Would it be foolish to buy a new house (FTB) this close to Brexit?

[yellowpolkadots101]

Hi everyone :)

Myself and my partner are looking to buy our first house, we have done a second viewing today and are really torn whether to put an offer down on the house.

We are in two minds whether to hold off a little longer and wait to see what happens the end of October (i.e whether house prices will fall!)

We have both agreed that we would like to stay in our first house for a minimum of 5 years and we aim to get a fixed mortgage of a minimum of 5 years whilst the interest rates are low.

I was just wondering what you would do in my situation and whether anyone has any advice albeit; nobody can predict the future, which makes the decision hard!

Any thoughts, advice etc would be most welcomed!

Do it whilst the rates are still low. Also to could have been looking to buy at the beginning of the year and held out and then Brexit never happened.

I would wait. We are due a recession anyway regardless of brexit. The housing market will decline and you will be in a strong position as FTB’s.

We are also wondering about this OP, also FTB to be honest we are at least a year away from buying but we are wondering what the impact of Brexit will be, if we would regret not scraping the cash together sooner..

We are also FTB's. We finally got into a position to buy a year ago, but the market here is dead. Hardly anything new gets listed, it's the same old listings still on from last year.

We finally found somewhere a few weeks ago and put in an offer, which was accepted.

The way we see it is, if we don't buy now, a price crash after Brexit would mean that people will only sell their house if they really have to, so there will be even less choice. If we leave with a deal, then prices might start going up again, and we will have missed our chance to buy.

We have been renting for over 10 years and we will soon be priced out of the rental market for the same sized house we are currently in. The rent we pay our 3 bed house will only get us a tiny 2 bed now if we had to find a new rental.

The mortgage on the house we hope to buy is less than what we are currently paying in rent and we will be taking a 5 year fix, with no intention of moving for well over 5 years.

We would much rather buy now, and pay less than our current rent and ride out any price drops after Brexit.

I'd go ahead with your plans. We had this dilemma in 2008 at the start of the credit crunch. We were FTBs and nervous.

Our house value dropped after we bought it, but we weren't planning on moving so it didn't affect us.

The biggest learn for me was that you can't predict what is going to happen and there will always be 'something' that will give you a wobble eg starting a new job, potential redundancies, a holiday brexit. A looming recession (there is always one one the horizon).

Buy now. Stop "wasting" money on rent. The so called drop in price you hope for would probably be less than the rent you pay.

Martin Lewis’ recent guidance was if you want to buy, can fix your rate, and want to live in the house for a few years don’t wait. Who knows what’s around the corner? He said interest rates won’t go any lower so for that alone you are chancing it waiting.

I’m no expert but I would say if you are going to do it make sure to buy somewhere you will be happy to live in for at least the next 10 years.

Regardless of Brexit, people will always need somewhere to live, and with renting there's no guarantee you won't be served notice at some point in the future, forcing you to move anyway. If you can do a longish fixed rate, have a decent deposit and don't want to move for a while, I'd just go for it.

I wish more people were selling - I can't find anywhere to buy and I'm ready to go as soon as I find the right place.

If you were my children I would advise go for it- get on the property ladder. If your house price falls in the short term it will rose again. So long as you aren’t trying to Male a quick profit and are happy to stay there for a few years then Brexit isn’t any more of a gamble than any other supposed crisis!!! 😁😁

If you wait for the 'right' market conditions you will be renting forever.

I see the same questions with different variables (brexit, recession, blah blah) all the time over many years. Markets will rise and fall but if you want to own your home you need to make that jump at some point.

It partly depends where you are and demand for your type of property. In our area almost nothing is coming on and lots of buyers waiting. Prices already dropped by about 10%. Anything over priced doesn’t move, but anything realistically priced for current market realities goes in a nano second.

Make sure you get a good price, look at actual recent sold prices on Zoopla and assume a 10% drop caused by recession. Don’t get carried away with EA rubbish trying to make you over offer.

As long as you plan to stay for five years but are prepared to stay longer, yes, it’s still a better idea than paying rent.

I’m not waiting anymore, I’m spending more money on rent.
House prices have dropped, people are waiting for brexit to move or put their houses on the market and if brexit doesn’t happen prices will start to go up again.

Mean while I’ve spent thousands on rent, and houses prices always seem to go up in the end.

I’m looking at it in the long term, and it’s will be a home...

My landlady May decided to kick me out at any point.

Also houses round here are still being snapped up if at the right price.

As long as you stay put in it for at least 5 years I would do it

If you are really uncertain then try to buy a house where you can live in for longer if necessary. It doesn't have to be perfect but if you want to have children in the future it might be nice if there is/are extra bedrooms or the possibility to create them. For instance, my house has only two bedrooms but I could make the living room smaller and create a small bedroom. I could also buy a sofabed and sleep in the living room myself if necessary. Things like that. It doesn't need to be a perfect house (no house ever is) but if it's possibly livable long term then go for it.