House Prices

[Yel]

Ha ha I’m definitely not an estate agent....that’s not a job I’d ever aspire to....just saying the market may not be as badly affected depending where you live....we’ve recently bought and sold so am not moving anywhere for a very long time, we bought a home, not something to make money from!

Oh no don't think you're an estate agents, but that's classic estate agent speach - it gets repeated alot as it's popularist.

Sold means nothing untill it's exchanged, estate agents around here are putting on houses and changing to sstc a few hours later. Presumably it's a trick to make it look like they're busy?

Nationwide have withdrawn all 95% LTV and their minimum is now 85%, factoring in the falling prices I assume. Also just because a product exists doesn't mean someone will get it, they will possibly be much more strict on who qualifies.

Nationwide triples minimum deposit for UK first-time buyers

Mortgage lender sets 15% level to help protect customers from negative equity

www.theguardian.com

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

Oh no don't think you're an estate agents, but that's classic estate agent speach - it gets repeated alot as it's popularist.

Sold means nothing untill it's exchanged, estate agents around here are putting on houses and changing to sstc a few hours later. Presumably it's a trick to make it look like they're busy?

Nationwide have withdrawn all 95% LTV and their minimum is now 85%, factoring in the falling prices I assume. Also just because a product exists doesn't mean someone will get it, they will possibly be much more strict on who qualifies.

Nationwide triples minimum deposit for UK first-time buyers

Mortgage lender sets 15% level to help protect customers from negative equity

www.theguardian.com

We had an offer on our flat which we accepted, within an hour they had changed the website and board, that was a Friday afternoon. They’d pulled out by Monday after thinking about it over the weekend. They’re definitely keen to get as many showing that as possible. Ours was still on their website 3 months after the sale was completed (showing as sold) again am guessing to make them look better

 

[Yel]

We had an offer on our flat which we accepted, within an hour they had changed the website and board, that was a Friday afternoon. They’d pulled out by Monday after thinking about it over the weekend. They’re definitely keen to get as many showing that as possible. Ours was still on their website 3 months after the sale was completed (showing as sold) again am guessing to make them look better

Agents are often useless, my last ones were putting forward offers from people that weren't serious. This is why I sold my last house myself for £600 online, not a huge saving as was an average priced home but at least I met the buyers so could see how serious they are. Good and bad points overall.

Some agents here I think are using family and friends homes to make it look like they sold something quickly.

 

[Italy2]

Out of curiosity does anyone here has a new build house and what do you guys think of it? I know so many people have bought new houses in our social circle and they love it. Some of them have bought them on help to buy and some have as their forever home because they are nice and clean. I know they are more expensive than an old house but they are clean and no one has ever lived there before. What do you guys think of them?

 

[Pixipoppy]

Out of curiosity does anyone here has a new build house and what do you guys think of it? I know so many people have bought new houses in our social circle and they love it. Some of them have bought them on help to buy and some have as their forever home because they are nice and clean. I know they are more expensive than an old house but they are clean and no one has ever lived there before. What do you guys think of them?

Don’t have experience myself but also interested in the answers!

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

We looked at both but went for an older house. Just felt that it had more potential to change over time, and also felt sturdier if that makes sense. Also all had quite small gardens and felt very overlooked. But new was tempting as could just move straight in and not think about it, especially as we were moving to a totally new area and have no contacts in terms of builders etc. What finally decided it for us was location, none of the new builds were really where we wanted to live, not close enough to shops/pubs/general life, just massive estates of houses and nothing else unless you go by car

 

[Tublet83]

Out of curiosity does anyone here has a new build house and what do you guys think of it? I know so many people have bought new houses in our social circle and they love it. Some of them have bought them on help to buy and some have as their forever home because they are nice and clean. I know they are more expensive than an old house but they are clean and no one has ever lived there before. What do you guys think of them?

Depending on where you buy in the UK, when buyer a new building you can go immediately into negative equity, ok if you plan on being there longer term but not if you want sell especially on a large estate.

I hate the ridiculous number of bathrooms in new builds would rather have bigger rooms!

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

Agents are often useless, my last ones were putting forward offers from people that weren't serious. This is why I sold my last house myself for £600 online, not a huge saving as was an average priced home but at least I met the buyers so could see how serious they are. Good and bad points overall.

Some agents here I think are using family and friends homes to make it look like they sold something quickly.

We considered that option but had to get an agent as we had already moved, so there was no one to show people around. Ours weren’t the worst but I did feel they were pushing people into us who weren’t serious buyers (we had three offers all of whom dropped out within days) just to get a sale. They also over valued the property, not massively but enough to put people off viewing as out of their budget. I had a very ‘frank’ conversation with them at one point

 

[Yel]

Out of curiosity does anyone here has a new build house and what do you guys think of it? I know so many people have bought new houses in our social circle and they love it. Some of them have bought them on help to buy and some have as their forever home because they are nice and clean. I know they are more expensive than an old house but they are clean and no one has ever lived there before. What do you guys think of them?

I personally wouldn't buy one as usually the plots are so small and crammed into each other - even the ones that cost millions are often barely detached by much.

You never know when you might need to move and even in a rising market it often takes years to be worth the value paid for it when it was new.

 

[idk2]

Depending on where you buy in the UK, when buyer a new building you can go immediately into negative equity, ok if you plan on being there longer term but not if you want sell especially on a large estate.

I hate the ridiculous number of bathrooms in new builds would rather have bigger rooms!

I'm the opposite! We want an old house, over new build. Which is funny as I was completely for a new build first but after seeing how much they go for and what we get, it wasn't worth it! We are now looking for an old house in a good area with a big garden/driveway parking. We don't mind ripping it all out and starting fresh as hopefully that will only increase the value of the property in the end. My biggest peeve is the fact old houses very rarely have ensuites and only one main bathroom a lot of the time in huge houses!

Just out of curiosity's sake, what is your no.1 thing you look for in a property? Mine is, it needs to have potential to be better i.e hopefully worth more after renovations and located in a good area.

 

[Tublet83]

I'm the opposite! We want an old house, over new build. Which is funny as I was completely for a new build first but after seeing how much they go for and what we get, it wasn't worth it! We are now looking for an old house in a good area with a big garden/driveway parking. We don't mind ripping it all out and starting fresh as hopefully that will only increase the value of the property in the end. My biggest peeve is the fact old houses very rarely have ensuites and only one main bathroom a lot of the time in huge houses!

Just out of curiosity's sake, what is your no.1 thing you look for in a property? Mine is, it needs to have potential to be better i.e hopefully worth more after renovations and located in a good area.

Funnily enough we have done the same bought an old house and have been renovating it room by room. Bathroom is the last major part to finish next month (went on hold with lockdown)

Our number 1 was area, we have young children and I wanted to move for school catchment. We bought a house way way more work needed then we planned but would never be able to afford a house as big of it was renovated.

 

[Yel]

Going back to the economy, I think the redundancies are really going to start happening now sadly. With large companies having to have I think 45 days consultation and smaller ones 30 days now's just the time to start the process so come August when furlough changes they won't have the liabilities. Not seen this in real life, but a few posts here. This might only be the begining of challenging times.

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

Going back to the economy, I think the redundancies are really going to start happening now sadly. With large companies having to have I think 45 days consultation and smaller ones 30 days now's just the time to start the process so come August when furlough changes they won't have the liabilities. Not seen this in real life, but a few posts here. This might only be the begining of challenging times.

Sadly I agree with you
My partner works in hospitality, he’s the events manager for a large convention centre. Furloughed until the end of July but we can’t see how they will keep him on, there just isn’t going to be a market for large scale conferences/events for a long time, so they won’t keep staff on. His industry is going to be saturated with people looking for jobs, without the jobs being there.....testing times ahead for many. We are lucky that we made the move north and have a small mortgage, plus I was able to negotiate to keep my London salary, so we’ll be ok until he finds something else, but many others wi t be so lucky. Plus he’s worked in the industry his whole life, he’s very good at what he does and has worked his way up, so it’s sad that his whole career could be gone just like that

 

[Bubble10]

Yes but if your house price drops a little bit then the house you would buy will drop as well? Unless you are looking to downsize, it shouldn't affect you. It rather just helps more people get onto the property ladder and people who are already homeowners shouldn't make a loss.

We have found a plot and we love, and are hoping to build our next house ourselves. It's something my husband has always wanted to do because he's a builder and we couldn't have done this when our children were smaller, but now they are older and it will only be our youngest that will be coming with us because the my other 3 children have moved out. I was hoping to sell before the house prices drop too much just so we will have the more money to achieve our dream without having to borrow, if that makes sense. I hope I am not coming across as selfish, we have made a lot of sacrifices through the years to get us where we are today, but I also realise I am quite privileged when many don't even have anywhere to call home.

I do really feel for the younger generation now, it's so difficult for them to get onto the property ladder. It pains me to see them renting from landlords who charge basically a mortgage payment each month when they could be using that money to pay their own if the deposit wasn't so high to get there in the first place.

I'm the opposite! We want an old house, over new build. Which is funny as I was completely for a new build first but after seeing how much they go for and what we get, it wasn't worth it! We are now looking for an old house in a good area with a big garden/driveway parking. We don't mind ripping it all out and starting fresh as hopefully that will only increase the value of the property in the end. My biggest peeve is the fact old houses very rarely have ensuites and only one main bathroom a lot of the time in huge houses!

Just out of curiosity's sake, what is your no.1 thing you look for in a property? Mine is, it needs to have potential to be better i.e hopefully worth more after renovations and located in a good area.

That's what we did when we bought our house, it really was the worst house in our street, no central heating, the fire had been boarded up and the previous owners used calor gas heaters, there was only one window in the house that wasn't broken so we slept in that room, double bed and bunk beds for our children and I was pregnant with another, haha we liked making work for ourselves! My husband built an extension to the back and side of the house, but to keep costs low we bought a lot of materials second hand or in the sale, we also didn't go on holiday, have take outs, basically put our life on hold for 5 years to afford it all without borrowing an money. Now everyone that goes past our house compliments the had work we have done, this makes it all worthwhile. I don't regret doing it this way because at the time we couldn't afford to move into something already done.

 

[Italy2]

That's what we did when we bought our house, it really was the worst house in our street, no central heating, the fire had been boarded up and the previous owners used calor gas heaters, there was only one window in the house that wasn't broken so we slept in that room, double bed and bunk beds for our children and I was pregnant with another, haha we liked making work for ourselves! My husband built an extension to the back and side of the house, but to keep costs low we bought a lot of materials second hand or in the sale, we also didn't go on holiday, have take outs, basically put our life on hold for 5 years to afford it all without borrowing an money. Now everyone that goes past our house compliments the had work we have done, this makes it all worthwhile. I don't regret doing it this way because at the time we couldn't afford to move into something already done.

I completely understand and appreciate that you have worked hard and deserve to have your dream home but if everyone keeps making extortionate profits off house prices then younger generations will not be able to get their dream home.

 

[Bubble10]

Sorry for quoting twice I'm a bit rubbish at this.

I completely understand and appreciate that you have worked hard and deserve to have your dream home but if everyone keeps making extortionate profits off house prices then younger generations will not be able to get their dream home.

There are lots of greedy landlords in our town, basically owning more than 20 houses, they really are parasites because half of the houses they rent out in my opinion are not up to standard for anyone to call a home! It's beggars belief that they get away with it, but they do and the worst of it is they would never live in anything like they expect their tenants do. I think more should be done to protect renters and more help given to help more people onto the property ladder.

 

[Titntat]

Agents are often useless, my last ones were putting forward offers from people that weren't serious. This is why I sold my last house myself for £600 online, not a huge saving as was an average priced home but at least I met the buyers so could see how serious they are. Good and bad points overall.

Some agents here I think are using family and friends homes to make it look like they sold something quickly.

It's weird you say this. My friends house sold very recently for just below asking price. It was up for a couple of days. Funnily enough the buyer didnt buy it. Anyway its sold again, also in a couple of days.

They are downsizing, basically buying a buy to let buy living there for a while (moving to AUS but due to corona it's all on hold).

They rang up and requested a viewing. Aoparently 50 other people had enquired about the property. They mentioned their situation and all of a sudden an appointment because available with in the hour

 

[idk2]

I completely understand and appreciate that you have worked hard and deserve to have your dream home but if everyone keeps making extortionate profits off house prices then younger generations will not be able to get their dream home.

Ah, gentrification. Don't we love it!?
Theres still thousands of older, poorly maintained houses on the market that go for a lot cheaper than market value for the area because the occupants are usually pensioners who have either moved in with family or nursing homes or passed away. For some reason, we have a very affluent area about 10 mins away that has the most POORLY maintained houses on the inside - I'm talking pink baths and and floral patterns everywhere (even the sofas!). The only reason I can afford to look in this area is because of gems like these houses which are poorly maintained and probably bought 70 years ago and not touched since which brings down its market value alot. I could never afford a house in that area if the house was done up to the modern day standard.

However, I will say, auctions are ruining this. These sellers are becoming so greedy by going to auctioneers so they don't have to pay ANY fees and their houses will usually always go for more than 20% of the selling price because developers love buying that tit to flip. It is a tough market for us. I'm only 23 so I know I have time but its quite disheartening.

 

[Mrs McCarthy]

My friend is an estate agent who works in commercial, but his agency also does residential.
It’s not great at the moment - there are transactions but not enough for the agency to run properly (they are a small local, so only have directors in and a couple of admin staff, everyone else is furloughed). Residential is going better than commercial.
some of their older clients have died from corona, so all their properties will be going on the market at some point (one of them had like 60 properties!)
When we bought, he advised us to not buy a new build - apparently they have a life span of about 70-80 years (he is training as a surveyor as well at the mo), the build quality is low. Best houses according to him are 1930s - big like Victorian houses, but better build quality. 1950s, 1960s and 1970s are okay - not so good on size, not so good on bold quality but better than new builds.
victorian houses for him are a hit or a miss - a lot of them are being insulated and damp proofed, which is a solution in the short run, but bad for the building - for example if two terraced housesget damp proofed, the damp gets trapped between the walls and that’s really bad.
He said to our other friends who were planning to buy this year to wait till 2021 if they can.

 

[Consumerism_fatigue]

Out of curiosity does anyone here has a new build house and what do you guys think of it? I know so many people have bought new houses in our social circle and they love it. Some of them have bought them on help to buy and some have as their forever home because they are nice and clean. I know they are more expensive than an old house but they are clean and no one has ever lived there before. What do you guys think of them?

A few years ago I had a new build house with my ex. The pros were: choosing everything from where the switches and plugs would be to the bathroom and kitchen tiles and fittings etc. Getting to see the house be built from the mud upwards was very cool. Real sense of community as all your neighbours move in around a similar time and you all want to see the bathroom and kitchen styles you chose. It’s a real blank canvas as everything is painted white! It was also well insulated and had solar panels etc. I come from an impoverished background, so to have EVERYTHING be new was an amazing and weird experience.

Cons: smaller overall footprint, smaller rooms and most new builds have tiny windows. The garden soil was FULL of building debris (we got the builders to come round and crawl through it picking up nails and sharp items), the garden also wasn’t able to be dug deep enough at the edges for soil and plants to actually thrive (There was concrete too high in the ground which created drainage issues). As some houses were still being built, we had construction workers and the noise from 7am every day and I was ready to throttle them Also the roads can take a long time to be moved over to the council, so parking etc can become a problem as there are no markings. The snagging process is partly great but also very tedious.

Overall, I’m not sure if I’d buy a new build again. They’re fine and have great points, but I love the character and history of older buildings more I think.