First time buyer - wait out Brexit?

Victor_the_Gink

Surrey_EA wrote: »

If I were re-mortgaging today I'd be taking out a 10yr fixed, that I could port with me, if I moved home.

It's not like interest rates are going to get much lower!

Oh I don't know. Switzerland are at 0.75% negative. Non-EU economy, financial services driven. Their rational? The franc is over-valued. If anything the pound is also overbought and could travel lower.

Cakeguts

I would just like to add this. We bought our house in 1989. A few years later the prices dropped a lot and we would not have got back if we sold it what we had paid for it. That was in the 1990s. We are still here now. The mortgage was paid off years ago. The house theoretically is worth a lot more than we paid for it. But that money is tied up in the place where we live and we can't spend it unless we sell our home. What this means is that it actually doesn't matter what the house is worth because we have to have somewhere to live.

The point about owning your house is that after the mortgage has ended or you have paid it off early you stop making payments and that is when buying a house wins over renting. Once your mortgage ends you do not have to make payments to live there.

So the question really is. How soon do you want to live in a house that you do not have to make regular monthly payments for?

ReadingTim

So you "wait out Brexit", and it'll be a success or a failure. If it's a success then surely it can't last, whereas if it's a failure then surely things will get better soon...? All of which creates uncertainty - best wait a little longer.

Meanwhile, over the pond, Trump's decending further into dillusional paranoia and arbitrary agression - doesn't look good for global markets as he cozies up or alienates Russia, China, the middle east etc. Hold off on the house then....

Here, they'll be an election - you'll have to hold off in the run-up to that, then see what efect the new government's policies have: can the economy take more austerity? Will the Lib Dems or even Labour mount a credible opposition. And what of Scottish independence again...? Don't rush into housebuying too soon....

There will always be something which gives rise to uncertainty, and you'll only be able to call the top or bottom of a boom or bust retrospectively. But you can't buy a house in the past or in the future, so you can only do what seems right at the time.

pinkshoes

dooberry wrote: »

Thanks for the quick replies.

I'm ultimately looking at this purchase as both a family home and an investment for the future. When you're planning on spending £250k going for just one or the other doesn't make much sense to me.

Surely this depends whether that £250k is buying a studio apartment that you will grow out of, or a family home that you are happy to stay in for 20 years.

It also depends on rental prices in your area. We have just bought a 4 bed detached, but of we had rented, we could only afford a three bed semi for the same monthly cost as our repayment mortgage.

Life is short and for living!

amateur_house

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

But IF the market crashes (BIG if) then by waiting a year essentially he gets a much better house for the rest of his life. However the market fluctuates afterwards, all that matters is the point at which you get in. Get in now and maybe he can afford a two bed semi. Wait a year and he might be able to buy a 4 bed detached house, or a one bed flat, depending on the market. All the houses he lives in for the rest of his life will be based on the value of the one he first buys.

^^^This.

I almost bought my first house in 1987, but didn't after listening to the advice from doom-mongers - "what if you can't afford the mortgage?" etc etc.

At the time 2 up 2 down terraces in my area were around £17K, easily affordable with a 10% deposit and 3 times my very mediocre salary. I eventually bought my first house (jointly, as it took 2 salaries by then) 3 years later in 1990, and paid £50k for the same type of house I could have bought for £17K in 1987. Fast forward another 4 years and houses on the street were selling for around £42k.

We sold ours for slightly less than we paid a year or so later and the generally lower prices then meant we could just about afford to move to a bigger house. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but buying in either 1987 or 1996 would have meant we could have afforded a better house. We did save on the rent we would have paid from 1990-1996, but living in a council flat this was minimal at the time.

Nobody knows if now is a good time to buy, so I suppose it depends on what the alternative to buying now is. If it means paying astronomical rent then it may still be worthwhile even if prices do fall for a while. And as has been pointed out, interest rates surely can't fall much more, but they could go up.

BJV

OP. I have bought and sold a fair few houses. Some for business and some for home. I have never bought a property with the idea of making a quick quid but long term when ever I have sold / moved from my family home I have always made, in some cases a lot. In the meantime I have always lived somewhere which has been my home, safe and dry.

You could wait and see what happens perhaps they may go down a 1% or 2 % but they will always rise again long term. Equally they could go up and up and up again.

It is your money your choice but personally I would find a house you love and go for it.

sheff6107

You want prices to plummet, whereas the chances are far higher that prices will either rise a little or drop a little or stay the same.

Then you will have lost 2 years of your life betting on a what is probably a 25% chance prices will drop a lot.

gettingtheresometime

How much rent are you paying now? How much will your mortgage be, if you were to buy now?

FIRSTTIMER

I was in exactly same frame of mind a few years ago - I kept waiting and then blinked and house prices have gone up circa 10-15k since 2015 in areas I am looking, so I have taken plunge and bought

Marvel1

I bought mine in 2007 peak before crash, I have no plans to move, I have a roof over my head, that's all that matters to me.