Would you buy a house in London today?

CLAPTON

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Apparently flats are standing empty because people are buying them and then not living in them.

Disgraceful.

some figures would be good

mobfant

I have the mortgage company valuer booked for tomorrow. I am seriously considering bailing - I'd happily lose the £1500 spent on fees so far if a £25,000 cut on price is imminent. AARGH

wotsthat

mobfant wrote: »

I have the mortgage company valuer booked for tomorrow. I am seriously considering bailing - I'd happily lose the £1500 spent on fees so far if a £25,000 cut on price is imminent. AARGH

You'll have a good laugh at yourself in a few years when you remember how you got so stressed about such a small amount of money.

mobfant

wotsthat wrote: »

You'll have a good laugh at yourself in a few years when you remember how you got so stressed about such a small amount of money.

Because prices will have risen so much by then, or fallen so much?

AndyGuil

Sellers won't sell for less. So it really does create a one way street.

mobfant

AndyGuil wrote: »

Sellers won't sell for less. So it really does create a one way street.

Not necessarily - how much of the housing stock has turned over in the past year? There are loads of people who will have owned for several years and made paper gains so won't mind paper losses, if prices also fall where they are looking to moving to - or if they want to move, and sense that they won't get any more for their money than what they could get now.

Jason74

AndyGuil wrote: »

Sellers won't sell for less. So it really does create a one way street.

This is quite a long way wide of the mark imho. Sure, there will be some sellers who will always look at a peak value, and refuse to sell for anything less than that. An if prices fall, transaction volumes will most likely take a hit for this reason.

But there are plenty of sellers who will sell for less in a falling market. There will be those for whom price fals are actually an opportunity as the gap between rungs decreases, and will sell to trade up. There are the sellers sitting on huge gains, and who will happily cash in even slightly reduced gains if that's the right thing for them to get on with their lives.

Then there will be the fearful / greedy, who will choose to sell if prices start dropping as they want to get out close to the top if future valuations may be lower.Finally, there will always be those who need to sell for whatever reason, and who wont have the option of refusing to do so on the basis of pricing.

None of this means that prices will. Just that a reluctance of sellers to accept lower valuations wont stop prices falling if that's how the market moves.

AndyGuil

mobfant wrote: »

Not necessarily - how much of the housing stock has turned over in the past year? There are loads of people who will have owned for several years and made paper gains so won't mind paper losses, if prices also fall where they are looking to moving to - or if they want to move, and sense that they won't get any more for their money than what they could get now.

The issue is a lack of supply. It isn't possible for the market to be flooded as most own for reasons other than property value yield. Rental yield is often an investment opportunity taken. Then there is most properties being ownee to live in. Why sell when everywhere else is worse.

AndyGuil

Jason74 wrote: »

This is quite a long way wide of the mark imho. Sure, there will be some sellers who will always look at a peak value, and refuse to sell for anything less than that. An if prices fall, transaction volumes will most likely take a hit for this reason.

But there are plenty of sellers who will sell for less in a falling market. There will be those for whom price fals are actually an opportunity as the gap between rungs decreases, and will sell to trade up. There are the sellers sitting on huge gains, and who will happily cash in even slightly reduced gains if that's the right thing for them to get on with their lives.

Then there will be the fearful / greedy, who will choose to sell if prices start dropping as they want to get out close to the top if future valuations may be lower.Finally, there will always be those who need to sell for whatever reason, and who wont have the option of refusing to do so on the basis of pricing.

None of this means that prices will. Just that a reluctance of sellers to accept lower valuations wont stop prices falling if that's how the market moves.

It isn't a falling market though so why would they sell for less. The market is very immune to issies that effect the UK. Even when credit dried up it still carried on. It isn't debt driven which is surely a good thing.

wotsthat

mobfant wrote: »

Because prices will have risen so much by then, or fallen so much?

No because the longer you own the less significant £25k becomes in your overall cost of ownership.

Housing is cyclical. There will be a crash - might be next week, might be in 10 years. If it really worries you that much then just rent and let your landlord deal with the stress.