Million pound houses

[thinking123]

So a house near me has gone up and sale and sold within two days. It was up for offers over 975k.

I am just so shocked. It's a perfectly nice four bedroom detached house with a nice size garden. The location is nice but not outstanding, the pics on Rightmove are very nice but again nothing amazing. It's not even in the catchment for the best school in the town.

How the hell are normal family homes selling for a million pounds. How can anyone hope to pay that sort of price.

We live in one of the lowest cost towns in the U.K.. we've got nothing here, no good schools, no recreational activities etc. nothing. Except we HAD lots of green land. 4-5 years ago they started heavily building new estates. Luckily we had just bought a property, a lovely two bed flat on a half decent ex council estate. Paid £22k. Today, i nearly passed out. Checked on zoopla as you do .... A flat on our road, identical to ours is listed for £92k!! I thought I must be wrong but my friends house that she sold for £82k around the same time is now valued at £156k!!!

Bonkers prices, I can't even comprehend of paying £1,000,000 for a 3-4 bed house. Boggles my tiny northern mind.

Well in London thats pretty standard. I actually know someone who went to see it - it went sooooooo quickly and is considered to be pretty cheap. I mean in Dulwich three bed former council houses go for over 1 million.

Everyone I know buying houses for 1m plus usually have around 200k-300k deposit from their previous properties plus family incomes 150-200k - which is really not all that unusual in London (this is at the age of 30-35).

I'm not in London , but there are a few here that are around 925,000, maybe one that might be 1mil, but that is very rare and tends to be ones that have been renovated over time that are more expensive.
The new properties being built other side of town are being bought by people moving out of London. They probably think it's cheap compared to where they have come from and they can also wfh as well to save on train fares I suppose. I think they are hugely expensive for what they are and some don't even have garages just a small driveway.

Thats literally what we're doing. And honestly, so long as you lock in your interest rates and are happy to downsize, what's the problem. We have around 40% equity in our house. So almost guaranteed to be able to sell. We are repaying some of the capital but realistically only enough to get us the next property on the rung lower. It's basically like cheap rent, in a way

@Fairyliz - one of the reasons is breakups. More and more families living in 2 houses instead of one

Population is still increasing and people are living longer and wanting to stay in their own homes

Working your way up with equity . Our next house will be around that and most of it will be paid for from other houses . We are late 40's

this is much harder for people in their 30s or younger though

as they were older when they got on the ladder, prices were already high, wage growth not great & equity much harder to build

But especially inheritance and the bank of mum and dad

These will become a bigger and bigger factor as time goes on.

yes whether your parents own & can help you is more important than your job.

It's not all supply & demand, it's QE & low interest rates.

That's fine for you, you don't need, or even want a bigger house.

I need 4 beds - I have 2 kids of different sex and I work from home for 2-3 days a week in a confidential field, I can't work off the kitchen table unless I clear away all my work every time I leave the table and ban people from downstairs when I have meetings.

I’m also in a state of shock about that Peckham house. But our old 2 bed flat in Hackney is now apparently worth about £800k.

I know that there are a lot of young people in London with salaries of £100k+ and deposits from family; but how on Earth do people with ‘normal’ salaries live in London? (I left London a long time ago and hadn’t quite realised how insane the prices have become.)

Astounding. But then I'm in the NW
My apartment is 2 bed. 2 bath, own garden, ground floor and about 75sqm
120k

This is what £900k gets by me.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122056499

@TimeForGouter I bought in 2019 in London, 2 bed flat in zone 3 for £392k. Was lucky to marry a native londoner so we lived at home for 3 years.Flat has gone up by 50k then. I want a bigger flat, have given up on houses because whether you look at london or in nice towns around london, you don't get much 'house' for £1 million, which isn't on the cards! Not that you can't get a house for less than a million, its just often teeny (smaller than a generous sized flat) or not in the best area.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/96545653#/?channel=RES_BUY

This just came up for sale. It doesn't even have a garden, communal or otherwise! Bloody hell. And most of the flats in that area have access to a shared garden.

That’s crazy! An unknown world to me, rural north Wales that will get you a 7 bedroom mansion! (I can’t work out how to link!)

Houses are moving so fast where I am we don't even get For Sale boards anymore. This is what I can get for £1m around here, I'd be happy with my purchase

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/96555346#/?channel=RES_BUY

@DeFuckingLightful shh don't tell the Londoners, they might actually move down with their million pound budgets. But the thing is, if you think the london property market will outpace inflation (doubtful), it may not be a bad investment as your capital gains will be tax free and then you can sell up after retirement and then buy a 7 bedroom mansion in rural wales! Or a whole row of houses and rent the rest out for plentiful retirement income. I suspect thats the plan of a lot of londoners with large mortgages on million pound homes. Its like renting from the bank.

We bought a house for £920k about six years ago. We put down a deposit of £345k which was accumulated equity from
moving up the ladder. Mortgage was then £575k. Currently owe about £460k. Don’t get me wrong, I really like my house but it’s not a mansion. I don’t have a swimming pool or a tennis court! It’s just a nice size five bedroom detached family home with a decent sized garden. It’s 40 miles from London, hence the price!

The reality in London is that if you are in law/banking/IT/consultancy(even medicine) by 33-35 (when realistically you will be buying a house) - you are going to be on 75kplus thats just how it is. So if there are two of you that min 150k per household (and most are on more than that). A lot of people work in those sectors. Plus there are a lot of couple where one person earns say 100k and another 50k. These are all people in the mid-30 - not sure they are young people really. The would have been working in London for 10-15 years. With interest rates being so low, it makes sense they can afford 4.5times their household salary. In addition, despite current cost of living crisis - all of the sectors above bar medicine have got very healthy pay increases and bonuses this year. Everyone who does have a high earner in their family and is age circa 33 - either moves to zone 4 or frankly moves out.

I'm also in the northwest and where I am £120k will get you a 1 bed shared ownership flat or a retirement property (those over 60s bedsit type things).

Not if you live by the coast now. Prices have shot up here, even in previously cheap areas.

@Dontlickthetrolley Gorgeous. My DH would say, “it needs too much money spent on it” but I would love it!

What do ordinary working folk in london and the south east do ? Nurses on £30k or retail/care workers on even less ? Those with a few kids and a partner earning similar with no bank of mum or dad ?
I live in a deprived town in the NW and even here there are many houses >750k. Huge mansions being built, extended. And not even big houses being extended to be honest. There just seems to be loads of money floating around to spend on new cars, flash holidays, interior decorating yet apparently there's a cost of living crisis 🤔

I do know lots of people with normal jobs eg teachers, nurses etc who own but they all have had significant family help eg 300k.

my "wealthiest" friend didn't go to to uni & had a retail job & bought a flat at 21 interest only & now has a 1m house. However this was early 00s & times have changed now.