..to think a lot of large houses will come on to the market?

[Whatarisk]

AIBU to assume that larger more expensive houses will start to appear on the property market?

My house is currently up for sale. We’d like to upsize. DH doesn’t think the property market will be affected much and if anything, people in larger houses will be put off listing their home. I think the opposite will be true.

Our jobs are relatively secure (in the sense that v few can be 100% confident of total job security right now) and I’m of the opinion that we sell ours, move in with my parents and hope something comes up. There are no properties that we are interested in currently but I’d rather sell before the market dips too much.

Interested in people’s views.

Facilities that you use on a regular basis and I can't get to within 35 mins?

OK, well firstly 35 minutes for me would be a fairly long trip. It takes me less time than that to get into central London on the train from where I live.

Here are the facilities, that I use more than once a week, which are in a 10 minute walk of where I live:

• keep banging on about it I know, but multiple excellent restaurants and cafes
• butchers, deli, fishmongers, greengrocers, 3 bakeries
• 3 large supermarkets and 4 small "express type stores"
• loads of corner shops and independent grocery shops
• lido
• gym
• soft play and pirate adventure playground
• kids' cafe with soft play
• 4 large parks
• an excellent high street with clothes shops, independent shops etc

and within a 20 minute train ride or bus ride:

• larger parks
• lake, woods, country park
• central London with all its amenities and attractions

And, if we're talking about 35 minutes, I can get to open countryside and national trust places in under a 35 minute drive.

I am perfectly willing to sacrifice space for convenience. I love living in London. Not everyone will feel like I do, that's fine. But plenty of people will, and do. That was my point. My point was not that living in the countryside is rubbish, as you appear to have taken it.

@why

A lot of people do rely on inheritance to got on the ladder though.

I'm not sure how important an extra 30% is if whatever your buying has also reduced. Sure some might not need it for property but perhaps school fees or home improvements.

I think most people would be willing to wait a year if it meant an extra 20 - 30%.

No guarantee of that or that prices may not drop further though.

Yes people might rely on inheritence to get on the ladder but they don't rely on inheritence immediately to maintain financial security (since most of us don't know exactly when our parents will die). Since there will be very little liquidity it's unlikely you'd even find a suitable house to buy at the moment so those considerations are just going to be less significant.

Houses will also be for sale, there may be fewer but there will always be those that need to sell.

Perhaps i'm biased as i'm thinking of the London market where it's not unusual to want access to significant sums. Any of the older people who have died in my area (grew up here) the properties hit the market asap

always. this bloody app!

Here are the facilities, that I use more than once a week, which are in a 10 minute walk of where I live:

• keep banging on about it I know, but multiple excellent restaurants and cafes (yep)
• butchers, deli, fishmongers, greengrocers, 3 bakeries (we only have 1 bakery. I think that is enough)
• 3 large supermarkets and 4 small "express type stores" (You walk to your supermaket to do a large shop? more fool you. We have an express store in 10 mins walk)
• loads of corner shops and independent grocery shops (how many do you need exactly? We have enough grocery shops to sufficience)
• lido (swimming pool within 10 mins walk. Its not a lido, but its wet and watery)
• gym (also have one of those)
• soft play and pirate adventure playground (we admittedly don't have one in walking distance. Nothing a 10 min drive can't solve though)
• kids' cafe with soft play (again we cope)
• 4 large parks (4! How many can you be in at once? We have countryside and parks)
• an excellent high street with clothes shops, independent shops etc (15mins drive we have this. Again we cope).

and within a 20 minute train ride or bus ride:

• larger parks (How many flaming parks do you need?!)
• lake, woods, country park (we can walk to this)
• central London with all its amenities and attractions (There is this place called Manchester which isn't too bad. Its a bit further than 20 mins, but its not exactly far).

You really do think there is nothing outside London don't you?!

@tontie I agree normally you'd put the house on the market straight away (although sometimes people do a bit of work on it first to get a better price). But these conditions aren't normal. For a start the number of people who have actually died isn't significant enough to flood the market with lots of available houses and secondly the conditions for selling will just be awful. Little choice of houses to buy and a rubbish price for the house you're selling. Normally I would never wait around for ideal conditions before selling but right now I absolutely would wait a year and get a significant better price (and a decent choice of houses to buy too).

You really do think there is nothing outside London don't you?!

Don't be ridiculous, I've said multiple times I think there are lots of lovely places to live that aren't London. But I happen to like living in London. What part of that is offensive to you because I really don't get it.

And I don't really do a weekly shop (or at least I didn't before the pandemic). I tend to pop out as and when to get a few bits. We don't own a car.

@RedToothbrush Also countryside living is best for people with very established careers/ in semi retirement. For younger people in their 20s and 30s (including those with young DC), I am not sure if its such a good idea. We are all working from home so of course that may be easier to do from a countryside house. But there is life after lockdown and it is expected a lot of people on furlough and even a lot of people working from home now would be laid off. So you are living in rural hampshire/kent/herts/bucks (this isn't a reference to OP's situation but talking generally) and you have no job? There are fewer jobs locally (that was in the good times pre covid so it would probably be the case after covid). You can try to get another wfh job but in a recession, there are fewer jobs in the first place and requiring your employer to allow you to wfh could be an additional barrier to getting a job. Furthermore, for a lot of families, they are able to live in the Home Counties and juggle childcare because 1 partner has a part time/ lower paying local job while the other partner has a high paying job in the City. The high paying job in the City may not be so high paying, according to linkedin, 35% of jobs have already suffered pay cuts and this would put further strain on finances if you live further out in the countryside. Also what usually happens in a recession is reduced headcount and the remaining employees are expected to work harder and longer hours to cover their retrenched ex colleagues. This is not so pleasant if you have a 2 hour commute. A lot of the people who live further out tend to go home on the dot at 5, I used to be able to work till 7 -9 pm precisely cos i live in zone 3. So yes while my zone 3 2 bed flat is not as big as other people's country houses, I think that living in London is much more prudent. After lockdown, I can continue working long hours and hope I am not the next to be retrenched. If I do get retrenched, I can look for a job in London and not have any requirements that I should be allowed to work from home. Ultimately, what is really important during this crisis (other than health which is the most important) is that I can keep the income coming in and not rely on the government.

But I happen to like living in London. What part of that is offensive to you because I really don't get it

Absolutely nothing. But none of what you like about living in London is London specific, that is the point others are making.

You really do think there is nothing outside London don't you?

I think that's unfair. The poster said she preferred the hustle & bustle of amenities in zone 3 for her that doesn't mean everywhere else is a desolate wasteland. I live in zone 2/3 & would rather move to another city then zone 4/5, that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with zone 4/5.

When I was looking for a four bed, 6 out of 7 was from people getting divorced which was incredibly depressing as they all seemed to have young kids.

But none of what you like about living in London is London specific, that is the point others are making.

Maybe not but I would argue that it certainly is city specific. It is the walking aspect I like. I don't like having to drive to get to places. I walk pretty much everywhere.

My point was that you can't say no one will want to live in cities any more as everyone will want more space. Not true.

Thank you tontie that is exactly what I meant.

@Frompcat

No idea why people are having a go at you. Almost all of what you've said IS specific to living in London or at least a large, culturally interesting city. I live rurally and do miss all of what you've described about living in London. My kids love the countryside and open space but I do miss the diversity and quality of restaurants in London (I have restaurants here - some are good but definitely not as much choice or variety). Also the choice of theatres (we have a few where we live but not as many), museums and courses (luckily we live close enough to do stuff in London but my kids both have specific interests which they can only pursue in London and not out here so miss out on them a bit).

@why we will have to agree to disagree, I can't see any bounce back in a yr.

Maybe not but I would argue that it certainly is city specific. It is the walking aspect I like. I don't like having to drive to get to places. I walk pretty much everywhere

I don’t have to drive to get to places. I live semi-rurally. Certainly not city specific to have access to great shops, restaurants etc.

I have also lived in Bristol and Newcastle by the way and would happily live in either of those places again. Please don't tell me I don't understand there is life outside London.

@tontie

I'm just going on expert predictions. I think it's fairly certain it'll be very difficult to buy or sell in the short to medium term.

MarieQueenofScots

And you have all the places I listed within walking distance?

I don't know why people are getting so het up about this. Cities have more amenities within walking distances than rural places. That is just fact. It would be like me saying to someone who said oh cities are more polluted, no they aren't, my street has hardly any cars on it

I've lived in the rural South West, rural Kent and rural Cambridgeshire and there were plenty of lovely and convenient places to get to but none so convenient and so nearby as when I've lived in cities.

@Frompcat we visited friends in Bristol a few yrs ago (my first visit), I loved it & their house was gorgeous. Think we are priced out of that area now, oops!

Yep Bristol is super pricy now! It is lovely though, I'd happily move there but all my family are in the south east now.

And you have all the places I listed within walking distance?

Supermarkets, independents, restaurants, high street, soft play, parks etc? Yup.

One direction for most, other direct for park and express style supermarket.

Then a third direction for moors etc.

I don’t dispute at all the reasons for you loving where you live. They’re just not only found in London

They’re just not only found in London

I never said they were!

I think there are people who need to expand their horizons rather than thinking that those things are exclusively available in a city.

They aren't.

I mean it suits me from a purely selfish point of view, but there is nonsense about how life is some how radically different and how things outside London have somehow been harder during the lockdown because of a lack of facilities / lack of community / lack of general civilisation.

If anything we've been less affected by stock problems caused by Just In Time supply chains in supermarkets.

There are things we don't have here, but not the things that have been mentioned.