How can anyone afford to buy a house in Aberdeen?
Discussion
Small rant time. We have been on the lookout for our first house for a good few months now. Put an offer in on one and fell short by 10k. So close. We have found another house that we really like, this one quite a bit cheaper at £220,000. It went on the market on Thursday and has already gone to a closing date - Wednesday at 3pm. There have so far been 6 notes of interest. Now, this is where my problem is. My solicitor thinks if we want any chance of getting the house then an offer of £230,000ish is what it will take. Problem being, the house is valued at £220k on the home report in which my solicitor says 99.9999% of lenders go by. So to be able to buy this house we will need to stump up the extra £10,000. Plus £22,000 for the deposit & £~4000 stamp duty and legal fees. So a grand total of £36,000 up front. We have £36,000 currently in our savings, which I (wrongly) thought was pretty good going and an adequate amount to secure us a house under the £250k mark. Now if I was to buy the house we like, we will be left with diddly squat to buy any furniture etc with so it's not an option.
It's going to be the same scenario with any decent house in Aberdeen regardless of price. It's seems like they are all going for 5-7% over their valuation. So by the looks of things we are going to need closer to £45,000 saved before we stand much chance of buying somewhere! Crazy!
It's going to be the same scenario with any decent house in Aberdeen regardless of price. It's seems like they are all going for 5-7% over their valuation. So by the looks of things we are going to need closer to £45,000 saved before we stand much chance of buying somewhere! Crazy!
Yea I don't expect much sympathy from the Londoners. I don't expect any sympathy from anyone. It's just a crap system. I work in oil and gas and do okay for myself, I have no idea how folks on average wages can afford to get a deposit together. No wonder everyone is jumping on these help to buy schemes. The problem is, they are a catch 22 because now the house builders are inflating their prices due to people who previously couldn't afford them, now can thanks to the government, which in turn, pushes all house prices up. It's nonsense!
Shaoxter said:
But if you're selling then presumably you're buying something else as well? Anyway the asking price is just a figure, the value of the property is what someone else is willing to pay for it. If the seller has lots of offers over the asking price then it was priced too low to start with.
Unfortunately mortgage lenders probably don't see it like that, and therein lies my problem. If the home report value says the house is worth less than than the eventual purchase price then surely the lender will go with the lower figure. I mean, why wouldn't they? If they went with the actual purchase price then I would be delighted, I would be able to buy this house we are looking at with no problems what so ever. However, since i can't bank on the lender upping the valuation on the house I can't put in the high offer which my solicitor thinks will be needed to secure it. We are going to offer £227,000. Part of my hopes it doesn't get accepted as after all fees, deposit etc we will be lucky if we are left with £3000. Which isn't exactly much to spend on furniture etc.
p1doc said:
7 years ago i had to pay £50,000 over the price to get house in aberdeenshire so likely only got worse since then,even new estates in inverurie are well overpriced
martin
Yea it really is just as bad just now. Out of curiosity, did you have to fund the extra £50,000 yourself or did you get a re-valuation in favour of the price you paid? martin
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