With the spread of Corona, is now a very bad time to buy a house?? Bugger!

[pinkrocker]

Due to complete in May on £170k house. Mortgage arranged for £70k and the deposit is in savings. Lovely house, nice area.
Will the bottom fall out the housing market, will this house drop in value after we've come through the Corona pandemic?
I'm very aware there are other much more serious concerns right now, but I just don't know if this is the right time.

Prices probably will fall in the short term, but if it's the right house for you and you plan to live there for a few years at least, I'd probably still go for it, unless there's a risk that you're going to struggle to afford the mortgage etc due to covid19 related income loss.

Alternative is to pull out and stay where you are, but if you're renting, you'll have rent to pay which is likely to be a lot more than the interest on a relatively small mortgage, which at current rates is likely to be not very much at all. So any price drops will be mitigated by rent that you've not paid - eg if you're paying £800 pm rent and you delay for a year, that's nearly £10k of price drop covered there.

Thanks for replying! My rent is £675 and mortgage would be £315, which is a whole lot more affordable.

Well if you like the house, want to live in the house then does it matter if the value drops short term?

In those circumstances i would continue. In "normal" ones i would very much wait and see.

Almost identical situation - I'm just going to plough on - if I'd bought it six months ago i wouldn't be stressing and I need a roof over my head. Good Luck :-)

Honestly I’d be buying shares rather than houses, brilliant time for it.

You can't live in shares and they too might drop further, or the companies might go completely bust.

The OPs mortgage will be less than half her rent, so a significant cut in living costs. The interest will be less than £100 pm, so that's a gain of about £600 pm compared with renting right there.

If you really want this house and know that you will be living in it for a good while, then I would go ahead and buy it now.

Ah thanks all. I was talking to my mum this morning and she got me worrying, she thinks I should just pull out now!
Do you think it's worth talking to the estate agents, telling them I'm concerned or am I being an arse?

Honestly, in your situation you'd be daft to drop out. By buying you are both saving money on monthly repayments and giving yourself more security than renting and building up equity.

House prices would have to plummet so so much to make you financially better off renting, I doubt it will happen

I would push on if l was you. It makes more sense finically long-term. We are part of the way through a purchase and are going to continue. It doesn’t require any work, good location and is well priced