If you believe house prices are too high, would you sell me yours at 50% discount?

KrytenIceCubeHead

When does the bottom rung fall off the housing ladder? We've been through bread-earner x4 mortgages in the distant past (got my house that way... towards the mid 80s), through DINKies working to double the salary available, mad mortgage multiples in the 90s through to 2008 (with the negative equity collapse that was like the earth tremors before the quake occurs). And then into shared equity, great idea, buy a house with 2 of your besties from Uni. Of course it is.

Now we're looking at couples living with mum & dad, the way it used to be years ago, while they save up for a mortgage (as house price rises make it more difficult each day) or paying into the black hole of BTL landlordhood.

"Bank of Mum and Dad" has come up recently, parents (those horrible Gen Xers who, um, brought you up and paid for your upkeep, holidays, and Xboxes) stumping up cash to help you buy. Less cash for their old age, making it more likely the house you salivate about inheriting will be worth less as it's sold to pay for their old age care. Damn them, why don't they just die already?

Sometime it has to give, wage inflation (stagnation, or deflation for those of us *ahem* who've been made redundant and taken jobs on less stellar salaries) won't keep the bottom rung up, the only ones buying are the BTLers and they won't last once interest rates start to rise, as they will, eventually.

MARTYM8`

chazsucks wrote: »

I'd be happy to sell my house for 50% of what it's been valued at, if I could also buy a property at 50% of what it's valued at.

What would be the point selling your house for 50% discount only to have to find the extra money to pay full price for another house?!

Yes - lets do the maths.

I buy a flat for £200k - it doubles in value to £400k. Quids in.

I have kids and need a house - the house was £400k when I bought my flat but thanks to prices doubling I now need to pay £800k for it.

So instead of needing £200k extra to buy the home I need for my growing family - I have to find £400k extra. Or I just leave my area where I work and my kids go to school and where my family connections are - and move to Hull!

And that is good for me - exactly how?! I would be better off if prices had not gone up at all - as I could buy the house I need.

Its a good job so many Brits are financially illiterate - and lap this prices going up is always good nonsense!:D

zagubov

Clifford_Pope wrote: »

Perhaps the problem is that houses are too well built, and last too long?
If they were built like cars, and pretty much scrap after 15 years, but cost a tenth of the price, people would see them as places to live and not as investments?

In some countries they knock down and replace the houses pretty regularly. Japan, the US, Aus build their houses with less durable materials.

Always seems like a waste of resources to do it that way. On the other hand, most other countries seem to design their houses well instead of the poky low-rise rabbithutches that seem to be the norm here.

For example, we're stuck with garages that can't hold any modern cars. So they gather dirt outdoors, clog up the roads, and I suppose keep carwashers in steady employment.

We've insufficient small homes for single person households who don't want to lodge in other people's homes for long periods of time.

Thrugelmir

Don't be silly.

Blacklight wrote: »

Well put your money where your mouth is. Can I but yours right now at 50% off? Think of it as an investment in the younger generation.

As long as you take on my outstanding mortgage then you've a deal.