'We've reached a tipping point' Signs of house price weakness

System

Which country are you planning on buying a place with a -£8000 deposit? Iraq?

Windofchange

Joeskeppi wrote: »

That's some tragic entitlement issues right there.

Wah I can't live in one of the best cities in the world. *toys*

If just a fraction of the people with that attitude actually went through with it and left the rest of us would be in a much better place.

Edit. With a negative £8000. Brilliant.

And your attempt at one up-manship with your comment about my debt really does show your ignorance. Unhappy with a previous career, I went back to uni, trained for a number of years, and yes, shock horror due to coming out the other side with a lot of debt due to not earning a crust whilst studying, alongside some spend-thriftyness I will admit, I have had a substantial amount of debt to clear.

And yet those who take on a £500,000 mortgage are to be applauded? Those who brought at the right time and have made a killing are investment geniuses? I could go on to make a whole raft of assumptions about you, but I am a better man. Just know that with your generalisations come a whole lot of problems. I would take one me over a city of you anyday.

ukcarper

I bought my first house in 70s Hants/Surrey borders earning about the equivalent of £35k only just bought it time as couldn't have afforded it 2 months later. Had to move out to Hants border as I couldn't buy nearer to where I worked outer South West London similar house sold for £215k last September. So as far as I can see things are worse but not by as much as people seem to think.

System

I'm very sorry it's just from where I'm sitting right now, it looks an awful lot like someone with a negative net worth is having a rant that they can't afford to buy in London.

I can't afford to live in London either. Shall I adopt your attitude?

Windofchange

Joeskeppi wrote: »

I'm very sorry it's just from where I'm sitting right now, it looks an awful lot like someone with a negative net worth is having a rant that they can't afford to buy in London.

I can't afford to live in London either. Shall I adopt your attitude?

Don't worry about me, my debt will get paid and I'll be long gone. I'll give you the rant point - I wish more people would adopt my attitude. Can you not agree with me that what is happening in London is nothing short of criminal? Huge sites being sold off plan to foreign investors to put up multi-million pound flats. Foreign buyers outbidding those who have grown up here? Normal working class people getting dumped further and further out into the suburbs? Wages stalling but houses going up 80k in a year in London? The government wasting billiions of yours and my money on vested interests - keeping the party going for just another year till the election? The NHS crumbling under the weight of ever increasing patients. People retiring with millions of pounds of 'hard earned' equity in their homes leaving the younger generation to pay the bill?

I'm not some secondary school educated thug who doesn't understand life. Myself and numerous others my age have had to sit and watch as the chance of owning anywhere flies further away. Suck up the stories that this is a good thing. Listen to the government rant and rave about how well they have done. I don't buy it. Your vision of London scares me - nothing but finance. i.e. no physical product.

System

On one hand you think London is so wonderful that you'd rather move to another country than live in the squalor of any other place in England yet you don't seem to appreciate why London might be one of most expensive places in the world to live.

Maybe it's people like you that make it so expensive.

In_For_A_Penny_2

Windofchange wrote: »

Believe me my friend, I am leaving. You have to be insane to believe what you just wrote. The city I was born in, grew up in and have played an active part of. I'm not asking for a penthouse in Mayfair, I'm asking for the chance to be able to put some roots down and build a life.

Does smack a bit of "the grass is always greener".

I'm not sure how much you have researched the big move but UK medical practitioners are not particularly sought-after elsewhere in the developed world.

London is expensive for many people in the public sector. The rest of the country isn't. You're not alone. You're not the victim of some great conspiracy.

Windofchange

ukcarper wrote: »

I bought my first house in 70s Hants/Surrey borders earning about the equivalent of £35k only just bought it time as couldn't have afforded it 2 months later. Had to move out to Hants border as I couldn't buy nearer to where I worked outer South West London similar house sold for £215k last September. So as far as I can see things are worse but not by as much as people seem to think.

So you earned 35k in 1970, which is above the average salary today, but let's ignore that. Might I ask what you paid for that house?

The average price in 1970 was about 5 grand:

http://www.york.ac.uk/res/ukhr/ukhr1011/updates/pdf/11-047ab.pdf

Yes, that is correct, 5 grand. So, for about 2 months salary, you could have outright owned your house.

Even if we say, well you were earning a kings ransom, the average wage in 1970 was about 2 grand per year.

http://www.theguardian.com/worklifeuk/cost-of-living-1971-today

So, your 1970 self could have brought your house on a 2.5 x salary mortgage. Incfact, according to you, your 70's self could probably have afforded buckingham palace!

So, what do you reckon the multiple of income for a small shoe box is today? Average London price around the 400k mark, average London salary I think is around 40k. Is that a 10 x multiple of salary?

That's right ukcarper - us young'uns have never had it so good. Open your eyes!

chucknorris

Windofchange wrote: »

So you earned 35k in 1970, which is above the average salary today, but let's ignore that.

He said the equivalent of £35k in 1970 (not £35k).

Windofchange

In_For_A_Penny wrote: »

Does smack a bit of "the grass is always greener".

I'm not sure how much you have researched the big move but UK medical practitioners are not particularly sought-after elsewhere in the developed world.

London is expensive for many people in the public sector. The rest of the country isn't. You're not alone. You're not the victim of some great conspiracy.

And that is where I disagree. Everything goes back to the capitalist economy. If I were selling a house, I would be no different - I would want top dollar. Of course I would. But, it is the financial institutions that have allowed this to happen. Say I want a million pounds for my one bed flat and you like it and can get a mortgage for that, and can afford the monthly payments?

You say that I am not the victim of a great conspiracy? Libor rigging scandal? The collapse of the American banking system over sub-prime lending? The bill for PPI mis-selling which the taxpayer is part liable for? The fixing of the housing market through emergency interest rates for the past 5 years? The bail out of the British banking sector to stop a crash?

You could go on and on.

PS - I'm assuming you are a fellow healthcare worker to have deduced that I'm better off staying here?