Have I made a mistake purchasing a London new build?

Crashy_Time

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Oh dear you've bought in London

Oh dear you've bought in Stoke Newington

Oh dear you've bought a new build

Oh dear you've bought a 1 bed flat

Oh dear you've overpaid

Well somebody has to buy in London

Well somebody has to buy in Stoke Newington

Well somebody has to buy a new build

Well somebody has to buy a 1 bed flat

Well nearly everybody claims they've overpaid.

Just concentrate on making this your home. Yes your home.

Nearly 20 years ago a friend bought a 1 bed ex council flat in Zone 2/3 for the same price as I paid for a 3 bed semi in the provinces. My property has increased its value fourfold, theirs sixfold.

Could either of you find buyers at that price if you had to sell right now?

glasgowdan

Crashy_Time wrote: »

The problem for the OP though is, are they reading advice from people with real knowledge or .

You do your best to make sure they aren't don't you?! Why not tell us your experience of the London housing markets...

Ps...4000 posts yet you've not started one single thread. Nothing useful to discuss/share?

economic

to all who dont know Crashy - he is MSE's resident joke. think of him as adding a bit of humour to these threads. he is exactly what you dont want to become. he is a renter all his life despite being able to afford to buy. he has lost out on loads in the process. a fool some might say.

Crashy_Time

http://allsop-auctions.co.uk/1DAM-4X971-946Z6A1MEC/cr.aspx


The fact they felt the need to write "each" is the tell tell tale sign that we are approaching end-game, totally priceless...:rotfl:

london1990

Mr_Costcutter wrote: »

OP, in your situation I would have no regrets. Congratulations on what you have achieved to date - no mean feat at such a relatively young age.

Thank you, that's really kind of you.

london1990

richardwilson1984 wrote: »

What is the property, a one bed flat, two? Where in Stokey?

My LL bought his property on Clissold Road 10 years ago for £200k. It is a large two-bed flat and I had a look on Zoopla and it shows estimates of around half a million now.

You'll always pay premium for a new build but the way I look at it is London isn't going to go in reverse. It will never shrink back to being only the confines of the 'London wall' so I'd say you will be ok.

As others have said though, stop worrying. You've bought in a good area; relatively close to central and it will be a good home for five years (according to your plan).

If at the end of it, you make a load of money, great. If you get your cash back, great.

It's a one bed room apartment by Clissold Park.

I tend to agree with what you have said about not shrinking to the London wall. I think I just need to remind myself of all the positive reasons when I reserved the plot (and exchanged, too late now!).

I do see it as a home, but not a home for my entire life. Who on earth sees Zones 1-2 as a home for life? You'd go utterly batty, I've already been in London for 7 years.

Crashy_Time

economic wrote: »

to all who dont know Crashy - he is MSE's resident joke. think of him as adding a bit of humour to these threads. he is exactly what you dont want to become. he is a renter all his life despite being able to afford to buy. he has lost out on loads in the process. a fool some might say.

In all seriousness, if I had managed to exit the London bubble at peak mania, and then buy back in almost straight away! I would not be laughing, not even a little bit..................:rotfl:

london1990

AlexPF wrote: »

If I were you (and I'm in your same situation) I'd hope for prices to crash, particularly if you took the HtB 40% loan. And if you fixed your mortgage for long enough, you won't have to fear the rapid BoE rate increase that will follow
It means that it will cost you much less to pay back that loan, while keeping your mortgage payments as they are.

In the long run, global population will keep rising and London/UK will fix itself in regards to Brexit (immigrating to the US or Australia is not easy either, yet NY & Sydney prices are up like crazy). Growning house prices are a thing and housing will always go up in capital cities, in the long run. Simple supply and demand law.

Hope for a crash soon, pay back your HtB loan then and sell once prices are back to where they were when you purchased it, or higher.

Also remember, your exposure to crashes is mitigated by the HtB loan itself.

As per any investments, patience is the key

Sorry for the late reply, I've only just got back from the office.

Did you do HTB in London? I could have used 40% but actually only went up to 30% as I could finance the remainder with the bank and had saved enough for the resulting deposit (roughly 26.5k).

The strategy I'm hoping to take is to change mortgage providers after the first two years (when the fixed rate ceases) and obtain a further fixed term if this is favourable.

london1990

ReadingTim wrote: »

So you hate renting, but have got cold feet over buying. What then would your ideal solution be?

Sometimes you just have to choose the least worst solution, rather than the "best" one.

I think this is good advice and reflective of many of the other comments. Thank you.

Crashy_Time

london1990 wrote: »

I think this is good advice and reflective of many of the other comments. Thank you.

It is just that your timing is a bit off, the posters saying they bought 7 years ago or whatever were buying into a totally different economic and political climate. From your comments about how the area could send someone "batty" my advice would be to put this flat back on the market and just get out of London for a while, until some sanity returns to the property market.