House Prices

[Choco88]

If your trying to move into a new catchment area applications are open sept - jan and if it’s a popular area you will have needed to have exchanged/moved before applications close to ensure you get a place in the catchment area

It’s a special school so the application process is different sorry should have mentioned that.

 

[smellsofbiscuits]

My brother in law had an endowment mortgage. He was advised by the bank that after 25 years they'd have only paid off half. They remortgaged to a straight repayment but kept the endowment as a saving and got a payout a few years ago. They are loaded BTW!!!

Your BIL was lucky. My parents got one and were left owing the bank much more because of this. Fortunately they had inheritance money they could use to make up the difference.

 

[JoeBloggs]

Do you know about buying the lease? My parents said they’d buy it for me, can they do that?

You cannot buy it but you can extend it. The same applies, after you have own the property for two years you have the legal right to buy a statutory lease extension of 99 years.

It gets valued and then you can negotiate. You need to pay for the valuation. I can’t see why they can’t pay for it. Provided they don’t pass within 7 years it can be gifted to you with no tax implications.

 

[Its_Me]

What part of the country are you in? I’ve heard London prices will decrease but at the moment everything is speculation and I wouldn’t even think about buying x

 

[Yel]

I’m sure everyone would rather have the same house for £150k and 80% LTV than if it cost 300k but there are huge areas of the country where this just isn’t a choice and property just costs more.

I wasn't saying it was a choice you could make now but that low Ltv pushes up prices.

 

[Choco88]

We’re looking to move next year before my son starts school in September. I have no idea when we should list our current house for sale? Last time we were first time buyers so I’ve never sold before.

We did consider a new build so we could part exchange but I’m not keen on the development that’s in the area we want to live in.

 

[Homebird44]

I do think lots forget what happened last time after 2008 to house prices which this graph does show quite well

House prices dipped 0.5% in June as the stamp duty holiday began to be phased out, according to the Halifax.
Prices rose 8.8% over the year, leaving average prices still more than £21,000 higher, following a broadly unprecedented period of gains.
The lender said it was "important to put such a moderate decrease in context."

View attachment 653216

House prices dip as stamp duty holiday ends

The start of phasing out of the stamp duty holiday led to house prices dipping 0.5% in June.

www.bbc.co.uk

The prices will probably ease off as stamp duty is a big chunk of money. I can't see the prices massively dropping, a lot of higher earners will stay working from home and will have more disposable income from not having to commute. My husbands family are all well off, 40 year olds living in million pound houses with kids in private schools. We're the black sheep and I don't consider myself poor.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

I think someone previously in this thread said about houses selling before being online as the estate agent was sending info out to people beforehand.
Someone in my family who has died their daughter was emptying the house and someone saw her doing this. They went up to her and offered to buy the house, this was well before covid, but she hadn’t even contacted an estate agents about selling.

Thank you, that makes sense! It’s a bit rubbish as internal images help benchmark just cos the quality of property here is so poor, like it’s either a 1960s number or maybe 90s if you’re lucky, very few modernised properties available.

Obvs not that I see my home as an investment or something I want to profit from, we are just keen to move now tbh

 

[Yel]

Suprise suprise, the Halifax have gone from saying prices will increase next year by 5% to saying they will reduce by 2-5%, but of course not more than they've risen this year I wonder what the real figure will be.

• House prices will fall by two per cent to five per cent across 2021, warns Halifax
• This follows the 'mini housing boom' of 2020 as many moved to larger homes
• Fall may not entirely reverse £18k average increase in UK house prices this year

 

[Former_Antelopee]

Hang about it’s a house then that is surely freehold?

It’s a leasehold house. I have read though that apparently after two years you have the right to buy the lease if you want so least there is that option. But they said it won’t increase so I think should be fine

 

[Pixipoppy]

I think it's nationwide and they're doing it to protect first time buyers.

All these schemes to "help" or parents remortgaging like a pyramid scheme just work to inflate the bubble.

High tight, no rush to buy now during a frenzy and an economic impact that's equal to a world war. I think it would be madness to sign up for lots of debt with how uncertain everything is.

How will it protect them? By basically meaning they can’t buy and in turn possibly save them from a bad investment?
I’m just getting impatient now - we’re in our 30s, good jobs, all our friends have bought years ago. I know it’s a first world problem but I just want a place I can call my own, I want to be able to decorate how I want and buy nice things and feel like I have a stable place to live (having been evicted with very little notice through no fault of my own in the past).
I’m also keen to take advantage of the stamp duty freeze and the very low interest rates. Surely now is a good time to buy in that regard?

 

[Consumerism_fatigue]

Is this something that’s changed in the last couple of months? We had a AIP early June, hopefully hasn’t changed since then.

Yeah my broker said it’s only come up in the last couple of weeks, but it may not affect you if your AIP is so recent! My AIP was in April I think? So when the new policies came in my broker assumed it wouldn’t affect me, but turns out it almost did!

I’ve honestly been shuttling back and forth between “Yay I am so happy” to “is this even worth the stress”. Still, I can’t complain too much as my friend offered on her place March 2019 and it’s still not completed!

 

[Former_Antelopee]

You have the right to extend the lease after two years, buying the freehold isn’t always the same.

To add, saying they won’t increase the service charge is BS. It depends what the service charge covers but I doubt they will keep it at that rate for 10 years. This is my job so got any questions let me know.

My dads friend used to live on the estate and looked into buying the freehold it was around 5k. He moved a few years ago to a bigger house but it’s still the same price as when he lived there. They told me the newer home leases are the ones that change but as this ones older they said it won’t change. But I guess can still pull out if needed when the solicitor looks at paperwork.

 

[Holidaybobs]

But they likely won’t be in negative equity if they have a large deposit and a small mortgage....you’re only in negative equity if your mortgage is more than the house is worth....

They will be in trouble when the prices drop and they’ve overpaid. I’m in the north as well and know of so many houses that have gone 40-50k over, it’s ridiculous. I don’t understand some people’s mindsets atm.

 

[orange club biscuit]

Are the mortgages agreeing with the valuation on these properties?

A few years back lots of people i know, myself included, were having properties down valued. So our example house was up for 300 which is average for the area. We offered 295 and it was accepted. Mortgage came back and said the house was only worth 280. So as first time buyers we had to pull out as the sellers wouldn't drop the price.

So I wonder with these houses where people are offering tens of thousands over the asking price are the banks agreeing the value?

This is anecdotal only but I am in the process of buying a house in a very popular area of a city in the north. We sold our first house for 270 (asking price) in October but it was down valued by 10k to 260 - which we accepted. The house we’re buying now was on the market for 425 in March, we offered 450 with the intention of covering the shortfall in cash but the bank valued it at our offer price - 450! We were pretty surprised by this as we have been house hunting for MONTHS and have put in 10 offers which have mainly been rejected for being too low (even though all of them have been at or over asking - some significantly over!).

There still must be lots of buyers out there who are covering shortfalls in cash. Tbh I know nothing about the valuation process but am wondering whether the sustained increase in prices over the last year has meant they are less conservative than they were a few months ago.

 

[justbeingnosy98]

There’s definitely been a drop in prices here too. A lot less going on the market and they seem to be taking longer to shift!

I have seen a few flats I like but I still think they are hugely overpriced compared to pre COVID so going to hang on for another month or two before I start to view.

My dad pointed out the other day that the market does tend to slow over the winter anyway, so it will be interesting to see what happens to prices come spring 2022.

 

[Yel]

Anyway back to house prices, otherwise we could go on all day long with landlords are providing an essential service / exploitative bottom feeders argument

House prices pretty much static in Feb. But I'd think that says prices are going to stay static? Most that wanted to move have probably done by now or were due to complete by end of March. The samp duty extension will stop a cliff edge, but can't see another frenzy being kicked off. The gov will now subsidise up to 3000 people with a low deposit every month but that feels like it will be treading water.

Will be interesting once the SD exception is removed to see what happens.


House prices dipped slightly in February, Halifax says, recording a 0.1 per cent fall.

On an annual basis, house prices grew 5.2 per cent, the lender adds, with the average house price coming to £251,697.

Quarterly, this equates to a 0.5 per cent change.

It has been a soft start to 2020, says Halifax managing director Russell Galley, and “the housing market has been at something of a crossroads.”

However, recent budget announcements, such as the extension to stamp duty and the mortgage guarantee scheme have “removed a great deal of uncertainty for buyers with transactions yet to complete”.

He adds that the long term housing market performance “remains inextricably linked to the health of the wider economy.”

James Pendleton property expert Lucy Pendleton says: “Now that the stamp duty holiday has been extended, there is nothing standing in the way of a string of new record highs over the coming months.

“While pumping up property prices is unlikely to have been the chancellor’s aim, he has effectively fired the starting gun on what is set to be a second honeymoon for house price gains.

“Annual house price growth has now been above 5% for seven consecutive months. It will be fascinating to see how long the market can hold on to that growth, but of course such a hot market isn’t welcomed by first-time buyers who will be relying heavily on the government guarantee mortgages that are now going to be available to them.”

And Radstock Property co-founder George Franks says: “March is likely to see a much more pronounced rise in house prices due to the extension of the stamp duty holiday and the new mortgage guarantee scheme.

“Since the Budget we have already noticed an uptick in prospective buyers and this is likely to continue.

“Prices are also being supported by a phenomenal lack of stock. For now, in the capital at least, properties for sale are as rare as hens’ teeth.

“London is in a log jam. The top end want to get out but there is nowhere to go, which means people can’t move up.

“The Halifax is right that the economy and jobs market are key to the trajectory of prices this year, but we believe demand will remain relatively strong as it still costs less to own than to rent and mortgage rates are extraordinarily competitive.”

House prices dip 0.1% in February: Halifax

House prices dipped slightly in February, Halifax says, recording a 0.1 per cent fall. On an annual basis, house prices grew 5.2 per cent, the lender

www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk

 

[Moe]

Regards to older people in their 50’s plus apart from remortgaging many took out 0% interest mortgages years back and haven’t paid a penny off the capital.
They’ve had 3 holidays a year nice cars lots of home improvements but I just don’t get the mentality.
Think the chickens will come home to roost for many.

 

[idk2]

300k sounds crazy high but the reality is that it isn't if you are near London or in the South. Raising it to 500k isn't really a FTB policy but before the rise to 300k it absolutely was an additional road block to buying in the south. I think our stamp duty was due to be about 6k for a one bedroom flat, while my friends buying 4 bedroom houses up north didn't have to pay anything.

Even where I am in the midlands, we are FTB looking in to region of 300k-400k so although stamp duty wasn't a huge expense, its nice that we can add that to our deposit instead now.

 

[hnoz]

What happens when people buy HTB houses and then sell the house within the first 5 years? Does the scheme pass on to the new first time buyers or end there? Sorry stupid question!

The help to buy scheme is a loan that the buyers took out, if they sell the home it needs to be repaid. The loan is a percentage rather than a set amount though.