House prices What is going on?

[flopseyR72]

I am looking to buy a house. Have been waiting since before lockdown. I’m in rented so not selling.the estate agent has just told me the marker where I am Greater London east ( golden triangle Loughton Chigwell to Epping and brentwood) is going crazy. I just don’t understand why people don’t seem to care about a imminent economy recession coming. Does anyone think I should just buy now or wait. I’ve been waiting a long time and wasting money on rent.

For us it was a combination of fishing for information during the viewing and asking questions when we put in the offer.

I don’t think they were trying to sell us any financial products (mortgage broker tried this though). They get their fee if the sale goes through smoothly so have an interest in the person in the strongest position’s offer being accepted. I assume it just makes their job easier as they won’t have to carry out another round of viewings etc.

Tbh, if you have several offers to choose from don’t ask these questions AND are entering into an upward chain you risk putting the whole chain in danger.

@NewHouseNewMe I do find it a massive conflict of interests, we had to get an AIP to the exact amount of our offer on our first house because I didn't want to give an AIP that had the maximum amount we could borrow because I thought that just gave the EA leverage to know what we could go up to.

That EA also told us we had to use their broker, thankfully I knew otherwise.

We are in the same position with a similar deposit and we are definitely not buying until after the next 6-12m as prices will either stagnate or go down - in our opinion anyway! I definitely don’t see them going up so even if you are buying for the long term, waiting a bit might mean you can afford a better property!

@modargh I agree it's a conflict of interest so I don't blame you for going for an exact AIP. As for telling you that you had to use their broker , words fail me!

I think it depends what the government does next - whether they choose to continue to prop things up or let the natural fallout of the pandemic happen. The natural fallout would seem to be quite extensive unemployment in many non-essential industries followed by eventual forced selling...and subsequent lowering of house prices.

But the government may decide to try to pull something else out of the bag...after all they did with the furlough scheme. In which case there may not be same forced selling situation.

I personally tend to think something has got to give at some point and I think if I were OP I would be waiting. But it's a gamble!