What should I do if I am buying a house during the coronavirus outbreak?

Jimmy2020_

Hi friends,
My wife and I put an offer on a flat a few weeks ago, we've had a mortgage approved and our solicitors are currently working towards the exchange of contracts. But I'm worried about risks involved in buying a flat now, when the UK and Europe will likely dip into a larger post-pandemic recession.

My wife and I are both fairly financially secure and very unlikely to lose our jobs during or after the pandemic. So my main concern is a possible dip or crash in the property market or any other external factors that could make taking on mortgage debt at this point and time very risky. 

I'd be very keen to hear thoughts. I know there's a telegraph article by the same title of my thread question but I'm not a subscriber so cant get past the paywall.

Cheers and I hope everyone is getting through these crazy times. 

Darkslider

I'm about to complete on our first house next week (we exchanged when covid 19 wasn't front page news) so I've been asking myself the same question!

Assuming we have a similar recession to the global financial crisis in 2008, it'll take 5-6 years for house prices to recover to their pre pandemic values. 

I don't for one minute think the economic effect will be as bad as 2008 this time around, but in truth nobody knows for sure. If you're buying a home for the next 5+ years then hopefully you won't be any worse off by proceeding as normal. If you think you'll be moving before that time though you might want to reconsider.

[Deleted User]

Ive pulled out of my BTL. It was a 5 year BTL which then I would have gifted to my son for his 25th birthday. Beaut house, but Im not paying £330k plus extra SDLT for it to be worth possibly £220k next year. 

Id be worried about remortgaging and loss of bargain if I was a FTB. 

These are unprecedented times - totally unknown. Until I know what the fall out is to this, Im leaving my money in the bank, and not locking into any fixed rates for now. 

Next year I hope for a bargain - possibly as landlords sell off their stock after the prohibition on Evictions is lifted 

JessJ23425

Densol said:

These are unprecedented times - totally unknown.

For sure.
I think if you're looking for BTL and not a home for life you should be cautious now, although I think expecting values to drop by 35% is probably unlikely - it wasn't even that bad in 2008.

OP if you're financially secure, with secure employment and are buying your dream home to stay in for years to come, go for it.

Jimmy2020_

Densol said

Id be worried about remortgaging and loss of bargain if I was a FTB.

In what sense do you mean, worried about remortgaging?
I think I'll ask the solicitors to hold and see what things look like in June and make a more concrete decision then...

Thrugelmir

Jimmy2020_ said:

My wife and I are both fairly financially secure and very unlikely to lose our jobs during or after the pandemic. So my main concern is a possible dip or crash in the property market or any other external factors that could make taking on mortgage debt at this point and time very risky. 

If it's a long term home. What's your concern. Property often comes up infrequently. Our current house was built in 1934. We are only the 4th owners in that time frame. If you are worried about the mortgage debt and leaving each other with a financial headache should the unfortunate occur. Stay put. This crisis will blow over eventually.