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💪

Hope you are OK PixieDust. Remember there is help available. Including on here! Reach out to people if you need to.

Total fucking cunts and that's why these BTL muppets using the property as their pension need winkling out of the market asap and I speak as a homeowner (just the one) who believes that affordable housing for all is the cornerstone of a civilised society. If they are not prepared to understand that their rented homes are someone's stability and essential need then they shouldn't be in the market in the first place. One of my mates is a BTL builder who has been in the market in London for over 10 years and is worth a fortune. For the past few years, he has been paying .5% above the base rate on his IO loans. He says he has a good run and is in all respects a good landlord but says it's a scandal that he was allowed to be enriched to such a degree and fully accepts that in general, this sector is malign influence on our country. He never calls himself a landlord in casual conversation just a builder. He realised it's pretty much a hated class !

Been in the property game since 1999…

Lols. You really haven’t a clue what’s happening outside your little bubble, have you. 🤣🤣🤣

@vera99 I mean you’re allowed your opinion but some of us don’t want to work until we drop and whether it’s in a pension-fund or physical bricks and mortar. older people have always been supported by younger people since time began. Thatcher declared there was no such things to society and everyone was to get on their bikes so it’s no longer my children that are just supporting me, my children and I are supporting everyone as a result and the natural consequences are that everybody else’s children will be supporting me. A lot less palatable of course but here we are.

Lol at the estate agent OP telling people to ask their family to give away their assets, pensions etc to help them buy a property at inflated price.

Estate agent is one of the few jobs I would be disappointed if my DC became one (along with car salesman).

You are in a market and the market will decide ultimately. FFS my sister has 3 houses, my brother 2 and my nephew and nieces' families 2 each. I don't begrudge them and we are very close but the bigger picture is this a dysfunctional market skewed against the working generation who have declining job security, pension entitlement and access to secure housing. We need change or it's just a case of devil taking the hindmost.

I disagree if we were in a market it would’ve self regulated back in 2003 maybe 2004 at a push the government has interfered and artificially inflated this market for nearly 20 years.

I don’t expect you to get this based on the grasp of logic you’ve shown so far, but the point is it’s ridiculous for leveraged up BTL landlords to expect to extract profits on top of rent covering a high LTV mortgage. This is why BTL should be scrapped. And totally disgusting to extract a profit from someone on top of them paying for the asset you’ll then expect to appreciate in value for you.

That was a reply to your earlier response saying of course you expect a profit etc

I find it a good general rule not to take financial advice from people who end every sentence with an exclamation mark.
Or from people who have a vested interest in persuading others to keep throwing money at something.

I'm not in the UK but why can't he buy somewhere else with a partner or friend? Or are those houses too expensive as well? My brother moved to the other side of our country to be able to buy a five bed house. He has 3 kids and works from home so needed a big house and that meant moving to a cheap area.

Goady fucker is goady.

This has to be the most bizarre thread I’ve ever seen on MN….

My brother moved to the other side of our country to be able to buy a five bed house. He has 3 kids and works from home so needed a big house and that meant moving to a cheap area.

Yeah and if everyone does that then those cheap areas rapidly become expensive areas. It's not a solution.

19% of our council tax pays for all early final salary pension costs in local authorities: .www.taxpayersalliance.com

So don't worries, our pensions may be fucked but we will carry on paying for civil servant final salary early retirements.

Liz Truss has mentioned raising the state pension age too!

@monkeyupsidedown well exactly.

I know there were a few people that bought on one persons salary but they were definitely not the norm. I think these days without wanting to go massively off track people are absolutely terrified to throw their financial lot in together and combine assets even though it would be to their benefit even in the event of divorce etc

You shouldn't even be able to make a living off of people's very basic right to wanting a home. Accidental landlords I can get behind, but portfolios and the like, it's fucking bullshit and it's so unfair.

this

Agree.

@monkeyupsidedown your brother WFH though so he can do that. What if someone is in a job where they can't do that? Some people can't just up sticks and move to cheaper housing? And if you do have to relocate then you're stuck with renting again because no mortgage will lend to someone in a new job.

I wish all these people would stop saying 'well my so and so did x and y' as if everyone can do the same. It's not that simple.

What kind of decent person would ask their parents to cash in their pensions! Are you insane or just a terrible human being? Wow!

Your post is basically the equivalent of dropping ten bags of trash into a river,
then saying you like fish and have been swimming with dolphins, while suggesting everyone else goes and gets creative to solve the issue of plastic in the ocean. Respectfully, do you not see that? 🙁

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When we started at the agency, DH and I worked loads of hours and that's how we got to the position we are in today. I'm really proud of us!

The meritocracy myth. There are people working 80+ hours a week just to pay their bloody rent and living costs, energy bills, etc. People stuck in minimum wage because they can't afford to retrain. So many different situations at play here.

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I don't actually blame you for buying properties when you did. Back then, there was no awareness of the impact. Same with AirBnb.

The problem is really simple, surely?

Person A owns 5 houses and rents them out at a profit. They're a nice person who wants their tenants to enjoy living in their properties. But ultimately, when it comes to profit, they'll choose it every time.

Person B is a tenant. Their landlord increases the rent to maintain their profit, which means they either can't afford to live there any more (goodbye home), or can't afford to save a deposit (goodbye prospect of being a home owner any time soon, let alone owning multiple properties to ever be in the same position as Person A).

Meanwhile, Person C can't find a house that suits their needs that is affordable. One reason? Low supply, high demand. Another reason? House prices and the cost of living have spiralled beyond the rate of salary increases. So they can't keep up. And the longer they spend unable to find anything, the more house prices continue to rise.

Person A actively contributes to the housing shortage by holding multiple properties for profit, yet can't understand why Person B and Person C can't just pull their socks up and climb up off the "shop floor" or ride for Deliveroo to more to make the money to put together a deposit and follow in their footsteps. While literally being one of the factors preventing them from doing exactly that.

If every Person A out there (landlords) had never been allowed to buy investment property in the first place, there would not be such a massive shortage in supply. But they were allowed to, so they did (because why not? most people would), and now we're in this mess.

Of course people can think creatively. They can get lodgers, buy with a sibling or friend, work multiple jobs for a few years, somehow flip cheap houses until they get there. But not everyone has the ability to do any of these things. And it won't always be enough to actually bridge the gap.

Why are landlords being demonised? Because they are contributing to the housing shortage by hoarding properties for a profit, while other people can't buy, because supply is lower than demand.

I love this post, such a goady fucker who lives in a bubble.

Can't tell if OP is being goady or just unbelievably ignorant.

It really is quite difficult to tell.

It shouldn't be possible for someone to have worked in a particular industry for 23 years to have such a limited understanding, but I suppose it could be?

70/30 goady/ignorant I reckon.