TheCountOfNowhere

£80k for a one bed flat...madness.

Well done to the OP. The EA is being present with a new reality...i.e. a buyer that can actually proceed and is dictating the value of the house. More people should take this tack. I viewed a house a couple of weeks ago, it was £200K over-valued compared to houses that have sold. I happily pointed this out to the EA. He told me I was wrong and he has a buyer willing to pay near asking. It's not gone SSTC, funny that. EA and Sellers need to hear the truth from buyers. Everyone on HPC should be viewing and offerring real feedback on a regular basis.

It doesn't resolve anything though. We'd still like to buy a house but houses are ridiculously priced, prohibitively so. There are very few sales. EAs must be living off top end high percentage sales. Unless all the fools have bought or we have another crisis ( which is probable ) then nothing is going to change for a while. I can only see one possible solution...Leave. live somewhere else. In a republic preferably.

Anyone trying to get on the ladder is out of in luck......I think it's lucky that people can;t get onto the ladder right now...the ones that were out of luck were the ones in 2007 that stretched themselves to buy a slave box thinking they would make money. You make a good point that someone with a 150K now worth 500K, might well have cleared their mortgage and have substantial savings....where else would you put it but in a house, it's already made you 350K so no reason to think you will loose out now....you can kind of see their reasoning. It's only when you are sitting on the side and you'd have to part with £600K of real money to buy the same house that has maybe only cost them £250K cash + 100K in interest over the years. They might loose £250K of their equity...you might loose £250 Of cash ( + interest ) !!!! That;s a scary thought for them waiting to buy, not such a big worry for them in the house, they wont see that.

They are on the slippery slope.

It has to be a combination of low IRs and people cashing in their chips in London keeping the top end going. As exiges says it looks like two separate markets. If IRs shoot up then prices will plummet and a lot of people will be left hold the baby. if London collapses, same result. The whole thing is totally frustrating but nothing could posses me right now to over-pay for a house, the asking prices are just silly.

"He starts on the crisis. A dire warning: "We now face a crisis that is the economic equivalent of war," he says." I think this is incorrect...it should read: We now face a crisis that is the economic equivalent of pre-cursor to war. You can kind of see it coming. The economic collapse + diminishing supplied of oil could spell disaster for many.

That's a normal day.

Were houses free in Wales 6 years ago ?

That's the $1000000 question. In London the prices right now are peak+. Peak prices were crazy so the peak+ prices are going to destroy a lot of people, they will loose their parents hard earned cash very quickly. They can only be occurring because of the crazy BoE interest rate policy with people buying based on monthly affordability and the sense that they just can't loose buying a house in London. ( And why should they think otherwise, the CC only dented prices and people are still making a fortune ). 1. IR's going up with stop this madness ( and it's a madness that should be stopped ASAP ) 2. One of the banks going pop and CC 2 might stop it, but it might stop most things 3. Greece defaulting might cause a bank or two to collapse I suppose, resulting in CC2. 4. Otherwise prices will expand to meet peoples affordability but when that point is reached ( and surely we must be there ) it's anyone's guess what will happen. 5) Massive job losses might see things plummet but we aleady have 7million people out of work and they are living very nicely thank you very much mr Brown. 6)One thing is too awful to contemplate....Large scale terrorist attach such as a small nucleur device, highly unlikely in my opinion. 7) Prices just keep going up for ever and we all sell out house to Londoners...god bless them. 8) A change of government that understands the problem...6) is more likely. 9) UK rating downgrade, bond market telling Osborne his pretend austerity is transparent, IMF given the keys to the door and interest rates hit 10%. 10) The plague returning. Whatever scenario you take, it's difficult to see when it will happen, but one of the above will happen. The consequences will be worse than they were 4 years ago ( is it that long now !!! ) and this country is going to take decades to recover. Forget buying a house...leave.

I have a few similar anecdotes I can share with you. 1) Friend of ours in Clapham, has agreed a sale on her 1 bed flat for...wait for it.....£355K !!!!!!!! She is moving with her boyfriend to Surrey and buying somewhere for £550K. The countess sold her flat nearby recently and we easilly negotiated the estate agent fee to 1%....this lady used the same agents and we told her that they would do 1% easily, she is paying 1.75% !!!!! She also seems oblivuous to the stamp duty increase at 500K. They got 15K off the asking price. They are stretching themselves to buy. 2) Another london couple, bought a 2 bed ( or it might be 3) house in Brixton, just sold for 175K more than they paid for it 3 years ago !!!! They are moving to Birmingham to buy something nice. 3) 2 people I know trying to sell "big" houses in Northampton are sitting waiting for someone from London to come and buy it from them and hoping for something close to asking price!!!! They've actually said..."we're hoping for a london buyer" !!! 4) A mate of mine has tried selling his (150K 4 bed house ) all year...not even a sniff. Has taken it off the market to wait till next year. I guess no one coming out of London wants a crappy 150K house mortgage free when the see they can only win BIG on houses and can get cheap credit to buy somewhere in reality they can't afford. As I've said a few times now....When London goes pop, and it will, the housing market around London will collapse big time. None of the locals in Northampton can afford the 150K house never mind the 500K+ houses.

QE might have saved the economy from entering a deeper recession, at that time, but it will not stop the double dip and if anything it will make it worse because the pound in our pockets is worth so much less now. They did give lots of free cash to their mates in the city though. Well done them.

It feels like 2007 all over again.

Or they could all stop paying bonuses .

That's always a possibility, but if the mid-low end properties are selling at 20% off peak prices ( which is certainly the case in NH from what I see ) then why should the top end places be exhibiting a different selling pattern ? I think the Londoners moving to the country and buying what appears to them to be a great value house ( even though they are paying well over the odds ) and getting a low market rate is simply keeping these prices up. The key has to be the London Market. When it goes, everything goes. When will London pop.....dunno

Have you driven along that road ? There is a nice village just off the A45 (Collingtree ) 500 yards off that road and if you view a house in the village you can't stand outside for the road noise. Not only have you for the A45 you also have the M1. The A45 is as busy as it gets, as is the M1. You would need to see the house in-situ to understand how bad the noise could be. Also, 3 beds in NH can go for anything between £120K to £200K., £210K seems a tad optimistic.

Actual selling prices down 2.5% ( or thereabouts ), housing not selling, agents selling 1 house a week ( not enough to survive ). That tells you all you need to know about the any asking price index...delusional index more like.

I'm seeing exactly the same thing as exiges...we look at much the same area though. 2 things keeping th market going are the monthly affordability thing and the people moving out of london thing. Whichever set is buying the houses round our way its definately skewing the market big time, the 500K+ properties are selling like hot cakes and prices are at 2007+ prices. I think many people will live to regret buying this year. A point to note though is, if this is happening round the country..imagine how it's skewing the haliwide/land reg figures. When IRs rise or london market collapses again then the top end property prices will get hammered. The risk of buying right now is too high. I did a quick calculation yesterday, in the northants thread) on one house that sold in 2008 then 2011,,,even though the buyer sold for 50K. more they probably were 100k worse off( buying/selling fees and interest ). They could have rented a top notch property in northants for 50K less than the costs of buying.

No hatred what so-ever for the gold bugs. Well done for buying into gold 4/5 years ago. You will always have made money ( much like those buying houses in 1998 ). Those buying gold in the last 12 months however...will loose their shirt when the price of gold is hammered down. This will happen, rest assured. You mistake anyone who doesn't think gold will go up and up and up and stay high for ever as someone that hates you for buying gold. This was the same with the housing bubble. I dont hate anyone who bought a house in 1988 and lucked into a wedge of cash. I feel sorry for those that bought into the greed of the housing market in 2006 and have lost everything.

When I saw this place come on the market today I thought....I think I recognize this place....I think I drive past this place every day. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35153858.html?premiumA=true It's right on the A45 just before it meets the M1, off J15. Click on Streetview to see what's outside the front door. !!! If you scroll up a bit away from the lorry you can see the house. A snip at only £214K...for a 3 bed too, that's about £200K too much in my opinion.

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/breaking_news_whittlebury_hall_goes_into_administration_following_cashflow_problems_1_3064584 "THE owners of Whittlebury Hall have confirmed the hotel and conference venue has gone into administration. The business, which is understood to have endured a string of cashflow problems in recent months, is continuing to trade as a buyer is sought" .... "Peter Holder, a spokesman for creditors Zolfo Cooper, said: “This is a profitable and high quality hotel ..." "“In the meantime, the business will continue to trade as normal, honoring bookings, vouchers and existing gym memberships. " Two points : 1) This is a luxury "SPA" hotel 2) If they continue to trade then I guess it's their creditors that will be burned ? This is definitely a sign of the times. Looks like their profits have been whittle'd away

Does someone else have the right to stop you building a house on the land you own/took/killed for/etc. That's a much better question.

Here's an interesting point. Ever wondered what people negotiate off asking prices: Found this sale price on zoopla: http://www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/church-brampton/sandy-lane/?q=sandy%20lane%20church%20brampton 2nd Feb 2011 Beech House, Sandy Lane, Church Brampton, Northampton NN6 8AX Detached, Freehold, 5 Beds, 4 Baths, -- Receps - Edit £785,000 Previous sale: 16th May 2008 Beech House, Sandy Lane, Church Brampton, Northampton NN6 8AX Detached, Freehold, 5 Beds, 4 Baths, -- Receps - Edit £735,000 Property details | See on map | Bird's eye view | Add to favourites After a quick google, found this ( what I assume is an old advert at the time of selling ): http://www.vebra.com/property/1015/21598478 " this fine individual detached house has recently undergone an extensive re-modelling programme starting in 2008". The original asking price £800K...Someone paid £785K for it. £15K off the asking price, I'd have expected £100K to cover some of my future losses. Selling price up £50K, 2 years after the biggest financial collapse in history !!! Still that 50K increase will have easilly be munched up to stamp duty ( £28K ), banks/loss of interest for 2 years ( £100K ) and the EA ( £10K+), and the refurb ( £5 for some twigs ). Probably £100K worse off for 2 years ownership...could have rent something like that for £50K for 2 years, People really don't understand the market. People buying the top end houses really are in for a massive massive shock. Exiges are you still keen to buy ?

I have..."Not sent from an iPhone because I think for myself"

He's in "power" now and is doing what he is told. It's time we have a government that works for the 65 million rather than the 5000. I've said it before and I will say it again....dont vote for the big three ( well big 2.5 ) parties come the next election.