ok i admit it house prices ARE mental

Colin_Kee

It's a stark reality that the way things are now it is impossible for a "Family" to live on one income. Society will change & all our Kids will now have to be sent to Nurseries as Mum & Dad both have to work to pay the mortgage..

I wouldn't say it's impossible to get on the Housing Ladder, it's just you won't have as much of a choice on where you live if you want to get on it.. it will now mean for those "young" folk who may have grown up in a particular area of say "Belfast, Lisburn, Derry/L'Derry wherever!!" will not be able to stay there as they won't be able to afford it. People will have to move to "cheaper" (used in the looser sense of the word) areas outside the major cities.. That development down the road which isn't as nice as the one you grew up in may now be your only choice!!

My Wife & I lived in the south of England for a while & indeed bought a house there. We were on pretty average salaries. It just meant we both had to work & well over half of our combined salaries went out on Mortgage re-payments & bills that didn't even cover food, fuel, running the car, etc. It didn't leave a lot spare, in fact we never really went on Holidays etc as we couldn't afford it, Went camping the odd time!! Cheap & Chearful

It's just sad that that's the way it has got over here now too.. Maybe we've had it too good for too long, and just didn't know it?? I don't know,,

What I do know is that it means we'll all have to tighten our belts in many ways.. I can't see prices crashing, stabilising yes, but not crashing, hopefully they will sooner rather than later as this may stop most of the speculators out there cashing in on the current market & making it impossible for the genuine buyer..

belfastgirl23

Just to add to the discussion, a friend is bidding on a house that started at £150k in North Belfast. Now up to £215k and they decided to go to sealed bids :eek: Thanking my lucky stars that we bought 18months ago!!

leftieM

It's so unfair to put houses on too low. You just get oodles of hopeful viewers. I saw a house near us put on at £195k when houses in that street were selling at 300k+. It was obviously an agent who hadn't done their homework. I'd say the phones were ringing off the hook.

talksalot81

The houses are not put on too low, they are put on at a price which is considered to be fair for it. The EAs cannot help that people are willing to pay so much above a reasonable figure!

leftieM

talksalot81 wrote:

The houses are not put on too low, they are put on at a price which is considered to be fair for it.

Sorry but that's just not true. EAs don't market houses at the price they expect them to fetch. Bidding wars have been the way for years.

talksalot81

leftieM wrote:

Sorry but that's just not true. EAs don't market houses at the price they expect them to fetch. Bidding wars have been the way for years.

That is contrary to all anecdote I can provide. My friends and colleagues who bought more than the last couple of years ago simply do not know of 'bidding wars'. They just didnt go through it. The prices houses are currently starting at are probably sensible prices and represent a sensible purchase and a reasonable return for your money.

As for whether or not this is how property is actually valued, I cannot be sure. It does seem strange that my view of 'value' co-incides with asking prices. Can you actually provide anything beyond some of your own anecdote to prove that this is definitely not the case? I have not heard of a single confirmed source to say that prices are being set artificially low.

master_blaster_2

i think at the moment even EA's dont rerally know what a particulr property will make... they kind of say put it on @ £xxxxx and see what it fetches.
like talks says its the market which sets the price EA's seem to go on what the last property in a street went for i.e if number 29 got £xxx then we will put number £53 on at £yyy and the it gets bid up


i remember when i bought my first house ... the asking price was the MOST you would pay for a house ... you always went in under ( by a good bit )and tried to meet somewhere in the middle

booklover

OK this might seem a silly question and a bit naiive but how and why do people bid so high for ordinary houses????

For example how can they afford the crazy prices; OK, clearly they cant be first time buyers but if only people would collectively put a stop to these mad prices.

What if everyone decided NOT to bid higher than 30k over the asking price then maybe things would settle down and stabilise. What are the chances of this happening do you think?? I think highly unlikely!

BTW I worked out that if we were starting out now the max we could borrow on salarys we would be on today (as opposed to 23 years when we got married) would be approx 90k!! Well you certainly don't get much for that here today.:eek ::shocked:

Fiona

richt71

booklover wrote:

OK this might seem a silly question and a bit naiive but how and why do people bid so high for ordinary houses????

For example how can they afford the crazy prices; OK, clearly they cant be first time buyers but if only people would collectively put a stop to these mad prices.

What if everyone decided NOT to bid higher than 30k over the asking price then maybe things would settle down and stabilise. What are the chances of this happening do you think?? I think highly unlikely!

BTW I worked out that if we were starting out now the max we could borrow on salarys we would be on today (as opposed to 23 years when we got married) would be approx 90k!! Well you certainly don't get much for that here today.:eek ::shocked:

Fiona

Unfortunately that will never happen for the forseeable future in my town (York) because of lack of property. So it's supply and demand that creates a bidding war.
I know what you mean about maximum mortgage both my brother (in a well paid job but in London) and my best mate (a copper) can't afford housing anywhere near where they are at the moment.

talksalot81

If recent reports about the inability to get tenants into a BTL property are correct, then there will be a slowing of investment interest (as you say, it is not the FTBs going mad) which could well lead to the end of the bidding wars in time.