Scottish house price drop.

bernard_shaw

dopester wrote: »

As the great Bard once said 'two dwellings will cause thee problems thrice fold'.

Shakespeare should know, given that his own father was Mr Landlord for a good few years... before having his mortgaged homes repossessed. He over-extended himself with debt, was vulnerable when the bubble burst, and chased through the courts.. bailiffs at his own home, pursued for debt he owned for years.

Is this true?

dopester

bernard_shaw wrote: »

Is this true?

I don't have reason to doubt the validity from where I originally read the information.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11065289&postcount=25

The story of an Englishman whose life illustrates this point has been much in our minds. He is a successful businessman who has fallen on hard times, as so many have. In the early sixties he inherited a farm from his father. He was not much good as a farmer, his hedges were a disgrace to the neighbourhood, but he always had an eye for a bargain. He sold the farm, built up a business in textiles and leather goods, put money into other businesses, and joined the local council.

Before he inherited the farm, as early as the fifties, he had an interest in properties, and as his business expanded, he bought more properties. By the late sixties he had reached a high point in his civic career. He was appointed the bailiff of the local market town in which he lived. His operations were on a substantial scale. He was part of the English enterprise culture before Mrs.Thatcher.

Unfortunately, it was the crisis of the mid-seventies that turned his fortunes for the worse, as it did those of many other businessmen and property people. He was overstretched. Some of his deals went sour. Unemployment was rising and money was tight. Life became a lot less pleasant for him. He had to sell most of the property he had bought, often for low prices, although he was able to keep his home. He retired from the council. There were lawsuits, even appearances in court and threats from the bailiffs. For twenty years he had become steadily richer; for the next twenty years he became steadily poorer

Who is this old man? His name is John Shakespeare; his son’s name is William. The facts are recorded in Dennis Kay’s Shakespeare. The years are correct, but the century was, of course, the sixteenth. John Shakespeare lived on until 1601, “a merry-checked old man,” and saw his son’s theatrical and business success.

John Shakespeare was indeed a victim of the major Elizabethan depression that began in the 1570s and continued, with some intermissions, to the end of the century. There were thousands of businessmen like him, and there have been many more thousands of businessmen destroyed in each of the depressions that have occurred at the rate of two every hundred years.

bernard_shaw

dopester wrote: »

I don't have reason to doubt the validity from where I originally read the information.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11065289&postcount=25

Heh, nothing new under the sun, eh?

kriss_boy

Id take the statistics with a pinch of salt.

I obsessively follow the property market and have noted only a considerable drop in value of FTB properties. Beat up 1 bed flats that were once ridiculously overpriced at 75K are now listed at fixed prices of 60/65K.

Recently though in my town in central scotland theres been a number of bigger family homes selling for very good prices.

I think the property crash really just sorted the wheat from the chaff.

I think a good home will sell well, but buyers are no longer willing to pay over the odds for something that needs a lot of work done.

damanpunk

Have you ever been to Elgin? I lived not too far from it before, it is an absolute hole. This is a serious post btw, not trolling.

Btw, looks nice outside but the inside needs gutting.

bernard_shaw wrote: »

Thanks for the linx.

But this is more the sort of thing I'll maybe be after:
http://www.solicitorsproperty.com/sps/m_showprop.php?propref=RR016124&solid=5

What d'ya think. Yea, a lot cheaper than comparable property in other parts of the country. Prices in Moray declined -0.4% in nominal terms through 2009. I can't see any mechanism which would push them up through 2010/11. Can you?

mitchaa

dopester wrote: »

What are your circumstances now then Mitchaa? Last I heard you'd accepted a (legally binding offer) on your own home. You'd come into some money and were half-thinking about renting... with an eye on later buying a more top end property at a lower price, but also were thinking of just buying such a new home immediately.

You're right.. you have changed. From 'made profit in this House Price crash'.. to posting up links to ridiculously priced Aberdeen property is some change indeed.

My wife had the final say and although I had reservations, we decided to rebuy. We bought a nice house close to my work with a good school nearby and got 10% off the asking price so I'm glad it's all over and done with now.

There are a million and 1 things I could have done with the inheritance money we received but it's tied up in bricks and mortar now. It may turn out to be a bad move if prices plummet, but to be honest, we are happy and secure now. Any short term drops or gains are simply just going to go over our heads from now on.

My previous post was just to illustrate that the Aberdeen housing market isn't all that it is cracked upto be as although Aberdeen has remained relatively unscathed in this HPC, the price of housing is still very expensive VFM wise in comparison to other nearby regions and with very restrictive lending not a lot of low/mid end property is moving. There are quite a few ex council properties that have been advertised for a while and with unrealistic valuations, coupled with typical Aberdonian stubbornness means that there are a lot of these typed properties on the market for quite some time.

Don't get me wrong though, there are still bargains to be had if you look hard enough and I was pleased with the 10% off I managed to achieve on what I would say is my ideal home.