Topic: The 'Eeeek...buying/saving for a house' thread

[WhoHe]

There is a report on the BBC news website stating house price are 6.5% higher than last year, the fastest rise in 6 years.

Just driving around Liverpool it is obvious that houses are selling extremely quickly, whether that continues post-Brexit is the question for people looking to buy. My friends Mum died in April and his Dad moved in with him, the house sold in weeks.

[Elmo!]

They are going up on average but it really varies depending on location and type of property.

I think flats are going down in value, whereas houses in commuter towns around London will be seeing big rises.

I of course bought a flat last year in Aberdeen which has seen property prises in decline for 5 years now - it was starting to recover slightly pre-COVID but with continued low oil demand Aberdeen is probably fucked for the forseeable. 

[Claire.]

I reckon the move to more people permanently working from home will see houses in the north increase in value, because they're places people can actually afford to buy in and people want more space to be able to work/live in more than one room.

[rob1966]

I reckon the move to more people permanently working from home will see houses in the north increase in value, because they're places people can actually afford to buy in and people want more space to be able to work/live in more than one room.

Its getting ridiculous by me, missus paid £142k for this house (large 2 bed semi) in 2006, I met her that year and wanted to move near her Ma's as they were about £175k and 3 bed, room for kids, my bikes etc. Ours is now "worth" £270k and its getting on for £380k to live by her Ma's. The kids have no chance of living around here and its getting worse and worse.

I think they are moving out of Manc centre to the suburbs.

[Drinks Sangria]

Anyone moving this year?

Parliament are going to debate extending the Stamp Duty holiday - I massively hope this goes through. It could save me between £7500 - £10k, which would make a huge difference in terms of the deposit or doing any work that needs to be done after the move.

There's also the chance that house prices drop - most reputable forecasters seem to reckon this will be happening in the UK Market.

Whilst the current Stamp Duty Holiday conversely inflated the market somewhat, I don't think it could do it to anywhere near the same extent if the economic troubles that are forewarned do present themselves.

[Mark Walters]

Anyone moving this year?

Parliament are going to debate extending the Stamp Duty holiday - I massively hope this goes through. It could save me between £7500 - £10k, which would make a huge difference in terms of the deposit or doing any work that needs to be done after the move.

There's also the chance that house prices drop - most reputable forecasters seem to reckon this will be happening in the UK Market.

Whilst the current Stamp Duty Holiday conversely inflated the market somewhat, I don't think it could do it to anywhere near the same extent if the economic troubles that are forewarned do present themselves.

Yeah, planning on moving this year.  As you say, prices are forecast to fall.  By how much, who knows?  But it's the top end of the market where it will have the biggest effect which is beneficial for anyone moving to a bigger more expensive home.

[XabiArt]

Sorted out making overpayments on my mortgage on Sunday.

Got just over 100k left on it for 19 years, its fixed for 4 more years at £550 a month. But I've just sorted to pay an extra 250 a month cutting it to 12 years 9 months.

Pretty chuffed with that, I expect we will be moving in 5 years time but the amount of interest saved is better than hording it in any savings account or ISA.

[Drinks Sangria]

Sorted out making overpayments on my mortgage on Sunday.

Got just over 100k left on it for 19 years, its fixed for 4 more years at £550 a month. But I've just sorted to pay an extra 250 a month cutting it to 12 years 9 months.

Pretty chuffed with that, I expect we will be moving in 5 years time but the amount of interest saved is better than hording it in any savings account or ISA.

100% - My mortgage is technically only £280 a month, I pay £600, the maximum they allow without penalising because it takes my 20 year down to less than 10. ISAs are garbage right now.

Yeah, planning on moving this year.  As you say, prices are forecast to fall.  By how much, who knows?  But it's the top end of the market where it will have the biggest effect which is beneficial for anyone moving to a bigger more expensive home.

Most 'experts' are forecasting anywhere between 5% - 15%, which is a pretty massive difference. I've noticed in my area already that after the post-lockdown bubble, moves have already dried up and prices have stumbled a little. We're moving this year too, any time from September onwards, but not likely at the price range that will see the most dramatic drops - if anything, we're probably in the price range that will be the most steady.

Oddly, rents are predicted to be more stable, so you may see a lot of movement at the lower end of the market as wealthy landlords look to pick up cheap properties.

[AlphaDelta]

I have found myself in a really strong place financially when it comes to home ownership.

My mum passed away coming up to two years ago and I lived at home with her, having done so since birth with the exception of moving in with a couple of girlfriends for months at a time over the years.
Ours was a council house, in Huyton (a posh suburb of Liverpool for those who don't know!  ) and before she passed I'd said loads of times to buy the house and I'll pay for the mortgage but sadly she died before we could do that.

Even before the funeral I knew I was in a grim situation, single guy in a three-bed council house when demand was through the roof. Fortunately I went to the Housing Association, put my cards on the table and told them not only did I want to take on the tenancy but wanted to buy the house outright.
Luckily they were very understanding and just wanted proof of occupancy and my employment. Once I'd give that they said my mum's tenancy rights she had accrued since living there passed on to me.

So I got the house valued which came in at £78k and then with my right to buy discounts etc I got a mortgage for £30k. That was just on two years ago.
The council rules are I can't sell it for the first five years, then for years 5-10 I have to give them first refusal if I sell it, but they told me 9 times out of 10 they wouldn't buy it back.

[Elmo!]

Cash ISAs are terrible. An S&S ISA invested in tracker funds over at least 5 years should comfortably make you more than you save in interest on your mortgage overpayments (unless your interest rate is stupidly high).

That said, I overpay on my mortgage much more than I put into my S&S ISA despite knowing the above because psychologivally I just want to get it paid...also it will help me get into as low an LTV bracket as possible when it comes to remortgaging in a few years so will get a better interest rate then. At that point I will probably ease off on overpayments.

[.adam]

Sorted out making overpayments on my mortgage on Sunday.

My wife and I have taken the same view. Interest rates are so low there's almost no point in saving (other than having the cash there for a rainy day).

We've decided to overpay the max our mortgage allows so when it comes to remortgaging in a little over a year's time, we'll have less to take our next time.

We're lucky as we've largely continued to work throughout the pandemic (other than when my company put me on furlough on 80% pay for a month in April 2020) and as we can't spend our cash on anything else so it's gone on the mortgage. That, combined with rising house prices in our area, means our mortgage should be able to drop to somewhere around the 30% LTV mark when we come to remortgage in April 2022.

[Mark Walters]

100% - My mortgage is technically only £280 a month, I pay £600, the maximum they allow without penalising because it takes my 20 year down to less than 10. ISAs are garbage right now.
Most 'experts' are forecasting anywhere between 5% - 15%, which is a pretty massive difference. I've noticed in my area already that after the post-lockdown bubble, moves have already dried up and prices have stumbled a little. We're moving this year too, any time from September onwards, but not likely at the price range that will see the most dramatic drops - if anything, we're probably in the price range that will be the most steady.

Oddly, rents are predicted to be more stable, so you may see a lot of movement at the lower end of the market as wealthy landlords look to pick up cheap properties.

Oh for a £280 a month mortgage!  I wasn't even paying that little on my first flat in London back in 1998! That's what happens when you live in the South East I guess.

[Drinks Sangria]

Oh for a £280 a month mortgage!  I wasn't even paying that little on my first flat in London back in 1998! That's what happens when you live in the South East I guess.

It does take the pressure off somewhat, knowing that there's over £300 I can pull back each month should I need to. My current home is only a small two-bed end terrace, worth at most £105k (bought for £95k in 2017) and I had a decent deposit, so even when I bought it my mortgage has never been massive. I'm in the North West, in an area where property is high for the region, being higher than the national average - but still way, way cheaper than the South.

I do predict it'll be fairly sizable increase (total - it'll probably be cheaper for me personally as we'll be halving it) when my girlfriend and I buy later this year, but I'm hoping that prices lower, the rates you can get on good deposit mortgages stay as great as they are now and that the rent I get in from this house make my bills feel affordable. A lot needs to go right though!

[Col]

In England, does your monthly mortgage include your various forms of interest, home insurance and council tax?

Over here in the US it's all rolled in to one monthly payment which hurts my heart once a month.

[Claire.]

yeah, always includes interest payments but insurance and council tax are separate.

[Drinks Sangria]

yeah, always includes interest payments but insurance and council tax are separate.

In England, does your monthly mortgage include your various forms of interest, home insurance and council tax?

Over here in the US it's all rolled in to one monthly payment which hurts my heart once a month.

As Claire says, they're separate. Home Insurance isn't too expensive, but Council Tax feels like a gouge given what you feel you get for the services. Over £100 a month for fortnightly bin collection is what it feels like.

[Col]

As Claire says, they're separate. Home Insurance isn't too expensive, but Council Tax feels like a gouge given what you feel you get for the services. Over £100 a month for fortnightly bin collection is what it feels like.

I think America is ripping me off.

[rob1966]

As Claire says, they're separate. Home Insurance isn't too expensive, but Council Tax feels like a gouge given what you feel you get for the services. Over £100 a month for fortnightly bin collection is what it feels like.

The previous Tory council flogged all the council services off to Amey. Now we have blocked gulleys in the street, roads flooding everywhere, leaves not swept so everywhere is filthy, pavements flooded, parks flooded, the place is an utter mess. I wonder what we pay £1200 a year for.

[Drinks Sangria]

The previous Tory council flogged all the council services off to Amey. Now we have blocked gulleys in the street, roads flooding everywhere, leaves not swept so everywhere is filthy, pavements flooded, parks flooded, the place is an utter mess. I wonder what we pay £1200 a year for.

Literally. Everything you have described is my street - add in a decent helping of dog shit and you get the picture (not the Council's fault but still). We also didn't get gritted because apparently we were the last stop and they ran out of grit. Never came back either.

The sooner we ditch this government the better, but that's for another thread.

[Slippers]

As Claire says, they're separate. Home Insurance isn't too expensive, but Council Tax feels like a gouge given what you feel you get for the services. Over £100 a month for fortnightly bin collection is what it feels like.

Our bins have been collected every three weeks for the last fifteen months and there's a lot of talk about switching to monthly collections in the near future.

Also the council will no longer pick up things like fridges and washing machines,you have to pay some company that sells second hand furniture forty quid to do it now.

[rob1966]

Our bins have been collected every three weeks for the last fifteen months and there's a lot of talk about switching to monthly collections in the near future.

Also the council will no longer pick up things like fridges and washing machines,you have to pay some company that sells second hand furniture forty quid to do it now.

That is just a recipe for fly tipping.

[Slippers]

That is just a recipe for fly tipping.

Indeed,I'm sure the majority of farms experienced a bumper mattress crop last year

[I've been a good boy]

Agree on the points made about council tax, feels like we're all just saying £100 a month for a few bin collections as they never sort anything else out when you get in touch with them.

[Elmo!]

Council tax is a crap regressive tax, but remember that the cost of it covers only a small proportion of the councils budget (in Sotland anyway - funding is a bit different here).

We should, on average be paying more, not less to cover things like elderly care, social services and education - just in a more progressive way.

It is not just potholes and bin collections.

[CraigDS]

Haha, as if pot holes get sorted out round here 

[rob1966]

Haha, as if pot holes get sorted out round here 

There was a huge pothole on the Parkway into Trafford Park, took a good 12 months before that got fixed. The claims for new wheels will have well exceeded the cost of the repairs.

[Drinks Sangria]

Council tax is a crap regressive tax, but remember that the cost of it covers only a small proportion of the councils budget (in Sotland anyway - funding is a bit different here).

We should, on average be paying more, not less to cover things like elderly care, social services and education - just in a more progressive way.

It is not just potholes and bin collections.

There’s a better way to do it for sure - the issue with paying more council tax is that many, myself included, already feel gouged by what we pay out in income tax, council tax, road tax etc to think about paying more - my issue isn’t paying more to ensure services improve (I personally would pay more income tax if I could see it was going into education and the NHS), it’s that we can’t trust those who have access to the funds we’re providing to spend it in a responsible and justifiable way. There’s a decrepit care home on the edge of my village - the council spent nothing on that last year but did spend over £300,000 to build a multi-purpose leisure area outside of the village with inadequate drainage that flooded almost instantly, has never been used and has recently been decided as an area where nothing should ever be built.

Either way, the debate is for another thread.

Property market has massively died off round here. There’s three villages around me that I keep my eye on, as they’re kind of aspirational locations for me to live, they collectively have about 10 houses for sale currently when you’d normally be talking a few hundred. January will be one reason but I already thinking that the housing market is starting to crack somewhat. Aggressive reductions on what is for sale, however they’re sought after areas where you pay for a dilapidated wreck what you would expect to pay for the same house but ready to move in to.

[LiamG]

Finally saved up a decent deposit and got in touch with a mortgage advisor to see how much i can afford, now just a case of finding somewhere but there isn't much on the market where i live in my price range

[Zlen]

At least you’re not in Ireland is all I can say.

Saving up was the easy part, getting mortgage approved was relatively painless. That is unless you take a moment to consider you’re paying highest interest rates in Europe and the state is only helping first time buyers if they purchase new properties. But there are no almost no new properties and I can’t see how first time buyers could afford them - so in effect state is telling you to piss off while claiming to do something about the problem.

Since we got approved for mortgage some two months ago - we had the offer accepted for five bloody apartments - each time settling for less while paying more, just to get it done. Our rent contract is up in April and the lockdown isn’t helping. First one we got outbid, second one the owner took another offer privately without the agents, third got removed from the market due to fire safety issues discovered in the whole block, fourth was taken off market for no specific reason and with fifth one we got as far as being a week away from drawing down on the mortgage when the apartment block management company informed the owner of fire safety issues.

So now we’re basically fucked, having lost a month closing this sale, lost non-refundable money on surveyors and have to go back to ads - and there is nothing there.

Fuck Ireland.

[Drinks Sangria]

That’s shit Zlen, unfortunately it does seem that in lots of markets, demand outweighs supply and it’s creating untenable conditions within many areas as far as getting reasonable value for money goes.

It sounds like taking another tenancy agreement and renting again isn’t an option?

[Zlen]

It is an option, but it would be difficult to do and a serious blow to our budget. Renting prices have gone insane, it is a section of the market in even worse condition. So instead of shaving off some 500e from our montly bill we would be looking at paying at best 4-500 more for a similar place.

It’s just a mess.

[Drinks Sangria]

It is an option, but it would be difficult to do and a serious blow to our budget. Renting prices have gone insane, it is a section of the market in even worse condition. So instead of shaving off some 500e from our montly bill we would be looking at paying at best 4-500 more for a similar place.

It’s just a mess.

That sounds it. The property market round my way, in typical times, is fairly competitive, but I'm talking people 'gazumping' by about 5% then others backing off - nowhere near as brutal as it sounds round your way.

Finally saved up a decent deposit and got in touch with a mortgage advisor to see how much i can afford, now just a case of finding somewhere but there isn't much on the market where i live in my price range

Are you set on staying in the same location?

I've been working from home for a year now and it has made me and my girlfriend think we have maybe a bit more flexibility when we come to move. She still needs to be within 30/40 mins of the hospital where she works, but my job used to require me to be very close to the office to get there at a moment's notice, the job I took up last year and am currently in seems like it will never truly go back full time (I work full time, I mean the full 40-50 hours in the office) and there's no actual need for me to be that close. We'll probably only be in the office 2 days a week in the future and it does make me more willing to be happy with over an hour's commute.

[The G in Gerrard]

Don't know if I can mention specific building companies but Persimmon Homes are they any good?

[TheKid.]

I think it depends on the site. I’ve heard horror stories about Persimmon (as I have about most builders to be honest) but the site we were are is really good

There are obviously little problems but they are really good at fixing things whenever we ask. We are lucky that they are still on site but we’ve been really happy with them so far

[gazzam1963]

Don't know if I can mention specific building companies but Persimmon Homes are they any good?

My wife worked for persimmon many years ago and we bought and still own a house they built , the quality was really good even up to today and it’s 20 years old . Years ago in the 80s there was a programme on itv called
World in action which slated Barrett’s the builders for shoddy workmanship and materials being used it literally took them 20 odd years to recover as they were seen inside the house building industry as poor .

Persimmon have for a long time been the countries biggest housebuilder by volume and that may be reflected in the quality of work and issues that have come up in the press over the last few years , when I seen your post this morning I asked my wife about them and she said they had a bad name for a while but as the “ the kid” said in his post it does depend on the quality of the site team as they are the ones who don’t cut the corners , make sure the trades do a good job to a really acceptable standard and that any issues after sales are remedied very quickly .

One of the problems is during a boom there is always a rush to get the completed sales finished which leads to a Shortage of the best trades and ending up with poor quality sub contractors on site this is were a good site manager earns his reputation

[TheKid.]

Definitely. Our site manager is excellent (and I think his dad is persimmons north west MD too)

[The G in Gerrard]

I think it depends on the site. I’ve heard horror stories about Persimmon (as I have about most builders to be honest) but the site we were are is really good

There are obviously little problems but they are really good at fixing things whenever we ask. We are lucky that they are still on site but we’ve been really happy with them so far

My wife worked for persimmon many years ago and we bought and still own a house they built , the quality was really good even up to today and it’s 20 years old . Years ago in the 80s there was a programme on itv called
World in action which slated Barrett’s the builders for shoddy workmanship and materials being used it literally took them 20 odd years to recover as they were seen inside the house building industry as poor .

Persimmon have for a long time been the countries biggest housebuilder by volume and that may be reflected in the quality of work and issues that have come up in the press over the last few years , when I seen your post this morning I asked my wife about them and she said they had a bad name for a while but as the “ the kid” said in his post it does depend on the quality of the site team as they are the ones who don’t cut the corners , make sure the trades do a good job to a really acceptable standard and that any issues after sales are remedied very quickly .

One of the problems is during a boom there is always a rush to get the completed sales finished which leads to a Shortage of the best trades and ending up with poor quality sub contractors on site this is were a good site manager earns his reputation

Cheers both. Seen a three bed by them but it's quite a distance from our current home. Dependant on the future and how work life will be post covid. There is more value in that area or further north than near London where I am.

[rob1966]

I think it depends on the site. I’ve heard horror stories about Persimmon (as I have about most builders to be honest) but the site we were are is really good

There are obviously little problems but they are really good at fixing things whenever we ask. We are lucky that they are still on site but we’ve been really happy with them so far

Yep, this is a site in Dorset





This is Redditch, from a FB group dedicated ti Persimmon shoddy builds

[The G in Gerrard]

Yep, this is a site in Dorset





This is Redditch, from a FB group dedicated ti Persimmon shoddy builds

Wow. That's shocking and slightly off putting

[TheKid.]

Don’t be put off - see if you can get opinions of people on the site you are looking at. We were anxious after reading some of these stories, but knew people on this site and all was ok which turned out to be the case