Thanks for reading,

I've been reading through quite a lot of the posts on here and it make dire reading. However even with this I am seriously considering putting an offer in for the house in the link.

http://www.struttandparker.co.uk/property-..._BAN080061.html

Basically this type of house is extremely unusual to come up in this area and it is the perfect area for us. The house looks great with plenty of space and a building plot that we could sell at a later date. I know there is all the doom and gloom with regular houses and flats not selling however do people think that even properties like this will be hit hard? At the end of the day it is in 13 acres of woodland, the house has been finished to a very high standard and has lots of room plus the setting is unbeatable.

Are these type of houses going above asking price much still, I would actually be tempted to put an offer in below the offers over price, although this would be unheard of in the recent past. Would anyone else advise this? Personally I just cannot see a house that offers so much falling greatly in value.

The house would stretch our finances but the job I am in looks fairly secure for the forseable future plus my wife is currently not working but could go back to work in a year or so if needed. On top of this we have another building plot that we should hopefully have for sale in a year or so to help reduce our debt.

Cheers for any advice.

I strongly suspect you are a troll as no-one in their right mind would buy this place, at this time, for this price.


You are the weakest link. Goodbye.

Hi,
I wouldn´t be buying in the current climate, however I have to admit the house looks fantastic. I doubt you will get it for offers under, as Scotland unfortunately seems to be lagging behind the rest of the UK with the crash. Unless a closing date has been set there is no harm in testing the waters regarding a low offer. What you need to ask yourself is, if you can afford the house or will it be 6x+ average income and also how certain are you regarding job security.
I doubt this house will be completely immune in the downturn, however it probably has a better chance than most ...

If you don´t mind me asking, how much money do you have saved, what do you currently earn (rough estimate), how much would your joint income be if both of you were working and which sector are you employed in?
If these questions are too intrusive then please disregard.

Also good luck with whatever you decide

Edit: spelling

Ha ha

No quine, I am certainly not a troll and as for saying that you would be mad to buy a house for this price at this time everything has got its selling point and the world does not stop turning just because its going through a period of financial turmoil. It is obviously a lot of money but is it really expensive for what you are getting? When 2 bed flats in Aberdeen are selling for over £300K in some places surely this represents good value? I suppose my main concern is can anyone see exceptional houses of this size really dropping massively in value?

tehlam3,

Thanks for the reply, seeing as we are all strangers on here, I'll answer the questions. Yes the house will be affordable, after the mortgage I would be left with approx £2.5k a month and I would be looking to take an 85% mortgage. My earnings are into 6 figures and being a contractor with a ltd company I pay a lot less tax than someone working through the PAYE system. Job security is good I'd say even with being a contractor, I work in Subsea construction for the oil industry and at the moment there are massive shortages of people in the industry and this is only due to get worse with the greatly ageing workforce in the sector. Consequestly this is also pushing pay rates up and up and I would be expecting my earnings to increase quite a bit over the next year because of this. On top of this I work month on and month off so I can work anywhere in the world on a rota basis and still live in the UK.

If my wife went back to work she could earn approx £32K a year however we would have increased costs if she did with child care and it would also increase my tax burden. We are currently debt free apart form our current mortgage and we would hopefully be able to free up another £100k in a years time when a project comes to fruition which would reduce our financial strain on the property.

I think its decent value for what you´re getting, in Glasgow you´d get a traditional semi with 4 - 5 bedrooms and 2 tiny bathrooms ...
So why not treat yourself

Why would you want to live in the UK in that case?
For the price range you are looking at, you could have a 10 room villa with 5ha of land plus a pool in the south of France, within 45mins of Nice airport which has excellent links to the rest of the world.

A no brainer.

If you really want to stay in Aberdeenshire, then wait a couple of year and you'll pick that place up for 20-30% less..........

The house looks gorgeous, and as you say it is the sort of thing that doesn't come up often. We'll be looking for something like that in Fife. We are going to wait a few years even though tempting stuff is coming up at what appear to be better prices recently. We are also in a strong position where we'd need 2 1/4 times joint income for the mortgage we'd need on that property, yet we're not buying yet. House porn like you've shown is tempting, but I think you'll do better to wait.

Correction to above... wife lost her job (company in receivership as of today) and not being paid this month's wages. I always wondered if the house price crash we wished for would come at the expense of her manufacturing job. I suspect we'll still do better out of a crash even though she's lost her job than if there was no crash. Will have to see, but it does remove some comfort margin...