To think it's a bad time to buy a house...

[liebstraumNo3]

With DS nearing the time he will buy his first house having saved for the past six years for a deposit AIBU to think he should wait until Brexit is more of a known quantity. I believe house prices will drop drastically over the next few years. I don't want to see him in negative equity. I think he should wait and continue saving until this has all blown over one way or another.

There's never a good time to buy a house. We bought just before the 2008 crash and even though we didn't make any money when we sold, we saved years of rent money. You might find if you wait it's much more difficult to get a mortgage.

Is he buying a starter home or 1 bedroom flat, or something which could last him if he has to weather a crash.

I think I'd buy if I was him. Posters on housepricecrash have been waiting since 2004 to buy! They could have paid most of a mortgage off by now.

I should clarify, we didn't make anything on the sale price but we did have tens of thousands in equity to help us buy our new house.

Negative equity isn't an issue if you're thinking long term.

I agree with Through as long as it's not a one bed he should be OK. I think things will be bumpy post brexit but if he buys somewhere he can stay for say 5+ years he should be OK.

I don't necessarily think he shouldn't buy BTW as there could be other reasons post brexit that may make getting a mortgage difficult.

His budget is low. 180 ish. He hopes to get a two bed terrace or SD. Obviously nowhere near London.

Four why do you say things will be harder if it's just a one bed flat?

because if he is intending to buy bigger he can sit tight and grow a family at the same time...as such, negative equity is far less of an issue than it would be if he were to get married and have 3 children whilst waiting for house prices to increase again

Exactly need. I would personally want to live in my own home with dc, not rent out and rent somewhere else so that's why I'd say to make his purchase future proof.

If he buys a two bed, that'll last him until he has a second child if he needs it to. By which time prices may have crashed but may well have recovered as well.

This whole "good time to buy / not a good time to buy" doesn't really fit in to real people's actual lives though. You buy, as soon as you can afford to, and then every month you are starting to pay down your mortgage, and not paying rent for someone else to pay off their mortgage. Usually your mortgage payment is less than your rent, too.

I sold my first property after a crash, and in effect lost over 1/4 of what I'd paid but the way I looked at it, I was also buying a FAR more expensive house than I could possibly have dreamed of before the crash, because that too had dropped something like 25% (which of course meant I saved more than I lost as I was moving up the chain).

Unless you have some kind of property portfolio and are just playing the market, then you buy when your life means you are ready to buy. No-one has a clue what might, or might not happen with Brexit - it is unprecedented.

When I bought a house was definitely a good time. The big crash happened about 1990 and we bought in 1999. House prices had been slowly rising for a while, & then accelerated away.

Last crash was 2008. 2017 will be 9 yrs after that "correction". Hmmm....

1. I think brexit will have a positive effect on the UK housing market. The lending criteria will be relaxed now that we are no longer operating under stringent EU rules.

1. There is a shortage of houses in this country, being in or out of the EU doesn't change that fact, therefore, buying makes sense.

And most of all

1. "You buy, as soon as you can afford to, and then every month you are starting to pay down your mortgage, and not paying rent for someone else to pay off their mortgage"

THIS^^^^

It's so hard to know what to think. I bought in 2012. So many people said to wait because house prices were going to crash. I could only just afford to buy and yet since then the value of my house has gone up...i simply couldn't afford to buy it now, if i'd waited and it's a niceish house in a pretty crappy area so my only other options would be to get something prety horrid. . I've seen this happening for years, with people saying don't buy, there'll be a crash. There hasn't been yet! (Post 2008 i mean)

I think it's best to go ahead and buy but try to get somewhere he will be happy for some time, if needs be, or can rent out.

Brexit won't really affect London. The government stands too much to lose. So if he's buying there it will still be a sound investment

I bought during the sub-prime crash. House price has increased by nearly 60 per cent and I'm not even in London

If he buys now he will qualify with the help to buy scheme on new builds. He will also benefit from the right to buy isa. Both these schemes are going to be stopped by 2018. There is a chance house prices may drop, but that's always been a risk. If your in The south I can't imagine him being able to afford anything in a few years.

Obviously chucking your money at someone else is way better than paying off a mortgage?! Best times or not - if your ds can buy somewhere he should.

Through housepricecrash forum is a good read to motivate you to buy. The long term posters are all very jaded now, and must be kicking themselves.

If it's a home and not an investment and you can afford it ( and want to buy - nothing wrong with renting) then just cracking on and do it.

I would wait. I honestly think brexit and Trump are really bad news for the West economically and in many other ways.

Two years isn't that long in the scheme of things. In that time he might be able to save a lot more, which will mean less of a mortgage when he does buy.

180k is not really that low as long as you're not in London or the south. There are plenty of nice properties in the midlands and north for that sort of money.

I work in the property sector and would say most house developers round here (south east ) seem to have forgotten their initial jitteriness over brexit and its business as usual... (And I am a die hard remoaner so this is not just wishful thinking)

1. I think brexit will have a positive effect on the UK housing market. The lending criteria will be relaxed now that we are no longer operating under stringent EU rules.

What rules are those ?

I'm no expert "lurkinghusband" and as I said, I only think the rules on lending criteria will be relaxed.

My own experience getting a mortgage this year and getting a mortgage 25 years ago - there was a huge difference in the amount of knowledge and "affordability" criteria that I had to meet this year as opposed to in the past.

I'm assuming these stringent rules will be relaxed when we leave the EU because there will be no reason to keep them, and the government is very keen to avoid a house price crash.

Remember, negative equity only occurs if you sell.

I don't see how brexit is going to change the fact that we don't have enough housing. People are living longer so even if the immigration issue changes (which I doubt) there will still be more demand than supply. I wouldn't wait. People have been saying for years and years that it's a bad time to buy and it's best to wait. If I had followed that advice I never would have got on the property ladder.

In fact, relaxing mortgage criteria has already started

uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-lending-idUKKBN13O0VD

If he has a decent deposit, I would say go for it. One of the best decisions we ever made was to buy our first home.
It was a good time to buy as house prices had plummeted but they still had a way to go and we were in negative equity for a year or so. Eventually it recovered and helped set us up for life.