Spoony

Thanks, all that noted. I hope it all works out for you. Yes, I would like to go back to being a happier person who looks forward to the good times to come. Somebody who is positive about the economy and the future. Being so 'doom and gloom' is depressing for people who hang around me even if it is true and realistic. I think when you buy house you hope for the positive and almost switch side. But the reality is, ZIRP will end and the UK will face its demons. It would be nice not to worry anymore about inflation, interest rates the exchange rates etc and just enjoy life. If I did buy I wouldn't have to take on that much of a mortgage - I can't bring myself to do it - it would be like the last 10 years of waiting were for nothing, especially once the market did correct. It would be sods law that once of the oldest bears here did it - that the market would go south and I would kick myself. What keeps re-occuring on this thread is that HPC'ers have to stop focusing just on HPI/HPC, and live some more. It just that whenever a new government scheme comes out or rates go lower or RPI goes higher, the anger I have towards the government and system just makes me save harder, spend less and live less, become more miserly if you like. I've even become strategic when I shop at Tesco now, going around with a calculator to make sure I don't spend a £ over their £40 spend to get my £6 off when I have one of those vouchers! Nothing I buy is full price. I know everything I buy and the cycle of when they have them at full price and then weeks later on offer on 2 for 1's or half price etc. I hate Tesco but I like to buy all their loss leaders.

Thanks and points taken I will try to do that

Great comment - that's about right. Apart from I can't afford to buy one. I can, even at these stupid prices because I worked and saved like hell. But I can't bring myself to buy an overpriced house that will eventually fall. Seems like a waste of the savings and I want at least some reward for my lost decade. This my issue hence the thought of get one outside the UK

Exactly what I thought

A quote of Gordon Brown proportions. Cable supports the Help to buy, when Osbourne was destroyed by Labour in the commons over this issue he was speechless, he could not answer back, it was Cable who stood up and mumbled to his defence, this makes me think it might even be a LibDem idea in the first place

The fools won, I lost. A decade and counting. Add another 3 years to that thanks to Osbournes HtB. That's even if they stop it after 3. I'm old now, I don't have another spare 3 years. That's why emigration or just getting a place abroad is on my radar even if I can't properly move due to my job,

It was her idea... for me to sell my shared slave box, and for us to buy a big family house with a granny annex for her Mother plus our future child to live in. I have been wanting to move for a long time though as my neighbours are noisy idiots

Thanks for posting this on workaway. I've had a good look at this site. That is a really great concept. It got my thinking to what you can do, there are other sites like it which enable you to work or live abroad. Probably something I have been guilty of is sitting in my own bubble and comfort zone for too long and not getting out there much to have new experiences and meeting very many new people. I have lived alone since 1999. The last time I had new life experiences like workaway was when I used to live in houseshares in Surrey from about 1993-1995. It wasn't all roses especially if you don't get on with a housemate but as least you have something else going on and it rounds you a bit more as a person, perhaps stops you getting so set in your ways. You get your perfect house, then what? Life is more than just that.

I was referring to the gap between RPI and the approx. 2.3% net on average I am getting from the savings. Oh yes I am still saving about £500 a month. This panic is probably to due some kind of mid life crisis triggered by hitting 40, but the reminder on here that every year I am older my future 5 year mortgage will get shorter and the amount available to borrow will be less doesn't help. But I only expect a 20% mortgage at worst unless prices carry on going. Perhaps I am obsessed in HPC in the way that those idiot presenters of Homes Under the Hammer are obsessed with HPI and profit... god I hate that show

With me being 40 that's a 25 year mortgage and counting less every year. I suppose that by putting down a very large deposit I can get around that problem

Er thanks. I think. But seriously I had no idea I would get so many responses thanks. I suppose I raised some talking points!

2009 was another buying chance missed. (Again) I worry about rising wages though Famous last words of 2004 - 2013 I hope you are right All logic and common sense has left this country. I expected greater things of the Tories than Browns mad policies mark 2 This stops me from buying but the prospect of losing it through ZIRP and inflation panics me to buy something somewhere. I think I could not work for 7 years if I used the STR money to fund my unemployment.... but people get it for free from the government, might as well have blown it on a house and got interest paid etc if out of work. I do enjoy not being a slave to the mortgage though. The prospect of being the richest coffin in the graveyard also scares me as this is how it is going at this rate. In your situation it's a tough call, and I feel your dilemma too. When they are waving HtB at you, you know the system sucks and its a bribe which is morally wrong. Maybe you could do it then sell up in 3 years time before the thing is withdrawn and the crash comes. But it might never be withdrawn. Or it could be tapered off like they did with MIRAS just before the 90's crash. Wise words of the day that. I wish I could put them into practice. Cheers all I will be back later

Worry about that quote too. Just came back from abroad hoping to got to Spain soon. Which developing countries in particular? Very good! £1.4M for a flat in Cambridge. Its car hating, bike loving Cambridge. I hate the place, full of park and ride crap and too much traffic. I wouldn't live there even it it was 100K We do, that would be a great idea, who is going to add this to the site? Another one of my fears although a few friends of mine are examples of how you can meet a stunning bird get married and live a great life. True but I'm not sure about no sentiment from non HPC'ers at the moment.

Thanks for the replies. I will respond to a lot of them: The North of England I was wondering about, but in my area (electronics test) I am not sure if there is much about. I know the salary drops off once you go up north. Abroad again you get the problem of the only places that are cheap are the ones with no jobs. Indeed Nottingham is quite cheap (good place to snag a woman I hear too). We have low wage growth compared to inflation. How long will this continue? This is my fear, what will happen when wages growth picks up? Inflation will take off - and will they have the balls to raise rates? If not those of us with money in the bank will see the value eroded. It will also make housing look cheaper. To the above 2 quotes, I have interests that take up my spare time so always busy doing my own thing with no real need for a woman. What is driving my fears about houses is that I see the worked hard for money being eroded by inflation, so my urge to buy something somewhere is due to this.

So, regardless if if its realistic or not, sentiment is improving. The doom is not as bad as it was. With government meddling (QE, negative rates, help to buy, etc) they have prevented a full blown crash. Now it looks as though they are inflating houses prices to win an election although they will not ever admit that. 10 years I have been at HPC. Summer 2003 I became effectively a STR'er, although my rent is a shared ownership. I have crap neighbours, the house is a tiny poky box but I have not moved and put my life on hold for all this time because to put all my savings into a house in a market that was 30% - 40% overvalued seemed insane. But prices carried on going and went up beyond expectations due to Brown's meddling then crashed a fair bit but are above 2003 levels which has made the whole exercise pointless. So at various stages I considered buying, but I have always believed that eventually the market must return to normal. The end never comes, it's one new scheme after another, I never would have dreamt the extent that governments would go to to prevent house prices falling. So in this 10 years my HPC ethic has really been on of the main causes of the failure of my relationships. Why? 1. GF wanted to live together, then arguements would ensue over not buying one. So bad that we would split before even trying renting instead. 2. In this 10 years through not buying and being ultra annoyed at everything going on I have cut expenditure to the minimum as a response to negative rates, invested as well as I could, worked a lot of OT, and saved up a big HPC fund ready to use when the time actually comes, this has caused me more problems. It has made me rather worried that a woman could take half of it, again this is an obstacle to happiness. If they want kids, even worse, you know how much they cost and women at my age who don't have kids are running out of time with the biological clock. Another cause of relationship failure. 3 The lack of a HPC has made me very angry and maybe a bit bitter and twisted since everything I have done or not done for the last 10 years is because of it. I am not the fun person I used to be because everything about the economy and high HPI holds me back through the anger I have stored up. So in dating if the topic of money comes up its like opening a can of worms, most women do not understand the system at all, to them I have now turned into a man obsessed with money and doom and gloom rather than a catch. If I had just bought a house in 2003, got married, had kids I would have been in a different place today. What to do? 1. Give up and buy in the UK. They might go up 10% after buying before something happens to trigger the full blown crash but hey at least I have moved on and not waited anymore. 2. Wait some more, save some more, but how long for? it would be another 3 years before a crash if any comes. Then I will be 43. 3. Buy abroad in a place that is having a proper correction. I can only think of Spain or Ireland, but these places are not good for my sort of work. 4. Find a woman financially on par with me? Not likely since to have a house without a large amount of debt would mean they would have had to buy pre 1997. Not many women around who did that still single who are not way over 40. I am sort of at the end of my tether, hence this frustrated post. Maybe I am being way too negative, but I woke this morning thinking what the hell am I doing with my life. Only a HPC'er would understand my situation. Any comments bad or good anything at all would be gratefully received.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/overseasproperty/10121339/Portugal-property-embrace-a-lifestyle-of-sun-sea-and-sport.html "In 2011, we sold 12 properties," he says. "In 2012 we sold 53. So far in 2013, we are averaging two a week. This indicates the renewal of appetite for Portugal." Is this article VI bull? Looks like the market is bouncing back if you believe it!

A shocking cop out!

If I was to do Spain, no I wouldn't become a resident not while working in the UK. It would have to be holidays until retirement which is 28 years away. The game could be different then. Thanks I'm glad someone takes notice of my posts!

Get over it and do what? Stay in sterling cash, not buy a house and wait and watch while the £ devalues as we print to infinity and FLS decimates savings - all the while hoping that sense will prevail? - ONE DAY Or resign oneself to the fact the government have saved the feckless, punished the prudent, so try and limit the future damage. I think its all down to personal circumstances. Some of us would like to move house but can't until they are fair value. Or won't do it until they are fair value. Or maybe some like you? are not personally effected and can sit back and wait - and watch for the day of reckoning

Very true. There is also a tax on high street shopping. Its called parking.

I think this story is misleading. If you are resident in Spain you don't have to pay that tax. Sounds like these two only are being hit by retention tax because they were non resident. If they were there for all that time but were non resident then they must have been doing that for tax reasons?

Not desperate Bruce but fed up after 10 years of not buying. Fed up with theft through inflation of my money. Seeing Spain being cheap, but after reading all this stuff this morning, its seems Spain is best avoided for the moment! What about the islands eg Tenerife, do they suffer the same corruption, and possible asset theft by Spanish government? It seems the way they are going they will either leave the EU or hold Brussels to ransom over it, letting them get away with what they want. The EU won't want any country to leave as it will spell the end of the Euro experiment so will cave to Spain I think

The price of heating is higher in Spain now than the UK. http://spain.othercountries.com/pages/articles/index.asp?page=cost-of-living "Electricity. about 20% higher than UK prices for a similar sized-property Gas. Where available, about 20% higher than in the UK. However, town gas is not available in many areas, and bottled gas is quite a lot more expensive. Water. Water is metered in Spain, but you would not usually pay more than 20E per month if you do not have a pool or garden. With a pool and garden the price can be 4 or 5 times that." You also need to run AC in the summer and that is not cheap!

More realistic up north, away from the distortion that is London

So the bottom has dropped out of the cupcake market. A mates girlfriend used to make those, they were very nice but very expensive for what they were when you compared them to Tesco or Asda cupcakes. Another fad gone then. How long before the coffee shop market collapses>?