The property market looks like its going to collapse and that's a good thing

[Ellreejeee]

Surely this madness is going to end soon and it will benefit the country?

Shed for sale in Somerset in someone back garden for 150k. Look at the pictures www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37137567.html

London is insane, most overvalued many are saying www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34676643

The average london house has earnt 2 pounds an hour for the last decade. And that's tax free if its your own home!

Working two or three jobs to buy and live in a tiny studio seems nonsensical. You setting up long term problems stress.

We only worked that many jobs for a set period of time. As soon as we were able to afford the flat then we gave up our extra work and bought it. What would have been nonsensical would have been to throw our hands up in the air and give up. Who knows where we would have ended up. I think I would have been more stressed if we had not done what we did.

Our problem was that with our combined salaries the highest mortgage we could have got was about £10000 and the tiniest studio when we started saving was £14000. The studio we ended up buying was £17000. So we had to come up with £7000 + extra expenses.

Sillyoldfool I think in your situation I would continue to rent where you are if your rent is cheap and your kids are settled in school but start looking at property for you personally not to move into. Look for something that is relatively commutable to London, that needs a bit of work doing on (usually a lot of these places need a good clean, a few cans of paint and new carpets. Some might need a new sink taps and worktop and some might need a new toilet and wash basin and tiling, all can be bought cheaply off Ebay etc) Then do the place up and then sell it.

This sort of thing www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52083748.html

You could be looking at anything from £6000 profit which you can then plough into your next property until you have enough money for your deposit on the property you can move into.

Remember nothing in life is easy and sitting around stewing over what might have been does no one any good.

Oliversmummy Working two or three jobs to buy and live in a tiny studio seems nonsensical. You setting up long term problems stress.

It wasn't, and it isn't always. The first year that I did it, I was offered a well paid part time job that was too good to turn down, and I really did need the money, because I was on a first graduate job which was spectacularly low paid (same for everyone in my profession and only in the first couple of years). Then I continued it in the second year because the part time job was actually giving good, relevant professional experience, and contacts. As well as funding a mortgage. I didn't become stressed, I was simply glad of the extra money and opportunity at the time. It wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds, because I stopped work, had a couple of hours to myself, then did something a bit different.

As for London never crashing we sold two flats in the 90s crash for 50% less than we paid for them. London does crash. There was a 1970s property crash too which wiped many people out. However it is probably true to say that buying a property nad being a property owner after that for 30 to 40 years tends to be a good move.

If you just buy to resell at a profit quickly though it is usually a bad move to do that.

London does crash, but its less likely now with a rising population than in the 1990s ( as I have pointed out before) when population was falling till 1996 when it started to grow again slowly.

The combination between this and the 1990's negative equity/recession situation kept property prices down.

The exponential growth in the last few years has been down to a rising population, investment of foreign owners, the fact that households are shrinking and more places are needed (this one is really important in the change in demand), as well as the decrease in provision of social housing.

House prices may plateau or possibly even dip, but the "great crash" isn't coming.

Oh and the low supply of new housing doesn't help either.

I wonder if housing will remain high until the baby boomer generation start passing away.

When will the boomers start to die off en mass?

Maybe in ten years time when they reach the average life e?

I think boomers won't last as long as their parents as by their nature they have never known lean times and have had always now excess. Isnt eighty percent of boomers overweight or obese?

As they get older and start spending their savings (pensions), I think we can expect a little uptick in inflation. Then a slow release of family homes as they either pass away or can no longer live independently.

In London baby boomers dying off will not have an impact because we have a massive in flux of immigrants all the time from within and outside the EU and a very high birth rate in some communities.

I think you are right Deo, I forgot about globalisation.

I think the baby boom dying off is not worth waiting for..

You do realise that if prices drop to a certain level, lots of people will be able to afford houses, and bid on them to compete with each other, thus raising the price some more?

The waitng entrants to the market also keep prices high.

I am considered a baby boomer and I am in my 50's so hopefully I will be here for a few years more. Then we have son and daughters of BBs who will inherit everything.

Oliversmummy Working two or three jobs to buy and live in a tiny studio seems nonsensical. You setting up long term problems stress

I was actually quoting for someone up thread

I was going to say similar Oliversmumsarmy, my baby boomer parents and in laws are in their 60s and early 70s so I hope they have a fair while left with us. One IL had a substantial house but she downsized as soon as kids left and split any remaining capital between children.

It's perhaps understandable to hope for a crash but to be wishing a generation dies quickly

I don't think anyone is wishing the baby boomers an untimely demise here. Just trying to think, hypothetically, what can/will slow the housing market. Demographics are always worth considering. As Deo points out, though, the baby bust after the baby boom is having its numbers swelled by immigration anyway.

I wouldn't mind so much being called a BB but the general inference that money was handed to us on plates and everything was so much easier and property prices were so low is a complete myth.

I left school at 16 and got a job in a bank. Not that I wanted to work in a bank but I was given the choice of Nursing or Banking and as I hate ill people I was forced into Banking. At 18 I took home for a 40 hour week £80 per month, less than 50p per hour. When I started work my first month pay was £45. Even the frigging Labour party had to be paid out of my paltry earnings. I think my gross salary at 18 was £1200 per year. To rent a place the cheapest place I found (over a newsagents in an area that became synonimous with riots rapes, guns, drugs and murders) was £60 per month.

I was by no means unique. For the average person you could not rely on a single wage. Even dh who was a fully qualified person together with the majority of those that did not have rich parents in his office had separate jobs in the evenings or weekends.

Life was tough and now to be told how great we had it just annoys the crap out of me. Especially the person who was hoping we would all die off so they could get cheap housing. Also if you grew up after the war or were a teen during the 70s then todays thin is yester years obesity crisis.

Also if you grew up after the war or were a teen during the 70s then todays thin is yester years obesity crisis.

What?

What I am trying to say is my dd is considered thin by todays standard but dd cannot fit into my clothes that I wore when I was her age. DD is a size 2 in todays measurements, my clothes from the 70s are marked as a size 8(Yes I do have clothes from the 70s hanging in my wardrobe)

What has that to do with housing?

Is it a general "going to hell in a hand basket" thesis?

I hope generations can be gentle with each other as we all have it hard in our own ways. In my view none of us posting on here have it as hard as those of our families who endured world war II (and WWI) and in fact one reason amongst many I support remaining in the EU is that since WWII we have largely had peace in Europe - a huge achievement.

Evben 30 years ago only professionals tended to buy in this bit of outer London and then only on two wages (so the things women today won't do like a few weeks maternity leave and back full time were not unusual).

One reason London house prices are high is that London's population is not falling, there is not much space to build and so many people trying to buy. I don't think we are due a crash because it has been indicated yet again that very low interest rates will continue. That by the way is helping the Govenrment as it pays a huge interest bill on our massive debt so if interest rates are low it helps although not a huge amount because we still spend an awful lot more than comes in.
I am sure there is likely to be an increase in prices a bit out of London as first time buyers even with two full time professional salaries and no childcare find it hard even to afford the £300k they might need on most tube lines to buy your first one bed flat.

300k is a good upper limit I think but in untrendy places, like colindale, Kingsbury, Enfield Lock and many others 200k + will get you one to two bedrooms to start with.

I really hate to be brutal but couples where neither earns the London average of about 33k are going to be priced out of the market and should consider if buying is actually for them at the moment.

Oh and people should also stop moaning about lack of affordable places. Lots in these slightly further out areas. DS has just bought a flat (on a teacher salary) with his office worker wife near Enfield Lock, three bed new build for just under 300k, 28 mins to Liverpool St, 40 to Oxford St. ....

I was responding to the carmellasoas post Isnt eighty percent of boomers overweight or obese
and were not going to live much longer.

It's not just babyboomers dying off, as more of them need nursing care, their homes will be sold off to fund their care.

Overweight people live the longest, underweight, average weight and obese people die younger.

Excellent news.... pass me the chocolates.