House prices just keep on rising

manhattan

CB1979 wrote:

as long as there are banks offering higher multiples/longer term mortgages and as long as companies/Housing Associations offering different terms to "help" the FTB then prices will continue to rise.

and as long as there are fools,willing to take out a life time mortgage!

i certainly wont,and i hope anyone with common sense will think the same!

manhattan

remember,the average FTB'er ATM is now around 34 years old.

RHemmings

CB1979 wrote:

another question? lol

anyway as long as there are banks offering higher multiples/longer term mortgages and as long as companies/Housing Associations offering different terms to "help" the FTB then prices will continue to rise.

the first SO I saw was 50%, as i said the other day i saw a girl buy 10% and she thought it was a good deal!

no matter what people are hoping for, i can see this keep on happening until these companies exhaust all possibilities.

but of course just my little humble opinion

This is a very interesting point, one which I have to think about for a while. If people start buying "parts" of houses, and this spreads to the population as a whole, then what's to stop house prices rising, as they will be entirely theoretical? Eventually every house in the country will be "worth" £1million, and the till operator at ASDA will buy a 1% stake in the house.

dunstonh

In Norwich and surrounding area (my family live there) prices have increased at least 25-30% in last three years. Properties that were circa £45k in 1999 are now around about £140k (and selling FAST).

In 1998, you could be a 4 bedroom detached in Lowestoft for £80,000, 5 years on, it was £170,000. 8 years on it is still £170,000. The gains were not in the last 3 years but the 3-5 years before that.

Perhaps it shows the major towns are doing ok but smaller towns are not?

dougk_2

I think you have hit the nail on the head! Places where there is big growth (i.e. major towns) prices are increasing more, partly due to cost of transport from outside (parking costs and pterol soon add up).

However, I worked with several people who were born / lived in Lowestoft and didn't want to anymore and moved to Norwich area.

Perhaps the reason why prices have not changed is because noone wants to live there ? I have been there a couple of times and though it was Ok but wouldn't choose to live there myself - it was well, a bit out of the way and seemed a bit "run down" in places.

IRC Gt Yarmouth is much the same.

SammyD_2

GW65 wrote:

I'd be surprised if immigration makes a huge difference to the number of buyers. A sizeable proportion (maybe the majority) of the recent immigrants from Eastern Europe will be short-term and in lowish-paid jobs (have you noticed how many Eastern Europeans there are working in your local fast-food joint and on your local building site?). They're often over here to earn some money for a few years, minimising their outgoings, and then head home with a wad of cash to buy a house in the own country. These people will not be buying houses. They're just being very smart and doing what a much smaller number of them have done in the past.

Ahh yes, the good old stereotypes about us immigrants. Most of my friends are also immigrants - as are a very large proportion of my colleagues. Believe me, we are not all fast food workers and labourers - some of us happen to be very well educated and on six figure incomes. And yes, when we bought our house 4 years ago, we beat off the "English" competition for our house by going above the asking price. My closest friends are from New Zealand, Romania, Greece, Holland, Australia and Croatia. All are home owners...

We sold our house last week - we got six offers, five of which were from "non English" families. Of course immigration makes a difference to demand for housing, and at the very least, these people will be living somewhere, even if it is just a room in a bed sit.

noyk

RHemmings wrote:

The median is a much better statistic for talking about house prices and affordability. Anyone got median figures? Quartiles?

Median and average figures can be found on http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_by_town.htm though i'm not sure where they get the data. It's also a handy site because you can compare asking prices to selling prices, which always is quite fun wondering how some people can be so over optimistic!

noyk

SammyD wrote:

Ahh yes, the good old stereotypes about us immigrants. Most of my friends are also immigrants - as are a very large proportion of my colleagues. Believe me, we are not all fast food workers and labourers - some of us happen to be very well educated and on six figure incomes. And yes, when we bought our house 4 years ago, we beat off the "English" competition for our house by going above the asking price. My closest friends are from New Zealand, Romania, Greece, Holland, Australia and Croatia. All are home owners...

We sold our house last week - we got six offers, five of which were from "non English" families. Of course immigration makes a difference to demand for housing, and at the very least, these people will be living somewhere, even if it is just a room in a bed sit.

Apart from the chip on your shoulder, you seem to have a good deal of fortune in life, when many have little. Out of interest what attracted you to this site or are you just a windup merchant?

dougk_2

SammyD wrote:

Ahh yes, the good old stereotypes about us immigrants. Most of my friends are also immigrants - as are a very large proportion of my colleagues. Believe me, we are not all fast food workers and labourers - some of us happen to be very well educated and on six figure incomes. And yes, when we bought our house 4 years ago, we beat off the "English" competition for our house by going above the asking price. My closest friends are from New Zealand, Romania, Greece, Holland, Australia and Croatia. All are home owners...

I couldn't agree more I have worked for an IT company here who out of 150 employees 50+ were non uk born and most earning £35k plus. Most of these employees have come from eastern europe and are very skilled and work hard.

Its not all polish general labours /farm workers you know. There are also plenty of non uk born doctors, dentists and other professionals on well above average salaries.

AND even with the low paid migrant workers on many occasions they club together and buy a house jointly. They don't winge and whine ,just work hard, save and pay the going rate.

dougk_2

noyk wrote:

Apart from the chip on your shoulder, you seem to have a good deal of fortune in life, when many have little. Out of interest what attracted you to this site or are you just a windup merchant?

No unlike many UK born, many migrant workers don't expect things to be given to them on a plate and they work hard to get what they want..............not spend it all down the pub or on holidays, the latest gadgets and flash cars!