cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Yup, I complete on my eighth next week, already looking for the next one.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

And good for you
The investment should pay off for you, what alot of people (especially with the property boom in the early 90's), made a killing on 2nd houses.
The real issue now is that houses are not really affordable to a vast majority of people in the area's they were brought up in, ie 20 years ago a terrace house near where I use to live was 30k, now they are 120k.
The average wage back then was around 12k, its now just over 20k.
House quadruples in price, wage goes up 40%.
This is the biggest issue in the housing market, and its all false economy because the person who purchased that house 20 years ago now has a house worth 120k, great, the next sort of property which would be (for them) the next level up in that area cost 45k 20 years ago, its now around 180-200k and is now out of their price range by a huge ammount, so they are stuck, they cannot upgrade, they dont have any more money to upgrade so it becomes a stagnent market.

Shame really, you may be worse off in theory to upgrade in 20 years though you will own the house

Tony

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

I have the deeds and the house I have bought was built in 1980 and was sold for £23500. I paid a bit less than £100000. If you look at it and say that the cost of living doubles every decade, it works out pretty accurately, apart from wages/salary ofcourse not being able to keep up with inflation.

I will be spending the next 5 years of my life saving for another deposit for a house in which to actually live in with someone and because I won't be a first time buying anymore, I will get a much better interest rate on a mortgage and there will be a lot more options available to me.

What is the point in life huh?

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

There has still been an auto correction in prices in the last 3 years, building sites which aren't selling are just sat at a stand still as they will just wait till it recovers as the money isn't lost its just sitting there. Sales are only slumping for new builds in suspect areas as I work for a housing company and they are setting up new sites all the time.

dpb

Recession hasnt even started to bite yet

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

My neighbours house is up for sale (it's a BTL house).

I've only seen one couple view it, and it's been on the market twice now (now on 10k lower), but still at least 30k too high.

However, I have never seen houses stick on this road for so long - usually they're SSTC within a couple of weeks at the most. We bought earlier in june, and we viewed four houses on the road and all got sold within a couple of days!

I always said the day I completed the market would turn, and it seems it did. Never mind, fixed for 5 years so hopefully we'll get some wage inflation in the mean time at least.

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

Not really any problem, but when you make property an investment, speculation pushes prices up more than the market can reasonably afford. The end result is, as an investor, be prepared to lose money.

If you are living in the property and can afford the mortgage this isn't an issue, once you factor in some liquidity, market fluctuations aren't an issue for an investor, but some people bought loads of buy to lets, flooded the market and then didn't see the returns they hoped for, and are even funding mortgages they arent covering with rent.

The situation was agravated by poor investment returns elsewhere, in particular pensions, and people turned to property to create a better pension, this has turned sour for many as the returns from property went the same way as the stock market.

Simple rule of thumb, if you are in an investment making more than high street bank interest rates, you are gonna be taking some additonal risk. The greater the difference, the higher the risk. One of the biggest risks with property is erduced liquidity so it is important to ensure you factor in a significant emergency fund when investing in less liquid assets.

I doubt anyone has a chip on their shoulder about people doing well, well, not unless they are part of the 1% that can significantly influence market movements and policy decisions.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

We are thru the worst, people now know whats happeneing so can watch the spend where as the when it started no one knew how bad it would be. No one would of expected after this time the world would still be in trouble.

If you have cash to spend in the present climate things have never been cheaper so its actually a good time to buy

davegtt

pfff, if Ive learnt anything, its all relative. House prices fall and people can afford to take on debt to pay for it, then we'll see interest rates rise. End of the day, youre going to have to pay for it all somehow.

Dingdongler

If you don't mind me asking which part of the country are they in and are any on interest payment only mortgages?

Thanks and congrats on your new purchase!

Dingdongler

I'm seeing something similar. My area (as many others) has got through the last few years without any major drops, actually in nominal terms there have been some increases. Earlier this year a house on the next street set an all time selling price record for the area.

Again like you houses in my area sell quickly, you don't see the for sale signs up for long. Indeed the last three houses that sold on my street didn't even come on the market, they were sold privately without ever being marketed

In the last month or two I've noticed a change. The larger family homes in my immediate vicinity still seem to have the same demand, but the smaller houses in the area are sticking and some having to reduce their prices.

This is hardly a scientific barometer of course, its my subjective appraisal, and of course it could just be seasonal due to xmas

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

They are in Hemel Hempstead. Achieving very good rents.

Some are on interest only at the moment as I'm still building up, three are on repayment.

I buy mine in sorry run down states and refurb them before renting them out.

The last house I bought I paid £140k, spent just under £5k on it and am getting £950 a month for that one. Values up at £180k

The tenants offered me £170k for it last month.


My method works for me, I thoroughly enjoy the work involved, and it keeps me busy as I only work three days a week. It increases my yields nicely and gives me a cushion for any potential short term drops in prices. It also makes borrowing against them easier.

Leslie

What a shock that insinuation must be!

Les

njkmrs

Well done son .!! I do like a success story .Keep up the good work

Dingdongler

Those really are excellent yields, impossible in most parts of London unless you really buy way below market value. Well done

What are you paying to borrow if you don't mind me asking?

MattW

Just put my house on the market. The agent tells me that the market down here is robust and the latter part of the year has been the busiest for some time. Still plenty of buyers out there but a lack of quality on the market is proving frustrating.

Interest rates are forecast to be low for the next two years. Wages inflation is non existent and the target is forecast to fall in 2012.

We've not seen a massive crash that many predicted after 2008 and I still don't see it happening. the fact is we have a housing shortage in this country.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

I would say your quote isnt right, we have plenty of houses for sale, what we have a shortage of is affordable first time buyers properties, no first time buyers houses, no first step on the ladder, those in houses cannot move, market stagnates, prices (are suppose to) drop.

Best way to look at it is:-

Average wage, 24k, average house price, 120k, average mortgage is 3.5 x your wage (for that house it would be 84k), average deposit 30%
By the time people get that 30% deposite, the house prices have gone up and they end up short again.
Its all false economy, you could sell a house for 30k and 20 years down the line it should be worth 40k, not 120k.
No one is any better off with that increase, except the estate agent who takes x% commission.

Tony

MattW

We don't have thousands and thousands of empty properties (yes I know we have some, I watched C4 last night) and we do have many people still living at home because they can't afford property, or living in unsuitable accomodation because there is nothing available.

The flip to your statement is that people don't move as a result, so as i said in an earlier post lack of quality on the market.

you have to remember too that the workforce is much more mobile these days. Gone are the days of moving 100 miles to be closer to work, people just commute and or work from home.

times have changed.

dpb

only 385 thousand he said , possibly bit sensensational .

Only balance id agree with Tony

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

BBC 2 now!