smiley1
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Posts posted by smiley1
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So it has been nearly 2 years and I guess it is time for an update. There is a lot of dross ex student rental property coming on, I thought it would be funny to post this which is so bad it's hilarious:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141772787#/?channel=RES_BUY
Last purchased in 2000 for 54k.. this started off with a list price of 275k about a couple of months ago on a modern method of auction. Even without the obvious serious structural defects and evidence of crack movement measuring apparatus it appears to have had zero maintenance inside or out for the last 24 years and no doubt has provided some mileage as a student property on a street mostly filled with.. exactly the same kind of stuff, which begs the question who would pay 200k plus fees for a 2 bed property that will need a minimum of 50k to make even remotely pleasant plus whatever cost the structural work will need to sort out.
Elsewhere in Nottingham centre the city continues it's downward spiral with the council recently declaring effective bankruptcy, the centre looks more and more forelorn and it is difficult to know who exactly is buying city centre flats nowadays. A few new developments around the old cattlemarket area look smart, the prices again seem unrealistic considering what the centre of the city offers right now.
Further out in Wollaton, this will be interesting to watch which is almost competitively priced at 250k
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143077868#/?channel=RES_BUY
This area which I think is quite nice contains a mix of these small detached and semi detached bungalows from the 1930's which is close to Wollaton park, when we were looking to buy in 2017 we viewed a few of these, if you get the right plot some have impressive gardens but unfortunately they are single skin and with paper thin walls between adjoining semis so will need some money spending on insulation. Still 250k on what at first glance is a reasonable property in a reasonably nice area by the standards of Nottingham, although unfortunately still plenty of student houses in the area..
Then, this place came on a couple of months ago and sold pretty quickly. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86647047#/?channel=RES_BUY
An obviously tired place but on 1 acre of land in a nice part of Notts for 500k, definitely not a common type of place to come up, will be interesting to see what it sold for in the end and probably also interesting to see how many "exec" houses they manage to cram onto an acre in the end.
Well, we will see what the next 2 years brings. I suspect there will plenty of tired old junk coming on in the coming months, not selling easily, needing discounting, anything decent in a decent area seems to be holding up ok. It will be interesting to see how the city centre does and how and if it develops in the next couple of years and further and how that affects saleability of stuff nearby and further away... see you in 2 years time.
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Apologies if this has already been posted, I couldn't find a thread.
Around 100k planning applications are currently on hold on advice from Natural England. The issue originated from a EU judgement test case "the Dutch Case" which was concerned around the impacts of Nitrate and / or more generally nutrients produced as part of development, in the uk developments will need to demonstrate they are Nutrient Neutral to be able to be given planning permission. This started as an issue affecting the Solent and quickly spread to cover several other coastal and other areas. I am not sure at this stage if this is just a box ticking exercise that will be easy to find loopholes for, or whether it is more serious and will make development grind to a halt in a significant way.
Interestingly as part of a seperate development landowners / farmers etc are now newly being offered grants / payments to give up agricultural acreage on their land, return them to forest, heathland or other rewilded states, in exchange for government payment. This land could then be "bought" by the developers of said schemes as a "credit" to offset the Nitrates / Nutrients that are produced by their developments.
Personally I think that both of these are great ideas. Planning and residential development is a broken mess from top to bottom. Agriculture and farming in this country has been a mess for too long, largely lorded over by generational farmers with large acreage who have long since stopped caring about the land they are curating and with appalling results and food that is largely irrelevant to the needs of the locality it grows in. Hopefully if these two schemes actually have legs they will bring about rewilding on a significant scale. I suspect the commercial developers involved though won't be too happy so no doubt there will be some "workaround" in place soon. In the meantime never mind about the result being that house prices will get further out of reach and unaffordable food for all, eh?
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Scotrail have earlier in the week announced a "revised" timetable affecting the whole of Scotland with immediate effect, roughly 1 in 3 trains will no longer run. I understand this is over a refusal to accept 2.2% pay increase and instead staff will be walking out as well as a combination of being unable to get new recruits up to speed on route knowledge. Last summer in Scotland we had ongoing strikes meaning there were no Sunday services for virtually the whole of Scotland, this affected us slightly but not much as we went on holiday to Fort William/ Mallaig using public transport but instead just used the bus service. This year I am booked for a week in the wilds around Mallaig and the 4 tpd Fort William is reduced to 2tpd! Assuming this revised timetable continues over the summer I would say this will kill off the railways in scotland a major tourist destination and Stagecoach and other bus operators must be rubbing their hands in glee at the easy opportunity here. The railway at a time when they need to be getting their house in order are instead reverting to the hands out for money mentality a la NHS and then acting surprised when there is no more free money falling out of the sky, if they were a privately run operation they would likely be bankrupt by now.
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The topic of discussion is whether you can cook a meal for 30p and presumably whether it is morally right to have to have an education in cooking cheaply before being able to use a foodbank, so I wonder out of the contributers to this thread who can offer a) first hand experience or a detailed understanding of the demographic of people who use food banks rather than opinions or prejudices about such, b) the ability to cook for pennies, perhaps 30p is pushing it but certainly you can cook meals cheaply if that is what you need to do. Much as I think politicics and politicians are a joke, on this one particular point the MP has made a correct point that if you do not want to educate yourself on how to cook on a budget then you have no business making use of a foodbank, this is a fair point, no? And as for of talks of dishwashers, I would suggest this is this the more out of touch comment on this thread than whether an MP is qualified to give advice on how to use a foodbank...
So from my point of view yes I have been able to batch cook meals for a lot less than a pound a meal, taking meat out is a big help and yes I do think there needs to be an element of education in learning how to be creative when cooking on a budget. I do not need to cook regularly for a pound or 30p or whatever because I do not need to do so but it is a good skill to have should it be necessary, same as understanding horticulture, same as understanding how machines work, same as knowing how to fix things because you cannot get hold of a builder or plumber or electrician or whatever at any price... I do not use food banks because I do not need to do so so I am unqualified to comment on the demographic and / or imagination or cooking ability of people who may need to use them, but maybe one day my life will take a turn for the worse and I will need to do so and no doubt then I will gain first hand experience as I talk to other people at the food bank.
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Well it has been nearly 2 years since I last posted so I thought it might be time for an update.
Not a huge change in supply of new property coming to market. Good stuff sells within days as before, things with "issues" seem to take longer. Few landlord properties 10 bed HMO style in awful condition coming on, no doubt bought be fellow slumlords.. I still follow rightmove daily, more for the laugh really, there are some right crackers out there but a lot of it seems to sell quickly. One trend I have noticed over the last month or so is there are a few reductions made here and there, something that would have been almost unthinkable only 6 months ago. Personally I suspect we will see a spring bounce, prices will take another jump up, and so it continues. If a global pandemic doesn't stop it then nothing will.
I also occasionally look at the rental market in NG9, NG8, NG5... it is depressing. Little new supply, rental prices are a good 20 - 30 % up at least on where they were a couple of years ago, sometimes a lot more. Supply is student properties and little else since that is where the money is in this town with our two universities. I live in Beeston, a suburb of Nottingham and a lot of places are still being bought up and converted into student accommodation even though they are blatantly unsuitable and in areas where nobody wants students moving in, a trend that has carried on here for at least the last 20 years. I noticed the 2 bed flat we rented in Sherwood at £500pcm in 2016 came on recently, a mould infested dump in a depressing area. Knowing what the landlord was like there would have been zero chance of any of the many issues having been rectified since then. Asking rent £700pcm and was let in a few days...
I have a few bookmarked properties that I was following, this one came up a while ago:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/103520042#/?channel=RES_BUY
I like this one and go walking there a lot as it is quite near where we live. It is SSTC but was marketed as cash buyers only and I am not sure what it eventually sold for. I am not sure what type of person would buy this but there has been builders vans outside the last couple of times I have been past. If you know where this is you will know there is quite a big infestation of JK just outside, the property is built on metal props / stilts and is looking like it sagging into the marshlands of the disused gravel quarries that surround it, not much outdoor space, and the footpath that is literally 1 foot from the front window with people passing at all times of day and night. Still a very nice and unique location but I would prefer the "cabins" on the other side of the river although they have a different set of issues with the huge amount of new housing development that will take place there shortly.
We have been looking at properties in Shropshire / Herefordshire but the kind of thing we want (smallholding with land) is exactly what everyone else wants and so the prices have increased massively and now are of course insane and unless you are a cash buyer with £££ in the bank waiting to go then good luck even getting a viewing. Sell your house and rent and you lose £ because prices go up so fast... darn it's a mugs game... So of course I have concluded this country is an overpriced dump with zero chance of social mobility into a better house even with well paid jobs and if we can pull it off we will be looking to cash in in a few years and leave the country for better climes...
See you in 2 years for another update.
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I don't know if anyone keeps track on rightmove daily supply of new properties to rent, I have been doing this for a while in certain postcode areas of Nottingham just out of interest, checking a couple of times a week, and from this have seen two things: 1) supply is at chronic shortage levels and has been for some time. Where historically there has been a steady stream of new properties coming onto the market more recently this supply has dwindled to a trickle. 2) Time taken for properties from listing to be let is VERY fast, anything left after a couple of weeks is the worst of the worst. Again historically property could be let quickly, but the more normal turnaround time would be measured in a few weeks, with some sticking a lot longer. I would guess this is a similar picture in enough parts of the country to be significant. So, chronic shortage, and lots of demand for what little is there, hardly surprising prices are rising.
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Hi, I am not a new user, in fact I have been a lurker on HPC on and off, but mostly on, since around 2006. Amongst a lot of other things I remember very well the "lively" debate between Geneer and Casual Observer. Geneer if I recall correctly eventually bought a flat in Edinburgh and was roundly ripped at the time for his decision for doing so. Anyway...
I will write a bit about myself here and why I lurk on this forum (other members express their positions far more eloquently than I ever could which is why I almost never post here!)
In 2006 I was in my 20s and not at all bothered about buying a house. I lived in a cheap rented flat in Bath Street, Nottingham. £350 a month on a take home of nearly £2k left me plenty of money to do what I really wanted which was traveling and a having a good time without being flippant with money.
As time went on I decided by the time I was 40 I would buy and own a house. I cannot remember exactly when or where this idea came from but I remember the basis of this decision was that a 25 year mortgage taken out at 40 would take me to what was then the retirement age without having to worry about paying off a mortgage with a pension.
In the meantime there was 2008 and the ensuing HPC which in Nottingham had worked itself out by around 2013 and prices were starting to rise again. I finally bought in 2014 - a structurally detached 3 story 2 bed house in a non desire-able area of town the only saving grace was the proximity to the centre of Nottingham.
The house was a nightmare for reasons that are too long to go into here and I eventually sold less than a year later (at a loss). After a while I moved in with my girlfriend and fast forward to 2017 we bought a house together in a nicer area where we still live now.
Since then 3 things have happened. 1) We have to decided in the coming 5 - 6 years to sell up in the uk and instead buy and move to a finca (small farm) in Portugal. This has been mainly made possible financially by overpaying, saving, but mainly by 2) our house "value" have gone up significantly. This is a HPC forum so I won't dwell on this point but suffice to say that HPI has given us options that would have been much harder otherwise. 3) this country (in my view) is increasingly becoming a basket case, I feel genuinely sorry for young people making their way right now and in the coming years.
I walked around Nottingham city centre last weekend for the first time in 18 months and I didn't really recognise what I saw. Not just the shops closed, the half demolished Broadmarsh and surrounding ghetto, but the people, the mannerisms, the way everything was so different to how I remember it. I remember thinking I don't really know what I am doing here any more.
Personally I don't think HPI is a good thing for an economy long term (yes that makes me a hypocrite since I have been happy to milk the benefit of HPI on our house, isn't life a funny thing). I think there will likely be either an HPC or a return to pre 1900's inequality... an HPC if it happens might be in 2 years or it might be in 20 years. I think when there is a HPC it will be the least of peoples problems. The amount the government has been willing to throw at never ending HPI is astounding.
Anyway that's enough rambling about me. I find the debate on these forums very interesting and informative. Have been lurking here for nearly 20 years, hopefully I will still be here in another 20 years!
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I look at different forums and threads like this come up from time to time about exactly the same subject matter... live in Italy for 1 euro or buy a village in Spain for 50 euros etc you get the idea.
Behind the headlines is usually a series of commitments to use local labour or be tied into some kind of agreement where you stay x number of years and so on, when you work out the figures in your head it suddenly isn't so appealing.
So for myself, instead of doing that or my biannual updating of the what is happening in Nottingham housing market thread, am planning to move to rural Portugal in the next 5 - 7 years with my GF. We are doing this with our eyes wide open, and, for the sake of the spirit of this forum, I am sorry to say endless HPI in Nottingham is paying for a pretty good part of it, although even without this we earn and save enough to be able to make it happen, it would just take longer.
Can't wait to go. 15 hectares or so should do it, living off the land. "Living off the land" is probably one of the more cliched phrases I've heard for a long time. We know a lot about it already though. I am going in with my eyes wide open, GF as well. First thing I did is researched all the negatives and all the problems that we will encounter. Beaurocracy, bribes, nothing being done quickly, being a long way from civilisation and healthcare, having to retake a Portuguese driving test, not being around friends, isolated, not being able to buy what we want when we want it, desertification and lack of water in certain regions which is a serious problem if you want to live off the land, etc etc and many other issues, you get the idea. I have spent time in remote areas of Europe before where you never see a tourist and I know what it is like. Without sounding like a cult, it is the right thing to do, the only thing in fact, I don't see myself living out my life in a 3 bed semi in the suburbs with some wacky kiss the boss style job and the associated nonsense, never have done.
This is not the thread to go into detail of my plans but the outline plan is for both of us to work remotely and be completely off grid. Forget about getting a job in Portugal, you need to be able to get an income either from your own business or from a UK (or elsewhere) employer or client(s).
Rural Italy or wherever doesn't work for 90% of people because they really have no idea what it really means to go thousands of miles away from home to a place that is likely only familiar as a vague image of a holiday destination and which has no resemblance in any way to where they have previously called home. You cannot just roll up and expect the country to change for you and act disappointed when it doesn't.
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Saw this one today which made me laugh:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-81010624.html
In the apparently "up and coming area" of the old meadows. For those of you local, the old meadows has recently been made a conversation area, however it is still in close proximity to the new meadows which has a serious reputation as drug and crime hotspot and general ****hole. This price represents a large leap on ceiling price for the street and probably the whole of the old meadows and it will be interesting to see if sticking a photo of a smeg fridge will make it appeal to the "right sort of buyer".
As a general update, the post covid world of rightmove listings for sale in Nottingham +0 miles is pretty much the same as the pre covid world. Volumes are similar, prices are similar. I have noticed a few falling through and coming back on. A few student HMOs coming on the market. Good places in good areas seem to shift quickly and the dross sticks around, same as it ever was. Not sure whether this will be the case in 6 months if / when job losses come through but we will see.
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Noticed this one coming up today:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-85247828.html
Last sold Jan 2019 :
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=74049236&sale=8994874&country=england
This is in admittedly a posh part of Beeston and appears to be a good level of refurb but nevertheless a near doubling of price in just 9 months represents quite the mark up...
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This one:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70257379.html
Has come back after being SSTC, must have fallen through. Guide price 155-160k. Last sold 57.5k in 2014.. quite the markup. This is in a seriously bad part of town which for some strange reason has become uber hip with young trendy types. It might be close to the lace market but it is a world away. Trust me, I used to live 2 streets away and saw it all.
The 300k house in Wollaton is now 270k and still on. I think they have fixed the garden wall though so that's nice.
Not much seems to have changed other than certain places are sticking a little, good affordable houses in decent areas are still going quickly. A 3 bed semi a couple of streets away from us in Wollaton direction sold in a few days, it was on at 200k.
When I was looking to buy in 2014 I went to view this one:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62971428.html
It was priced at 120-130k and I offered 115k which was rejected, it stayed on for a year unsold and unreduced. Now it has sold within a couple of weeks, don't know the sale price. The house has no back garden and no back windows since it is build up against the original rock of the town. It is in a quiet part of town but very central so I am not surprised it has sold, more surprised it didn't sell last time.
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Back on Charlbury road again, this came up today at 300k. Fliptastic!
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-59427249.html
Last sold Dec 2017 for 205k
Love the crumbling garden wall on the refurb, But hey, it is in a "sort" after location so all's well!
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Well nearly 2 years after I last posted. We bought over a year ago in Nottingham but the main reason I wanted to post is an update on the Nottm property scene as things have felt differently here now for several months.
Nottingham had the dubious honour of having one of the highest annual HPI in the country back in 2017 with family houses priced at < 200k and remotely decent located in a remotely good area generally selling for offers over. It was within this context that we bought... something remotely decent in a remotely decent area. The price was ok and we are paying less than we were in rental together with overpayments that are getting the mortgage down quite fast.
Anyway, as I mentioned Nottm has felt different in the last few months. If anyone is interested I can post some links together with some commentary based on my frequent observations of Rightmove and knowledge of the area.
First, Charlbury Road.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68072041.html
We actually lived on this road while looking to buy. It is right on the edge of Wollaton, a generally fairly upmarket area about 3 miles from the city centre, however this street itself borders a much rougher council area (Bilborough) and as such prices have historically been much more subdued than on other similar streets, even with the park nearby. Cue 2017 where a couple of nicely presented semis broke the 200 mark. Fast forward to oct 2018 and a load of semis went on at a very similar time the majority listed at offers over 200k. The above is an example of about 8 semis on this street all similarly priced and in various degrees of maintenance. Some are clearly ex rentals. A couple of listings have ben removed in the last wfew weeks, none as far as I can see have sold. The most overpriced (230K+) have had a couple of minor reductions by 5k or so but still sticking. The reason I am writing all this is that all of these houses 12 / 18 months ago would have sold at almost any price so the current stickiness is quite interesting to note as is the "offers over" on almost all of them...
Second, just for a bit of fun:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-78276383.html
This is number 445 and was last sold at 210 in July 2017, appears to be a flip. The area is a fairly rough area (Radford / Hyson Green) not particularly somewhere that you would want to hang around in the middle of the day let alone at night so although done up very nicely it is the old adage of the best house in the worst street. To give you some context you could buy a mid terrace in the Park area (poshest part of town) for a similar price although it would admittedly not be as characterful.
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To be honest I would question why a supposedly first world country like the UK would be encouraging this kind of building activity. I can see if this was actually given the go ahead then shanty towns full of these types of structures would probably start to appear especially around London and in the south east, what I think would also start to happen is the "value" of these types of structures would sky rocket so that they were more in line with that of traditional housing. What would definitely not happen is the cost of housing decreasing by any significant amount. Unscrupulous landlords would take advantage and rent these out for near normal rents and lo and behold our "solution" turns into another problem of even worse quality housing than before and ugly to boot. The problem with housing in this country is the monetization of it, sort that problem out and everything else resolves itself.
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https://www.hometrack.com/uk/insight/uk-cities-house-price-index/Print?nodeId=18735&type=methodology
According to this they use land reg data on pairs of price points for properties that have sold more than once so in theory should be fairly accurate. I can't speak for the other cities on the report but to be honest what I'm seeing in Nottingham over the last 6 - 12 months reflects what the report says ie strong price growth.
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Well 8 months went by and so I thought I would update this. We will start looking to buy around July. We are buyers currently in rented, not looking to sell again in 5 years so would like something that is right long term hopefully until we are 6 feet under. Over the last 12 months unfortunately prices in Wollaton where we are ideally looking have gone up a LOT nevertheless there is still value for money out there. We are a couple both working in reasonably well paid jobs so I feel that there are currently certainly options for us here. We are also looking at the nicer parts of Beeston or Bramcote as backup search areas. In general I get the feeling this is a strange time to be starting off house hunting here, up until around a couple of weeks ago there was a drought of anything decent, then suddenly there seemed to be a huge increase in new listings. I am not sure if this is just a short term phenomenon or whether it is part of longer term trend, at the minute anything half decent in a half decent area and not at an inflated price sells pretty quickly.
In general in Nottingham there is some right **** listed at scary prices in particulay I have notice listed a couple of places in the area around Robin Hood Terrace and Campbell Grove, classic examples of nicely done up houses in a very very ropey area. (I haved very close to here in the past) One sells in excess of asking price then the next one is listed at 5k more than sale price. 145k. This may not seem a lot but bear in mind in 2013 these were going at less than 100k. On on Shortwood Close a small close of ex LA houses, in admittedly a very central location near lace market, sold in a week in 2014 at 120k now listed at 150-160k with nothing additional done! Is 120k too low? is 160k too high? I have not bothered checking whether it has sold. This a house where you can hear the neighbours conversation because the walls are so thin (we viewed same style of house one street away).
Over 300k things look very sticky, there is definitely still value for money at that level. I am seeing lot of very nice 30s detached with large garden in nice areas not selling at 250 - 300 and either reduced or taken off the market. 150 - 200 seems to be where there is most competition for anything decent. Below 130 again there seems very little interest (possibly tradtionally more likely being buy to let now not shifting?)
Anyway enough of my rambling, I will update as our search progresses.
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Nottingham. Last couple of weeks there have been a noticeable increase in volumes newly listed all of a sudden, it is suddenly a tap was turned on compared to the drought of the previous ~ 12 months. Prices are a bit meh, some kite flying, but occasionally something comes on that is reasonably priced. Quite a few reductions but as part of that a reduction to "offers over" nonsense so not really a reduction.
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I live in Nottingham have been tracking prices for ages.
Wollaton has gone up significantly in price over the last 12 months ( i know this because we are looking to buy here soon and am getting pi**** off with 40%+ rises in just a few months!) and anything remotely decent in fernwood catchment is selling for any money.
In other areas there are some kite flying prices but also seeing a lot of reductions.
I suspect the problem as alluded to before is chains are incomplete. In nottingham as everywhere there is a chronic shortage of anywhere decent so very little choice but from what i've seen i don't think there is a sudden mad frenzy of london money pouring in.
Interesting as the statistic is what might be more interesting is a summary showing
1) date property went on the market
2) date reduced (if applciable)
3) date sold (if applicable)
4) time period between date sold and present date
5) time period between date sold and date completion
i don't know if anything like that exists at all or whether it would be a manual exercise.
that way we can understand better whether stuff is just sitting there in unformed chains or whether something else is going on.
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Hi folks
I'm wondering if anyone else is following Nottingham prices lately? We (me and girlfriend) are looking to commit to buy in about 12 months and have been keeping an eye on listings and prices whilst getting deposit money and other matters sorted out.
It seems like a mixed story, there are lots of reductions around and and I notice quite a lot of places that get SSTC or pulled and then appear as a new listing a few weeks or months later. These reductions seem to be happening even for "popular" houses in good locations eg granny's 3 bed semi in a nice part of West Bridgford, which would have been almost unheard of a year ago.
In our area of interest (Wollaton) and our particular streets of interest houses seem to be selling very fast (< 1 week) if reasonably priced but there are also quite a few kite flying prices that stick on the market for months. At the moment it still feels like there is reasonable value for money especially for somewhere that needs a bit of work doing.
We are renting in Sherwood at the moment and I'm always amazed at how expensive it is to buy in the area considering what is on offer, IMHO having been here a year it seems like a very borderline area with plenty of rough patches. A high street with a grocer and a handful of "artsy" shops and micropubs but no proper supermarkets except Lidl at the Carrington end and a few small Co-Ops.
Will keep an eye on things, hopefully Nottingham is not on the verge of any kind of mega bubble at the moment!
The year the Australian Dream died
in House prices and the economy
Posted
Not sure why the BBC has focused on a country on the other side of the world as being somewhere that dreams go to die in a boohoo style article? You could substitute Australia or Sydney with pretty much most western countries and / or cities, heck you could even substitute with pretty much any city anywhere in the world. Mumbai, London, Bristol, Lisbon, Rome, Warsaw, Moscow, Beijing, Ulanbaatar, etc etc... Which begs the question, who actually owns all of these properties that are, apparently, unaffordable?