Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Getting better for first time buyers
aboutproperty.co.uk: 'Bad as it's ever been' for first-time buyers
The situation for first-time buyers in the UK property market is presently as "bad as it's ever been", according to campaign website Firstrung.
However, with house prices seemingly on the verge of a major correction, the environment could be about to improve.
"It's as bad as it’s ever been for first-time buyers, but hopefully we are entering the period where it will start to be good again," said Paul Holmes, chief executive of Firstrung.
Posted by housebear @ 10:47 AM (737 views) Add Comment
10 Comments
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1. housebear said...
"It’s absolutely bizarre. It has to change and it will change, because now that the cheap credit has been stripped out of the market place there is only one way for this market, and that is to be affordable."
It's nice to see the mesage now begining to sink in regarding prices needing to go down.
I think the tone of the artical is more what we want to see being reported these days.
The headline " Bad as it's ever been' for first-time buyers" is in contradiction to the actual facts reported.
2. converted lurker said...
always a tad difficult when these guys call and ask you for a quote or two, but that's not too bad IMVHO.
3. housebear said...
converted lurker said...
"always a tad difficult when these guys call and ask you for a quote or two, but that's not too bad IMVHO."
What is "IMVHO".short for ?
4. growler said...
IMVHO = in my very humble opinion
I think Firstung are being optimistic. There is more to fall, so calling the end of the fall is VERY premature - as their clients will find out.
5. converted lurker said...
there is no calling of the end in that article or in the quotes, merely a suggestion that the pendelum is swinging in favour of FTBs, but that swing will take a long long time.
QUOTES:
"Once all the froth disappears from the marketplace then hopefully it will be a time when first time buyers can begin to thrive, but it’s not going to be a short journey."
"There has never been a time when people in their mid-twenties were thinking about property and saying: 'I could never do that unless prices crash by 50 per cent or granny dies and leaves me £100,000'", continued Mr Holmes. "It’s absolutely bizarre. It has to change and it will change, because now that the cheap credit has been stripped out of the market place there is only one way for this market (to go), and that is to be affordable."
6. housebear said...
growler said...
IMVHO = in my very humble opinion
I think Firstung are being optimistic. There is more to fall, so calling the end of the fall is VERY premature - as their clients will find out.
So they are still in denial then?
7. paul said...
lurker, this has to be the first time I've ever heard you privately quote your public self!
I think by the very nature of the service that Firstrung provides, it has to always be cautiously optimistic for FTBs.
8. growler said...
Quote "because now that the cheap credit has been stripped out of the market place there is only one way for this market (to go)"
It's a question of grammar: I think the writer should be in present continuous "is being" rather than past perfect "has been" since by the nature of the market "cheap credit" is a comparative on market offerings and personal wealth at a given point in time. If peoples incomes fall, then the rules on formerly OK credit will be rewritten. Additionally, the phrase "there is only one way for this market to go" is speculation in the future.
I think that the obvious cheap credit may well be over, but there is more credit that will be revoked from the market in the coming months.
9. converted lurker said...
Paul as you know I've always kept a distance between what's written and 'meself'. What do I want? Idealism wrapped up in simplicity I'm afraid ;¬( where FTBs can pick up a decent home, at a decent price, and get on with other aspects of their life. We started the organisation in order to offer a niche mortgage service to FTBs. Couldn't have possibly predicted that (just after the time of launch) property prices would go ballastic. I'm very optimistic for the future of FTBs (over the medium term) given that prices have to restore to affordable measures - 3.5 times average salary = 30-35% correction.
10. growler said...
ah - I might have misread the "this market" bit of that quote to be the "credit market" rather than the "house price market". In which case I agree with the writer that prices will fall. But I do think that FTBs would still be wise to wait for the end of the year.