Will anyone buy semi's these days?

ginger_nuts

In my area semi's are being sold at 3 or 4 thousand above the asking price .I was told by EA there was a shortage off semi's because developers prefer to build town houses .I know one ex council semi that has an offer off £168,000 the asking price was £135,000 .

crankup

Round my way, a semi with a driveway (maybe even a garage) will go quickly.
Up to £250K. The ones with no options for offroad parking tend to stick a bit until the vendor gets realistic.
60s builds are plentiful here. Most on huge plots with 100ft gardens or more. They appear to be more desirable than the recent builds.

Angela_D_3

Bluelad wrote:

You've just confirmed yourself why house prices are high. Like yourself, I also have a large sum of equity in the house I've just sold. It is this equity that is pushing up the prices. If houses at the bottom end weren't so ridiculously priced, then prices further up will be far more realistic.

As I said earlier the chances are the second buyers (eg) myself are using 3 x income + equity, whereas its the FTB who has to get crazy income multipliers or save for huge deposits

Exactly my point though, you want to sell a 2nd rung on the ladder house to somebody who needs the house but has had to get a crazy multiple mortgage.
How do you rent and save £40k if you have a family it just doesn't happen.
If we could all stop every first time buyer from buyer the madness would stop, but next months interest rate rise hopefully will do that for us anyway.

Guy_Montag

Worth remembering despite all the equity the rungs of the ladder expand. E.g. if a 50k house increase by 10%, then the next buyer must find another 5k. The guy selling wants to buy what was a 100k house, but now must find 110k. So even though he has an extra 5k equity, he still must find 5k on top of that. Next up the chain, moving from 100k house (now 100k) to 200k house, now 220k. Has to find an extra 10k on top of the equity. Really that's not so bad, at 10%. Now lets do the sums at 300% (rise in the last 10 years)

50k house is now 150k. so immediately the first time buys is stretched to the limit
100k house is now 300k, so number two must find a full £150k to make up the difference
200k house is now 600k, so next up the ladder needs to find a whopping £300k to fund the expansion.

No wonder IVAs & bankruptcies are rising exponentially. Roll on 7% IRs

roswell

Another simpler reason for why you arent seeing Semi`s sell is the stamp duty threeshold, eg terraced at 124 000 = no stamp. Semi @ 150, 000 = stamp duty, how much is that driveway and bit garden really worth ???

Poppycat

Its not just semi's incur stamp duty even a 3 bedroom terraced house can now incur it.

We want a semi because our 2 bedroom terraced isn't big enough, we want a garden and off road parking (I got my car hit be a idiot the other week whilst on the road and they didn't stop) and I just want a quiet area.

roswell

Poppycat wrote:

Its not just semi's incur stamp duty even a 3 bedroom terraced house can now incur it.

We want a semi because our 2 bedroom terraced isn't big enough, we want a garden and off road parking (I got my car hit be a idiot the other week whilst on the road and they didn't stop) and I just want a quiet area.

Sorry, Dont think i made myself very clear there, i didnt mean the type of house incures stamp duty I ment the price, first time buyers are streatched to the max the last thing they want is extra money going out so there more likely to purchase a terraced house if its not going to cost stamp duty than purchase a semi for only a slightly higher price than the terraced.

Poppycat

Oh I see what you mean roswell

I agree FTB are stretched to the limit however even 2nd buyers like us are. I have to get a morgage either with shared ownership or one that takes into account my outgoings.

I do feel sorry for FTB, unless they are in a very good job, have help from family etc it must be hard for them to get on the ladder. I think we are storing up potential problems in the future as it will be difficult to start a family too and thus may have inpact on future pensions as tommorows kids will pay for our pensions.

I do think stamp duty should have been at a more realistic level of say 200K

alba37

mr.broderick wrote:

scotland or australia now there's a dilemma !!!!

My thoughts exactly!!

sm9ai

Its going to be difficult. The price is right compared to flats and terraced houses(Overvalued by traditional means - Angela D is spot on!). But there will be severe lack of customers compared to flats and terraced places.


As for increasing Stamp Duty, thats not going to solve the problem, it will just push up prices by another 1500 or whatever the stamp duty price was.

Houses really need to half in value or more to get more sellers into the second and third steps on the ladder.