to think all this nonsense about house prices being too high is just that - Nonsense!

[RazahFluffy]

DH and I have long been in the property game. We actually met whilst working as Estate Agents back in 1999!

I've seen a lot in my time as an agent - 2008/2009 were a bit of a blip, but overall, there's one thing I've always had faith in, and that's bricks and mortar and that prices always go up. They aren't making more land after all 😁

As well as working in property, we've got a few of our own. We started off as accidental landlords after we got together and kept both our homes to rent out when we decided it was time to move in together and find a place of our own. Over time we've added a few more to the portfolio.

We are lovely landlords. We let our tenants have our houses as their homes, and we like to do little things like send them Christmas hampers, and know their birthdays so we can send a card and usually a Pizza Express voucher.

Anyway, there's a lot of rubbish being written recently about interest rates and the economy affecting the market. Nothing could be further from the truth where we are!

It's still buoyant and the buyers registering at the agency are no different to usual - excited to either 'get on the ladder' or move to their next step towards their eventual forever home😊Vendors are still confident. They agree with us that houses are actually a bit too cheap, all things considered because inflation is quite high.

The one thing I'd have to say is if you can't afford a mortgage at the moment - think about your expectations. You might have thought previously that you could afford a 4 bed, but if you can only get a 3 bed for now is that really so bad? First time buyers especially I feel need to be realistic!

Property always goes up and it's no different now. We're really confident and having seen it all in this game, we really think it's time to believe in the market💪

Translated:

“We are loving the traffic. This is highly likely to be picked up by a national newspaper, driving more traffic to the forums. If you don’t like it, please hide it because we’re not taking it down”.

Wait, what... you're being satirical right? This thread is a witty commentary on the absolute shitshow that is the UK housing market?

Believe in yourself and you can always get yourself a home.

You sound like Peter Pan shaking fairy dust on Wendy. All the belief in the world isn't going to magic up an affordable home, thousands for a deposit and a mortgage to cover it based on even an average paying job.

If you are serious, please take heed of the many, many posts on here about how tone deaf and upsetting you're being. Motivational quips aren't going to help people become homeowners, however much you try to pretend otherwise.

However I really can't believe this is real. You make Liz Truss look like an empath.

I've been cornered by someone like you at parties. After five minutes of smug bullshit combined with low intelligence and every sentence ending on an exclamation mark and loud voice I get exhausted and hide in the garden until I hear you leave.

Who the hell are you? You're certainly no property expert because the 'brilliant' idea of asking parents for help is bullshit. People are these days often told by banks that donations from parents are not an acceptable means of providing a deposit. Banks are asking for proof that mortgage applicants can save for their own deposit to show they can handle their money well enough to afford their repayments. Your advice may have been pertinent decades ago but times have changed just a little bit so you may want to dial down the smugness.

This is TOTAL Bs sorry .

We are seeing a record number of properties being devalued by the banks which is not a good sign .

Watch

"Moving home with Charlie" on YouTube ... very educational

@RazahFluffy tell me this: the average U.K. salary is £38,131 (although Many are on much less), let’s take a couple who both who plough their average salaries together which after tax (not including pensions) is £66,041.2 - how do they afford to “live” and own a property?

now let’s deduct gas and electricity bills for the year for a medium 3 bed - £2500

now let’s deduct full time childcare for ONE child - £14,400 (where I am it’s roughly £60 per day at a nursery)

now your average weekly shop roughly £80 could be more if you need nappies, wipes, formula, etc - £3840

council tax (this one’s a real treat) - average band D in England is £160 per month (it’s higher in Scotland) - £1493 p/y

so what’s left after these necessities: £43808.20 / £3,650

the average property price in England is £281,161 or £529,829 if in London…but for this sake let’s use the average price in England at todays rate of a 5 year fix of 5.79% over a 30 year period - £1648 per month.

so now we are left with £2,002 per month between 2 adults and a child.

now you need to deduct transport costs, fuel, car payments, phone landline and/or mobile, potential credit card fees, savings (HA!), clothes and shoes for their growing child, toiletries…

internet, hobbies, eating out, takeaways, holidays, are considered a luxury…

not much left in the bank to have much of a life is there? And if you happen to stay in London on an average salary - good luck!

I can't say what I really want to say because it's too rude. But my husband and I and our children moved across the country because the city we were living in was getting so expensive we could barely even afford to rent a 2-bed flat let alone buy.

We are now in an area where we would have been able to buy a tatty 3 bed house with a tiny garden (which we were happy with), except now with the increase in interest rates we can't at the moment.

You seem to be forgetting the tiny little detail of needing a deposit.

OK, last year they changed the rules so you "only"(!!) need 5%, but me and DH have been saving for years on the basis that we would need 10% plus a few grand extra for solicitor's fees, survey etc. So that meant we were saving for an ever-moving target that started off at £15K and is now at over £20K. Given that we've been spending over a third of our income on rent for the last 10 years, it has taken a very long time to save that amount.

Of my friends who have bought (all of whom are professionals in their 30s), all of them relied on big help from parents and grandparents. Neither of our parents are in a position to help us, so we are stuck renting.

They are selling because of tax changes , new section regulation and incoming EPC requirements

Also rising BTL rates ...

Lets believe the 'psychic estate agent' who seems to be a bit dim, or the economists - i know who i would rather listen to

I had hopes for this one, actually. That's why I didn't report it even though it was obviously a troll. It started off well, a funny character who's clearly on the wind up but not being actually offensive. I initially read it as a satire of idiot landlords, actually.

But despite the promising start, they've fallen to the old temptation of getting a bit spiteful about it and pushing too hard, which ruins the tone. It's a hard balance to maintain, which is why so few people can do it.

Love it! This is such a mad thread!

Yes, in the long term property always goes up, but there are a lot of people out there with fixed rate mortgages coming to an end who are frightened that they will not be able to afford a doubled interest rate and might lose their homes, so the short term picture is very different. I don't think even this ridiculous govt is going to provide financial support to people in negative equity who can't afford to stay in their homes. If the govt supported landlords with everyone's money I would join the protests!

I have a feeling they may attempt something like that due to the prospect of millions becoming homeless but it would be too little too late..

In one way OP I agree with you. I think expectations about living standards needs to readjusted though. The last 40 years has been a weird blip in world history which has given rise to all sorts of expectations.

when I bought my first home, I was very lucky to get a two up, one down mainly because I had a car crash which nearly killed me and left me with life long injuries, friends and family bought similar (usually jointly) where they spent their weekends digging up floors, mending roofs. The furniture was cast offs from great Aunt Maud. Social life was then being your own booze and nibbles round each other’s houses. I didn’t go on holiday for 6 years. I couldn’t afford to buy where I worked so commuted nearly 2 hours each way every day (bus and two trains).

Before that I lived with parents and house shared. It was normal to rent a room.

Once you get on the rental carousel with family and all that entails though you’re pretty much fucked! You have no flexibility in finances or lifestyle.

now I see graduates complaint they can’t afford a deposit but have brand new company lease cars, new outfits everyweek adamant that they must live in certain areas, furnishing rented flats from John Lewis.

People need to plan their lives better. You can’t have everything you want right now.

historically most people rented anyway. As I said people need to start viewing the last 40-70 years as a blip rather than the norm.

People saying 'I couldn't afford the house I'm in now if I had to buy it today', sorry but this is just classic rubbish. You're in the house?! So you could afford it. It's the same for people today, they just need to adjust their expectations.

Do you actually understand the point people are making at all?

Why have you stopped at three properties OP? Why are you not buying more properties now if things are so great? Why are you relying on the government to help you out if renters cannot pay the increase.

This has to be a piss take? Surely nobody is as tin-eared as this outside of Tory head office?

@RazahFluffy

You said:

People saying 'I couldn't afford the house I'm in now if I had to buy it today', sorry but this is just classic rubbish. You're in the house?! So you could afford it

But you previously said, of your own tenants:

Sadly they can't afford a property themselves, so that just goes to show again how tight and in demand property is!

Oops 😬

House prices are high, on the other hand new houses are selling off plans before they are built so they are affordable.

There is a problem for FTBs straight out of Uni never had a steady job, student loan, high expectations, they are often disappointed, but that’s what they signed up for at 18

Its rents that are far too high that is a bigger issue, it’s impossible to save for a deposit and pay rent.

None of the recent graduates I know have new outfits weekly or furnish their flats from John Lewis. They're too busy either trying to work out how to pay energy bills costing thousands, or how they'll ever be able to afford to move out from mum and dad's.

now I see graduates complaint they can’t afford a deposit but have brand new company lease cars, new outfits everyweek adamant that they must live in certain areas, furnishing rented flats from John Lewis. @OMG12 ive never seen that ever. Even the richest teenagers I know parents bought them a flat and probably did kit it out with furniture as we all would if you could.

As a comparison OP, I qualified as a nurse in London in 1990 on a salary of £11,700. At the time another junior nurse on my ward and his girlfriend - also a nurse and no doubt both earning similar salaries to me - bought a terraced Victorian house in Charlton. These days, similar houses start at about £600k. A newly qualified nurse now earns about £30k so there is no way on this earth that two nurses could afford to buy a similar property these days.

Your post is staggeringly tone-deaf and, for someone who claims to be knowledgeable, displays very little understanding of the property market or difficulties people are having to buy a home. And don't get me started on the appallingly unregulated rental market in this country! Your post says it all - one of the main problems we have in the UK with housing is that too many people view it as a chance to make money, rather than a home to live in. Buy to let landlords have just fuelled this and it's causing misery for so many.

I am going to bow to your infinite wisdom and ask you how my DS who earns £27,000 a year can afford to buy a property at the average price in my London borough of £355,000. I am presuming that your knowledge will help him magic up the extra money he needs to buy his first house.

The OP is taking the piss I think.

No one could seriously believe in what she is saying, surely?!

A company lease car is likely to cost less than buying your own second hand car - and used car prices have rocketed. Company car packages tend to include insurance and service so a lot less to pay when you need a vehicle to work. It’s not a sign of wealth.