To ask if you think house prices are going to drop soon?

[Birthdaycakemondays]

We’re looking to buy, in an expensive area in the south east. We could really do with an extra 30k for the ideal family home for us right now. Do you think house prices are due to drop? Brexit? WIBU to continue renting right now or are we just throwing good money away when house prices aren’t likely to drastically change?

I think it's the opposite op, I think thr market is at its lowest now. And as brexit becomes less of an issue ie if a deal is agreed in parliament, then the market will boom again and prices with it. A lot of people have been holding off.

My friend put her house on the market, it really should have sold immediately as she put it on last year and got two offers immediately. Nothing for seven months, and she then got three offers last week. People are suddenly not holding off any more.

Right now you're at bottom of cycle. Unless something mad happens like labour gets in.

They’ve got to. It’s simply not sustainable.

People have been saying this for years. Even in 2008, prices only dipped momentarily in London and are now far higher than they were at the 2008 peak before the crash. So even if you’d bought at the top of the market in 2008, you’d still be quids in now if you’d held onto your property.

It makes no difference in the long run, unless you plan on moving again.
If they go down they soon come up again.
You only lose if you sell with no equity or at a lower price than you bought.
If this was the case you'd hang on to the home you had at the time until prices increased again.

As brexit becomes less of an issue ie if a deal is agreed in parliament, then the market will boom again and prices with it.

Only if interest rates don’t rise...

I think house prices have dropped v slightly where we are (also SE) but theres very little movement on house market at all since about 6 months- a year ago.
Some friends of mine sold their house in about 2011 and started renting because they had it on v good authority that the housing market was going to fall significantly and they planned to take advantage. They are still renting 8 years later.

I'm not quite South East but not far off. The market here is very very slow and houses are frequently being reduced having only been on for a couple of months, we've just bought our house (well waiting for solicitors to deal with sale of ours and purchase), we got it £20k off. Couple of houses near me have dropped massively in the last couple of months, one has gone from £300k down to £240k. Another has dropped about £40k. There aren't many going for their valuations at all. I don't think it's the house prices dropping as such, several estate agents here have said the houses coming to market have reduced a lot as people are waiting to see how Brexit goes. You may be best to go for something now as there's little interest, you may get something with a low-ish offer. We didn't think we'd get the one we wanted as it turned out we could get less mortgage lend than we thought we'd get. We said we haven't offered as there was a mistake with our figures, they asked what our max was, told them and accepted within a couple of minutes! Personally I wouldn't hold out 'just in case' as you never know, mortgage lenders could get tighter after brexit, prices could go up, stamp duty etc etc.

@ TheMasterBaker I’ve noticed the same thing, properties on rightmove seem to be sticking around for months & then dropping in price. People don’t seem to buying.

@ Drabarni We don’t have a huge budget so I was thinking more along the lines of, if prices drop we might be able to get a larger house/in a better area.

I don't think they will drop significantly unless there is an economic event that makes banks more wary of lending. All the time people can get the financing for current prices they will continue to increase, even if only incrementally.

The thing is that just because house prices drop it doesn't follow that you will be able to take advantage of that unless you are paying 100% cash. If prices drop, mortgage lenders will most likely drop what they are prepared to lend (to balance their risk) so you won't necessarily have that extra 30k available to you.

Also re the houses being on for a certain price for months and then dropping - that happens a lot round here, it is often because the agent has told them they can get xxx but it's actually only worth yyy so they put it on at xxx, no one bites and they end up having to sell for its actual market value of yyy or less because they get desperate to move.

Also I had my place valued fairly recently and the agent said prices have basically stayed the same for a long time but people think they should be getting more because they believe house prices are always going up, and so often instruct them to list at what they think they should get for the house rather than it's actual market value.

If we crash out of the EU we will have a recession, no question. Then house prices will fall. In your shoes I would honestly wait a year or two until the dust clears.

I’ve noticed the same thing, properties on rightmove seem to be sticking around for months & then dropping in price

This is either due to the fact it's bottom of market now, or, if you had been looking over a long period, you'd see that there is always a number of houses that stagnate on the market, generally they are over priced for what they are, the others sell.

It really depends on how many, what's selling etc. But I don't think it can be disputed the market has been slow and down, likely due to brexit. This is always followed by a spike.

In my area of SE London houses seem to be selling as quickly as usual, house over the road sold in less than 2 weeks. There are some that have been for sale for ages but they are silly money for what & where they are.

You always get the end of the year places that have hung around, even in good markets things can still go wrong. Good time for an offer for those that want to move before the next spring.