When/Will house prices cool down?

[okgo]

DonkeyApple said:

If someone had a household gross income in excess of £150k what would be the reasoning for wanting that house?

It's what they can afford? And is near to some decent schools that are free? I thought that was the entire MO of BR postcodes, it isn't like it has much else to tempt people in?

[LooneyTunes]

DonkeyApple said:

asfault said:

Meet for lunch , go to the gym. This further solidifies my belief that alot (NOT ALL) of the work from home crowd are skiving and infact have caused the demand for more workers as they are doing alot less but very difficult to prove it.

Or, they were doing the same when commuting in but no longer have to be at the desk while not working.

The key is that if you're paying someone £50k to do a job and they're actually doing that job well enough but spending time shooting pool as well then you don't have a problem with that individual. The problem is the employee who is struggling to deliver on their promise to do x amount of work for y amount of money who then thinks they can also go and play pool just because someone better than them can make that time. Both doing the same job and same hours along with the same recreation but one employee is doing a good job, the other is a fraudster. The issue is that you can't just tell the second one that they're a waste of space and to FRO like you used to, instead you need a team of people to help fabricate an elaborate back story that might enable you to move them on at some point over the next year or two.

It's pretty costly and time consuming to merge teams and roles, ask everyone to reapply etc etc, just to get rid of someone HR should have been shrewd enough to not let in the door. It was much more efficient when you just went up to that person and told them the truth that it's not us, it's you.

Even if they could deliver much much more for the company if they actually worked their contracted hours?

That isn’t to say that you don’t cut people a bit of slackK but increasingly there seems to be a trend for employees to decide when they feel they’ve delivered enough for their employer and are then going to spend their time not working.

Different kettle of fish if they’re on piece work/commission only, of course, when they get paid based on what they produce.

[markh1973]

okgo said:

DonkeyApple said:

If someone had a household gross income in excess of £150k what would be the reasoning for wanting that house?

It's what they can afford? And is near to some decent schools that are free? I thought that was the entire MO of BR postcodes, it isn't like it has much else to tempt people in?

Is there a certain sort of house that you're meant to want if your household income is in excess of £150k?

[DonkeyApple]

LooneyTunes said:

Even if they could deliver much much more for the company if they actually worked their contracted hours?

That isn’t to say that you don’t cut people a bit of slackK but increasingly there seems to be a trend for employees to decide when they feel they’ve delivered enough for their employer and are then going to spend their time not working.

Different kettle of fish if they’re on piece work/commission only, of course, when they get paid based on what they produce.

They're just pre-announcing that they don't want a promotion, which is absolutely fine. The others who do want that progression will be the ones who don't work to rule.

It's been branded 'work/life balance' which sounds cool but it's just the same old split between folk who have reached the top and those who have a desire to go further.

Personally, I don't see an issue with someone not wanting to progress, it's not everyone's bag and if they're good at what they're doing and both sides happy with the amount being paid then let them be.

On top of that, we are now very much into the realm of employees who have paid for their own higher education so own their degree and don't owe anyone anything for it so I think there is some logic in them having a differing view of what their time and labour is worth compared to my generation.

What frustrates me is that I will work on a project until it is done but as each project over the years requires more and more input from others and more and more of those others work strict 9-5 and operate a slow queue on their delivery, I find projects take much longer to deliver and get to profitability. And in the past because these people were in the same building they couldn't hide and even if they didn't want to complete their part of the job it was easier to do so than having someone like me sitting down next to them every 5 minutes to basically annoy them into doing it.

As mentioned above by someone, as well as myself, extracting the best from a mixed team of office, wfh, self motivated and slackers is just a different skillset to what I was extremely proficient at and what in some industries would today be deemed toxic.

[kingston12]

DonkeyApple said:

If someone had a household gross income in excess of £150k what would be the reasoning for wanting that house?

If the £150k income was coming from jobs that required office attendance in central London more than a couple of times a week, it would seem quite a sensible buy, wouldn't it?

[DonkeyApple]

kingston12 said:

DonkeyApple said:

If someone had a household gross income in excess of £150k what would be the reasoning for wanting that house?

If the £150k income was coming from jobs that required office attendance in central London more than a couple of times a week, it would seem quite a sensible buy, wouldn't it?

So far not at £750, £700 or £650. Maybe someone at £600 but it's a pretty ghastly looking thing just to be a little closer to town for a couple of days a week to earn a descent salary.

[havoc]

asfault said:

Meet for lunch , go to the gym. This further solidifies my belief that alot (NOT ALL) of the work from home crowd are skiving and infact have caused the demand for more workers as they are doing alot less but very difficult to prove it.

Demand for more workers has largely come from the mass exit (and failure to return) of boomers from the employment market during / after Covid.

[kingston12]

DonkeyApple said:

kingston12 said:

DonkeyApple said:

If someone had a household gross income in excess of £150k what would be the reasoning for wanting that house?

If the £150k income was coming from jobs that required office attendance in central London more than a couple of times a week, it would seem quite a sensible buy, wouldn't it?

So far not at £750, £700 or £650. Maybe someone at £600 but it's a pretty ghastly looking thing just to be a little closer to town for a couple of days a week to earn a descent salary.

There has definitely been a rebalancing of prices away from this type of house to reflect fewer people working in London offices and those that still do going in less often.

I don't know Beckenham well enough to say whether this one is now cheap enough to fully reflect that or not, but didn't seem too bad on the face of it.

[ooid]

Loads of houses on Bromley or that border of Greenwich has seen reductions on asking prices, as they were actually too high to start with last year!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145867490#/...

Oh this one has gone quick though less than a month!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145750472#/...

[Butterzzz]

untakenname said:

Where I live in S/E London lots of properties which were STTC earlier this year are now back on the market, this property for example has been on for coming up to a year, it's a premium listing so it crops up everytime I use rightmove.

I haven't seen the reduction history like that before. How do I enable that feature please?

EDIT - it's a Chrome browser extension called Property Log.

Edited by Butterzzz on Monday 15th April 21:29

[okgo]

It’s annoyingly easy for agents to circumvent sadly. But it does work well in many cases.

[princeperch]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86770065#/?...

The owners of stuff like this have caught a major post covid/ return to the office/ interest rate hike cold I reckon.

Objectively its flipping cheap for what you get, then you see its 2 miles from a station, will cost a fortune to heat and maintain and fk all to do out there. Its exactly the sort of house londoners were dreaming about in the summer of 2020. Now it would be a nightmare for most, or at least those that have the money or access to the finance to buy it.

I could swap my terraced house in Wanstead for that place with acres of land and be mortgage free. Would I do so? Not a chance.

[kingston12]

princeperch said:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86770065#/?...

The owners of stuff like this have caught a major post covid/ return to the office/ interest rate hike cold I reckon.

Objectively its flipping cheap for what you get, then you see its 2 miles from a station, will cost a fortune to heat and maintain and fk all to do out there. Its exactly the sort of house londoners were dreaming about in the summer of 2020. Now it would be a nightmare for most, or at least those that have the money or access to the finance to buy it.

I could swap my terraced house in Wanstead for that place with acres of land and be mortgage free. Would I do so? Not a chance.

The location looks pretty grim. It's right by Stansted Airport and the M11/A120 interchange. That's a lot of noise for a country property with no direct access to any facilities.

[kingston12]

This is a good example of a ridiculous/lazy estate agent listing:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146391953#/...

"A detached house in Teddington for under £950,000 is always going to be big news for buyers!"

Well, it might be 'big news' if you got any more that 841sqft for your £950,000, but it obviously wasn't as it has been reduced several times to £800k even though the agents has left the original comment in the listing.

[princeperch]

kingston12 said:

The location looks pretty grim. It's right by Stansted Airport and the M11/A120 interchange. That's a lot of noise for a country property with no direct access to any facilities.

It is grim, however it is probably just, just far enough away from the motorway proper that the noise wouldnt be too bad. I dont know if its under the airport flight path either which potentially it is.

In short nice house and plot but everything else is likely a potential nightmare. Whos gonna buy it now the post covid panic has gone? A pilot possibly.

[okgo]

You talk like £1m houses around London are rare and don’t sell? There’s THOUSANDS of them in Hampshire and Surrey alone and they typically don’t sit for long.

Lots of people still don’t need stations to be that close. Having worked near Cobham Station I can tell you the car park was full daily. Farnham similar, Alton too. It’s nothing new for people who want out of town.

Edited by okgo on Monday 20th May 12:52

[princeperch]

You might not know that neck of the woods but a million is a st load of money out there. Add in the less than ideal specific location of that house and i can see nervous londoners not flocking to it

On paper 900k should be an absolute steal for that house. The reality is its houses like these that would have sold overnight 4 years ago are now going to struggle. I think they'll need to chop at least 50k more off it, if not more, to sell it whereas it would have gone for closer to a mill when the lurgy was flying around and we all had a mildly bad cold.

[havoc]

princeperch said:

kingston12 said:

The location looks pretty grim. It's right by Stansted Airport and the M11/A120 interchange. That's a lot of noise for a country property with no direct access to any facilities.

It is grim, however it is probably just, just far enough away from the motorway proper that the noise wouldnt be too bad. I dont know if its under the airport flight path either which potentially it is.

In short nice house and plot but everything else is likely a potential nightmare. Whos gonna buy it now the post covid panic has gone? A pilot possibly.

Agreed. And it does look to be right under the flightpath.

As to that Teddington one - WTAF? £800k for a shoebox? In god's name why? Are things seriously that silly in greater London?
Around here (and this is a nice town) that'd be c.£250k at best depending on location, £300k max if in the centre of town.

[pb8g09]

havoc said:

Agreed. And it does look to be right under the flightpath.

As to that Teddington one - WTAF? £800k for a shoebox? In god's name why? Are things seriously that silly in greater London?
Around here (and this is a nice town) that'd be c.£250k at best depending on location, £300k max if in the centre of town.

Where's here? Looking for somewhere to semi-retire to next around that sort of price!

[kingston12]

havoc said:

princeperch said:

kingston12 said:

The location looks pretty grim. It's right by Stansted Airport and the M11/A120 interchange. That's a lot of noise for a country property with no direct access to any facilities.

It is grim, however it is probably just, just far enough away from the motorway proper that the noise wouldnt be too bad. I dont know if its under the airport flight path either which potentially it is.

In short nice house and plot but everything else is likely a potential nightmare. Whos gonna buy it now the post covid panic has gone? A pilot possibly.

Agreed. And it does look to be right under the flightpath.

As to that Teddington one - WTAF? £800k for a shoebox? In god's name why? Are things seriously that silly in greater London?
Around here (and this is a nice town) that'd be c.£250k at best depending on location, £300k max if in the centre of town.

Teddington prices are certainly a bit crazy and that house would be a bit cheaper in most of the surrounding suburbs, except for Richmond.