Help to buy ISA worthless as all houses in this area are more than 250000

Melbryce11

Wow that escalated quickly. I'm done with this thread- what a horrible forum, seems I need to go and tell my children they were a mistake as I needed to buy a house first, but only one too small for them to fit in...
Write what you like- I'm not coming back on here.
Have fun!

Running_Horse

I couldn't afford to buy in London, so moved away. I couldn't afford to buy near my new work, so moved ten miles away and got the train. It wasn't perfect and not my first choice, but it worked.

Cambridge and London are two of the most expensive property hotspots in the entire country. It's not surprising that people who choose to work there also struggle to buy a property. Bar Hill or Arbury wouldn't be my first choice to live, but it's not exactly the Bronx.

I'm opposed to every form of government house buying scheme and shared ownership, most of which seem to support the very high prices they are designed to help overcome.

rtho782

I do agree the H2B ISA is a little pointless because of this. Right now, there are areas where it is hard to find a decent house under £250k, but in 5 years time (when someone could have finished saving into their H2B ISA) there will be *many* areas where there is nothing under £250k except 1 bed flats, if house prices continue to go up over 10% a year.

As it is, I'm treating it as a savings account, and if I manage to actually get a bonus out of it so much the better.

Perhaps the government shouldn't be "giving free money away" but the scheme exists, so it may as well be useful. As it is, it's only useful if you live up north, or in London (due to higher limits in London).

It should have been something like "Avg house price in the local area +20%" as the cap or something.

Everyone seems against help for us FTBs, but without us your house prices collapse. BTL is not going to take up the slack with tax changes and SDLT changes.

ognum

AdrianC wrote: »

Yeh, I couldn't agree more.

These look like absolute hell-holes to me.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56583944.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53914286.html

Think you have not read what was being said, the poster simply said there are some places in CAMBRIDGE she would not choose to live and I agreed.

Both of these places are more than 10 miles from Cambridge and the poster wanted to live in the city.

So well done on finding two properties not in the city!

AdrianC

rtho782 wrote: »

I do agree the H2B ISA is a little pointless because of this. Right now, there are areas where it is hard to find a decent house under £250k

Can you name one? Because, while Cambridge has been named, it clearly isn't.

ognum

HouseBuyer77 wrote: »

There are certainly properties under £250k in Cambridge available in non-dodgy areas, e.g. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50058052.html

Though if you are looking at £250k and above the HTB isn't that useful anyway. Whilst the £3k is certainly nice if you've got the income to support that kind of mortgage it shouldn't be a deal breaker.

Ha ha that property was sold a long long time ago it was up with more than one agent is tenanted and the LL wants to sell with tenants in situ so is unmorgagable to a residential buyer. It is also on the very fringe on the city.

I actually looked at it as a BTL!

ognum

Running_Horse wrote: »

I couldn't afford to buy in London, so moved away. I couldn't afford to buy near my new work, so moved ten miles away and got the train. It wasn't perfect and not my first choice, but it worked.

Cambridge and London are two of the most expensive property hotspots in the entire country. It's not surprising that people who choose to work there also struggle to buy a property. Bar Hill or Arbury wouldn't be my first choice to live, but it's not exactly the Bronx.

I'm opposed to every form of government house buying scheme and shared ownership, most of which seem to support the very high prices they are designed to help overcome.

Bar Hill is not in the city it is 7 miles out along a very difficult road to commute on.

I would not buy in the Arbury, I have BTL properties and would not ask my tenants to live there. My opinion but also the opinion of many who live in the city.

Do you know the Bronx?

I have no axe to grind here about HTB but am interested that others el they should push their opinion of where others should/could buy so strongly

GwylimT

London prices OP, have you actually looked at prices in London recently? If you cannot afford to live in your area thats something you need to sort out, it isn't anyone elses responsibility.

csgohan4

Melbryce11 wrote: »

Wow that escalated quickly. I'm done with this thread- what a horrible forum, seems I need to go and tell my children they were a mistake as I needed to buy a house first, but only one too small for them to fit in...
Write what you like- I'm not coming back on here.
Have fun!

Rather than burying your head in a sand, this is the current reality.

I would have loved to live in London, but as I couldn't afford to buy a house there I moved somewhere I could afford a house that was many times bigger than what I could buy with my budget in London.

If you can't afford to buy somewhere, your only option is to save or move somewhere else.

If your salary/ promotions are slower than house price inflation then you inevitably will have to consider moving or rent indefinitely or you find some money elsewhere.

I wish you luck, but rage quitting isn't going to change the house market reality.

Running_Horse

rtho782 wrote: »

Everyone seems against help for us FTBs, but without us your house prices collapse. BTL is not going to take up the slack with tax changes and SDLT changes.

Then let house prices collapse, or more likely fall a little. If all government help for FTBs was withdrawn, the market would find a new lower level and you wouldn't need schemes that seem designed to keep prices high, and provide rewards to big building companies who have failed to build enough houses and stopped building last time prices fell.