housing market 2020-2021 = WTF???
Discussion
We were one of the homeowners who were already thinking selling when COVID hit. We needed a bigger place after having 2 kids, and it had been in the plan for some time. We could afford a fair uplift in price, and have a decent equity to go from. Stamp duty holiday kicks in, and we put ours on the market. Obviously sells immediately for a great price and we commence looking for a place to buy. This was back in June last year... we had been browsing rightmove etc for some time before that.
We didn't have a particular area in mind, and so were looking pretty much at anything that came up in Cheshire and Lancashire that fit our budget and requirements, and was in a nice area with good schools, and had a decent garden etc. Basically we were being about as flexible as we could possibly be.
We have viewed an absolute ton of properties... maybe 30-40, lost out on some things, saw lots of compromise places... and quite frankly a lot of horrid rubbish that we couldn't be creative enough in our vision to be able to see working..... time was getting on, and it wasn't really going the way we wanted, and so we decided to move to rented accommodation in order to facilitate the sale, which eventually completed in November.
We had a bit of a break from it, but have been continuing to view properties the whole time really, maybe 60 or so up till today. The very few that we have seen that we have loved, we've missed out. We did have a purchase agreed (we won out of 9 bidders) and it was fairly progressed, but with no ETA after 3 months, the vendor pulled out.
Since then, we bid 50k over asking price for a house that needed everything doing, full renovation, and we lost by some margin. We are thoroughly disheartened by the whole thing, and we now feel that the market is rising and putting what we want further out of reach. The generally accepted view is that it will return to a buyers' market at some point, and that things will change now that the stamp duty saving is vastly reducing in a week's time, but again this may take time to have effect.
Any advice for us please?
We didn't have a particular area in mind, and so were looking pretty much at anything that came up in Cheshire and Lancashire that fit our budget and requirements, and was in a nice area with good schools, and had a decent garden etc. Basically we were being about as flexible as we could possibly be.
We have viewed an absolute ton of properties... maybe 30-40, lost out on some things, saw lots of compromise places... and quite frankly a lot of horrid rubbish that we couldn't be creative enough in our vision to be able to see working..... time was getting on, and it wasn't really going the way we wanted, and so we decided to move to rented accommodation in order to facilitate the sale, which eventually completed in November.
We had a bit of a break from it, but have been continuing to view properties the whole time really, maybe 60 or so up till today. The very few that we have seen that we have loved, we've missed out. We did have a purchase agreed (we won out of 9 bidders) and it was fairly progressed, but with no ETA after 3 months, the vendor pulled out.
Since then, we bid 50k over asking price for a house that needed everything doing, full renovation, and we lost by some margin. We are thoroughly disheartened by the whole thing, and we now feel that the market is rising and putting what we want further out of reach. The generally accepted view is that it will return to a buyers' market at some point, and that things will change now that the stamp duty saving is vastly reducing in a week's time, but again this may take time to have effect.
Any advice for us please?
Gone through similar myself.
Had two houses to sell in the past year which was the easy part, finding the one to buy was tricky.
Think we bid on 8 properties, 7 of those at asking and above.
Got lucky with the one we are progressing on, bid a touch over asking and got accepted before others seemed to progress their offers.
You are right though there is some absolute dross on the market well above its real value.
You are in rented, just sit it out would be my advice.
Had two houses to sell in the past year which was the easy part, finding the one to buy was tricky.
Think we bid on 8 properties, 7 of those at asking and above.
Got lucky with the one we are progressing on, bid a touch over asking and got accepted before others seemed to progress their offers.
You are right though there is some absolute dross on the market well above its real value.
You are in rented, just sit it out would be my advice.
Blown2CV said:
WeWe did have a purchase agreed (we won out of 9 bidders) and it was fairly progressed, but with no ETA after 3 months, the vendor pulled out.
If you're in rented, why did this deal break down? If you've viewed 60 properties and still not found or been able to buy one you like, it's hard to know if you're being too picky or if it's just the market not letting you get properties you like.
There'll be someone along who'll say that prices and demand will drop next year due to redundancies after Covid.
Someone else will say that the market will hold.
Nobody really knows.
But if it keeps blowing up like a bubble then that bubble will burst at some point so, if you're in rented, my gut feeling is to sit tight and be patient.
ETA - we were very lucky. Sold our place in April and within 2 weeks found a lovely house that we had an offer accepted on. It's not gone through yet, but we're praying that it does because, in the intervening 2 months, precisely one house has come on the market that fits our (wide) criteria.
Similar situation,
We put our bungalow which was in quite a special location on the market July last year having lived in it for 2 years and not being quite right for us.
So the buyers could be for the stamp duty and to be in a good buying position we decided to go into rented which is something
we've never done before.
Completed Feb and since then we have viewed maybe 6 houses at the most, 2 that are top end for us and not quite our style and the rest
needing work which is fine but youve got to love the house after spending a couple of years working on it.
Looking on Rightmove everyday is depressing, the 2 main estate agents are being realsitic but the smaller estate agents that have 1 or 2 houses a month are pricing them crazy, i guess telling the vendors you can get this for it and trying there luck.
Im not sure if its best to stretch ourselves or to stay put in rental and see what happens.
We put our bungalow which was in quite a special location on the market July last year having lived in it for 2 years and not being quite right for us.
So the buyers could be for the stamp duty and to be in a good buying position we decided to go into rented which is something
we've never done before.
Completed Feb and since then we have viewed maybe 6 houses at the most, 2 that are top end for us and not quite our style and the rest
needing work which is fine but youve got to love the house after spending a couple of years working on it.
Looking on Rightmove everyday is depressing, the 2 main estate agents are being realsitic but the smaller estate agents that have 1 or 2 houses a month are pricing them crazy, i guess telling the vendors you can get this for it and trying there luck.
Im not sure if its best to stretch ourselves or to stay put in rental and see what happens.
There are currently 3 detached houses on the market in my town of nearly 4k people. Everything else is sold.
Property above a million is going within a month or so. Anything below £750k that is half decent goes within a week or two.
Hardly anything new is coming to the market, which I guess is the driving force of the madness.
Property above a million is going within a month or so. Anything below £750k that is half decent goes within a week or two.
Hardly anything new is coming to the market, which I guess is the driving force of the madness.
Seems to be a common story i'm hearing in the current market and it's hard to see it letting up currently.
I know selling and moving into rented can be tempting but when house prices are rising faster than the value of the cash in the bank I can see some people getting left behind the way things are unless a crash does happen but it's hard to see where it will come from.
The housing market is just doing the same as every other commodity currently, see other threads on used cars and luxury watches as examples.
I know selling and moving into rented can be tempting but when house prices are rising faster than the value of the cash in the bank I can see some people getting left behind the way things are unless a crash does happen but it's hard to see where it will come from.
The housing market is just doing the same as every other commodity currently, see other threads on used cars and luxury watches as examples.
There is very little good stock left on the market. Anything that comes onto the market thats even reasonably presented will sell within days for well over asking.
Unless you are looking for a flat I think you are out of luck at the moment. Family homes with gardens are in major demand.
We have been looking to buy since 2019 and put a couple of offers in in 2019 but did not get anywhere. Then 2020 came along and the market just went bonkers. We viewed a new build which was 575k in October. A couple of months ago the buyer pulled out and the agent called us asking if we wanted first dibs... I was tempted till they said it was £650k now.
I friend of mine is buying a new property and their solicitor missed the exchange date and to keep their plot they were told the price was going up £22k!!! BOMAD had to step in. Mad.
I think even now with the SDLT discount ending the market is still going to remain in a similar state as it will take a long time to get out of this cycle.
Property transactions generally take 3-6 months and with such a long time to complete any new stock that comes on will be in demand so we need a 3-6 month period of basically no sales to allow a restock in effect.
The area we are looking in currently has 10 properties for sale. If you select include under offer its 52. So 80% of the stock is in the process of a sale. Prior to 2020 it was the other way round.
We are now having to look in other places as the area in cornwall we are looking has seen totally insane price rises.
This came on the market yesterday.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109273295#/
Last sale in 2014 was £215k.... today its listed at offers over 500k!!!
And I bet its sold STC at some point next week.
We are now looking in the North again - although its not far behind up here unless you are looking at stuff in the middle of nowhere which needs a lot spending on it. (as you are finding out)
Unless you are looking for a flat I think you are out of luck at the moment. Family homes with gardens are in major demand.
We have been looking to buy since 2019 and put a couple of offers in in 2019 but did not get anywhere. Then 2020 came along and the market just went bonkers. We viewed a new build which was 575k in October. A couple of months ago the buyer pulled out and the agent called us asking if we wanted first dibs... I was tempted till they said it was £650k now.
I friend of mine is buying a new property and their solicitor missed the exchange date and to keep their plot they were told the price was going up £22k!!! BOMAD had to step in. Mad.
I think even now with the SDLT discount ending the market is still going to remain in a similar state as it will take a long time to get out of this cycle.
Property transactions generally take 3-6 months and with such a long time to complete any new stock that comes on will be in demand so we need a 3-6 month period of basically no sales to allow a restock in effect.
The area we are looking in currently has 10 properties for sale. If you select include under offer its 52. So 80% of the stock is in the process of a sale. Prior to 2020 it was the other way round.
We are now having to look in other places as the area in cornwall we are looking has seen totally insane price rises.
This came on the market yesterday.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109273295#/
Last sale in 2014 was £215k.... today its listed at offers over 500k!!!
And I bet its sold STC at some point next week.
We are now looking in the North again - although its not far behind up here unless you are looking at stuff in the middle of nowhere which needs a lot spending on it. (as you are finding out)
Our town has a pericually bonkers (by the current national scale) housing market, It was no 2 on the most popular places in the country the other week.
https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/19232862.right...
We want to move out as we think its about to be developed beyond what it can handle. But we have a decent place here and keep resisting putting it on the market because of then having to settle on the next house.
I think if something triggers which forces our hand (probably eldest starting school next year) we will move into rented to break the chain.
https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/19232862.right...
We want to move out as we think its about to be developed beyond what it can handle. But we have a decent place here and keep resisting putting it on the market because of then having to settle on the next house.
I think if something triggers which forces our hand (probably eldest starting school next year) we will move into rented to break the chain.
It is mental at the minute. We finalised the previous place and pushed the sale through quickly to capitalise on the duty break, we then pushed ahead on the next project, unsure on what would happen market wise; it felt quite a big gamble. The market has done exactly the opposite of what I expected, it really is uncharted territory.
To lose out on a place with a £50k overbid by some margin is some going though, I’d look at that as you dodged a bullet - just to make yourself feel better haha.
To lose out on a place with a £50k overbid by some margin is some going though, I’d look at that as you dodged a bullet - just to make yourself feel better haha.
Muzzer79 said:
If you're in rented, why did this deal break down?
If you've viewed 60 properties and still not found or been able to buy one you like, it's hard to know if you're being too picky or if it's just the market not letting you get properties you like.
There'll be someone along who'll say that prices and demand will drop next year due to redundancies after Covid.
Someone else will say that the market will hold.
Nobody really knows.
But if it keeps blowing up like a bubble then that bubble will burst at some point so, if you're in rented, my gut feeling is to sit tight and be patient.
ETA - we were very lucky. Sold our place in April and within 2 weeks found a lovely house that we had an offer accepted on. It's not gone through yet, but we're praying that it does because, in the intervening 2 months, precisely one house has come on the market that fits our (wide) criteria.
I suspect it's the market. I've been looking at property prices in various places we might want to retire to in the future, just to get an idea of how much different places cost to help create a shortlist of places to go and visit.If you've viewed 60 properties and still not found or been able to buy one you like, it's hard to know if you're being too picky or if it's just the market not letting you get properties you like.
There'll be someone along who'll say that prices and demand will drop next year due to redundancies after Covid.
Someone else will say that the market will hold.
Nobody really knows.
But if it keeps blowing up like a bubble then that bubble will burst at some point so, if you're in rented, my gut feeling is to sit tight and be patient.
ETA - we were very lucky. Sold our place in April and within 2 weeks found a lovely house that we had an offer accepted on. It's not gone through yet, but we're praying that it does because, in the intervening 2 months, precisely one house has come on the market that fits our (wide) criteria.
Up until the start of the stamp duty holiday, many houses had been on the market for months, been reduced, not sold... Now, in most places if you don't include STC properties on Rightmove you'll be lucky to get a single one, as opposed to the couple of dozen or more that might've been there previously.
rustyuk said:
There are currently 3 detached houses on the market in my town of nearly 4k people. Everything else is sold.
Property above a million is going within a month or so. Anything below £750k that is half decent goes within a week or two.
Hardly anything new is coming to the market, which I guess is the driving force of the madness.
Try a peak district village 8000 people two houses, under 230k (four if you include ex authority and shared equity)Property above a million is going within a month or so. Anything below £750k that is half decent goes within a week or two.
Hardly anything new is coming to the market, which I guess is the driving force of the madness.
sellers market,
Quite simply this is the GLOBAL effect of COVID.
Same thing all over the Western World.
People spend more time at home, people realise they can move out of cities, people want larger homes as they are spending more time in them.
The result a very hot market, with insufficient houses and a lot of buyers.
Same thing all over the Western World.
People spend more time at home, people realise they can move out of cities, people want larger homes as they are spending more time in them.
The result a very hot market, with insufficient houses and a lot of buyers.
dirky dirk said:
rustyuk said:
There are currently 3 detached houses on the market in my town of nearly 4k people. Everything else is sold.
Property above a million is going within a month or so. Anything below £750k that is half decent goes within a week or two.
Hardly anything new is coming to the market, which I guess is the driving force of the madness.
Try a peak district village 8000 people two houses, under 230k (four if you include ex authority and shared equity)Property above a million is going within a month or so. Anything below £750k that is half decent goes within a week or two.
Hardly anything new is coming to the market, which I guess is the driving force of the madness.
sellers market,
I moved into rented in 2019...took us 2 years to find a new place! Finally moved in a few months back. As others have said, it's the covid effect. People have seen a rapid change in lifestyle and have pushed forward long term plans and as a result, the market is hot (unless you own a 1 bed in London without any outdoor space, that market sucks)
It's getting worse in my local village. 25% in the last year or so, and I was expecting it to flatten off. But a nearby house I viewed just want STC after three days. She told me minimum she would consider is 20% over HR valuation, so I'd say that house has nearly doubled in value in last 4 years. It's not a house I would have considered buying at 2020 prices, let alone 2021, but lack of stock meant we talked about it...
We needed to upsize, and came close to buying in 2020, but ended up playing it safe and waiting it out, keeping funds in cash. That decision has cost me a few xxx,xxx.
I can't really imagine a situation where prices would fall either. Maybe they would stagnate, but everyone seems to have huge deposits, and turnover is very low, so would higher rates force prices down? I can't see it.
As far as I can tell it's global. UK HPI is relatively modest in the league table, IIRC
We needed to upsize, and came close to buying in 2020, but ended up playing it safe and waiting it out, keeping funds in cash. That decision has cost me a few xxx,xxx.
I can't really imagine a situation where prices would fall either. Maybe they would stagnate, but everyone seems to have huge deposits, and turnover is very low, so would higher rates force prices down? I can't see it.
As far as I can tell it's global. UK HPI is relatively modest in the league table, IIRC
bungz said:
Gone through similar myself.
Had two houses to sell in the past year which was the easy part, finding the one to buy was tricky.
Think we bid on 8 properties, 7 of those at asking and above.
Got lucky with the one we are progressing on, bid a touch over asking and got accepted before others seemed to progress their offers.
You are right though there is some absolute dross on the market well above its real value.
You are in rented, just sit it out would be my advice.
yea i am thinking sit tight for now. The current house is smaller than the one we moved out of... for being too small! It's also under the airport landing/take-off path and next to a busy main road... was only meant to be very temporary! I think we will survive tho. Had two houses to sell in the past year which was the easy part, finding the one to buy was tricky.
Think we bid on 8 properties, 7 of those at asking and above.
Got lucky with the one we are progressing on, bid a touch over asking and got accepted before others seemed to progress their offers.
You are right though there is some absolute dross on the market well above its real value.
You are in rented, just sit it out would be my advice.
I keep am eye on local house prices as I'd like to move up the ladder one day but even here we had houses that would have been 200k all day long a year ago going for over 300k, it's bonkers and I can't see how people are paying so much for a pile of s
te quite frankly.
I know I'm in a village but honestly it's mental.
te quite frankly.I know I'm in a village but honestly it's mental.
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