Easing Lockdown For Housing Market - Timeline Discussion

blue_max_3

[DELETED USER] said:

Falling house prices are a good thing. We shouldn't be looking to do anything that slows that down, we should let them crash as far as possible.

Housing is massively over-valued in the UK. New builds in particular. A big correction is long overdue and if anything good comes from this crisis a big cut in house prices could be it.

That all depends on your point of view. Property relies on prices increasing. That's what drives it.
If I was on a 95% mortgage, I would be very worried about the prices dropping. As I'm a renter, it would be very good news for me. 

edgex

blue_max_3 said:

That all depends on your point of view. Property relies on prices increasing. That's what drives it.
If I was on a 95% mortgage, I would be very worried about the prices dropping. As I'm a renter, it would be very good news for me. 

No it doesn't. The supposed value of somewhere has zero bearing on it's current or future existence.

If your talking about the property market, again, for the vast vast majority of it, prices increasing has no bearing on it.
If someone moves for a better job, they buy a property to live in, not because 'prices increase'. Same for a growing family, or simply wanting a nicer place to live.

MoneySeeker1

Joyful said:

Just before lock down, my estate agents arranged for only 1 family at a time to view the house. Unfortunately 2 days later lock down happened. I think that could be a way forward for viewing.

One "household" at a time - whether family, couple or single etc - sounds perfectly feasible to me. I'm glad I'm not in that position currently - but "why the heck not?"

MoneySeeker1

Thrugelmir said:

FrugalCat said:

shinytop said:

Thrugelmir said:

shinytop said:

Anyway, the sorts of activities done during a house purchase/rental and move are no more likely to spread the virus that, say, going to a supermarket.  Since the numbers moving house are tiny compared to those going shopping,

Large open plan offices aren't laid out for social distancing. Nor are call centres. To be cost effective in recent years everything has been built on scale of operation. 

The same comment could be applied to supermarkets.

You'd have thought supermarkets are benefiting from economic slowdown, where a good portion of the population can shop any time, any day of the week. 
I'd be interested to see how the current shopping pattern compares to peak times 8 weeks ago.

People are generally doing larger fewer shops. Less ad-hoc purchasing. Popped into Aldi yesterday for a couple of items. Never the quickest store to get served in at the best of times. Don't seem to have adapted their working practices at all. 

What is being overlooked here re the "larger fewer shops" is that I can't be the only one that is thinking "Blow going in Tesco once a week as normal and being so darn regimented whilst there - I'll go elsewhere instead as far as possible". So I've just been off to Tesco today for the first time for 3 weeks - and the reason is because I can't stand being so darn regimented/seeing all "The Fear" stuff going on.

So I'm deliberately getting my food etc in every other way I possibly can - growing it/trying not to waste it/buying it somewhere that is as "normal" as possible quite deliberately rather than being put through "Queues/arrows on the floor/the "Fear Thing" of all those facemasks the staff (and other shoppers) are often wearing. I do not want to know about being regimented and "The Fear Thing" and so I'm doing my best to avoid supermarkets as much as I possibly can to minimise that and I can't be the only one that will refuse (as far as practically possible) to go anywhere we aren't treated "normally" if we can manage it while The Lockdown is going on.

It's worth it to me to spend extra to avoid "Lockdown/The Fear" as far as I possibly can and I do sympathise with people that can't find the extra money to avoid that stuff as much as possible.

edgex

Ozzuk said:

Should be interesting next week to hear what Boris's plans are, I think getting the housing market moving will actually be a priority - if managed well it is low risk with high return.  What I'd really like is stamp duty to be relaxed but sadly I think the tax income will be needed too much.

A priority for whom?
Why would it be a high return? 

edgex

This could well see major changes to how house sales are done.

I expect to see a lot more good images, floorplans & video tours in the future, as that is an easy way to cut the viewings down.
Basic survey & searches commissioned by the seller. Legal documents already lodged with solicitor/agent.

shinytop

edgex said:

Ozzuk said:

Should be interesting next week to hear what Boris's plans are, I think getting the housing market moving will actually be a priority - if managed well it is low risk with high return.  What I'd really like is stamp duty to be relaxed but sadly I think the tax income will be needed too much.

A priority for whom?
Why would it be a high return? 

It's a priority for the people who want to move house and all the businesses that rely on this market. Allowing people to move house is a high priority in this country whatever happens with house prices/rents.  And it's high return because a single transaction is worth many tens/hundreds of thousands of pounds with relatively little increase in social contact.  Compare that to opening up more shops/pubs or whatever.     

MoneySeeker1

shinytop said:

edgex said:

Ozzuk said:

Should be interesting next week to hear what Boris's plans are, I think getting the housing market moving will actually be a priority - if managed well it is low risk with high return.  What I'd really like is stamp duty to be relaxed but sadly I think the tax income will be needed too much.

A priority for whom?
Why would it be a high return? 

It's a priority for the people who want to move house and all the businesses that rely on this market. Allowing people to move house is a high priority in this country whatever happens with house prices/rents.  And it's high return because a single transaction is worth many tens/hundreds of thousands of pounds with relatively little increase in social contact.  Compare that to opening up more shops/pubs or whatever.     

That's where I do not agree.

I do not understand why house buying/selling is apparently being deemed high priority - when other (much more important things) are being deemed lower priority.

Peoples lives (ie the vast majority of peoples lives) clearly come first/middle/last and - then - after that comes housebuying and selling.

FrugalCat

edgex said:

This could well see major changes to how house sales are done.

I expect to see a lot more good images, floorplans & video tours in the future, as that is an easy way to cut the viewings down.
Basic survey & searches commissioned by the seller. Legal documents already lodged with solicitor/agent.

Probably unlikely unless the laws around property exchanges change significantly.
Unless consumer protection is increased and industry standards implemented (cue debate if estate agents or solicitors are worse), all the above would mean extra upfront expense for the seller, and therefore more risk.

Ozzuk

Barrett have just announced they are restarting construction May 11th...