House Prices

[Homebird44]

My mum is still in her council house. Shes been paying full rent for 45 years. She has changed the bathroom and the council have installed a Magnet kitchen and the soffits and facias have just been replaced. Its a 3 bed house in a well off town just outside London. Its only her and my step dad living in it now, two spare bedrooms. I do wonder if the council would move them to somewhere smaller so a family would move in but she said that they wouldn't do that. She ripped the bath out and installed a big walk in shower, it looks amazing but I do worry for them that it could be taken away.

 

[BettyCrockerr]

The bills get paid, but you don’t always ‘pay the bills’ in shared houses/HMOs - I’ve lived in a few over the years, and just paid my rent in all. That includes water, electric, council tax etc…

Yes. That’s exactly the point I’m trying to make. You pay bills but it’s all together in one payment which includes the rent. You are not exempt from paying the bills.

 

[orange club biscuit]

I’d just like to fly the flag here for genuine estate agents, like myself. I have lost many instructions due to “honest & factual” valuations only to see the advertising drop down to what was initially my suggested valuation after ages on the market. I agree there are many sharks and overvaluers out there, but we do get a super bad rep and for some of us, it’s simply not justified. Anyhoo... just shouting out to the good guys

I apologise, I am sure there are some out there! To be fair there have been a few who have seemed decent but have overpromised, such as one guy who seemed so genuine and lovely and basically told us that a house would very likely be ours if we put in an asking price offer. We did and then the vendors changed their minds and went to best and finals and we lost out. You can only act as best you can on behalf of your clients (ie the vendors)

We also deal with one estate agent who tells us exactly what the highest offers are which I know is extremely against the rules but has worked on our favour

 

[Homebird44]

I

This is a sombre but excellent read for anyone who fails to understand the relationship between property prices, rental property costs and poverty rates:

The current poverty rate is at its highest ever in the UK.

I don’t know how anyone can look at these figures and justify continuing the system as it currently stands.



I don’t think anyone has asked you to apologise for owning a home. I own a home and yet I’m still very much in disagreement with most of what you say.

Despite the typo, your post implies that people who can’t afford to be landlords might be bitter about it, which is rather ignorant of the actual issues being discussed here. Hope you read the article I’ve linked above.

Thats not what I said.

 

[Tublet83]

Same here where I am in the NE it’s crazy - many sold before they hit Rightmove because there’s a shortage within chains and sellers haven’t got a property to move too.

 

[Homebird44]

But really, they should be moved you know? 3 beds and more are like gold dust.

They won't move her as she has a long term tenancy and pays full rent. What she should have done is bought it.

 

[Rmd0609]

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/550545
If anyone wouldn’t mind signing this petition to extend the stamp duty holiday an extra 6 months that would be great, thanks!

 

[WeepingCassandra]

Although the amount of money wasted someone should be held accountable….but they won’t be of course just billions squandered that could have been put to better use elsewhere

They’ve completed wrecked my home town with it too. Absolutely criminal. It’s not even stopping anywhere near my home town - and they’ve taken out acres and acres of green belt land for it too.

 

[Mrs McCarthy]

It's way too early for house prices to fall, 9 million are being paid by the government not to work and there was always going to be a mini bounce with months of pent up demand. The stamp duty cut fueled it more.

The rise of last month just counteracted the fall the month before, so they've not risen in the last few months. Asking prices have risen as some sellers want to pocket the stamp duty savings. But what gets through and accepted is another thing, I've started to see things fall through and go back up for sale.

I wouldn't buy until spring next year. But I doubt "smart rich people will buy up all the houses" as houses don't perform that we'll compared to other investments and it's something that will be all too easy to tax. Buying houses is the investment for people that don't know anything about investing.


We're entering the biggest recession in memory, far far bigger than 2008 and they fell significantly then. Just seems unsustainable for house prices to be so out of sync with wages.

Okay, stupid rich people will buy all the houses, what’s the difference?
We are in Devon though, maybe things are different in the South East or up North, and that’s what our friends (mortgage broker, solicitors, estate agents - we were very lucky with all the help we got when we bought ours) have seen in 2008. The same clients who did it in 2008 are now popping up again and they are getting ready, according to them.

 

[Italy2]

New lender Perenna looks to offer 95% lending – Mortgage Strategy

Start-up mortgage lender Perenna has announced that it intends to lend at up to 95 per cent LTV. As well as offering products for first-time buyers it says it will be servicing “later-life borrowers who have few options to remortgage as they enter retirement.” The lender boasts that its...

www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk

What do you guys think of this?

 

[Fizzwhizz2020]

It’s hard to tell given the extension to the stamp duty holiday and also buyers being given a government backed protection of up to £600k. So banks can now lend with 5% deposits. So I would assume that demand might increase but doesn’t necessarily mean prices will increase, there might just be more competition per house. Also, interest rates are low at the moment. But I don’t think economists are predicting a full on recession.

 

[Italy2]

A few properties near us have been bought by cash buyers presumably for letting purposes.

I agree with lots of redundancies have begun to happen and it's quite sad actually! However, high LTV mortgages seem to be coming back so it will be interesting to see what happens re house prices. I don't think they will rise but they may stay stagnant if landlords are buying properties with cash?

 

[Pumpkinpie0991]

What do you guys think will happen to mortgages on the market and house prices in light of the upcoming lockdown?

Unsure. But someone I know who has only paid two years into their mortgage has since got a second mortgage with 15 grand deposit (10 percent) the same for her first mortgage

it’s crazy becuase I have unofficially been advised to not apply until I have around 20 grand (20 percent) but this person and I both have same backgrounds in the sense of no debt high credit score and same yearly wage. She is a single buyer.

I hope in a couple years it will go back to ten percent deposit but tbh I am no way clued up about it enough.

 

[Italy2]

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

Based in Midlands. I have heard about London but it's all so confusing!

 

[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.

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

 

[Lola UK]

House sales by me have gone crazy… it’s in an OK area, not super good and the houses are very average 3 bed semis… they are all being sold within days?! For about 60k over what we would have thought.

we have been low key looking for a little upgrade, nothing fancy, detatched, bigger garden etc in a similar area

what would you do? Sell whilst we can get a very good price for the house? But then buy a house which is way more than we should buy it for. Sell and then rent for a bit until things settle down? Just wait for the market to settle down? It’s confusing

 

[Pixipoppy]

Good news: the seller reduced by 15k as she’s realised she would lose her new house otherwise.
Briefly annoying news: Lenders are reducing their salary multipliers, so for a moment they wanted to lend me less based on 4.5x my salary rather than 5x. I’ve been able to successfully appeal it, so the purchase is FINALLY going ahead. I was able to appeal as my original MIP was at 5x my salary and my job status hasn’t changed e.g. no furlough or pay cut.

For others actively looking to purchase, definitely check you can still borrow what you thought you could 6 months ago and expect an undervaluation from a surveyor. Was chatting to another broker and he said he’s had a property that was being sold for 4.8m being valued at 3.6m and another should have been 650k but was valued at 530k.

I’ve not seen any evidence 90% and 95% mortgages are coming back soon, especially considering the loan multipliers are being reduced and surveyors are being extra conservative.

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

 

[SoulRebel]

UK house prices rise at fastest rate since 2016, says Nationwide

Buyers take advantage of benign market despite Covid-19 pandemic

www.theguardian.com

This is hard news for first time buyers.

 

[Homebird44]

I know a lot of good landlords in my job, many rent lower thank market rate for good properties. Some are scum but I’d say most are not.

My parents have just taken on new tenants, theirs is well below market rate. They do no exploit their tenants and they have it as an investment/inheritance for me.

Exactly. My relatives are in their 60s, have both ran their own businesses and bought rental properties when the prices were a lot lower. I can't afford certain things but I'm bitter than others can, they've earned their money, they can spend it.

 

[Italy2]

I personally know that alot of mortgage lenders and landlords are not taking action against defaulted tenants at the moment until autumn at least. We will have to wait and see when the legal action can recommence and whether it would have an effect on the housing market.