First time buyers - will you or won't you?

manhattan

RHemmings wrote:

Surely you would buy if someone suddenly offered you a house for 30% less than current prices. That would be the same as buying after a 30% crash.

if the house ticked all the right boxes then "probably",but a 30% drop on a house that doesnt tick all the right boxes,then no way.

i dont see many sellers accepting -30% on a starter home though ATM,IMO.

desperadoV2

RHemmings wrote:

Surely you would buy if someone suddenly offered you a house for 30% less than current prices. That would be the same as buying after a 30% crash.

If it was offered to me, I will take it immediately. 30% less is fantastic!!!

SmartGirl_2

Sarahpuggy wrote:

We are first time buyers..and we have decided to take the plunge. We live in an incredibly expensive part of Greater London, but we are going to be here for the foreseable future and paying £700 a month for a small 1 bed flat, and we are going through with a purchase on a 2 bed flat in a nice area at £175,000.

Which Greater London area are you in? £175k for 2 bed flat in nice London area does not sound bad.

Sarahpuggy wrote:

i dont know whats going to happen as much as the next person. We tried doing in depth research about what was the right decision, and at the end of the day we have decided to take the risk and know what the risks are..What else can we do? Our salaries are set to rise which is a good thing, but honestly..i dont know how a single person is supposed to do this as neither of us would be able to buy any kind of property if we were on our own. its pretty bad!

You are probably righ to take the plunge. If you can comfortably afford payments on your current property and your salaries are likely to rise, you should be ok. A bit of irony on my side - my salary has doubled in the last 2 years, but it still has not made property more affordable.

desperadoV2

Sarahpuggy wrote:

We are first time buyers..and we have decided to take the plunge. We live in an incredibly expensive part of Greater London, but we are going to be here for the foreseable future and paying £700 a month for a small 1 bed flat, and we are going through with a purchase on a 2 bed flat in a nice area at £175,000.

It seems very scarey but we will only be paying about £300 a month more for a repayment mortgage inc all extra bills. I have recently been left some inheritence which has enabled me to put down a 5% deposit, but before this we were considering a 100% mortgage, but i am so so relived we dont have to go down that route.

i dont know whats going to happen as much as the next person. We tried doing in depth research about what was the right decision, and at the end of the day we have decided to take the risk and know what the risks are..What else can we do? Our salaries are set to rise which is a good thing, but honestly..i dont know how a single person is supposed to do this as neither of us would be able to buy any kind of property if we were on our own. its pretty bad!

Sarah x

May I ask who is your mortgage provider and the interest rate? You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

I thought I will go and find out how much I can borrow from HSBC and I was offered £205,000. Monthly repayment is about £1200/- a month. I dont want to borrow that much because I won't be able to afford it.

FTB's are totally left out by this property market boom

yak00

Well.. been waiting for a crash for about 4 years.. in that time property prices have gone up 200% ... so a property I thought was steep at 40k is now priced at 120k !... afraid if I were to wait any longer (say even 1 year!) and a crash didn't happen I would be completely priced out of the market.

manhattan

yak00 wrote:

Well.. been waiting for a crash for about 4 years.. in that time property prices have gone up 200% ... so a property I thought was steep at 40k is now priced at 120k !... afraid if I were to wait any longer (say even 1 year!) and a crash didn't happen I would be completely priced out of the market.

just hold out,it takes time for the avalanche to get a grip!

jyonda

Group 1 for 3 reasons.
1.The economic climate is not good for an FTB now because of high prices to wages and low interest rates which are climbing.
2. It's cheaper to rent than to buy.
3. Buying a suitable property is not impossible for us but it would mean a BIG stretch and it just don't make good sense in light of reasons 1 & 2.

Sarahpuggy

We are buying in New Malden, about a mile away from Kingston Upon Thames town centre, in Surrey. It was on at 179, 950 and we were pleased we got it for 175. Its in very good condition, and perfectly liveable but i think theres also an opportunity to improve it by putting in a new bathroom and updating the kitchen slightly. It is one of 8 flats in a small row of little terraced type houses, but they are purpose built flats. We got the last one! I think this is a place people will always want to live and its a lovely part of outer London but still easily accessable. I drive into central everyday. Even though we are looking for a home, we are also having to think of its sale-ability in the next 3-4 years aswell, but who knows what the situation will be then!

I am very excited about buying a place, but also terrified that we are taking on such a massive amount of debt! I guess, to us...it just doesn't make sense to rent anymore...

Sarahpuggy

Sure..

its with intelligent finance(owned by halifax i believe), fixed for two years at 5.54% and the monthly repayments are £900.92.

We were also offered as much as 200k from a particular lender but luckily we are intelligent enough not to stretch ourselves that far as it would leave us totally broke!

desperadoV2

Sarahpuggy wrote:

I am very excited about buying a place

Congrats sarah and good luck.

Sarahpuggy wrote:

Sure..

its with intelligent finance(owned by halifax i believe), fixed for two years at 5.54% and the monthly repayments are £900.92.

May I ask, Intelligent finance was recommended by a broker or you found it yourself via the web? I have been searching the web and thinking of doing it myself. But I have been recommended to use mortgage broker. I found britianna BS charging only 5.05% fixed for three years and hope the mortgage broker also recommends something similar.

Sarahpuggy wrote:

We were also offered as much as 200k from a particular lender but luckily we are intelligent enough not to stretch ourselves that far as it would leave us totally broke!

That's what I dont want to do as well. Stretch myself and take on huge debt.