Gone very quiet

Author
Discussion

Phooey

12,667 posts

171 months

Sunday 26th May
quotequote all
POORCARDEALER said:
Currently doing a new build (west yorks), cost of everything seems astronomical - materials, trades etc - fully understand why new build houses are so expensive now
Similar boat here - had guesstimate quotes pre-Covid (end-2019/early-2020) and to today the whole job is roughly double the price. One architect I spoke to basically said there's still too much money around and borrowing is still cheap at 5-6%. He's seeing clients spending £200k on £350-400k properties that when finished are worth no more than £500k. Kitchens which are 20% of the value of the property etc. It seems people have no fear of getting stuck in so I guess we can't blame those that are supplying the goods and services to extort it.

Edited by Phooey on Sunday 26th May 10:04

fridaypassion

8,742 posts

230 months

Sunday 26th May
quotequote all
Noticed commercial property stalling all of a sudden there are two units locally that are looking very appealing one is a new build at 120 quid a square foot is that not slightly below build cost now?

However one of the units has been available free or lease hold for months now maybe coming up to a year so it always makes a purchase less appealing when you kind of know it's not going to rent easier. It's a big step for me I've no family money or anything like that so a deep dig for deposits..... Chat with the bank coming Tuesday!

Digga

40,511 posts

285 months

Sunday 26th May
quotequote all
Phooey said:
POORCARDEALER said:
Currently doing a new build (west yorks), cost of everything seems astronomical - materials, trades etc - fully understand why new build houses are so expensive now
Similar boat here - had guesstimate quotes pre-Covid (end-2019/early-2020) and to today the whole job is roughly double the price. One architect I spoke to basically said there's still too much money around and borrowing is still cheap at 5-6%. He's seeing clients spending £200k on £350-400k properties that when finished are worth no more than £500k. Kitchens which are 20% of the value of the property etc. It seems people have no fear of getting stuck in so I guess we can't blame those that are supplying the goods and services to extort it.

Edited by Phooey on Sunday 26th May 10:04
Stamp duty and legal puts a huge premium on moving, so it’s not entirely illogical to extend, even if it’s not a profitable, commercial proposition.

Vales are all to skew anyway. If the UK ever gets to building sufficient number of new home, there will e some element of reset.

The new environmental regulations which came in last year for insulation values makes walls and footings thicker, adding enormous costs, in addition to overall material price inflation.

kent_phil

305 posts

245 months

Saturday 1st June
quotequote all
Quick update on hospitality down here in the south west.

A rubbish wash out Easter has been neutralised by one of the best half-term weathers people can remember for a many years - just one damp day.

Local restaurants all very busy, the place my daughter works has gone from 30 covers a night over Easter to 170 covers on bank holiday Monday.

Beach cafe in our village has two huge car parks and most days they were packing and stacking to fit all the cars in. The owner was in a much better mood than after Easter!

Bookings for holiday homes starting to fill up now the sun is out - ours is full for June and 50% for July and August, most places in the village are the same but some holding onto the Covid weekly rent levels are sitting empty.

The cost of employing a team to turn a property around unfortunately hasn't come down post-Covid so the owners are making the practical decision that it's not worth the hassle if they are not getting the income - potential to have some knock on impact as that is less people eating in the pubs and restaurants at the end of the day.

They might go last minute as I don't think there was a single holiday home in the village unoccupied this week.



Mr Whippy

29,150 posts

243 months

Saturday 1st June
quotequote all
Digga said:
Stamp duty and legal puts a huge premium on moving, so it’s not entirely illogical to extend, even if it’s not a profitable, commercial proposition.

Vales are all to skew anyway. If the UK ever gets to building sufficient number of new home, there will e some element of reset.

The new environmental regulations which came in last year for insulation values makes walls and footings thicker, adding enormous costs, in addition to overall material price inflation.
Enormous costs?

It’s insulation… just thicker?!

Push the walls out 15cm, so no impact on floor area, say each plot is 9m wide you lose a plot every 30 houses, make gardens 30cm shorter.

3.3% hit on plots buildable, but also 1 less plot to build.

So shirley cost is just 3.3% on land value and insulation?

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

17,458 posts

191 months

Saturday 1st June
quotequote all
Phooey said:
He's seeing clients spending £200k on £350-400k properties that when finished are worth no more than £500k. Kitchens which are 20% of the value of the property etc. It seems people have no fear of getting stuck in so I guess we can't blame those that are supplying the goods and services to extort it.

Edited by Phooey on Sunday 26th May 10:04
Friends of mine bought a 500k house which was in a bit of a state but nothing too bad. After much frothing they decided to demolish and re-build. Cost at least another 500k. Madness if you ask me but they seem to be able to borrow the money to do it so I guess the banks are happy. I just cant see them being above water on it any time soon. I reckon they are into 1.2m now. Personally it would have just been better to go and buy something for that in the first place, round here you could get something *very* nice for that sort of money.


Sheepshanks

33,189 posts

121 months

Saturday 1st June
quotequote all
gotoPzero said:
Phooey said:
He's seeing clients spending £200k on £350-400k properties that when finished are worth no more than £500k. Kitchens which are 20% of the value of the property etc. It seems people have no fear of getting stuck in so I guess we can't blame those that are supplying the goods and services to extort it.

Edited by Phooey on Sunday 26th May 10:04
Friends of mine bought a 500k house which was in a bit of a state but nothing too bad. After much frothing they decided to demolish and re-build. Cost at least another 500k. Madness if you ask me but they seem to be able to borrow the money to do it so I guess the banks are happy. I just cant see them being above water on it any time soon. I reckon they are into 1.2m now. Personally it would have just been better to go and buy something for that in the first place, round here you could get something *very* nice for that sort of money.
We spent £200K on a £300K house, and it would be have been £250K but scaled it back a bit (didn't have the upstairs rejigged). Arguably a chunk of the money was maintenance - we had all the windows, roof, heating, new kitchen etc replaced as part of the job so it's not quite as ridiculous as the headline figures suggest. We *might* get our money back but it was about future-proofing the house to see us out. We looked around and couldn't find a better house / location etc for the same, or even a bit greater, total.

A couple of neighbours have similarish plans in and both said they're not going ahead - there's no way they can afford it.

People go for knock down and replace as there's no VAT - paying our VAT bills was a bit gutting.


loafer123

15,501 posts

217 months

Saturday 1st June
quotequote all
gotoPzero said:
Friends of mine bought a 500k house which was in a bit of a state but nothing too bad. After much frothing they decided to demolish and re-build. Cost at least another 500k. Madness if you ask me but they seem to be able to borrow the money to do it so I guess the banks are happy. I just cant see them being above water on it any time soon. I reckon they are into 1.2m now. Personally it would have just been better to go and buy something for that in the first place, round here you could get something *very* nice for that sort of money.
New builds are VAT free, so the difference between new and refurb maybe less than you think.

Digga

40,511 posts

285 months

Sunday 2nd June
quotequote all
Mr Whippy said:
Digga said:
Stamp duty and legal puts a huge premium on moving, so it’s not entirely illogical to extend, even if it’s not a profitable, commercial proposition.

Vales are all to skew anyway. If the UK ever gets to building sufficient number of new home, there will e some element of reset.

The new environmental regulations which came in last year for insulation values makes walls and footings thicker, adding enormous costs, in addition to overall material price inflation.
Enormous costs?

It’s insulation… just thicker?!

Push the walls out 15cm, so no impact on floor area, say each plot is 9m wide you lose a plot every 30 houses, make gardens 30cm shorter.

3.3% hit on plots buildable, but also 1 less plot to build.

So shirley cost is just 3.3% on land value and insulation?
No. the foundations themselves (one of the most expensive parts of construction) need to also be commensurately wider. Significant cost.

ThingsBehindTheSun

379 posts

33 months

Monday 3rd June
quotequote all
My partner works for a FTSE 100 company. They have just announced a recruitment freeze and they are getting rid of all external contractors.

They used to throw money around like water, to the point where they were making people redundant who asked for it and then employing them on contractor rates.

All offsite meetings have been cancelled, they often used to fly teams in from other countries for what was essentially a jolly.

It also sounds like several teams are going to be made redundant.

I get the impression that every single spend it being scrutinised now whereas before nobody seemed to give a crap.

Tim Cognito

382 posts

9 months

Monday 3rd June
quotequote all
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
My partner works for a FTSE 100 company. They have just announced a recruitment freeze and they are getting rid of all external contractors.

They used to throw money around like water, to the point where they were making people redundant who asked for it and then employing them on contractor rates.

All offsite meetings have been cancelled, they often used to fly teams in from other countries for what was essentially a jolly.

It also sounds like several teams are going to be made redundant.

I get the impression that every single spend it being scrutinised now whereas before nobody seemed to give a crap.
INEFFICIENCIES! in the private sector! It cannot be so?

skwdenyer

16,808 posts

242 months

Monday 3rd June
quotequote all
Digga said:
Mr Whippy said:
Digga said:
Stamp duty and legal puts a huge premium on moving, so it’s not entirely illogical to extend, even if it’s not a profitable, commercial proposition.

Vales are all to skew anyway. If the UK ever gets to building sufficient number of new home, there will e some element of reset.

The new environmental regulations which came in last year for insulation values makes walls and footings thicker, adding enormous costs, in addition to overall material price inflation.
Enormous costs?

It’s insulation… just thicker?!

Push the walls out 15cm, so no impact on floor area, say each plot is 9m wide you lose a plot every 30 houses, make gardens 30cm shorter.

3.3% hit on plots buildable, but also 1 less plot to build.

So shirley cost is just 3.3% on land value and insulation?
No. the foundations themselves (one of the most expensive parts of construction) need to also be commensurately wider. Significant cost.
That depends upon the build-up of the wall. There are many build and insulation strategies that require no larger footings.

If you insist on building like the 1950s then, maybe, footings might increase in width. However, the reduced load per unit area might allow them to be shallower.

Digga

40,511 posts

285 months

Tuesday 4th June
quotequote all
skwdenyer said:
Digga said:
Mr Whippy said:
Digga said:
Stamp duty and legal puts a huge premium on moving, so it’s not entirely illogical to extend, even if it’s not a profitable, commercial proposition.

Vales are all to skew anyway. If the UK ever gets to building sufficient number of new home, there will e some element of reset.

The new environmental regulations which came in last year for insulation values makes walls and footings thicker, adding enormous costs, in addition to overall material price inflation.
Enormous costs?

It’s insulation… just thicker?!

Push the walls out 15cm, so no impact on floor area, say each plot is 9m wide you lose a plot every 30 houses, make gardens 30cm shorter.

3.3% hit on plots buildable, but also 1 less plot to build.

So shirley cost is just 3.3% on land value and insulation?
No. the foundations themselves (one of the most expensive parts of construction) need to also be commensurately wider. Significant cost.
That depends upon the build-up of the wall. There are many build and insulation strategies that require no larger footings.

If you insist on building like the 1950s then, maybe, footings might increase in width. However, the reduced load per unit area might allow them to be shallower.
Google for "Part L" foundation regulations. The rules are the rules.

GardeningEcomm

95 posts

23 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Sales still -30% down on last year for us
(across all channels: web, Ebay, Amazon, call centre)

Oh and just to add to the fun ocean freight rates have increased further (tricky for anyone ordering Christmas stock_

We have had information back from our agents with regards to freight rate levels & space allocations ex China.

Freight rate levels are expected to be in the region of $7960-$8360 (main ports) for the remainder of June dependant on selected carrier although this is to be confirmed soonest as carriers wait to see what “their” competition is going to do.

Some of the larger carriers are quoting as high as $9050

Also space is becoming a big problem so it best to book as early as possible currently to avoid delays.

M1AGM

2,418 posts

34 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
GardeningEcomm said:
Sales still -30% down on last year for us
(across all channels: web, Ebay, Amazon, call centre)

Oh and just to add to the fun ocean freight rates have increased further (tricky for anyone ordering Christmas stock_

We have had information back from our agents with regards to freight rate levels & space allocations ex China.

Freight rate levels are expected to be in the region of $7960-$8360 (main ports) for the remainder of June dependant on selected carrier although this is to be confirmed soonest as carriers wait to see what “their” competition is going to do.

Some of the larger carriers are quoting as high as $9050

Also space is becoming a big problem so it best to book as early as possible currently to avoid delays.
Is that because of high demand or less capacity?

monkfish1

11,176 posts

226 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Digga said:
skwdenyer said:
Digga said:
Mr Whippy said:
Digga said:
Stamp duty and legal puts a huge premium on moving, so it’s not entirely illogical to extend, even if it’s not a profitable, commercial proposition.

Vales are all to skew anyway. If the UK ever gets to building sufficient number of new home, there will e some element of reset.

The new environmental regulations which came in last year for insulation values makes walls and footings thicker, adding enormous costs, in addition to overall material price inflation.
Enormous costs?

It’s insulation… just thicker?!

Push the walls out 15cm, so no impact on floor area, say each plot is 9m wide you lose a plot every 30 houses, make gardens 30cm shorter.

3.3% hit on plots buildable, but also 1 less plot to build.

So shirley cost is just 3.3% on land value and insulation?
No. the foundations themselves (one of the most expensive parts of construction) need to also be commensurately wider. Significant cost.
That depends upon the build-up of the wall. There are many build and insulation strategies that require no larger footings.

If you insist on building like the 1950s then, maybe, footings might increase in width. However, the reduced load per unit area might allow them to be shallower.
Google for "Part L" foundation regulations. The rules are the rules.
Unless you are a major house builder in which case compliance with rules is optional.


Digga

40,511 posts

285 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
monkfish1 said:
Unless you are a major house builder in which case compliance with rules is optional.
Their planning is slightly different to smaller or one-off developments. So the bigger builders, many with sites that were mothballed last year, are still building out to the previous regulations right now. If they had planning granted at the old regulations, they have a certain amount of grace to complete.

GardeningEcomm

95 posts

23 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
M1AGM said:
GardeningEcomm said:
Sales still -30% down on last year for us
(across all channels: web, Ebay, Amazon, call centre)

Oh and just to add to the fun ocean freight rates have increased further (tricky for anyone ordering Christmas stock_

We have had information back from our agents with regards to freight rate levels & space allocations ex China.

Freight rate levels are expected to be in the region of $7960-$8360 (main ports) for the remainder of June dependant on selected carrier although this is to be confirmed soonest as carriers wait to see what “their” competition is going to do.

Some of the larger carriers are quoting as high as $9050

Also space is becoming a big problem so it best to book as early as possible currently to avoid delays.
Is that because of high demand or less capacity?
There's a lot of speculation about why rates are rising so fast.
Trading volume does seem to be higher - I guess inventories needed to be topped up sometime.
But there is also a lot of cynicism around regarding the part played by the big shipping companies in this.
A reduction in ships sailing reduces supply and drives up prices too.

eg, Maersk one of the biggest shipping companies:
Maersk this week revised its full-year earnings guidance upwards, a result of the recent spike in spot rates and mounting operational challenges in container supply chains.

It said it now expected to deliver an underlying Ebitda of $7bn-$9bn in 2024, up from its previous guidance of $4bn-$6bn, and an Ebit of $1bn-$3bn, up from the previous breakeven to a $2bn loss.

M1AGM

2,418 posts

34 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
GardeningEcomm said:
There's a lot of speculation about why rates are rising so fast.
Trading volume does seem to be higher - I guess inventories needed to be topped up sometime.
But there is also a lot of cynicism around regarding the part played by the big shipping companies in this.
A reduction in ships sailing reduces supply and drives up prices too.

eg, Maersk one of the biggest shipping companies:
Maersk this week revised its full-year earnings guidance upwards, a result of the recent spike in spot rates and mounting operational challenges in container supply chains.

It said it now expected to deliver an underlying Ebitda of $7bn-$9bn in 2024, up from its previous guidance of $4bn-$6bn, and an Ebit of $1bn-$3bn, up from the previous breakeven to a $2bn loss.
Thank you for the reply beer

monkfish1

11,176 posts

226 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Digga said:
monkfish1 said:
Unless you are a major house builder in which case compliance with rules is optional.
Their planning is slightly different to smaller or one-off developments. So the bigger builders, many with sites that were mothballed last year, are still building out to the previous regulations right now. If they had planning granted at the old regulations, they have a certain amount of grace to complete.
Whilst true, that wasnt the point i was making.