House prices ....again.......

Cee

Houses in our street flew off the market earlier this year, we were going to sell, dragged our heels about it then with the rise in the interest rate decided to remortgage instead, as more houses come up for sale still in the street, the slower they are selling.I was concerned about borrowing too much and the interest rate forcing us out of a house so in the end I figured I'd rather not afford a house I don't particularly like than lose one I adore.Incidently, its working out dearer to buy than to rent, with a house over from us sold to someone who wanted to use it as a rented accomodation, asking £450 per month, our new mortgage of £125k is going to cost us over £900 a month cuz of our credit history :(It is fixed for 3 years though and i'm anticipating more interest rates to rise anyway... Eitherway its not good at the moment and i'd pity the first time buyer

talksalot81

There is a remarkable slow down at the moment. All you need do is analyse the numbers in the inventory. The average value of the NI inventory stopped increasing almost 4 months ago and the size of the inventory has quadrulpled and more since the start of the year (and no, this is not explained by seasonal variation - it is much too extreme).

For now it seems the market has ground to a hault - if you analyse the data you should see this for yourself. The commentators typically have an interest in the market following their word so they are not entirely reliable. The question does of course remain whether there will be new buyer interest in the market, but as others have said, the slowing of the market will detract amateur investors because they cannot bet on a guaranteed increase in value, professional investors are almost totally gone because the yields are silly (and they often are not daft enough to rely on HPI) and FTBs have less chance now than any time in recent history. So commentators may well suggest an upturn, but they have failed to give financial grounding for their comments.

leftieM

talksalot81 wrote: »

professional investors are almost totally gone because the yields are silly (and they often are not daft enough to rely on HPI)

I think you're giving too much credit to professional investors. They're subject to blind greed as much as anyone.

motorguy

leftieM wrote: »

I think you're giving too much credit to professional investors. They're subject to blind greed as much as anyone.

OR bought up property a few years ago for buttons and will sit this dip out.

OR as i found out from one professional investor i know - selling off properties on the periphery of their portfolio, building up a cash reserve to buy when the bubble bursts.

bingobangobongo

I bought my house 6 months ago as a first time buyer, for just under 160,000 (20,000 over the asking price!) which was stretching mine and my partners budgets. We pay £660 a month between us on a interest only fixed rate mortgage (£150,000). I see our house is prob worth 180 - 190 now (from sales in our street), although ours has a garage which may bump it up slightly.

We had to buy well outside of Belfast and commute to work. Should we just sell the house and rent in the city centre? We could have a place for about £500 a month, with no life insurance, rates, less petrol etc etc.

Is it worth holding on to a property? What are the advantages>?
Just want to weigh up all options as my partner misses the Belfast life and finds it hard to away, even though we are only 30 mins away.

motorguy

bingobangobongo wrote: »

I bought my house 6 months ago as a first time buyer, for just under 160,000 (20,000 over the asking price!) which was stretching mine and my partners budgets. We pay £660 a month between us on a interest only fixed rate mortgage (£150,000). I see our house is prob worth 180 - 190 now (from sales in our street), although ours has a garage which may bump it up slightly.

We had to buy well outside of Belfast and commute to work. Should we just sell the house and rent in the city centre? We could have a place for about £500 a month, with no life insurance, rates, less petrol etc etc.

Is it worth holding on to a property? What are the advantages>?
Just want to weigh up all options as my partner misses the Belfast life and finds it hard to away, even though we are only 30 mins away.

Thats the $1,000,000 question. In the UK people have always bought houses and always aspired to owning their own house. But other markets (germany is an example i think) whereby the majority of people rent.

You could sell, put the £40,000 in a high interest account, rent in belfast for five years, then use the deposit to buy a house then?

It depends how much you value the lifestyle you could have in belfast, i guess.

leftieM

pgilc1 wrote: »

OR bought up property a few years ago for buttons and will sit this dip out.

OR as i found out from one professional investor i know - selling off properties on the periphery of their portfolio, building up a cash reserve to buy when the bubble bursts.

Maybe my comment about 'blind greed' was a bit harsh. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that professional investors make mistakes too. Although they may have more experience of the market they still can't call the top or the bottom and will have properties that were bought at the top of the market sitting losing value.
I know of a southern builder friend of my father who paid something crazy for a few hectares of land in North Belfast in April - can't remember the figure - and when I said to my dad that this guy will have trouble making that back he said the builder thought that the market here was going to keep booming. Now this is a 'professional investor' and I'm a housewife. He should know more than I do about it.

motorguy

leftieM wrote: »

Maybe my comment about 'blind greed' was a bit harsh. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that professional investors make mistakes too. Although they may have more experience of the market they still can't call the top or the bottom and will have properties that were bought at the top of the market sitting losing value.
I know of a southern builder friend of my father who paid something crazy for a few hectares of land in North Belfast in April - can't remember the figure - and when I said to my dad that this guy will have trouble making that back he said the builder thought that the market here was going to keep booming. Now this is a 'professional investor' and I'm a housewife. He should know more than I do about it.

Totally agree. there are 'professional' investors out there who think they cant lose. And lets be honest, these people are betting on the value of a particularly property going up, which is a doddle in a market thats on the rise, however market conditions like we have right now sorts the sheep out from the goats.

The real professionals were those who were in the market three years+ ago and bought property then. they are the guys who are the real winners. They're either sitting tight for the long haul, OR selling off waiting for the market to drop and bottom out.

Those people who remortgaged their own house last year to buy another to make money - and a lot of people did - are those who are likely to get badly burnt.

leftieM

The real professionals were those who were in the market three years+ ago and bought property then. they are the guys who are the real winners.

They are the real winners but lets be honest, there is a lot of luck involved along with some judgement. Who could have predicted the crazy runaway inflation that we've seen in the last 2 years in particular?

Those people who remortgaged their own house last year to buy another to make money - and a lot of people did - are those who are likely to get badly burnt.

I know of one such incident. The person in question had a heavy debt burden yet borrowed against their own home to finance a BTL in April in order to sell it on and make enough profit to clear their debts. I hope they squeezed through before the market stalled.

motorguy

Yes, buying a house, sitting on it for a few months and selling it for an easy £30K more was a doddle there for a while.

not really a big amount of skill involved. But as they always say, never invest more than you can afford to lose.

It was the same when the stock market was on a big climb a few years ago. Suddenly everyone was a share dealer.