

 

[Kmt2019]

We have a friend who is a mortgage broker, and they are crazy busy. However, the stamp duty thing only works if it’s your one and only property, whether you are a FTB or not. So if you are trying to get a BTL or a second home, you still need to pay.

ahhhh I see! Thanks for clearing that up

 

[Yel]

See on outsourcing, I'm in data/dev which would be an ideal area to outsource but the skillsets still simply aren't there, tbh the skillsets are scarcely there in UK grads really I've found hiring into my department shockingly difficult. For repetitive really instructional work I've seen it be outsourced effectively but for bigger strategic projects, definitely not. Tbh my primary goal / every business' goal should be automation, our biggest problem has always been the dinosaurs that insist on hiring legions of 21 year olds to fill in antiquated shit inaccurate spreadsheets, though. Outsourcing that kind of work is great as you can hire someone in India or Eastern Europe for 3-4 hours a week vs a junior or midweight full time in London, but the sort of work you outsource has to be very instructional/repetitive, the skillsets aren't there to QA work, offer insights, improve off own backs...then again it's not in this country either tbh. The work I see SEO/marketing teams doing needs automating (this is my biggest project at work at the mo) but in absence of that they could 100% be replaced by offshore staff, but I can't imagine the control freak micromanagers allowing that to happen as they need juniors spoon feeding them info they're too lazy to read themselves. The more I write the more I realise how wholly disillusioned I am with work, sorry!

Totally agree, such a good post. I've really struggled to recruit people in the UK and the agencies often forward people that are just not up to it.

I think automation is the biggest threat at the moment, anyone that interacts with a computer could potentially be replaced by an algorithm. It's already happening quite a bit where a team that used to be 8 people is now slimmed down to 2 and the current situation could make the change even more rapid.

As for house prices I wouldn't worry too much if things are difficult to get now as it's the worst time to buy during a frenzy. If you're taking on a large amount of debt best to wait it out for a few months. 9m+ have been furloughed who are going to face issues getting a mortgage and things are only going to get worse with large tax rises the horizon. All it would take is tax on homes or interest rates rising half a percent (which the BoE maybe forced to do if inflation starts to take off) and the whole bubble could be popped.

 

[Homebird44]

no, you very clearly stated earlier upthread that it’s “easy” to save for a deposit. That people just need to stop spending on unnecessary things and then everyone would have money for a deposit. You said that. The back peddling now because you’ve been called out on your sweeping, Insulting generalisations is mind blowing.
if you’re in a hole, stop digging.

Bit much to have a go. We all have opinions on things. Everybodies lifestyle is different, some can save others cant. My family are loaded and have four holidays a year and brand new cars, I haven't been on a plane for five years. I'm not bitter, they've worked hard for their money.

 

[Lanavalentine]

Currently in the process of selling up and buying a new place... posted on this thread just before we went on the market. We got offers very quickly and easily on our place, bang on asking price.

Now we’re trying to buy, and there is a fair bit of competition. The interesting thing is that everyone is walking away if a seller tries to force a bidding war, so we’re not getting into crazy territory like what was happening a couple of years ago. Still, considering we’re looking at houses in the £850-900k range, the level of competition and how quickly some are going is a bit surprising given where we think the country will be within six months.

Then again, we’re happily buying as we’re in a strong financial position, so maybe I’m underestimating how many others are in a strong position too?

 

[Former_Antelopee]

Found a house I liked made an arrangement to view it and a few hours later they cancelled as they had accepted an offer no more for sale in the area and haven’t been many recently

 

[Kim Mild]

I'm still a bit confused at who is buying all the shitty flats in urban areas that are allowing people to move to the burbs?

Probably people who either lived with their parents during lockdown, or people who have had a relationship break up.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Serves him right then I can’t stand slum landlords.
I see this practice happening more and more renting out to undesirables for top dollar rent via the council and no thought given to nearby residents.

oh 1000% serves him right, and I never know why landlords are surprised by these sorts of situations happening! I also don't know why councils allow it to happen, we looked around the house as well as ours and it's scarcely liveable. There's no central heating it's this weird air system, the bathroom is horrific, the kitchen scarcely exists because they didn't back in the 50s when the houses were built, windows are all really old (that silver trim?) so it must be freezing to live in. I guess the council have no choice as housing stock is so low (especially as we're in London).

I never understood how they paid rent anyway as there are 3 adults in the house and none of them work & only 1 young girl, the smell of weed was REALLY bad the first few months they were there so I assumed they were dealing, but they're not?! I know this is very NIMBY but this is a very affluent borough and it really upset me that it was happening because we've sunk our life savings into this house, we could have gone to a 'normal' borough (without outstanding schools, with more crime, yadda yadda yadda) for significantly less money if were happy smelling weed all the time? I was looking into selling up a few months after we got here. This is awful but I did complain to the local councillor about it & the community policing team and they were really good, they now go out in their car to smoke weed which is obviously not fab for anyone else on the road. They also park their car on the pavement outside their house which means it's hard for their elderly & disabled neighbours to pass, they have to cross the road, which is just inconsiderate as the road has quite a lot of elderly.

I do appreciate people end up accidental landlords and it's shit that they're being penalised by the new regulations, but I'm glad that it stops these have a go landlords with no experience, no standards, and no links to their local communities from causing issues for the rest of us? I think a big problem is that lenders don't lend for renovations (anymore?) so the only people who can buy these elderly people's homes that require a lot of work are BTL landlords. Not saying that all landlords are slumlords & all tenants are bad, but where we're in a really well connected borough I do worry we'll end up with one of those HMOs with 30 men in eventually, which has happened to my MIL's road and her husband's van gets done in every other month now, after never having it broken into once in 40 years...

 

[Italy2]

going back to the help to buy schemes.
my husband and I bought our flat with the 5% help to buy scheme and it’s worked out well for us, as we’ll make around £50k when we sell (we had it valued just before COVID). My brother in law and his wife did the help to buy scheme where they put down a deposit but the company owns a large percentage still, ie they’re essentially renting part of their house. They’ll make around £15k if they sell it. They cannot afford to move now.We told them while they were thinking about buying it to wait, save up more of a deposit and just do the 5% help to buy scheme but they couldn’t afford to live where they live without it. It’s ridiculous.

It is really sad how so many people are forced into these schemes or else they may never be able to own a house!