Is now the right time to buy?

Loughton_Monkey

thelawnet wrote: »

That depends. Some people will never be able to trade up, for various reasons.

So if you buy into a s**thole, you may be stuck there for a very long time.

That could happen. But the tenet of my statement is still correct - i.e. that it will turn out to be a spectacular investment.

No different from a pension. If (historic average in most cases) investment growth is 7%, then that's a good return. If I choose over 40 years to increase my £100 a month payment in increments to £600 a month over 40 years (a 4.5% annual increase) and you keep yours at £100 forever, then we both have made 'good' investments, but don't expect your pension to be anything like mine.

padington

Buy a house in London near a handy tube station and you'll do well. The population of London is going banana's and the pull will only get stronger.

butterfly72

chucknorris wrote: »

Where are you looking to buy? Whereabouts did you rent?

We're in Richmond at the mo but looking to move to Surrey. OH is into his cycling and I'm looking to buy a horse in the next month or two, so surrey suits us both. We just need to narrow down our search area.

chucknorris

butterfly72 wrote: »

We're in Richmond at the mo but looking to move to Surrey. OH is into his cycling and I'm looking to buy a horse in the next month or two, so surrey suits us both. We just need to narrow down our search area.

I (we) moved out of Battersea to Dorking in 2005, although I owned in Battersea and still do. It was the best thing that I have ever done because I wanted to get a dog and get out of London, I have never once regretted moving out of London to Dorking. I too am into cycling (and running/jogging) and the environment here is far better than London to do that and obviously take the dog for walks who also comes with me when I jog and cycle off road too.

What towns are you looking at? We originally thought about Epsom (but dismissed it as being too much like a mini London) and chose Dorking over Reigate, Leatherhead and Guildford mainly because I had friends living here in Dorking and was therefore quite familiar with it.

Fella

chucky wrote: »

It's always a good time to buy property if you can afford to.

Of course it's not but it's interesting that you admit to thinking it.

On the radio only yesterday they were talking about people in Dublin who bought flats for circa a million that are now worth £300,000. A simple illustration of how anyone sensible recognizes that property, like every asset class, can be underpriced or overpriced. You'd need to be stunningly naïve to think otherwise.

benb76

Get a 5 year fix if interest rates concern you. You'll have paid of a nice chunk of capital by the time it expires, and your careers will have progressed and you should be earning more after 5 annual pay rises.

bownyboy

chucknorris wrote: »

I (we) moved out of Battersea to Dorking in 2005, although I owned in Battersea and still do. It was the best thing that I have ever done because I wanted to get a dog and get out of London, I have never once regretted moving out of London to Dorking. I too am into cycling (and running/jogging) and the environment here is far better than London to do that and obviously take the dog for walks who also comes with me when I jog and cycle off road too.

What towns are you looking at? We originally thought about Epsom (but dismissed it as being too much like a mini London) and chose Dorking over Reigate, Leatherhead and Guildford mainly because I had friends living here in Dorking and was therefore quite familiar with it.

Ditto here, we moved out from central London renting in surbiton then Hampton finally buying in Claygate. Love the fact that we know so many people now. Lots of woods, cycling, pubs, and the river just down the road.

Conrad

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

That could happen. But the tenet of my statement is still correct - i.e. that it will turn out to be a spectacular investment.

No different from a pension. If (historic average in most cases) investment growth is 7%, then that's a good return. If I choose over 40 years to increase my £100 a month payment in increments to £600 a month over 40 years (a 4.5% annual increase) and you keep yours at £100 forever, then we both have made 'good' investments, but don't expect your pension to be anything like mine.

Yes, and furthermore a residential property is tax free so you can downsize and enjoy tax free cash, plus you have much more control unlike a pension which in general dies with you or at best passes in part only to your spouse then dies with her.

Quite a few clients simply got the biggest house they could and plan simply to do a radical downsize, simples, no pensions, no investments. Round here attractive rural properties are always in high demand and even through the crunch they were attaining ludicrous price tags.

Some folk with large gardens also hive off some of it and make huge sums that way. Chap across the road just did this and was paid £1m for about halve an acre.

butterfly72

chucknorris wrote: »

I (we) moved out of Battersea to Dorking in 2005, although I owned in Battersea and still do. It was the best thing that I have ever done because I wanted to get a dog and get out of London, I have never once regretted moving out of London to Dorking. I too am into cycling (and running/jogging) and the environment here is far better than London to do that and obviously take the dog for walks who also comes with me when I jog and cycle off road too.

What towns are you looking at? We originally thought about Epsom (but dismissed it as being too much like a mini London) and chose Dorking over Reigate, Leatherhead and Guildford mainly because I had friends living here in Dorking and was therefore quite familiar with it.

Glad to hear it's worked out well. We've had a couple of drives out and covered Chobham and surrounds to south of Dorking and back through Dorking. I do like Dorking but feel it might be a bit too far south for me with regards to driving to work. I've been warned that the m25 is bad in this area (isnt all the m25!). Of course the OH really liked the area around Dorking and the surrey hills for obvious reasons lol! I prefered Chobham/woking/guildford way due to the number of equestrian centres. We don't have kids so schools aren't an issue.

We didnt go into Guildford. Whats that like?

chucknorris

butterfly72 wrote: »

Glad to hear it's worked out well. We've had a couple of drives out and covered Chobham and surrounds to south of Dorking and back through Dorking. I do like Dorking but feel it might be a bit too far south for me with regards to driving to work. I've been warned that the m25 is bad in this area (isnt all the m25!). Of course the OH really liked the area around Dorking and the surrey hills for obvious reasons lol! I prefered Chobham/woking/guildford way due to the number of equestrian centres. We don't have kids so schools aren't an issue.

We didnt go into Guildford. Whats that like?

It is nice enough but slightly further away than we wanted to be, we have investment properties in London (back then I never envisaged that I would start work again and end up commuting, so that was an unforeseen plus for Dorking too).