Where in belfast area for first time buyer?

talksalot81

I dont know I am desperate... I am distraught! I am quite simply not willing to pay the current sale prices. Asking prices are just fine though! I believe that sale prices will fall (maybe back to the asking) so I think that any purchase going over asking is 'paying over the odds'.

I shall have a look in the North but to be honest, I have resigned myself to wait a few months and see a bit better what is in store.

jetboy

I would keep looking. Winter has always been a better time for buyers than summer. It's unlikely that there will be any relaxing on prices in the coming months. If you are bidding, the winner isn't always the highest bid remember..but if you're not in , you can't win. I sold a house 6 months ago 3k below the highest bidder who I believed to be punching above his weight. (Turned out he was.) Lots of these bidders are playing with cash they havn't got. Quite a lot of bidders havn't even tried to secure the mortgage funds before they get involved too. Just keep plugging away at it.

ginger_nuts

sorry to say but most houses are going over the asking price and not just in Belfast .I Know off at least 3 ex housing executive houses that sold for £30,000 over the asking price ,none where in Belfast .
I still think prices are on the up ,but maybe not as much as last year .

talksalot81

ginger_nuts wrote:

sorry to say but most houses are going over the asking price and not just in Belfast .I Know off at least 3 ex housing executive houses that sold for £30,000 over the asking price ,none where in Belfast .
I still think prices are on the up ,but maybe not as much as last year .

I know this much... 30k over asking is pretty tame, 50k seems to be more the number I am encountering. It takes desperation to find yourself paying that much over the odds! With the recent gains, NI housing is already on level or better footing with the rest of the UK, these incredible bids over asking are pushing us way way above that and I dont care what people say... with the low NI average salary, this cannot continue indefinitely. Anyone bidding way up over to get a property is just 'blowing up the bubble'. They fall into one of three categories:

1)They are willing to pay any price because renting is evil
2)They believe prices ALWAYS go up
3)They have failed to do their sums and realise they can rent on 1/3 of their mortgage repayments!

leftieM

I don't know Talksalot, you're taking a chance by waiting if you have decided that you definitely want to buy. I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it again - look at Dublin. they have had years and years of outrageous inflation. Northern Ireland has been in political and economic limbo since the introduction of direct rule in the early 1970s. I think it's our day in the sun. There is no sign of recession, businesses are opening and wages are increasing. The politicians look like they might actually do what they're paid and elected to do ie govern.
I think it's outrageous that house prices are as they are. Investors and the tax man are the beneficiaries. Ordinary 1-house joes just end up with more debt. However that is how it is and I think that it will be years, not months, before the house prices stabilise or fall. Demand is outstripping supply. The only thing that will halt it in the short term is a resumption of the Troubles. If you think that is likely then you are right to wait.

ballyblack

Also more and more people want there own space and prefer to buy rather than rent so I think house prices have further to go in NI.

talksalot81

ballyblack wrote:

Also more and more people want there own space and prefer to buy rather than rent so I think house prices have further to go in NI.

Which in fact provides some level of safety to my approach. More want to buy, more want to BTL. Therefore less want to rent but there are more rental properties and thus rental costs drop.

I realise there is a risk involved with holding off, but at the moment we cant afford the sale prices on anything but council housing. I simply refuse to work my butt off, have almost no luxuries or spare cash for fun and only be able to afford the lowest quality of accomodation. That would be plain stupid.

leftieM

Fewer may want to rent but more will have to.

I'm glad we bought an ex-council house. It served a number of purposes - it was close to the pubs and work, good value for money and big enough to accommodate our kids when they came along. I had the snob issue too sometimes but that was a weakness in my own character and nothing to do with the great well behaved house or the kind neighbours. I think that I may have hidden away with my 'own kind' and never have met the great people I know now who showed me life from a different perspective. I hope that knowing me opened their minds too.

I take offence at ex-council houses being described as 'the lowest quality of accommodation'. I can't imagine you've ever set foot inside one!

Have you considered Bangor? There are a few good estates on the Belfast side that were within your budget. It doesn't seem to be moving too fast either.

talksalot81

Ive done some rounds of the lowest price properties and some really are grim! It isnt meant offensively but that is my honest appraisal. I am forced to make comparison with the family home with which I am familiar but I also make comparison to the sort of property we can realistically rent.

Ive done a bit more checking of numbers and in fact the rent is even more amazing that you would think. The money spent (interest only) on a 150k property could in fact rent a property which would sell for over 3 times that... There is something deeply wrong with that. It certainly isnt the case elsewhere in the country. Typically the question asked is whether renting actually costs MORE than a mortgage!!

ginger_nuts

The other option is to buy somewhere in an area you would prefer not to live ,rent it out for a few years .This would give you a bigger deposit ( when you sell )to buy somewhere else .In the meantime rent a place in an area you want to live in .