FTB before brexit

Sanne

We have decided to buy (moved in November) - we found a property we liked, got quite a bit of wiggle room financially and want to stay for the long-term. I’m working in a profession where there’ll always be work if things go wrong (shortage of good people) and what will be will be!

Only fixed for two years and our property is in the South East so we are set to lose much more if property prices fall (£310k with just over 80% LTV) - but even if they do, as long as we don’t want to sell for whatever reason we’ll be fine.

Chances are that if there is a crash
a) it’ll be more difficult to get a mortgage (hubby is 47 this year so had to go into his retirement as is) and b) there will be fewer properties to choose from. Since we bought, three similar ones have come onto the market, one is off again now (offers over £325k - granted, we needed to sort soffits/fascias and put a combi boiler in to replace the back boiler but I’m sure something would have been wrong with that one too - and we didn’t spend £15k on the work) and the other for offers over £340k (good luck, lol). A semi (otherwise exactly the same as our terraced, slightly larger garden obviously but same internal space) is on for £340k as well (good luck to them, too!).

Just because prices are falling doesn’t mean people will be keen to sell at a lower price unless they have to move or it suits them (as their onward purchase will be cheaper, too) - so I might as well lay my mortgage instead of rent.

diggingdude

Just go for it thats what I am doing. There is always a crisis just around the corner

PhilE

chanz4 wrote: »

Know one knows, and more than like house prices go up as demand will go down..but that's my view

The only way for demand to go down, would be for the population to decrease. Its on the increase, and even if immigration were to be stopped, would still increase.

Trade deals with Asia and Africa will mean more Asians and Africans will be granted visas, and this will further increase demand.

PhilE

manuski wrote: »

I would wait. If a deal is reached prices will not spike all of a sudden, and if no deal is the outcome (currently about a 30% chance) then prices will fall 10% at least. Many people on here saying, why pause your life for brexit etc make it sound like we are talking years more of uncertainty, we should have a very good idea of what is happening in the next month.

As demand exceeds supply, property could be the last thing affected by an economic crash.

If house prices were to crash, that would mean the economy has crashed and you'd be more concerned with getting food on the table.

You can't have a magic property crash with the economy still stable. It doesn't work that way.

00ec25

Abbie250196 wrote: »

We're first time buyers, had an offer accepted on a house and accepted a mortgage offer. Already instructed solicitors etc. so we're quite far through the purchase. Ive recently heard about house prices crashing after brexit however we are buying in a nice area for £97,500 and plan to stay there as long as possible. We only have a 5% deposit so we're trying to lock down the low interest rates in a 5 year fixed rate. I worry about interest rates going up if the pound drops and we end up with unmanageable monthly payments. HELP!

what help do you expect to get?

don't buy it, then you have no problems.... there, is that helpful?

or were you hoping for someone with a crystal ball?

you are buying a house to live in and for "as long as possible"
therefore the short term concerns over the economic situation for the next 5 years are totally irrelevant. You are not investing, you are buying a home. There is a big difference.

JakeHall

There's nothing wrong with buying during an uncertain period. But you should be sensible.

If you're in an area where prices are stagnant or falling, then obviously you'll want to factor that into your purchase price and make sure you carefully look at sold data for the street and surrounding area. Paying the highest price in that environment makes you particularly susceptible to negative equity.

You also need to be particularly careful with new builds, as these tend to attract a premium for the first sale and so can be even more sensitive to price decreases.

So don't be put off buying the right property if it comes along. But make sure you're thinking logically and not with your heart!

Crashy_Time

Comms69 wrote: »

Uhm.


Higher demand, more competition for limited resources (property in this instance) prices go up....


And vice versa

No, what we have just now is falling transactions with people still holding out for silly prices (probably not raising asking prices anymore as it is pretty obvious to even the most deluded that the bubble has popped)

lisyloo

Crashy_Time wrote: »

No, what we have just now is falling transactions with people still holding out for silly prices (probably not raising asking prices anymore as it is pretty obvious to even the most deluded that the bubble has popped)

This is at odds with you claim (from arla) that landlords are selling up “in droves”.

Can you tell us when the bubble popped? Just wondering as I exchanged a couple of days ago for full asking price.

Crashy_Time

lisyloo wrote: »

This is at odds with you claim (from arla) that landlords are selling up “in droves”.

Can you tell us when the bubble popped? Just wondering as I exchanged a couple of days ago for full asking price.

Transactions are massively down from a few years ago, doesn`t matter what landlords are doing, and as I have said many times, your individual experience isn`t the whole market, otherwise there wouldn`t be any threads on here about not being able to sell houses. How far did you have to drop the price BTW because I seem to remember that this sale has been on-going for some time?

lisyloo

We did not drop the price at all. We got full asking price straight away before the flat went to open market (the EA already had a buyer lined up).
The sale has taken about 4 months which is not far off average for a chain of 3 properties.

I don’t think a small number of threads about people not being able to sell their houses mean much either, which would inevitably happen to some even during a boom.
Many have used companies like purple bricks and if you read the threadsyou’ll see the pictures are often quite unprofessional and the online EA uninterested.
We went for a traditional EA who already had buyers on their books.
All this means is that often doing things on the cheap is a false economy.

Try the insurance board and you’ll find plenty of threads where people get into a mess doing it DIY.