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My House Is The Exception.....


Monkey

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HOLA441

who is getting tired of "exceptional" houses?

you know, when their house, road, town, county etc is the EXCPETION to the country

i've had plenty of conversations with people, where a "value" of a house is given, a house that no-one in the conversation has a VI in. and its always low, very low.

or even if its a house they are interested in buying, they give it a low, low figure.

but when they talk about their house, its always the eception, its the only house like it in the world, and because of it, in the short space of time they have lived there (doing nothing apart from some standard decoration) it has doubled in value.

i've heard people value a 5 bed house, in 1 acre of land in a very very nice area LOWER than their 3 bed semi in an ok area?!?!

these people agree that the UK is fecked, the ecconomy is going down the pan, employement is on the rise, its harder to get a mortgage, etc, but they still think that their house has increase 15% in the time its taken me to write this post.

how can people not see the contradiction?

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+1

Went to view an "exceptional and stunning house, the best example in the catchment area" the other day.

The downstairs extension had left the existing windows inplace. The result was that you could watch your family have breakfast from the comfort of the downstairs bedroom. Now that really is exceptional ;-)

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HOLA444

who is getting tired of "exceptional" houses?

you know, when their house, road, town, county etc is the EXCPETION to the country

i've had plenty of conversations with people, where a "value" of a house is given, a house that no-one in the conversation has a VI in. and its always low, very low.

or even if its a house they are interested in buying, they give it a low, low figure.

but when they talk about their house, its always the eception, its the only house like it in the world, and because of it, in the short space of time they have lived there (doing nothing apart from some standard decoration) it has doubled in value.

i've heard people value a 5 bed house, in 1 acre of land in a very very nice area LOWER than their 3 bed semi in an ok area?!?!

these people agree that the UK is fecked, the ecconomy is going down the pan, employement is on the rise, its harder to get a mortgage, etc, but they still think that their house has increase 15% in the time its taken me to write this post.

how can people not see the contradiction?

Great post.

I was talking to someone who is spending £160k on an extension and new kitchen for a small, mid-terraced house in Wandsworth.

Parking's very difficult on this street and neither is it particularly convenient for transport or amenities. But he's convinced that once the work is done it'll be "a million pound plus property". No it won't, it'll be a £600k property where he's underwater on his mortgage, but hey-ho, apparently his kitchen will be magically different from all the other "Harvey Jones" and "Plain English" kitchens in South London, and the market will somehow reward his unique ability to select a Farrell & Ball colour scheme.

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HOLA445

Great post.

I was talking to someone who is spending £160k on an extension and new kitchen for a small, mid-terraced house in Wandsworth.

Parking's very difficult on this street and neither is it particularly convenient for transport or amenities. But he's convinced that once the work is done it'll be "a million pound plus property". No it won't, it'll be a £600k property where he's underwater on his mortgage, but hey-ho, apparently his kitchen will be magically different from all the other "Harvey Jones" and "Plain English" kitchens in South London, and the market will somehow reward his unique ability to select a Farrell & Ball colour scheme.

This is a great thread as (1) it is entertaining - the above anecdote has just made me laugh out loud as I know the type all too well and (2) it goes right to the heart of the HPC problem. We have a tendency here to talk about macroeconomics and/or the concerted effects of VIs acting in tandem while ignore the simple human 'problem of reference' - that all human beings are as unable to relate to their own insignificance as they are to properly grasp the exponential function.

This, in my opinion, leads to a situation where everyone believes themselves to be exceptional in some way and so, what you get in the housing market is simply a 'herd effect' where people all stampede off in the direction of their own self aggrandizement. I'll be that nearly everyone in that muppet in Wandsworth's street believes exactly the same thing of themselves and their house as he does of his - which is why we have the ridiculous situation that you would pay even £600k for a mid-terraced in an area which I (as a fully paid up Northerner!) think is a scabby overcrowded dump, let alone £1million.

Anyway, my point is that this is exactly the phenomenon which provides the pressure that pumps up the baloon of the market. Loose monetary policy and dangerous and unethical lending practises are simply the gas.

Btw, I think it's FarrOW and Ball. :-)

Edited by andybee33
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HOLA446

Btw, I think it's FarrOW and Ball. :-)

My bad.

I have a particularly shallow circle of friends so I see this often! Identikit makeovers that the owners feel qualifies them as exceptionally creative and unique designers.

But all they've actually done is pick the same limestone tiles from Fired Earth, the same shaker style kitchens from one of just three or four suppliers, the same limed oak floor boards, the same Victorian salvaged radiators, the same Morso or Firebelly wood burning stove, the same Laura Ashley fabrics, the same half height louvred window shutters, and then pick a colour from a very restricted Farrow & Ball palette. They end up with almost identical properties where they've done nothing except follow a recipe and write the cheques, but in their heads they've wrestled into existence a unique "life style environment".

When property was appreciating at 15% a year or more they could hide the cost of all this self indulgence in the capital gains, but in a flat or declining market this ludicrous self-deception is costing tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds that'll never be recovered. And it's that hopeless exercise in trying to justify the expense that's tying so many of them in knots.

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My friend at work has several 'property investments' in the UK and Spain.

These include a plot of land ( in Spain ) on which he was planning ( in 2006 ) to buid 4 villas, to later sell 3 .. to live in the remaining one while banking his 'new pension'.

Well, it all went horribly wrong. The Banks wouldn't lead the cash required to build the villas.... hardly supprising when one of the other 'investments' - an appartment on a golf course was recently valued at 60,000 Euros. He had paid 213,000 for this 'exceptional investment oppotunity' in 2005.

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HOLA4410

who is getting tired of "exceptional" houses?

you know, when their house, road, town, county etc is the EXCPETION to the country

i've had plenty of conversations with people, where a "value" of a house is given, a house that no-one in the conversation has a VI in. and its always low, very low.

or even if its a house they are interested in buying, they give it a low, low figure.

but when they talk about their house, its always the eception, its the only house like it in the world, and because of it, in the short space of time they have lived there (doing nothing apart from some standard decoration) it has doubled in value.

i've heard people value a 5 bed house, in 1 acre of land in a very very nice area LOWER than their 3 bed semi in an ok area?!?!

these people agree that the UK is fecked, the ecconomy is going down the pan, employement is on the rise, its harder to get a mortgage, etc, but they still think that their house has increase 15% in the time its taken me to write this post.

how can people not see the contradiction?

I agree in general, but there do seem to be some genuine exceptions. Where I'd like to buy in SW London, there are a couple of roads of Victorian terraced houses that consistently go onto the market (and sell) for prices that seem totally out of step with the surrounding area.

There is nothing exceptional about the houses themselves, in fact they are very standard. The location is good, but certainly not exceptional. The market seems to think otherwise....

The problem is that people with similar houses then try to get similar money foer their houses and the market thinks very differently!

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My bad.

I have a particularly shallow circle of friends so I see this often! Identikit makeovers that the owners feel qualifies them as exceptionally creative and unique designers.

But all they've actually done is pick the same limestone tiles from Fired Earth, the same shaker style kitchens from one of just three or four suppliers, the same limed oak floor boards, the same Victorian salvaged radiators, the same Morso or Firebelly wood burning stove, the same Laura Ashley fabrics, the same half height louvred window shutters, and then pick a colour from a very restricted Farrow & Ball palette. They end up with almost identical properties where they've done nothing except follow a recipe and write the cheques, but in their heads they've wrestled into existence a unique "life style environment".

When property was appreciating at 15% a year or more they could hide the cost of all this self indulgence in the capital gains, but in a flat or declining market this ludicrous self-deception is costing tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds that'll never be recovered. And it's that hopeless exercise in trying to justify the expense that's tying so many of them in knots.

That made me chuckle.

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HOLA4412

who is getting tired of "exceptional" houses?

you know, when their house, road, town, county etc is the EXCPETION to the country

i've had plenty of conversations with people, where a "value" of a house is given, a house that no-one in the conversation has a VI in. and its always low, very low.

or even if its a house they are interested in buying, they give it a low, low figure.

but when they talk about their house, its always the eception, its the only house like it in the world, and because of it, in the short space of time they have lived there (doing nothing apart from some standard decoration) it has doubled in value.

i've heard people value a 5 bed house, in 1 acre of land in a very very nice area LOWER than their 3 bed semi in an ok area?!?!

these people agree that the UK is fecked, the ecconomy is going down the pan, employement is on the rise, its harder to get a mortgage, etc, but they still think that their house has increase 15% in the time its taken me to write this post.

how can people not see the contradiction?

where my parents live, a nice area of semi-detached houses on the Southern edge of Liverpool's suburbs, they seem to go for 120-40k ish I think (suspect the lower not checked selling prices)

my dad's is 250k - on account of its patio and balsa wood 1960s extension

I said - you realise dad that that makes the patio and extension worth the same as the rest of the house

to which he replied - it's a good patio, and they made good extensions in the 1960s

give me strength

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