How has this house gone up so much?

RelievedSheff

Mark_Glasses said:

@herzlos am I really doing better than most? most people I know who are my age are living in houses.

@relieved_sheff the question is why. I saw the prices rocket whilst I was saving a deposit.

@lookstraightahead no, I wouldn't want to live in the countryside and when he told me he'd moved there I thought rather you than me. If my only chance of becoming a millionaire was to spend a few years living in the countryside though I'd do it.

@ramouth I don't really get that video.

Why?

Because some property types are more desirable and have a wider market than others.

There will always be more demand for a family home than for a flat.

A quick look through sold property prices in any given area would very quickly conclude that family homes rise more in value than flats over the same time period.

You can't change that now. You made the choices you did when you bought your property and for your own reasons.

Perhaps now is the time for you to move on from that property if you are starting to questions it's suitability or it's long term potential?

For what it is worth our previous house didn't do us any favours either. We lived there for 13 years and when we part exchanged it in 2019 against our current new build we only got £5k more than we had paid for it. Prices in that area were stale for a long time. In comparison our current property has increased in value by around £90k in four years judging by recent comparable sales.

Trying to judge the property market is a mugs game.

Sarah1Mitty2

RelievedSheff said:

Mark_Glasses said:

@herzlos am I really doing better than most? most people I know who are my age are living in houses.

@relieved_sheff the question is why. I saw the prices rocket whilst I was saving a deposit.

@lookstraightahead no, I wouldn't want to live in the countryside and when he told me he'd moved there I thought rather you than me. If my only chance of becoming a millionaire was to spend a few years living in the countryside though I'd do it.

@ramouth I don't really get that video.

Why?

Because some property types are more desirable and have a wider market than others.

There will always be more demand for a family home than for a flat.

A quick look through sold property prices in any given area would very quickly conclude that family homes rise more in value than flats over the same time period.

You can't change that now. You made the choices you did when you bought your property and for your own reasons.

Perhaps now is the time for you to move on from that property if you are starting to questions it's suitability or it's long term potential?

For what it is worth our previous house didn't do us any favours either. We lived there for 13 years and when we part exchanged it in 2019 against our current new build we only got £5k more than we had paid for it. Prices in that area were stale for a long time. In comparison our current property has increased in value by around £90k in four years judging by recent comparable sales.

Trying to judge the property market is a mugs game.

When rates move like this it gets easier, I would say that it is almost impossible now that you won`t make a loss on the current house, not that it matters if you love living there.

[Deleted User]

Herzlos said:

Mark_Glasses said:

@herzlos am I really doing better than most? most people I know who are my age are living in houses.

What about those that you don't know? You might feel you're not doing as well as your peers, but you need to remember the big picture.

If as you say your flat was bought for £275kand hasn't gone up much since and that seems to be a problem for you , then why are you not selling it and moving to an affordable  house in another area entirely, if owning a house is what you want as a proof of 'status' ?    You don't like the flat, you don't like the job, what is stopping you?

Sarah1Mitty2

[Deleted User] said:

Herzlos said:

Mark_Glasses said:

@herzlos am I really doing better than most? most people I know who are my age are living in houses.

What about those that you don't know? You might feel you're not doing as well as your peers, but you need to remember the big picture.

If as you say your flat was bought for £275kand hasn't gone up much since and that seems to be a problem for you , then why are you not selling it and moving to an affordable  house in another area entirely, if owning a house is what you want as a proof of 'status' ?    You don't like the flat, you don't like the job, what is stopping you?

FTB mortgage applications are down by about 30%, that is why you can`t just sell a flat or a house when you want, property is the most illiquid asset around. At the moment I would just stay put and concentrate on paying down any outstanding debt owed on the flat.

Ramouth

Mark_Glasses said:

@herzlos am I really doing better than most? most people I know who are my age are living in houses.

@relieved_sheff the question is why. I saw the prices rocket whilst I was saving a deposit.

@lookstraightahead no, I wouldn't want to live in the countryside and when he told me he'd moved there I thought rather you than me. If my only chance of becoming a millionaire was to spend a few years living in the countryside though I'd do it.

@ramouth I don't really get that video.

The point of the link was that what most people want out of life is to be happy.  You might think that you need to have money and success to be happy but, if you change your way of thinking to find happiness in the little things in life, you can enjoy what you have.  Arthur (the character in the clip) is not very bright but is very happy. 

Mark_Glasses

@Herzlos no idea about those I don't know but I'm talking about a wide spread of people such as a cleaner with no qualifications who most likely makes a low wage but bought a house in 2007

@RelievedSheff my reason for buying a flat was because I couldn't afford a house. The person I speak of on this thread bought a flat to get on the property ladder as did most people I know in London. A big obstacle I see about getting a house is that my boss paid less than £500k for his house and he obviously makes more money than me. You'd struggle to find a house for less than £500k round here so if my boss can't afford £500k then what hope do I have. I understand why there's more demand for houses but a question I do have is why do people buy houses round here and convert them into flats. If house prices go up whilst flat prices stagnate then surely they'd be losing money by doing that.

@Sarah1Mitty2 I would get an early repayment charge if I did that

@purbeck14 the area I live in now is one thing I do like. Before I moved to London I was only making £17k a year, don't know how I'd survive on that salary now.

@ramouth easier said than done

RelievedSheff

Mark_Glasses said:

@Herzlos no idea about those I don't know but I'm talking about a wide spread of people such as a cleaner with no qualifications who most likely makes a low wage but bought a house in 2007

@RelievedSheff my reason for buying a flat was because I couldn't afford a house. The person I speak of on this thread bought a flat to get on the property ladder as did most people I know in London. A big obstacle I see about getting a house is that my boss paid less than £500k for his house and he obviously makes more money than me. You'd struggle to find a house for less than £500k round here so if my boss can't afford £500k then what hope do I have. I understand why there's more demand for houses but a question I do have is why do people buy houses round here and convert them into flats. If house prices go up whilst flat prices stagnate then surely they'd be losing money by doing that.

@Sarah1Mitty2 I would get an early repayment charge if I did that

@purbeck14 the area I live in now is one thing I do like. Before I moved to London I was only making £17k a year, don't know how I'd survive on that salary now.

@ramouth easier said than done

A developer making a single house into flats will make more money from say two flats then they would from one house.

It is subsequent buyers who will see smaller returns.

I'm not quite sure what property your boss owns has to do with this?

Have you considered that you might be able to have a better standard of living if you moved away from London?

The company I work for have offices in Sheffield and London. The London staff only get a 10% uplift in wages from the staff in the Sheffield office, yet the cost of living and housing in Sheffield is far cheaper than the equivalent in London. We all get above average salary for the industry.

EssexHebridean

Mark_Glasses said:

<snip>

@FtbDreaming it bothers her that we're now in our 40s and only have our little flat to show for it. 

I'm in my early 50's and we are only just moving out of our first home together - which happens to be a flat. Am I a failure in your eyes, too?*

Comparison is the thief of joy - if you don't want this to be eating you up for the rest of your life then you really need to find a way of working through this - and posting on an internet forum probably isn't that way.  As others have said, this level of comparison with the "outside, visible" bits of someone else's life isn't healthy or indeed normal - I'd honestly suggest a GP visit to ask for a counselling referral might be a plan.

In the interim - ask yourself - would you switch out having a healthy and happy family for being a millionaire?

* for avoidance of doubt of doubt, I don't give a flying doo-dah what the OP's view is on this!  

Elliott.T123

Mark, no one on here can help you get the answers you want. 

Ultimately it appears to come down to the fact that you equate happiness to financial success and also compare yourself to others far too much.

You own your own home, you are already "doing better" (in your mind not necessarily in other people's) than 33% of UK households.
You live in London so your property is likely to be more expensive than other parts of the country, so you are then "doing better" than all those who own a property that is worth less than yours.

If Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg  (other billionaires are available) compared themselves to Elon Musk (or whoever is top of the rich list that day) on a daily basis they could sit there moaning they are "poor" and struggling and how unfair the world is.....

MeteredOut

I asked a few pages back what Mark wanted to get our of this thread; I'm still no clearer.