JoeDavola

More £400K apartments: https://www.propertypal.com/apt-13-kings-hall-mews-balmoral-avenue-belfast/755585

I guess I'm biased in that several of my friends are in IT changing jobs frequently for huge pay increases. My parents are about to go sale agreed for the second time in a year. Over that year, their house has risen in value by 13%; more than my take home pay for that entire year.

Has to be - even with all the wage inflation we're seeing.

And now £450K semis in Malone: https://www.propertypal.com/5-oakwood-mews-malone-belfast/752603/slideshow

Seems basically every apartment block built in Belfast after about 2005 has been an utter disaster.

And here we are several years later in the midst of the current boom - another BB apt came up and I googled it again to find this topic, again....see you all again in 2030

Yeah if you are fortunate enough to have a house I'd just sit tight. Nobody I know who has a house is giving any thought to moving house - they're just happy to have gotten something years ago when things were much more affordable.

Well obviously I can't belive what I've seen over the last two years and it's been a throughly depressing sight for someone like me who didn't buy. Not the most overpriced; but this listing today really shocked me: https://www.propertypal.com/1-loopland-park-cregagh-road-belfast/738668 This is a small semi (91 square meters) off the Cregagh Road. I grew up on the Cregagh Road; it was nice in the 90's when I was a kid but it's horrible now, absolute ghost town no charm to it at all. I was shocked that houses in Loopland were going on at £180K only seems like yesterday they were £130K, and now this one on for over £255K - I'd love to know who would actually buy something like this.

That's actually quite a balanced rational article Cheeryvalley, thanks for posting it. Anyway; I just wanted to post this for historical record - a flat in the Central Park block for £475K: https://www.propertypal.com/e1-central-park-alfred-street-belfast/714000 Fair enough it's a big flat, but I was in this block a couple years back to view another apartment for sale and the communal areas i.e. hallways ect looked dated and run down to me.

Agree with the above - I think prices are ridiculous but also agree the situation isn't exactly the same as 2007. I think effect of the massive shortage of properties coming on the market can't be underestimated as well. I imgaine anything half decent that comes on (i.e. something that isn't small and/or in a terrible state of repair) has an incredible amount of pent-up demand. I don't know what these prices and the trajectory they're on mean for the young and those on low wages - probably being renters for life. I also suspec the housing 'ladder' is no longer as common as once was - most of the folk I know in their late 30's who bought their 'starter' home during the crash years have no intention of moving for the forseeable as they don't want to take on massive extra debt for slightly more room. The fact that houses didn't come on in any great numbers over the summer period leads me to suspect that transaction volumes will remain low for the forseeable which will help push prices up perhaps even more.

What thread are you referring to can you post a link please?

Another price level crossed...the £400K semi: https://www.propertypal.com/11-st-johns-park-rosetta-belfast/703393

Yes someone I know has referred to the mid-upper end of the housing market as an 'equity swapping' market - i.e. people basically swapping houses with each other.

To clarify I mean I have a low stress low hours enjoyable job that feels like semi-retirement compared to the stress I've experienced in the past, and I don't want to feel I need to go back to the high-stress long hours life just to pay for a roof over my head.

Oh my. Well done you. Doubling your money in 8 years. You've played it well. The sums of money that are being made and lost here based on when you happened to buy a house are life changing i.e. being able to retire at 50 vs working till you die. I'm not going to retire young, but I also don't want to slave 40-60 hours a week so i won't be buying into this market any more than I need to. It's getting to the point where maxxing out my S&S ISA every year and ending up a renter with 300K+ in shares in a tax free wrapper might actually be a wiser thing than buying a house in Belfast.