To think house prices need to go down

As in, because the children will spend the money on housing? I wonder if that's as true as it used to be, actually. Kids who've never got on the ladder or really need a 3 bed instead of a 2, yes. Those people will still be buying/upgrading with their inheritance. But I also think we'll see some impact as the inheriting cohort move towards state retirement age of 68 and away from the best pensions. People who already have a home will be more inclined to sock it away for retirement than they used to be, because those people on average will have worse and later pension provision than the cohorts who've inherited lump sums over the last couple of decades.

House prices are coming down.

Trouble is, interest rates are going up.

It's not going to improve affordability.

Affordability and wage to price ratios are better measures of how expensive things are than house prices tbh.

As the Boomers start to die off, their Gen X and Millenial offspring will benefit from large inheritances (from inflated house prices). This generational wealth will be the main driver in the housing market moving forward widening the gap.

Thought I had replied for a moment 😀

Pensioners often hate the thought of houses falling in value as they see house prices as a reflection of how ‘well’ they’ve done in life. It’s really sad for them to feel the need to judge themselves in this way, but hey.

It’s expensive due to planning regulations. The length of time it takes to get a property approved (all the while the developer is invested in the land), the tree surveys, the affordable elements, the new over-the-top safety requirements, the requirements for a dual aspect view.

People aren’t buying new build as mortgage rates are too high. It doesn’t mean people don’t want to buy them.

They have actually gone down in relative terms quite a bit recently. Unfortunately so many other things have gone up in real terms during the same period!

I don't think that's true. Only people who are down sizing or those who inherit a house to sell benefit from high house prices. If you are somebody moving up the housing ladder, then your property might have increased in value, but the houses you might want to buy are more expensive too.

There are already masses of unsold new build in London, and immigration numbers are massively down, not sure what you are talking about TBH.

House building is now very expensive. Who is going to build them if they aren’t making a decent profit?

its just going to keep getting more expensive for young people wanting to move out of the parental home.

It will be, but on the positive side, if they’re working then they’re hopefully in a position to save aggressively for an increased deposit, which will mitigate to a degree the high interest rates (when they do buy). If they are high then.

Reports from the Association of British Insurers and the Pensions Policy Institute estimate that the proportion of pensioner households renting will rise from 21% to 36% (one in three) by 2044.

People over 50 who rent face double the poverty risk of outright homeowners. Renting from a pension increases likelihood of exhausting savings and needing government help with rent.

I think we're stroing problems up with high house prices - from delaying adult milestones in younger people to more older people needing help to avoid poverty.

We’re in quite an interesting situation. I was reading about a major builder who was exiting from building flats in London as it had got too expensive in raw materials for them to make a profit. So they and their competitors are all pulling out when their current projects have finished. Fewer properties on the market, then many landlords getting out of private letting. Fewer private lets, fewer new properties, more people arriving all of the time. Much higher mortgage rates incoming.

its just going to keep getting more expensive for young people wanting to move out of the parental home.

The last thing we need is more government schemes.

All of which seem to be orientated around propping up house prices.

Surely it is also unfair on people that haven't been able to buy a house for years because they are too expensive.

It's madness for so much of the countries money to be locked up in housing and peoples ability to service larger and larger mortgages is reducing all the time.

Even twenty years the three bed terrace house I grew up in midlands was beyond us.

We now have a four bed semi in cheaper part of UK and house prices have dropped slightly in our area last few months but we couldn't buy where we are now - when we could a decade ago.

I'd like house prices to drop at some point so our kids can afford to move out to rent and later buy. Our parents own outright - and money will either go on care homes or deposit for our kids - rest of family in HA housing we only ones with a mortgage really and I'd still like them to drop.

The problem is we haven't built enough for decades at time population has increased and hosueholds have got smaller and smaller. It is a factor in low fertilty rates with long term implications and its increasingly an economic issue as more and more goes on getting a roof over head less and less is avaliable in discretionary spending for rest of economy or to save.

I don’t know about anywhere else, but around here (outer SW London) hardly anything is selling at the moment. One estate agent near us has recently closed.
IMO it’s a) just general uncertainty (Trump and oil), b) property is just too expensive, and c) everything is just too bloody expensive!

That is the capitalist debt system, sometimes you lose sometimes you win (unless you are a banker then you always win) People who got themselves involved in enormous mortgage debt when it was well telegraphed for years that rates would need to rise, and maybe very sharply, at some point only have themselves to blame, what do they want, another zero rate bailout?

"Nobody other than first time buyers want cheaper housing."

And as they borrow the mortgage debt that supports the bottom of the pyramid that is quite important! I think mortgage approvals are down to about half their historical average now?

Nobody other than first time buyers want cheaper housing.

Solution could be a gov-backed buyer scheme with very low/no deposit, where you just need to demonstrate 2 years of employment and then you're eligible for a gov-backed "mortgage" in the form of housing payment which could be taken directly from wages for the first five years, after which point you'd be free to shop around for a bank mortgage.

it could get people into owned housing from a young age (say 20-25yo) and the post-gov mortgage term could go as high as 40 years.

House price falls are always going to affect these people though. It would affect me hugely. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think house prices need to fall if young people are going to get on in life. High house prices:

Stop young people moving out of the family home, having families, being happy, normal adults.

Take up so much of our wages we don’t want to pay more tax for better public services etc.

Raise the complaints against asylum seekers.

Stop companies wanting to invest in the UK.

I just took out a mortgage and I am absolutely not concerned about house prices going down. The reason being is because I bough my house to live in, not to sell it on at a profit. So it is irrelevant to me whether it costs £500k or £5k at this point.
I understand that sometimes circumstances are such that a person may need to sell due to loss of job, relationship breakdown and such and in these cases, it will be devastating to end up in a negative equity. But the whole housing market speculation is what got us to where we are to begin with. Buy a house, live in it. Job done. A house is a home, not an investment opportunity.

I think it’s a bit unfair on people who have put everything into their houses and paid enormous mortgages to then lose everything- if they went down enough to have the effect you want, it would have that effect as people would be put into negative equity. So not just a case of “oh well the next house you buy will be worth less too”.

The people in that situation aren’t the ones who have benefitted from the massive rises in house prices either.

There is too little housing stock and we’re not building any more because the planning process makes if too hard. It costs 8.5x more to build a mile of high speed rail in the UK compared to France. Thats bat tunnels, newt awareness, NIMBYs, blah blah blah. House prices are still going to remain high as there aren’t enough houses for everyone to own one.

We need to scrap regulations and get building.

Unless you have died (so no longer care) or have multiple investment properties, the state of the market if you move is generally proportional - ie our house has risen in value a fair bit, but so has everything else so if we moved (which not planning to) then we would pay more for the other house so the rise in value doesnt really make a difference. If house prices fell we would get less but generally other properties would also be cheaper; so not too bothered really.

I dont think there is any magic wand, but the price of some of the poorly built, cramped new builds stacked into random bits of land away from any amenities is ridiculous yet sadly the best way for many to enter the market.