450k for a three bed flat-madness ! Now these people face ruin.

StevieJ

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Yes.

There are many, mostly thanking what you are saying, who keep saying the lack of homes will push prices up.

BUT, when people buy flats because of the lack of homes, they ridicule them for doing so and say "their fault for buying them".

What exactly were these people supposed to do? Flats were available due to more being built with the whoel "affordable homes" push, and restricted space and were costing less in a major boom time than harder to get due to supply, harder to finance due to crazy prices homes.

I know this isnt my area, but an example of my area is flats were the only places second home buyers and BTL andlords were not pushing young people out of.

It just seemed to me that way too many of them were being built to make them a sound buying proposition, they weren't even cheap :eek:

Cleaver

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Yes.

There are many, mostly thanking what you are saying, who keep saying the lack of homes will push prices up.

BUT, when people buy flats because of the lack of homes, they ridicule them for doing so and say "their fault for buying them".

What exactly were these people supposed to do?

Graham, I'm not one of those saying the lack of homes will push prices up and I'm sure you and I would agree on a lot of things.

However, you cannot, for one minute, think that people buying a plush, new-build, off-plan, luxury flat in the woolwich (repeat: WOOLWICH) area didn't have a variety of other options. A quick look on Rightmove shows that there are over 200 houses for sale in Woolwich and the 1/2 mile area around for a maximum of £300k, many of which are in the £200k to £250k band.

I feel for these people, I honestly do. I just wonder how many of them wanted that luxury new build look (a look I've never managed to see myself, but there we go) and took the risky decision to pay a premium for it.

And, lastly, I never ridiculed anyone. I questioned their financial decision of buying new-build off-plan. Any type of research would show that this is a risky option and they chose to take it.

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

What exactly were these people supposed to do?

Buying 3 years into the future is never a clever idea if you're strapped now though is it?

Off build is just a big gamble.

PasturesNew

FungusFighter wrote: »

Hi Pastures, how's me 2nd reserve totty doing today?;)

All right thanks ... obviously in 2nd place as I don't have a c0ck though, eh!

PasturesNew

FungusFighter wrote: »

DO NOT USE THE G WORD!!!:mad:

It's man-love between two guys ok?;)

I bet your home page is lemonparty.

Cleaver

Graham_Devon wrote: »

What exactly were these people supposed to do?

They're not 'supposed to do' anything. They can do what they like.

What I would have done is buy a 3 or 4 bed, solid built, semi or detached house in the Woolwich area which were on sale for a similar price at the same time.

Sapphire

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Just strikes you how it's the young who are paying the price. They probably had advice of "buy now or you will never get on the ladder"...I know I did, but chose not to buy out of my depth, hence SA.

You don't get 20 something landlords in general, you just get these people facing financial ruin while the generation before them tried to hoard money for their own children, while financially ruining their peers children to try and do it.

This is such an uninformed point of view. Blame everyone but yourself for letting yourself be duped into collaborating with the culture of greed and 'me first'. Complete idiocy for people in their twenties to get themselves into so much debt. Are they completely thick? What sort of an education did they have? Why are they so hung up about buying a property? Why don't they rent? If they really wanted to buy a first home, why didn't they choose somewhere further out?

Also, the 'generation before them' that you refer to as 'hoarding money' for its own children is highly likely to leave its 'hoarded' money to the brats that are referred to in the article – something that many people from the 'generation before them' did not experience.

The majority of people I know from that (to you, archaic) generation worked incredibly hard throughout their lives, and did not 'invest' in property but bought it as a home. The ones who have participated most in 'investing' in property and getting themselves into huge debt are under 40. Look at any of the property programmes on TV and you will see that this is the case.

mewbie_2

FungusFighter wrote: »

One look at my front lawn and you wouldn't be able to wait to get yr hands dirty sweetcheeks;)

As I say I am not really interested in gardening. So your front lawn, or even your back lawn would not really do much to tempt me.

Graham_Devon

All I can say is I was nearly pushed pretty convincingly down this road.

When you have nothing of your own (i.e. home stuff), your solicitors fees paid, washing machine, fridge freezer, cooker, sofa thrown in etc, cashback, ready to move in, all sounds like a good proposition. Especially when you are sat there and every month, houses become further and further out of reach and theres some guy telling you "if you don't buy now, next year you will need a further 20% deposit, we'l do this now for you for just £5 up front, adn don't forget if you buy another home you will face 10k of expenses we will pay for you"

I am only coming at this from my own experience of being frightened shyteless of the prospect of never being able to get a home, because all you can see is prices rising every month more than your physical salary.

Yet theres someone who's willing to sign you up, sort out everything for you, and give you a guarantee of a home. It's very VERY tempting.

I agree that some may have bought because they looked nice, but a hell of a lot more will have bought because they were the only people giving you the chance to buy. Going for a normal mortgage on a normal house you would have been told where to go. Going for these, you were helped along the way, in an economic time where like I said, the home you wanted was sometimes going up at a pace higher than your monthly full wages.

Thankfully I didn't sign for mine and got what I have now, and I only got this because it wasnt shiny and new and others didnt want it. BUT, you cannot compare prices today with what people thought and were being constantly told what would happen with prices 3 years ago.

It was the art of selling. The art of the developers and the people on here ramping things up, selling to a fresh generation who didn't know much, apart from what they saw on the news. Being urged to spend, do it now, or you will never do it.

mewbie_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

Buying 3 years into the future is never a clever idea if you're strapped now though is it?

Off build is just a big gamble.

A gamble which paid off for a few years though, and paid off hugely. Some of these off plans would have changed hands several times before completion. During the crazy years of course.

This story is actually an end note to HPI, one of the remaining pieces falling into place. Oh yes, punters, you can lose money - big time.