Terrible time to buy a house?

[Timmy40]

Wacky Racer said:

I think the best thing to do, if you are desperate to get on the housing ladder, with limited cash is buy a run down property, (not too run down), and spend three or four years doing it up yourself.

This has always been the way. We had to totally gut our first house, everything was horrific and hadn't been updated for 50 years. Although we did it in 6m really went for it, there was something cathartic about using a hammer to smash down old ceilings and a jack hammer to remove old render and plaster. It was done well, but on a very tight budget so a lot of DIY. It was very satisfying to see the house transformed, I used to joke to my wife that the only things we hadn't replaced was the roof and the front and rear walls. That got us into the market and onto the ladder.

You can't really expect the first house to buy to be your ready made dream home, although it seems to me that is what a lot of people expect these days.

[anarki]

Referencing all the comments on my post, everyone's opinion is greatly valued, it is a catch 22 for us.

Our current house is a 3 bed semi, double driveway, 60ft garden, we've done a lot of work on it so it has a brand new kitchen which has a breakfast bar, full gas central heating, etc, etc.

We are a young couple - not hit 30 yet! We have 3 lovely children so we already have the family side of things covered

The catch is because our house has everything we want we could just do with an extra bedroom and an extra reception room. We could extend our current property but we won't get the kids into the school we want them to go to, so looking at other houses in a better area means downsizing and paying for the privilege.

We are looking at moving to bedminster down/headley park. We currently live in knowle.... West! Arghh shock horror but it's not bad where we are. Oh and the estate agent valued ours at £175k.

[Axionknight]

It's great fun and a good experience, too, you'll learn a lot and save a fortune if you do it right.

Our first place was a two bedroom flat a mile or so from Aberdeen city centre, the only thing I didn't do was the plastering as I'm rubbish at it, but the plumbing, joinery, sparky work (my trade) and decorating was all done by myself, with some help from my brother who flew up for a few weekends here and there to help out, demolishing old lathe and plaster walls and rewiring the place whilst pissed up was great fun,

EDIT: 175K for that? Bargain!

[Ari]

House prices won't ever crash, the government won't let them.

Basically as soon as prices look like faltering they'll just lower the interest rate again. It's a foolproof method of propping up the economy so everyone (with houses) feels rich!

Oh, wait. I think I might have spotted a slight flaw in the plan...

[turbobloke]

Neil H said:

fido said:

Good advice for life in general. Having said that, I would be wary of gearing up too much with rates at rock bottom, and the current global economic situation. This does feel a bit like 2006.

Agreed, but that would be sensible advice even in a good market. Anyone genuinely worried about interest rates can lock in for 5 years anyway.

So much negativity on here, as there has been for years, with people convinced the housing market will meltdown. This isn't 1992, and we don't have 10% inflation. If you are buying it to live in stop procrastinating and get it done, the best time to buy a property in this country was yesterday.

Agreed. Caution is always advisable in any major transaction but beyond that, buy last week.

[Timmy40]

Axionknight said:

EDIT: 175K for that? Bargain!

they're well made houses with decent gardens, I reckon give it 10 years and the gentrification will spread south to that area. When that happens the school issue won't be such a problem. The same was true of the Bedminster area 10 years ago, then middle class moved in, the schools improved and now an area that formerly had terrible schools has become one that people want to buy in because of the schools.

[Ari]

No one in my street (mostly ordinary people who bought with mortgages) could afford their houses at today's prices - including me!

Long since given up trying to make sense of it, although it will be interesting to see what levers the government create to try and keep prices at the current levels.

Can they really go any further than actually physically giving money to people to use as deposits?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

[turbobloke]

Ari said:

No one in my street (mostly ordinary people who bought with mortgages) could afford their houses at today's prices - including me!

Long since given up trying to make sense of it, although it will be interesting to see what levers the government create to try and keep prices at the current levels.

Can they really go any further than actually physically giving money to people to use as deposits?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

Sure they can - they (we) can pay all of a mortgage some of the time or some of a mortgage all of the time

[fido]

Axionknight said:

I've been waiting for the crash of DOOOOOOOOM since around 2008 now.

You blinked - it happened in 2009 - even in London. But the gubberment bailed us out.

[WCZ]

was I the only one who read the thread title as 'Terrible time to buy a horse?'

[Timmy40]

WCZ said:

was I the only one who read the thread title as 'Terrible time to buy a horse?'

Now this is a subject close to my heart. It is ALWAYS a terrible time to buy a horse. They're a bloody nightmare and a bigger money pit than the females than insist on having the creatures.

[WCZ]

Timmy40 said:

Now this is a subject close to my heart. It is ALWAYS a terrible time to buy a horse. They're a bloody nightmare and a bigger money pit than the females than insist on having the creatures.

I agree, god knows what jobs they have in the wild !
though I have actually seen some (presumably well paid) horse-actors on 'Neigh'bours

[spikeyhead]

WCZ said:

was I the only one who read the thread title as 'Terrible time to buy a horse?'

neigh

[Neil H]

fido said:

Axionknight said:

I've been waiting for the crash of DOOOOOOOOM since around 2008 now.

You blinked - it happened in 2009 - even in London. But the gubberment bailed us out.

Nope.




I bought a property in mid-2007, arguably the worst possible time looking at that graph, but if I sold it right now I'd stand to make 50% profit...and the reason:

          Rise in population      Homes built

1971-1981    500,000                 2,922,850

1981-1991    1,000,000               2,128,960

1991-2001    1,700,000               1,864,380

2001-2011    3,500,000               1,875,350

[johnnywb]

I think where the banks have left themselves some space is that most people are now having to take repayment mortgages unless you have a sizeable LTV (i was quoted 50% at the start of the year).

Banks could move people to interest only if there's issues with affordability as a get out.

I wonder where London will go. Lenders don't seem to want to lend more than 5x earnings at the moment. On that basis, even for a joint mortgage for a couple, prices are looking like a stretch in a lot of areas.

[FredClogs]

OP, I sold a house in Tadley (nr Basingstoke/Reading/Newbury) in 2006 because I was pretty sure that a small two bed house next to a bomb factory couldn't possibly be worth more than £200k... How wrong was I?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

[steveT350C]

Thankyou4calling said:

steveT350C said:

Since 1945, UK house prices have, on average, doubled every 10 years.

Natwest Data

I'd be interested to see the data for that. Certainly in the last 10 years UK house prices haven't doubled. Some have of course but overall much lower.

The figures I had were from the Nationwide I remember, not Natwest, sorry. Data was to 2008

Here are ONS figures to 2010

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

[jdw1234]

Neil H said:

fido said:

Axionknight said:

I've been waiting for the crash of DOOOOOOOOM since around 2008 now.

You blinked - it happened in 2009 - even in London. But the gubberment bailed us out.

Nope.




I bought a property in mid-2007, arguably the worst possible time looking at that graph, but if I sold it right now I'd stand to make 50% profit...and the reason:

          Rise in population      Homes built

1971-1981    500,000                 2,922,850

1981-1991    1,000,000               2,128,960

1991-2001    1,700,000               1,864,380

2001-2011    3,500,000               1,875,350

The population increased 6.7m between 1971-2011, but they made 8.8m homes???

[dxg]

jdw1234 said:

Neil H said:

fido said:

Axionknight said:

I've been waiting for the crash of DOOOOOOOOM since around 2008 now.

You blinked - it happened in 2009 - even in London. But the gubberment bailed us out.

Nope.




I bought a property in mid-2007, arguably the worst possible time looking at that graph, but if I sold it right now I'd stand to make 50% profit...and the reason:

          Rise in population      Homes built

1971-1981    500,000                 2,922,850

1981-1991    1,000,000               2,128,960

1991-2001    1,700,000               1,864,380

2001-2011    3,500,000               1,875,350

The population increased 6.7m between 1971-2011, but they made 8.8m homes???

It's the rise in households that you want to look at. The ratio of people to houses is falling...

[CoolHands]

FredClogs said:

OP, I sold a house in Tadley (nr Basingstoke/Reading/Newbury) in 2006 because I was pretty sure that a small two bed house next to a bomb factory couldn't possibly be worth more than £200k... How wrong was I?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

what, you were 5k out? making 5k on 200k between 2006 and now is hardly a fortune.