Do you want house price to rise or fall?

lisyloo

Gradually small/medium businesses will move out of London. If not moving out, they will not expand within London for sure.

The company I work for (property related and US owned) wants to shut down offices outside london and move everything to central london.
The most important issue is access to clients and secondly talent.
Companies with office in the silicon valley do not consider london expensive and if they do (like for me personally) it's worth it for the gain.

Sorry but I think your comment is what you wish for and not necessarily what is happening.

I don't commute very much and sometimes commuting is awful, but again it can be worth it for the benefits. For example we have brought forward our retirements dates to as early as 54, so the money can be sufficient compensation for the housing/commuting.

kinger101

A steady fall, but only relative to inflation. Cheaper housing without people getting into negative equity traps.

neilem

Fall.

High house prices only favour the bankers, landlords, and government (the latter two are sometimes one of the same). It would only favour homeowners if they were to downsize.

Filo25

lisyloo wrote: »

The company I work for (property related and US owned) wants to shut down offices outside london and move everything to central london.
The most important issue is access to clients and secondly talent.
Companies with office in the silicon valley do not consider london expensive and if they do (like for me personally) it's worth it for the gain.

Sorry but I think your comment is what you wish for and not necessarily what is happening.

I don't commute very much and sometimes commuting is awful, but again it can be worth it for the benefits. For example we have brought forward our retirements dates to as early as 54, so the money can be sufficient compensation for the housing/commuting.

Same experience where I work in terms of moving jobs into London, we just couldn't recruit some technology roles elsewhere

Duckdodgers

I would like them to fall. I think it would be the best situation for most people, for first time buyers and for people upsizing or upgrading. It won't affect people who are staying put. The only people it would be a negative for would be people downsizing (most of whom probably bought houses many years ago so would still make a healthy profit as property has increased by so much in recent years) and investors who have been happy enough to benefit hugely from the market recently and must be aware that such high rewards don't come without risks. House prices are too high in parts of the UK. Housing should not be unachievable to young people. There are parts of the UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Northern England where housing is affordable.

silverwhistle

I own my own house and am not even sure what it's worth. I doubt I'll ever upgrade, but would still prefer a fall. In London and surrounds investors have bought property not to live in but for the appreciation in value, and if anything frees such properties up to actually be lived in it can only be a good thing.

Perhaps if the government also clamps down on rich Russians in the UK, who are pretty well by definition friends of the leadership there, there should be even more properties available for living in.

movilogo

Interested to understand why some people think rising house price is good thing.

Filo25

movilogo wrote: »

Interested to understand why some people think rising house price is good thing.

I'm not saying its good for the economy as a whole, but its clearly good for me though as I bought relatively recently so falling prices would see worse LTV at remortgaging, or worse still negative equity, all of those situations might be "manageable" but they would also clearly be expensive.

In terms of stability of the financial system rapid house price falls also tend to have severe negative consequences.

My preference would be a lengthy period of nominal price stagnation (gradual real price falls) in the areas where prices have gotten out of hand relative to local affordability, there are equally clearly areas in the UK where prices are far from expensive, especially at current rates.

lisyloo

but its clearly good for me though as I bought relatively recently

Long term it depends on what your plans are.
If you want to upsize it's bad for you as your next house will have gone up by more than your existing home.

I voted fall, although it's probably better for me if they go up but I didn't vote in my own self-interest.

Filo25

lisyloo wrote: »

Long term it depends on what your plans are.
If you want to upsize it's bad for you as your next house will have gone up by more than your existing home.

I voted fall, although it's probably better for me if they go up but I didn't vote in my own self-interest.

It is my home until retirement and possibly beyond, if I move at retirement it will be somewhere cheaper, so basically no benefit to me at all from falling prices