Housing Market in 2020

mahsa

Hi

My partner and I are looking to buy our next home in Leeds. We are looking for the typical family home, 3 bedrooms and a large garden in the suburbs, but it seems that everyone else is looking for the same property as every house that we like seems to have 20-30 viewings in one weekend followed by 5-20 offers afterwards. We have been offering over the asking price by about 1-3% but it seems to not be enough as people are offering 10%+. 

We have seen a home that we really like, it's at £550k. We have offered £556, but there are offers above ours already. We are happy to offer more, but we will only have about £35k cash left to top up if the banks don't offer us a mortgage above the asking price. My question is, what is the attitude of the banks at the moment? Knowing how inflated the market is, are they generous with their valuations? Are we absolutely unlikely to get a mortgage about 10% above asking price? 

We are worried we'll never be able to find a new home at this rate. 

Thanks
M

Slithery

Why does the housing market in 2020 have any relation to todays prices?
It's currently 2022....

mahsa

Well clearly my brain still lives in 2020. I obviously meant 2022, apologies. 

[Deleted User]

Join the club. It's possible you are right, and many others like you will never be able to afford a house.

There is no solution, all you can do is hope prices get back to sensible levels one day, before you are too old for a mortgage.

Giggidy

I could have written this myself, we are in the South East of England and coincidentally we offered £557k on a 3 bed property for £550k today. We've been told out of 15 viewings, 5 offers have been made, 2 already over £570. This is how it's been for us since November when our property went under offer. Can't help but feel despondent at this point, property prices keep rising, and still seems like there is a frenzy of buyers outbidding each other. We are worried as well about mortgage downvaluations, if we offer over £25k to secure a house but then having to find the extra to plug the difference. Good luck with your purchase, hope you do find something soon 

london21

The lack of supply is inflating prices.

grumiofoundation

[Deleted User] said:

Join the club. It's possible you are right, and many others like you will never be able to afford a house.

There is no solution, all you can do is hope prices get back to sensible levels one day, before you are too old for a mortgage.

Oh come on you are being silly now. Before posting the same drivel on every thread maybe read it first and consider actually posting something useful*

The OP can afford £556k - doesn't exactly for your ‘you will never be able to afford house’ narrative. 

(*And yes I do appreciate the irony of posting something that is also not useful as well in response). 

Flick85

3 beds in Leeds for 550k suggests you’re looking in pretty pricey suburbs… could you expand your search radius to other areas? I’m in a different city in Yorkshire, and was considering suburbs north-east of Leeds initially (but ended up going for a little town in East Yorkshire instead as suits my commute better), but for example, I was exploring Whinmoor where you can get 4 bed detached houses for 350-500ish.

It may still mean going higher than asking price to actually secure something, but you’d have a bit more flexibility for mortgage valuations if you haven’t stretched your budget initially.

TripleH

Is It possible to go further afield?

Wetherby /Boston Spa or into North Yorkshire?

Where do you need to live exactly, is commuting a focus or schools?

mahsa

Thanks for all the replies. The house/location etc are not the issue. My question was regarding the attitude of lenders to offers over the asking price and if they're likely to value houses at above asking price since the market is so insane at the moment. e.g. if asking price is £550k and we offer £580k to ensure we secure it, will lenders value it at £550k or higher? Has anyone had recent experiences with this? 

Note - affordability is also not the issue, our mortgage advisor has given us mortgage in principle for a loan of up to £590k. We also have some cash from the sale of our current home. 

fiveacre

The lender may well value it lower than your offer, but that doesn't necessarily stop you obtaining a mortgage, as long as you have sufficient deposit to meet their LTV requirements.

The lower valuation will increase the LTV percentage as it will be based on the bank's valuation.