..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.

Can you point me to an article saying Mortgage lending is capped at £350,000 MamaFrey29?

We would have been stuffed buying our house if that was the situation when we bought it, our mortgage was £500,000.

This could cause a housing crash if true.

That's a big mortgage. !

Not if you earn 250k

What lending cap @Mama?

I didn't think there was a lending cap but may be there is a new one in the pandemic. My mortgage as £1.3m at one point. Interest rates are very very low (remembering the days when a 13% 10 year fix we took out seemed cheap compared to our home mortgage).....

There’s absolutely loads (well, some at least) nice big houses in Hampshire for £800k! It’s an expensive area but still, that’s a decent budget for a 4 bed house.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/03/banks-and-building-societies-begin-cutting-mortgage-lending-leve/
It’s only during lockdown because they can’t physically value property as they allegedly do normally under 40% LTV

Mortgages are going back to normal LTV ratios now.

Can't see a house price crash, sorry for those that thought they could swoop in and get a bargain!

@Handiies Great, can you let the country know so people can stop worrying?

Yes I’ve also read that LTV will likely decrease which will reduce our options but it is what it is, I suppose.

*Only £150k deposit, on £820k house?!

Have you factored in tax*

What tax? Are you talking about Stamp Duty?

Chrissie, thanks - Halifax and Barclays. I think a lot of people getting £1m loans tend to go to more specialised brokers so perhaps will be unaffected but I am sure valuations are going to be hard but may be worth paying specialised cleaners to go into empty houses before the valuer goes in or send the valuer in (who is allowed by law to work by the way) masked up with his gloves on.

They are allowed to work which is very frustrating because they simply aren’t

Only £150k deposit, on £820k house?!

Have you factored in tax*

Yes - by the time we come to exchange, we’ll have around £60k in an account ready to cover stamp duty, moving costs, legal fees and for essential things like a new boiler or things that cannot wait if we move into a house that needs “doing up”.

But no lenders or banks are lending over £350,000?!

Santander, Barclays, Halifax etc have all stopped lending above £350,000 on anything less than 60% LTV

So you'd need a 40% deposit. Which you don't have.

Agreed to those who said they'd be stuffed. We've got £1m in mortgage so have been moving everything to 5 year fix. Even though interest rates are better on the tracker.

Of course people will still be going into care homes. Many such people have dementia, and by the time they’re bad enough to need 24/7 care and supervision - which really does mean someone on hand all day, all night, 365 days a year - it’s often the only viable option.

When people may well be up and down or wandering about half the night, live-in care will mean more than one person on shifts, to allow for breaks and time off, plus you still have all the expenses of running a home on top. As such it can work out even more expensive than a good care home. (Despite the horror stories they do exist, and are not necessarily the most expensive, either.).

For people who are frail but still have all marbles intact, it’s rather different, but such people may still need assistance during the night.

I've been thinking of downsizing for a long time, to somewhere easier to maintain. I am soooooo glad we didn't, lockdown has been so much easier because we have plenty of space.

So my house might have gone on the market but I doubt it will now.

Yes, my father's dementia at home care (he died at home) cost him £130k (the rest of his life savings) in his final year of life as he had someone day and night and needed two people to lift him in the day. His lawyer thought £100k was about typical in NE England so he probably did pay a bit over the odds but much more expensive than a care home. Pity he had to pay all that when he devoted his life to the NHS as a doctor but there you are - some of us just pay o ut and don't get back in this supposed welfare state.

I understood the reason lenders at the moment are only offering mortgages with LTV 60% of lower was because that's the threshold for sending someone out to do a physical inspection which obviously is a no go during lockdown.

I don't believe that these ridiculous LTV rates will continue for long post lockdown.

I agree with @GobbleGob. This is a lock down thing because banks won't want to offer big loans when values are unsure nor can be measured on bigger homes without inspection, as well as not being able to do more detailed surveys, which is highly recommended on bigger properties.

My agent is getting loads of interest from London buyers, so if that's a data point, there will be a lot of movement post lockdown. I suggest you contact an agent in Hampshire who is actively videoing properties (like we did), so that you can be in priority for viewings. I also suggest that you put your London house with an agent, ready to push the marketing button, or even doing a video yourself. I think videos will be a huge step change in the UK's property market.

@Whatarisk You are NOT being unreasonable.

Less than 30% of all houses nationally are bought with cash (less than 20% in London). Of the cash buyers, 34% bought 2 bedroom properties and 16% bought 4 bedroom homes. (www.ft.com/content/f3843c30-0d40-11ea-b2d6-9bf4d1957a67)

This shows that the approx. 95% of large family homes are bought with mortgages.

The next 12 - 18 months will be a very interesting time for the property market as we're entering a depression that's makes the 2008 crisis look like a walk in the park. If you follow the business and economic news closely (and not MN's commentary/anecdotes) you can see how these events are playing out in companies balance sheets and income statements. This will translate to restructuring, cuts to bonuses/pay rises etc. for employees. A lot of SMEs will go bust in the next 12 months as they're weaned of government mandated loans and find that they're reduced cashflow and high levels of debt no longer qualify them for further business loans.

All of this will squeeze affordability for many who have taken up these mortgages.

I've already covered the reasons in detail on other threads (www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/3889123-When-the-house-price-will-reflect-the-impact-of-economy-tanking) but, in summary, I'd hold out till 12 months because there will be a fall in house prices across the board and you could get a larger house for 15 - 20% off the pre-covid market asking.

@newbie111 Yes and while a lot of people are predicting an outflow of Londoners in search of country houses with large gardens, I don't think so. I don't think there is a lack of desire, but if the economy is looking bad and your income has taken a hit, the last thing you would want to do is move, due to the associated high costs of moving. Also if you are scared of losing your job, you wouldn't want to move to a place with few local jobs. Commuter towns generally only have 1 line; for example if you lived in Beaconsfield, it would be great if you worked for BNP Paribas in marylebone but dreadful if you worked in Canary Wharf. In a recession, you can't guarantee that you would continue to stay in a job in marylebone. So while i think London property would drop by 20%, it wouldn't drop more than everyone else, so OP may still be able to sell her flat for a lower price and also buy her hampshire house for a lower price.

Depends on the industry I guess re job security & movement but I agree that normally what happens in London trickles out to other areas. I guess it depends how many companies will embrace more home working after this.

The predictions are that it will be incredibly difficult to buy or sell for the next year, but after that house prices won't have moved down more than a few percentage points.