Moving Home - Zoopla Hurts!

HJS86

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It's very unlikely someone's going to offer more than the identical flats in the same building were sold for.

Even if someone does, the surveyor for the buyer's bank will almost certainly value it the same as the others.

I think I am going to call Bromford Housing on Monday to confirm that this is what they actually paid for the flats.

Something just doesn't sit right.

How can myself and my neighbours have paid £80-100k for the flats up to November 2008 and then one month later the housing association comes along and purchases about 20 of them for 51k?
Do our flats devalued by approx £30k plus in one month?!?

It doesn't make any sense yet their bulk buy will now stop me selling mine for any more than 51k according to users on here.

GDB2222

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It's very unlikely someone's going to offer more than the identical flats in the same building were sold for.

Even if someone does, the surveyor for the buyer's bank will almost certainly value it the same as the others.

That is certainly an issue, but I don't think the £51k figure is quite right either. The £51k figure was obviously a deeply discounted bulk deal, done at the height of the property crisis. Probably a distressed sale, as the sales all went through on 31 December. The amount of the discount is anyone's guess, but say 20%. That means the full value (ie with an ordinary seller not a distressed one) in 2008 was say £64,000. A sensible valuer will look at properties in the area, generally, and will take account of the bulk deal but not be swayed by it unduly.

Prices are up a bit in W Midlands since then according to Nationwide, so a value of £65k now seems distinctly plausible. Isn't that what the OP said she's been told it's worth by estate agents?

neverdespairgirl

But it's not selling.

GDB2222

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

But it's not selling.

They've got it on the market at £80k, which seems too high in the circumstances. I'm not saying what the value is, because I've no idea. All I'm saying is that for valuation purposes it would be wrong to attach too much weight to a bulk purchase at a heavy discount. Valuers would have the evidence of other properties in the area, too, and they would be negligent if they ignored that. And I do mean that, as I don't use the term negligent at all lightly.

brit1234

HJS86 wrote: »

How can myself and my neighbours have paid £80-100k for the flats up to November 2008 and then one month later the housing association comes along and purchases about 20 of them for 51k?
Do our flats devalued by approx £30k plus in one month?!?

Yes when the credit crunch comes along and people stop or can't pay for overvalued flats.

Also the fact that the housing association has bought most of them would lower the price as well. Lots of people do not want to live in housing association blocks.

As for increasing your equity by £200 a month, that I am afraid won't be fast enough as house prices are falling faster than that. The time you get £2000 of equity you will be down another £4000.

dopester

GDB2222 wrote: »

They've got it on the market at £80k, which seems too high in the circumstances. I'm not saying what the value is, because I've no idea. All I'm saying is that for valuation purposes it would be wrong to attach too much weight to a bulk purchase at a heavy discount. Valuers would have the evidence of other properties in the area, too, and they would be negligent if they ignored that. And I do mean that, as I don't use the term negligent at all lightly.

How much would you pay for the single flat in a block where all the remainder are housing association properties?

Drat; I've just pressed 'preview post' and can see Brit1234 has raised a similar point. Submitting anyway.

System

HJS86 wrote: »

I think I am going to call Bromford Housing on Monday to confirm that this is what they actually paid for the flats.

Something just doesn't sit right.

How can myself and my neighbours have paid £80-100k for the flats up to November 2008 and then one month later the housing association comes along and purchases about 20 of them for 51k?
Do our flats devalued by approx £30k plus in one month?!?

It doesn't make any sense yet their bulk buy will now stop me selling mine for any more than 51k according to users on here.

51k is just the average price paid for the flats purchased when the builder was obviously in distress. They were probably offered an amount for the remaining units in the block and this works out to the average. Unfortunately that is the market value of the flats. You seem to think that because the houses were purchased by an association that this is not their open market value. But that ignores that the houses were on the open market and eventually went for an average of 51k each so this is how much they are worth.

I wish you all the best with the sale and beginning your family.

HJS86

GDB2222 wrote: »

That is certainly an issue, but I don't think the £51k figure is quite right either. The £51k figure was obviously a deeply discounted bulk deal, done at the height of the property crisis. Probably a distressed sale, as the sales all went through on 31 December. The amount of the discount is anyone's guess, but say 20%. That means the full value (ie with an ordinary seller not a distressed one) in 2008 was say £64,000. A sensible valuer will look at properties in the area, generally, and will take account of the bulk deal but not be swayed by it unduly.

Prices are up a bit in W Midlands since then according to Nationwide, so a value of £65k now seems distinctly plausible. Isn't that what the OP said she's been told it's worth by estate agents?

Thank you so much for your post! I was starting to think I was going crazy with my opinion that something must of happened!

Barratts were on site when we moved it, after our sale they left - we were literally the last ones. Its possible that they gave up and then bulk sold the remaining flats that wouldn't sell to Bromford. Either way I am going to call Bromford on Monday.

The estate agents in the area have said £65,000 on average which is what we estimate it is worth in the current market, not the £51,000.

Last night we took the decision to remove the flat from the market all together as we know it is just not going to sell and we are wasting some of the 365 days of marketing we have paid for. The company we are with allow us to remove and then place back on at a later date, restarting the days we have left.

Hopefully we can re advertise next year at about £70,000, or alternatively the year after at £65,000.

We are going to try and get in to see a mortgage advisor about the possibility of having negative equity taken over onto our next purchase - not sure if this is even possible anymore, or whether it is but would require a large deposit, which wouldn't be a problem - at least then we'd have a savings goal in mind to work towards instead of being stuck in this limbo and feeling very down about it.

HJS86

Walcott wrote: »

51k is just the average price paid for the flats purchased when the builder was obviously in distress. They were probably offered an amount for the remaining units in the block and this works out to the average. Unfortunately that is the market value of the flats. You seem to think that because the houses were purchased by an association that this is not their open market value. But that ignores that the houses were on the open market and eventually went for an average of 51k each so this is how much they are worth.

I wish you all the best with the sale and beginning your family.

Hi there
Where does the average of 51k come from? If you take the average of the flats prior to the housing association coming along, they were selling for between 80-100k.
The housing association then came and brought the remaining for that sum - not sure where they got that sum from which makes me believe it was some sort of bulk deal.

brit1234

HJS86 wrote: »

Hi there
Where does the average of 51k come from? If you take the average of the flats prior to the housing association coming along, they were selling for between 80-100k.
The housing association then came and brought the remaining for that sum - not sure where they got that sum from which makes me believe it was some sort of bulk deal.

It doesn't matter its the sales price for the majority and the most recent. House prices aren't going to go up in the block when anyone sees that £51k price, the tenants are majority HA tenants and house prices continue to fall.

You are best buying to sell now and perhaps targeting a gullible buy to let land lord. 2012 you have next to no hope of £70K.