Does anybody think property prices will actually go down?

[skyofdiamonds]

I feel so miserable about getting onto the ladder and just think prices are ridiculous at the moment (in my area). I live in South England, 60 minute commute to London.

Does anyone think property prices will drop in the near future?

I am jealous of all the people the age of my parents, who bought houses so very cheap, that are now worth so much more. This will never happen again, will it?

I don't think they will as people have been saying/ hoping this for about 15 years and they haven't.

But I know nothing about it

Does anyone think property prices will drop in the near future?

No.

I am jealous of all the people the age of my parents, who bought houses so very cheap, that are now worth so much more.

What is the point of that?

This will never happen again, will it?

Well possibly - without a major change anyone who can get on the ladder now may be facing the same level of jealousy when they are older.

Nothing is impossible. House prices have crashed in the past (and in some parts of the UK they plummeted a few years ago).

But of course, just because it is possible doesn't mean they actually will. The reality is that even the experts don't know.

No-one knows if prices will drop. In my corner of London they seem to be having a wobble - things that pre-Brexit would have sold in a weekend for over the asking price are selling more slowly, and only if priced reasonably.

I'd have a look at what your savings and earnings could buy you/what you could feasibly borrow, and see if you could afford anything even if not in an ideal or desirable location.

We're an island. If you can hang on to property for long enough it will always go up in value. Just seen that the average house price has risen further to something above £313k. Doesn't affect me, though, as I couldn't afford a house before anyway.

I've had to learn to change my mindset - being jealous of others who have a different experience is a recipe for disappointment. And comparisons are odious.

If house prices did drop dramatically then there would be a big problem of people being trapped in negative equity. The people who are currently mortgaged to the hilt to get on the housing ladder are the most vulnerable. So for this reason I don't think a big price crash would be a good thing to happen, although I do sympathise with those who can't afford to buy as houses are extremely expensive.

...and, to expand on what biscuit said, banks would most likely become stricter in who they lent to as they were affected, as they did post-2008. These things tend not to happen in isolation.

We had a look in an expensive part of the north a couple of weeks ago (potential relocate from London). All 5 houses we looked at had sold for the asking price within a week - and you're looking at a high price bracket, which usually sticks around a bit longer. But some properties near us in London haven't shifted in months.

I think you'd need a crystal ball, is the honest and unhelpful answer :(

No I think they might stabilise a little with the effect of Brexit but not go down

Interest rates are low, so I expect they will rise. That means that for some people, a mortgage will become less affordable. Therefore some people will borrow less. Therefore some people will offer less to buy a house. Therefore some sellers will get lower offers than they might have had in the past. Therefore some houses may fall in value.

But I don't suppose this would happen everywhere. Also, it's only relevant if you are buying or selling . Our house's value has probably changed since we moved here, but until we come to sell, it's just a paper valuation, doesn't affect us on a day to day basis

You talk about being jealous of those in your parents generation who bought for peanuts but then saw the value of their houses rise unbelievably high. I'm not trying to be funny but when that generation pass on, who do you think becomes the beneficiary of all this 'unearned wealth'? There is a whole generation who could become property millionaires with no outlay at all.

I bought in 2008, as prices were on their way down, and paid 25k less than my neighbour did in 2007, but then went into negative equity for about 4 years. In 2013 it went up again, so we sold it and bought a bigger house, but nothing could have persuaded us to sell in 2009-2012.

If prices drop, nobody moves and there are no first-time-buyer properties available.

Who knows what will happen post GE, Brexit etc. That's the trouble with these huge decisions in life - its a gamble and sometimes you win, sometimes you
lose. All you can do is keep informed and try to judge the right time to buy if/when house prices start to fall again.

Long term no - although there may be some short term dips, who knows!
Essentially it's basic economics - Supply and demand. With a rising population demand will clearly go up ... & the one thing they're not making more of is land!

One of the episodes on Location Location Location Phil was advising the couple to buy a property in another city that he thought would be the next big city to go up rapidly in value. I can't remember if it was Leeds. They were to rent it out and in a few years the increase in value would then enable them to purchase in London. Don't remember where they were supposed to live in the mean time.

Another way would be to buy say a maisonette, flat in a better area, hope for it go up in value and then move further out to a bigger property.

My first house cost £5,200 but I was earning about £7 a week and no free nursery places and interest rates were 15%. It looks like we had a bargain now but at the time I couldn't even afford the bus fare to visit my mum and the idea of having something like fish and chips was way beyond what we could afford.

Long term no, it always goes up, short term yes there could be some dips but it bounces back. So basically buy as soon as you can. With property assume you're in it for the long haul once your on the property ladder, even if you stay on the one ring or jeep climbing it.

Don't be jealous of your parents, if you buy now you'll be shocked in twenty years how much your property is escalated as well. It's been like that since time began, because we have inflation and a pound now will be worth a lot more than a pound will in twenty years, so you need many more pounds to buy the same house.

Anywhere 60 minutes from London is prime commuting area, so will be very highly priced . Look to buy or rent in cheaper areas.
I think if I was looking to get on the property ladder as a young person, I would look at The Midlands area

Houses that would have sold almost immediately a year ago are still hanging around a few months later (in north London). I think it is partly due to Brexit and partly due to the increases in stamp duty for more expensive houses (it's 12% for houses over £1.5 million - admittedly, this is a lot of money but is pretty much the going rate for quite a lot of London).

I really hope not as we are in the process of moving and I'm already having a major wobble over whether we are over paying for the property we are buying

No idea to be honest

We were lucky that DH got his house in 2008 when prices around here were expensive yet relatively stagnant, And have only been in 15k negative equity. Unlike someone who paid 55k more for the same house over the road have only just been able to move and still ended up selling for less than paid.

We have looked into moving and rather quickly found out we couldn't afford to move! A detached house is going for over 100k more. Also getting a mortgage with two dependents is getting harder.

No help really sorry op.

Where I live (Town in Staffordshire) prices haven't increased at all in decades. We had our house valued the year my dd was born and almost 15 years later next doors house in immaculate condition has just sold for £40,000 below that valuation price. When my house was less than £120,000 anyway thats a huge kick in the teeth.

I would like them to rise so I can at least get out of negative equity I do get why you would want them to drop though.

Incidentally the fast train from here to London Euston takes 1 hour 20 minutes. I know plenty of people who do that commute from here so maybe its worth you buying a bit further afield. Once people realise we have the fast train I think this town will boom. Its been running about 12 months now and theyre having to put extra coaches on due to the increase in numbers.

I'm not trying to be funny but when that generation pass on, who do you think becomes the beneficiary of all this 'unearned wealth'?
Care homes.

The interest rate is only 0.25%, extremely low interest rates have been the norm for a decade now but it cant go on indefinitely. If inflation ramps up, say as a result of Brexit then the BOE may have to raise interest rates to control the supply of money.
IMO high house prices are bad for the country and a correction is desperately needed

In all honesty I don't think they will because house prices are no longer dictated by what the people living in them can afford but by what people who buy them can pay/borrow - the driver is not availability of credit to owner occupiers but availability of credit generally and that seems to be almost limitless as the more people invest/borrow the more they are able to invest/borrow and so it continues.

The post industrial UK was a rentier economy prior to the end of the second world war and it is that which we are moving back to now but now we have the addition of housing benefit which means that tenants can claim housing benefit to line their landlords' pockets so that even though fewer and fewer people can afford to buy with every month that passes, because they still need somewhere to live and the state will cover the costs that landlords charge, it doesn't matter because there is a mechanism to shore up prices.