The eternal dilemma -sell or dont sell

lynzpower

Right, as some of you know Ive been toying with this for a while.

I have a 2 double bed GF flat in inner east london. Shared ownership. Im mortgaged for 40% of it. *Bought* for 197 Contains about 10k equity.

Me & OH want to get a place together. OUter east london .Market is flat, not much doing at the mo. We want something smaller & cheaper, but has to have a garden. Happy to go one bed, would prefer 1 & a box room. happy to spend money on renovation but we wont have more than 20k (kitchen/bathroom/rewire etc- gift from parents) Purchase price no more than 150, in SD exempt area. Happy to consider renting/ or even houseshares while/if market does whatever its doing. We anticipate savings around 6k for solicitors fees etc. Not fussy AT ALL, not looking for "dream home" , just somewhere to live really.

We are at the point where, a) we have SO so will always sell it fairly easily b) we have a garden c) still 8 years left on the builders guarantee. We estimate we might get 10k profit ( yes before fees etc) Probably aviod estate agents, given that HA will market for us. In any event, we can move somewhere cheaper and being mortgage free is our new aim. We will never be mortgage free on this flat due to the SO nature of it.

Do we sell now (well in say 6 months) or wait till the new year? ( april?) If we wait till the new year we a) will have more in savings ( ie the 6k, otherwise we will have more like 2. b) I will be debt free and wish to remain so ( Debt free date January 07)

Sorry for yet another chrystal ball discussion of whats happening to house prices, I know they can get tiresome, but anyone with any thoughts, most welcome.

Lynz
x

BobProperty

All I'll point out in terms of your timing is that HIPs are due to come in July 2007, so April next year may have a lot of property coming on the market to avoid the cost of HIPs a couple of months later.

lynzpower

Thanks for that Bob, much appreciated. In all my musings I forgot HIPS were coming in next year, I thought it was this summer.

Thank you the penny has dropped, answer provided!

RAiny in Stockport I believe, hope your lawns are OK!

Rave

You're not specific about which areas you're looking, so I can't be that specific about prices in my answer. However in my local area the number of decent rental properties on the market has gone way up in the last year, while rents have gone down. We're still in the 1-bed flat we rented at 650pcm nearly three years ago when we married (no rent increase in that time). I'm just starting a new job which should pay well- and so we're looking at moving into a 2 bed flat with garden or even a three bed terrace, and there's no way we'll be paying more than 750pcm- there's loads and loads on Rightmove now, and that's before you start haggling over the rent. There is no way we could get a mortgage to buy a similar place for that sort of repayment.

So- flog the flat, cash in your equity, and rent a nice place in the meantime. If you get saving, you could put down a very serious deposit on a nice place in a few years time when prices have tanked- which is exactly what we plan to do:).