Davetrials Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 42 minutes ago, Tom Booth said: F'kin snowflake. Humping hide. feelings corner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Booth Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Subterranean shagpad 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt slegg Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Very interesting reading this thread. Myself and wife are both self employed and have been for 15 years and its always been impossible to get a mortgage even with a huge deposit. We live in the South East where you need at least £300k to get 2 bed house! It makes us so angry that self employed people are so badly penalised however we are fine to pay over £1000 each month in rent! We just looked at a shared ownership property nearby that is £300k but we are just waiting to find out how much of it we could potentially afford. Id rather not do shared ownership but its better than renting forever. We are both seriously considering moving up north just because properties are so much cheaper. The only hard bit is having to close our business (hair salon) and start all over again. House prices in the South East are crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dann2707 Posted February 23, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 12 hours ago, matt slegg said: Very interesting reading this thread. Myself and wife are both self employed and have been for 15 years and its always been impossible to get a mortgage even with a huge deposit. We live in the South East where you need at least £300k to get 2 bed house! It makes us so angry that self employed people are so badly penalised however we are fine to pay over £1000 each month in rent! We just looked at a shared ownership property nearby that is £300k but we are just waiting to find out how much of it we could potentially afford. Id rather not do shared ownership but its better than renting forever. We are both seriously considering moving up north just because properties are so much cheaper. The only hard bit is having to close our business (hair salon) and start all over again. House prices in the South East are crazy. Absolutely mental. Puts it into perspective as the house I've just bought was £215k Which is a 4 bed detached in the Midlands. Pic on first page. Mental! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.KYDD Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 How people live in the South East really is beyond me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 13 hours ago, matt slegg said: It makes us so angry that self employed people are so badly penalised however we are fine to pay over £1000 each month in rent! Similar position here although nowhere near as baller Is an awkward one though. Got all my accounts stuff that everyone wants, but it seems that some lenders are now being choosy about whether someone's taken the SEISS or not. I projected I'd make a bit less 2020/21 compared to the year before due to the pandemic, so got involved with the SEISS. It now seems that that might count against me. Fun times. We had a second viewing on a house today. We both got a good feeling on the first viewing but had some minor reservations about it (primarily storage space). We did a second viewing to see what we could do about it, and it all looks manageable. They're asking too much for it so we're hoping that (assuming we can get a mortgage...) we can knock them down a bit otherwise we'll probably pass. I know everyone in this thread already knows, but f**k me - everything property related is such a faff. It's impressive how legitimate all the actors involved have managed to make a total f**king racket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isitafox Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 1 hour ago, J.KYDD said: How people live in the South East really is beyond me A lad I went to school with moved to London for about 10 years but moved back recently and said it was like winning the lottery coming back cause everything was so cheap. Sold there flat and bought a 3 bed with great spec with change left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davetrials Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 I live in Bath at the moment and a 1 bed apartment, like 3 small squares, living space/bedroom/toilet is around £225k Moving up up norf this year, where the same cost gets you a castle with land. Bath is disgusting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aener Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 (edited) The south sucks, for that. Leeds: 1930s three bed semi (admittedly, one bedroom is tiny) with a separate garage, thirty by eight metre back garden and a modest front garden - £148k. We're not in an expensive area, but we're certainly not in a cheap one either. I know a guy who did go for a cheap area and bought a 4-bed end terrace with a garden that wraps around the three sides of the house for £70k. It needed a bit of work, but only a freshen-up really. Nothing major. I see you guys saying these numbers and can't help but think it's just better to relocate Edited February 23, 2021 by aener Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt slegg Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 Yes the south is ridiculous. All my siblings live around Manchester and they've had no problem buying properties. My brother bought a nice 1 bedroom flat a few years ago in a good area for £100k. I recently saw a garage for sale near me for the same price! I've just been for a ride around Henley On Thames which is beautiful with some stunning houses but God knows what you'd need to be earning to live there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.KYDD Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 7 minutes ago, matt slegg said: Yes the south is ridiculous. All my siblings live around Manchester and they've had no problem buying properties. My brother bought a nice 1 bedroom flat a few years ago in a good area for £100k. I recently saw a garage for sale near me for the same price! I've just been for a ride around Henley On Thames which is beautiful with some stunning houses but God knows what you'd need to be earning to live there. @jack meek levels of cash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt slegg Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, J.KYDD said: @jack meek levels of cash Lol! Hes living the dream in his castle in Henley. Edited February 23, 2021 by matt slegg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadManMike Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 Generally the house prices follow the wages. The people that are buying the super expensive southern stuff work in the city and earn a shit load. Same for me, my rent and general living costs in Bristol are twice what they were in Hastings, but now so is my salary... it all works out the same in the end, pretty much, unless you're in a minimum wage job, then it makes sense to move north and save some cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt slegg Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 35 minutes ago, MadManMike said: Generally the house prices follow the wages. The people that are buying the super expensive southern stuff work in the city and earn a shit load. Same for me, my rent and general living costs in Bristol are twice what they were in Hastings, but now so is my salary... it all works out the same in the end, pretty much, unless you're in a minimum wage job, then it makes sense to move north and save some cash. Im sorry but I dont think its quite that simple. I dont earn minimum wage but id earn exactly the same up north as I do here doing the same job. A friend of mine recently moved north as his wife got a job up there and he now actually earns more doing the same job and his new house literally cost half up there compared to what he sold down here. No doubt there are a lot of people living in my area that commute into London that earn very healthy salaries and that drives up the house prices in the "commuter belt". However there are also a lot of people living in this area working locally and earning modest incomes that have to pay the high house prices to stay in the area. Its actually getting worse since Coronavirus as many people that lived and worked in London can now work remotely so they are now moving out to areas like this where they can get more for their money but still get into the city occasionally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadManMike Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 1 hour ago, matt slegg said: Im sorry but I dont think its quite that simple. I dont earn minimum wage but id earn exactly the same up north as I do here doing the same job. A friend of mine recently moved north as his wife got a job up there and he now actually earns more doing the same job and his new house literally cost half up there compared to what he sold down here. No doubt there are a lot of people living in my area that commute into London that earn very healthy salaries and that drives up the house prices in the "commuter belt". However there are also a lot of people living in this area working locally and earning modest incomes that have to pay the high house prices to stay in the area. Its actually getting worse since Coronavirus as many people that lived and worked in London can now work remotely so they are now moving out to areas like this where they can get more for their money but still get into the city occasionally. Obviously it doesn't apply to everyone, but house prices on the south coast are generally rising because London high earners are buying them, which drives the prices up. I know this for a fact, because Hastings is being flooded with them - quite a lot of my DJ mates there have moved down from London and still commute there for work (Well, they did, before the shit show of 2020 came into play). Hastings is the prime example, very few locals can buy in the nice areas now, they're all moving to the outskirts where houses cost less. If you look at house prices by area, you'll see that the closer to London or Brighton you are, the higher they get. The same with Reading area, because it's an easy commute to London. London is why the south east is expensive. Same as some of the crazy prices in Cornwall, rich Londoners are buying up places in the nice seaside towns. Don't just take my word for it, here's some actual stats on average salary... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncy H Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 You folks talking about disparity of house prices should see how it is over here in British Columbia. House prices on the whole are going insane here currently, people have been bidding $150-200k over asking price for places without even looking at them, mostly down to the fact that interest rates are so low right now. Not at all interested in getting involved with those kind of bidding wars. My prediction is that once house prices go back to roughly where they should be and rates go back up all these people that have overbid will be in negative equity and not be able to remortgage? This is one of the reasons I'm so keen to build my own place on this land we have access to. First problem we've encountered though is that it is 'Agricultural land reserve' (essentially farm land) so it's going to be a little harder to subdivide but is possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 7 hours ago, MadManMike said: I would say that disproves the theory, actually. What does a £410k house in London look like compared to a £280k house in the North East? Both are 10x average salary... https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^87490&insId=1&minPrice=400000&maxPrice=425000&radius=3.0&googleAnalyticsChannel=buying https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?keywords=&sortType=2&minPrice=270000&viewType=LIST&channel=BUY&index=0&maxPrice=290000&radius=20.0&locationIdentifier=REGION^21129 Completely agree that London prices are f**ked, and therefore it drives commuter belt prices up too. I can only think much bigger taxes on 2nd homes and empty properties are the way to go, it has to be made less affordable for the super rich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt slegg Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 1 hour ago, Adam@TartyBikes said: I would say that disproves the theory, actually. What does a £410k house in London look like compared to a £280k house in the North East? Both are 10x average salary... https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^87490&insId=1&minPrice=400000&maxPrice=425000&radius=3.0&googleAnalyticsChannel=buying https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?keywords=&sortType=2&minPrice=270000&viewType=LIST&channel=BUY&index=0&maxPrice=290000&radius=20.0&locationIdentifier=REGION^21129 Completely agree that London prices are f**ked, and therefore it drives commuter belt prices up too. I can only think much bigger taxes on 2nd homes and empty properties are the way to go, it has to be made less affordable for the super rich. Yes I agree. The government is always talking about having a housing chrisis and that they need build more houses but surely if less people owned second homes there would more stock availabile for people to buy which would hopefully keep house prices sensible. A lot of people that live in my village own second homes, around here it seems very normal and I've noticed that some of my clients have started to buy 1 or 2 properties up North as investments as it's so cheap comparable to here. Cornwall is really bad like you've said. Locals can only afford the less desirable areas because of all the second homes bought for high prices in the nice areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Aston Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 House prices in London are mad. We have a two-bed flat in zone three with whats considered a massive amount of outside space for a flat, we have had parties with 15-20 people outside on our terrace. Within walking distance of two train stations If we wanted a house in the same area with a garden and off-street parking we would need probably double what our flat is worth and that would probably only get us 1 more bedroom. As people have said above, I know loads of people who are moving out of London into commuter belt areas to get more space knowing that due covid they won't ever be int he office 5 days a week anymore. If I could convince the wife to move further out I would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 13 minutes ago, matt slegg said: Yes I agree. The government is always talking about having a housing chrisis and that they need build more houses but surely if less people owned second homes there would more stock availabile for people to buy which would hopefully keep house prices sensible. Yes and no - it depends on the affordability of that stock though. I assume most wealthy people buying a second home aren't buying a cheap shitter to hang out in when they're not in their primary home. The location thing has always been a weird one to me. I get that you get "more for your money", but a) there's a reason for that and b) I just don't really care that much about it. It was so tedious when we were first looking for places as it's the same thing everyone trots out constantly. As an example, I really liked living in Bristol. We looked at buying there but it was too much money. At the time we were looking, a f**king giant 7 bedroom house up in MId Wales came up on the market we could have easily afforded. Who gives a shit though? Rhayader isn't Bristol, it doesn't have the same feel or opportunities that Bristol has. At the time of my life when living in London was what I wanted to do and where I needed to be, living somewhere up in Yorkshire being able to count my extra bedrooms wouldn't have meant anything. I value being able to do the things I want to do more, and that is typically more location based. Sacrificing what I want to do with my time for a different sized house just doesn't really add up. Feel free to disregard that above paragraph, it's probably just PTSD from so many conversations where I had to bite my tongue when I wanted to just shout "I f**kING KNOW" at people. All that said, we put an offer in for a house yesterday, so... yeah. Got a mortgage in principle that covers us, just doing a bit more digging to find something that might be better longer term as we've just had a change in circumstances that should open things up more. Kind of feels weird to have done it. We've been doing a bunch of research on places, we've viewed a few here and there, my wife has bought a few houses in the past and gets the process, but it still feels weird to have walked around a house twice then committed to throwing some incomprehensible amount of money at it (it's not a super expensive house just to be clear, but does anyone really know what even something like £50,000 actually 'is'?). We've definitely done our homework (lol) with it, but because it's the first time I've done something like this it feels nuts. Exciting times though. I am looking forward to having a solid base to work from, and to have something we can make our own. Happens to be a fairly easy ride to most trails which is a bonus, as is the pre-installed cat-flap... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali C Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 congrats Mark! I know what you mean about it feeling crazy to commit so much (money and future living) on a place you've only seen twice. I take months to decide whether I want to commit £500 on a new camera let alone £100k+ on a house in an area you've never lived in before. I'm sure you'll love it though, I've rented all my life and I hate the restrictions imposed, plus I find it hard to swallow to pay more in rent to pay off someone elses mortgage than paying less to pay my own off AND have more space. Sure there's a bit more risk but I still think it's worth it. Speaking of second houses and junk, that's starting to become a real issue in Scotland and the islands. Take Skye for example...the locals who have lived there for generations are being priced out because wealthy Elnglish (and Scottish to be fair) are paying way over the usual prices. Jane has some elderly relatives on Skye (both mid 90s) and they've always had neighbours nearby they could rely on if they had issues. Now all their neighbours have sold up and moved because they could get great money for their houses and the new owners just have them as a holiday home and use it just a few days a year leaving them empty the rest of the time. This means her relatives are a lot more isolated than they used to be, the other side effect is that local businesses are struggling because the population is reducing. It's a bit shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Aston Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 Congrats Mark. The Skye thing is sad, I saw a TV program recently covering a similar thing, the guy was from a really remote part of the highlands and the last thing he wanted was for that area to become a tourist spot. It just ruins it for the locals. If the area isn't big enough to support the community during the office season, the towns/villages won't survive for the high season. Personally, I've never seen the appeal of a second home somewhere, either UK or abroad, i would rather go and see new places than go to the same place every time I've got free time to spend somewhere else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 Haven't heard back from the estate agent we put an offer in, but the house has been re-listed on the property sites with a different agent, and they've increased the asking price by £10,000. Safe to say that's a no for our offer, and there's absolutely no way that it's worth what they're asking for now. It's been on the market for a good few months now, and had the price reduced previously to try and help it sell. We found out yesterday they wanted to take it away from that estate agent and go with a different one, and it seems they have now. Not sure how they think this is going to help sell it, or sell it any time soon. For context, it's now about £20-30k more than any houses in that area. It's nice, but not that nice. It had good visibility on property websites and the previous agents had done a really good video tour of it. The agents we dealt with at the house weren't super friendly or that switched on, but we found out anything/everything we needed to to be able to put an offer in, so it doesn't seem like a change of agent is going to be the key to getting it sold, especially with the asking price now being that much higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 Might be something to do with the hint at possibly extending the stamp duty holiday in the upcoming budget. However, that sucks to not even hear back... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Morris Posted February 24, 2021 Report Share Posted February 24, 2021 3 hours ago, Mark W said: does anyone really know what even something like £50,000 actually 'is’? I’ve got a pretty good idea Good luck with it all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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