London House Prices - next 6 months?

Rautavaara

Anyone have any ideas as to what house prices are doing at the moment?

Not sure whether now is the time to strike in order to buy, or wait another 4 - 6 months and save an extra 6 - 10K.

Are prices likely to remain flat? Or, are the likely to continue to fall slightly due to no buyers? I guess, in London particularly, the chances of prices going up sometime soon may be strong.

I have seen a couple of places I'm interested in, although I would be more comfortable waiting on a bigger deposit.

I Currently have 65K deposit, and 5K for costs/eventualities etc. I wouldn't consider a mortgage beyond 120k.

The ideal for me would be around 100K.

smcqis

Ask Mystic Meg as there are no factual answers on this!

Rautavaara

smcqis wrote: »

Ask Mystic Meg as there are no factual answers on this!

Ha! Wouldn't it be so much easier for everyone if there were? At least we'd know where we stand ...

Wee_Willy_Harris

That would only work if a very small number of people knew. As soon as everyone knows which way prices are going, their subsequent actions will have the opposite effect.

Running_Horse

Ask the House Price forum, if you don't value your sanity.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=149

Won't get much you would want to live in on your budget.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Well im selling my london flat so hoping house prices wont fall.... or wont fall too much! we nearly had someone buy our place end last year for 5k less than what we bought for. Hoping the next person will be around the same figures..

Who knows what will happen!!

westlondonbuyer

A friend of mine has just sold his flat in Shepherd's Bush for the same price he paid for it in 2006. In between, he's spent £15k on improvements and the area itself has (supposedly) improved with the opening of the Westfield. He's understandably sore, but planning to upgrade to a 3 bed house in the same area and thought he'd benefit from the same fall in prices for these.

Unfortunately, there is very low stock of family houses and these have not fallen down in asking price. If a house is sensibly priced (eg not trying to break previous land registry records) and is clean, well-presented and in a nice street, it's under offer within a fortnight.

brit1234

The outer areas of London are now falling, unfortunately a lot latter than the rest of the country which has been falling for some time. Central London pretty much holding its value but that is a crazy market linked to foreign investors.

My prediction is outer areas will continue to fall as austerity cuts come in, interest rates rise with unemployment.

Even the most bullish property commentators are now calling that the market will fall this year.

I would wait 6 months and get a better deposit. Prices are highly unlikely to go up and far more likely fall 5-10% this year alone.

westlondonbuyer

Brit, I do agree with you in general, but I'd caution against treating 'London' as a whole, or even - as you've done - contrasting Central London with the suburbs.

Change can happen on a very local level, and can affect different property types in the same location. Eg Local transport links and regeneration can impact massively on property prices; so can improved Ofsted ratings for local state schools.

The part of Central London where I work, for example, is W8, widely considered the most expensive postcode in the world on a price-per-square-foot basis. A 6th floor 2 bed flat in a building with no lift will set you back £650k - which is what it would have cost you five years ago. The whole building, in the same street, however, will cost about £6m in average condition. Is that £650k X 6? No - just a reflection of scarcity and the premium that houses command over flats. The same house done up to the nines will cost £10m. Again, it hasn't had £4m spent on the refit, just that there aren't many professionally developed and interior-designed properties available.

Similarly, the price of flats in W8 is around -5% since 2007 peak; but in neighbouring (and much grubbier) Hammersmith & Fulham, some (*some*) streets are up 15%.

The upshot of all this: if you're buying a home, buy what you can afford when you decide you're ready to buy. If you don't need security of tenure, consider renting. Life is complicated enough to worry about things that are mostly beyond your control:D

Rautavaara

Thanks all for the details.

I'm only really looking at a 1-bedroom, and certainly not in central London.

In areas like Twickenham, Whitton, Teddington, Streatham, Balham etc there are properties well within my price range.

I have seen a couple of places in Ealing, which would be ideal, but they are at the top of my price range.

I've also seen a couple of 2-bedroom places a little further out, but still well connected to rail and only some 15 minutes from central London, so that is also an option. It'd also have the added benefit of renting a room out, and I already have some prospective lodgers!

I think I will wait it out just a little longer, and in the meantime just arrange viewings for places I am interested in to get a better idea of what's out there and get used to asking all the right questions.

Gwhiz

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that prices will either go up, down or stay the same.

You heard it here first