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Original poster

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

905 replies

RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 00:32

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💪

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
TheLoupGarou · 12/10/2022 17:07

Ha. My mum, a single parent then working as a HEO in the civil service, bought a 2 bed garden flat in Muswell Hill in 1985 for about £96k. Similar flats in same street now selling for upwards of £600k.

Now, whilst public sector wages have gone up in the last 30 years, they've not gone up that bloody much! Google tells me a HEO starts on about £29k - so what was prob about 3.5x mum's wage in 1985 would now be 20x a HEO salary. I wouldn't fancy the interest on a mortgage that size!

AuntSalli · 12/10/2022 17:08

GasPanic · 12/10/2022 15:12

Your posts read like property rampers buzzword bingo.

House prices only go up.
You can't go wrong with bricks and mortar.
They aren't building any more land.
Foreign buyers will snap them up.
Renting is dead money.

Also some questions :

Do you have an exceptionally large clock mounted on any wall in your living space ?

Any arrangements of twigs in vases ?

Any ornaments spelling out commands such as "LOVE","HOME","COSY","PETS" in any part of your house ?

Any furniture 70% of normal size to make the rooms look bigger in photos ?

My theory on this thread now is that the OP is a house price crusher troll who has purposefully come over here to set the cat amongst the pigeons (as Matt Goss would 🎤) and get everybody to argue their position to put it into the mainstream media, they are hoping this gets picked up by the daily fail. And they are probably right.

Notjustanymum · 12/10/2022 17:32

Yes, house prices have gone up. For those of us who have bought houses in the 1990’s, and paid off their mortgages, it’s great… but only if we decide to liquidate the asset and downsize.
However, it doesn’t mean that we can’t empathise with first-time buyers now, who, even if they have “a good job” can’t pay the 2.5 x joint salary that was the max you could borrow back then, and afford anything at all (within a reasonable commute of their jobs)
While house prices have been driven up by people who, like OP, view houses as a golden opportunity to make money (this wouldn’t have been a “thing” in the past when interest rates were higher, as it you’d make more from investing in stocks/shares and even some savings schemes back then), wages/salaries have been driven down by greedy employers tempted by the National Minimum Wage to use as a benchmark, with the unhappy result that people are being forced to rent (again, wonderful for OP) because they won’t get a mortgage based on their salary - even if that mortgage would cost them half of their current rental amount.
Everything just works better for everyone, if the ratio of take-home spent on housing and bills, and eating, is 2/3, rather than 4/3 or 5/3.

Better polish that tin ear, OP. People starting out now (and a lot who’ve already started within the last 10 years) are going to have a really tough time in the coming months and years so to take such glorious delight in your “investment return” seems very tone deaf to most…

ScabbersChin · 12/10/2022 17:37

RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 00:44

@Bbqchicken The whole interest rate thing is seriously overblown! Like I said, if people can't afford the house they thought they could before, then they have to be realistic, and buy one that they can. We can't all jump straight to a 5 bed detached!!

One other thing to remember. Supply and demand! It's still a sellers market, there's not too many listings at the moment and still a great deal of people looking for a house.

We are seeing a few more vendors coming in at the moment - in fact there seems to be a little bit of a surge interest to sell some truly beautiful high end properties as well which we haven't seen for some time! A welcome chance indeed for people to find a really spectacular home.

Also some local landlords have also recently enquired about selling in the market, due to what they feel is a shameful 'envy of success', which is a great shame but we have been demonised over the last few years 😓

You really need to take off your expensive rose tinted glasses off.

It isn’t as simple as just popping down the mortgage shop and getting a new one to get a smaller property.

My situation- my home is going on the market due to divorce. I don’t want to do this. My children don’t want to move. The interest rate goes up. I can fix the rate but early redemption figures mean less equity. I can’t do a payment holiday of selling the house. I can’t do a payment plan as it will ruin my credit file for 6 years.

I can’t get a social house as I’ll have £££’s equity. I can’t continue to claim UC for the same reason when equity comes.

I can’t rent due to having pets, chicken, UC and being self employed. I’m at the bottom of a long list of other tenants after the same properties.

It’s totally messed up.

AuntSalli · 12/10/2022 17:48

@ScabbersChin A payment plan will not ruin your credit for six years providing you’ve agreed it with your lender it’s when you don’t pay anything and it comes as a nasty surprise to them that there’s no money going into your account that they flag defaults on your credit file if you’ve discussed it and agreed it you’ll be absolutely fine.

ScabbersChin · 12/10/2022 17:50

AuntSalli · 12/10/2022 17:48

@ScabbersChin A payment plan will not ruin your credit for six years providing you’ve agreed it with your lender it’s when you don’t pay anything and it comes as a nasty surprise to them that there’s no money going into your account that they flag defaults on your credit file if you’ve discussed it and agreed it you’ll be absolutely fine.

Halifax told me this would be the case yesterday? Maybe I’ll cal and ask again.

AuntSalli · 12/10/2022 18:05

@ScabbersChin I mean they’re all different for when I was going through my divorce and it dragged on for nearly 10 years as long as they were warned what was happening they never put a default flag on my credit record.

ChateauxNeufDePoop · 12/10/2022 18:43

I know it's been a busy couple of weeks for them but can't believe @MNHQ haven't despatched this one.

SquashedSquashess · 12/10/2022 18:51

OP is quite obviously a troll, just from reading from Page 1. No one can be that bouncy, breezy and patronising without knowing what they’re doing.

“asking parents for help is a brilliant idea”
”there’s usually a broker at the estate agents”
“we’ve passed on our mortgage increase to our tenants, but that’s just the market. Sadly they can’t afford to buy…”

troll troll troll

I’m privileged OP, but you are just a tit

ReneBumsWombats · 12/10/2022 19:25

ChateauxNeufDePoop · 12/10/2022 18:43

I know it's been a busy couple of weeks for them but can't believe @MNHQ haven't despatched this one.

Yes, me too. Even if it's not a troll (it is), it's adding nothing to the site and it's made a lot of people very upset. I thought it was funny at first because I thought it was a satire of stupid landlords, but OP hasn't got the skill for this and it's just turned into a train wreck. I wish they'd pull it.

vera99 · 12/10/2022 19:29

Have a heart Justine will need a bit more dosh to service the vast BTL empire portfolio (based on nothing I hasten to add). The Troll Hunter hunters seem to be on a break atm. 😁

Original poster
RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:02

Phew - wow, I wasn't expecting this kind of response, both in terms of volume and nastiness.

I had a looonnngg day at the office today - busy as always! People are still literally queuing up to buy property round here. As someone asked, I'm near the 'tech hub' capital of the UK, Cambridge. Lots of monied up engineers I guess, and all of them seem keen to buy 😊

We didn't get any offers yet today, but the viewings of a really stunning period property, a luxury city center flat that's to die for and a cosy new build that we've been asked to market went well. I'm really confident that we'll achieve great prices. One did ask if the vendors were motivated to sell, and whether they'd accept a below asking price offer, but that's very cheeky in the current market.

Anyway, some of the accusations have really been very cruel. Landlords are providing a hugely valuable social service. And let's face it, without us there would be massive problems.

If we all sold up tomorrow, what would people do? There would be an enormous shortage of properties, and homelessness would be rampant.

A lot of people have said I shouldn't have mentioned using the Bank of Mum and Dad, regarding cashing in on some of the pension wealth. I fully disagree on this, because even if they don't want to gift it, perhaps they could take an interest in the property themselves? Putting more money into property is never a bad thing, and it helps the market too, adding further to the wealth of the UK's best loved asset and out of the hands of the city💪

So I don't accept these arguments that have been made. Continuously talking the market down adds a real risk of people missing out on their dreams of home ownership.

I accept, the government aren't helping. Stopping the superb help to buy scheme is a real error, as that provided a wonderful boost back after 2013, and saw prices rise accordingly as people were again confident in the market.

OP posts:
eltonjohnsglasses · 12/10/2022 21:05

So I don't accept these arguments that have been made.

I'm sure everyone is shocked by this!

Continuously talking the market down adds a real risk of people missing out on their dreams of home ownership.

fuck me, you're an absolute muppet.

jgw1 · 12/10/2022 21:09

RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:02

Phew - wow, I wasn't expecting this kind of response, both in terms of volume and nastiness.

I had a looonnngg day at the office today - busy as always! People are still literally queuing up to buy property round here. As someone asked, I'm near the 'tech hub' capital of the UK, Cambridge. Lots of monied up engineers I guess, and all of them seem keen to buy 😊

We didn't get any offers yet today, but the viewings of a really stunning period property, a luxury city center flat that's to die for and a cosy new build that we've been asked to market went well. I'm really confident that we'll achieve great prices. One did ask if the vendors were motivated to sell, and whether they'd accept a below asking price offer, but that's very cheeky in the current market.

Anyway, some of the accusations have really been very cruel. Landlords are providing a hugely valuable social service. And let's face it, without us there would be massive problems.

If we all sold up tomorrow, what would people do? There would be an enormous shortage of properties, and homelessness would be rampant.

A lot of people have said I shouldn't have mentioned using the Bank of Mum and Dad, regarding cashing in on some of the pension wealth. I fully disagree on this, because even if they don't want to gift it, perhaps they could take an interest in the property themselves? Putting more money into property is never a bad thing, and it helps the market too, adding further to the wealth of the UK's best loved asset and out of the hands of the city💪

So I don't accept these arguments that have been made. Continuously talking the market down adds a real risk of people missing out on their dreams of home ownership.

I accept, the government aren't helping. Stopping the superb help to buy scheme is a real error, as that provided a wonderful boost back after 2013, and saw prices rise accordingly as people were again confident in the market.

Thank you @RazahFluffy I needed a good laugh this evening and you have certainly obliged.

Original poster
RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:09

GasPanic · 12/10/2022 15:12

Your posts read like property rampers buzzword bingo.

House prices only go up.
You can't go wrong with bricks and mortar.
They aren't building any more land.
Foreign buyers will snap them up.
Renting is dead money.

Also some questions :

Do you have an exceptionally large clock mounted on any wall in your living space ?

Any arrangements of twigs in vases ?

Any ornaments spelling out commands such as "LOVE","HOME","COSY","PETS" in any part of your house ?

Any furniture 70% of normal size to make the rooms look bigger in photos ?

Let's start with the first part here - I never said renting is dead money. I absolutely think renting offers freedom and a lack of responsibility that owner occupiers bear. They are lucky to have that - believe me, getting a call to fix a tap whilst I'm having my hair done doesn't exactly make me happy! But do it I do, because I like to make sure my tenants are well looked after.

The other statements are all true - property does only go up, and you can't go wrong with bricks and mortar. We even have some properties of non standard construction for cash buyers only for sale at the moment, and those are a real bargain and quite rare.

The bizarre bit - a large clock? No, I have an Apple Watch.

I do have twigs in vases, and I advise the same of my clients sometimes to dress up a room.

The other bits no.

OP posts:
Mooda · 12/10/2022 21:11

This is 100% a pisstake, well done for sustaining it for this long OP - every cliche thoroughly and depressingly ticked off.

jgw1 · 12/10/2022 21:14

Mooda · 12/10/2022 21:11

This is 100% a pisstake, well done for sustaining it for this long OP - every cliche thoroughly and depressingly ticked off.

I am just a little disappointed we haven't had trotted out, but Jeremy Corbyn would have crashed the housing market.

onthefencesitter · 12/10/2022 21:29

RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:02

Phew - wow, I wasn't expecting this kind of response, both in terms of volume and nastiness.

I had a looonnngg day at the office today - busy as always! People are still literally queuing up to buy property round here. As someone asked, I'm near the 'tech hub' capital of the UK, Cambridge. Lots of monied up engineers I guess, and all of them seem keen to buy 😊

We didn't get any offers yet today, but the viewings of a really stunning period property, a luxury city center flat that's to die for and a cosy new build that we've been asked to market went well. I'm really confident that we'll achieve great prices. One did ask if the vendors were motivated to sell, and whether they'd accept a below asking price offer, but that's very cheeky in the current market.

Anyway, some of the accusations have really been very cruel. Landlords are providing a hugely valuable social service. And let's face it, without us there would be massive problems.

If we all sold up tomorrow, what would people do? There would be an enormous shortage of properties, and homelessness would be rampant.

A lot of people have said I shouldn't have mentioned using the Bank of Mum and Dad, regarding cashing in on some of the pension wealth. I fully disagree on this, because even if they don't want to gift it, perhaps they could take an interest in the property themselves? Putting more money into property is never a bad thing, and it helps the market too, adding further to the wealth of the UK's best loved asset and out of the hands of the city💪

So I don't accept these arguments that have been made. Continuously talking the market down adds a real risk of people missing out on their dreams of home ownership.

I accept, the government aren't helping. Stopping the superb help to buy scheme is a real error, as that provided a wonderful boost back after 2013, and saw prices rise accordingly as people were again confident in the market.

Falling house prices means FTBs can buy cheaper properties and people like me who want to upsize from a 2 bed flat to a 3 bed flat can also benefit from the overall fall in house prices (saving on stamp duty and transaction fees).

The only people it is bad for are estate agents and downsizers (but they have benefited from so many years of rising house prices that they can afford to take a haircut of 100k).

Original poster
RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:31

jgw1 · 12/10/2022 21:14

I am just a little disappointed we haven't had trotted out, but Jeremy Corbyn would have crashed the housing market.

Show quote history

I don't believe that actually. Property is resilient to whoever is in charge.

Even if they did build a lot of new homes, the demand will always exceed the supply as there isn't another asset class that can be compared to the bulletproof nature of it.

OP posts:
Original poster
RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:33

augustusglupe · 12/10/2022 12:14

A pizza express voucher 😂

There have been a lot of very snide attacks on this thread at me, but these ones are especially ridiculous. Our tenants have always mentioned how much they enjoyed the meal afterwards.

OP posts:
onthefencesitter · 12/10/2022 21:34

RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:31

I don't believe that actually. Property is resilient to whoever is in charge.

Even if they did build a lot of new homes, the demand will always exceed the supply as there isn't another asset class that can be compared to the bulletproof nature of it.

Show quote history

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-london-property-prices-financial-district-dive/?leadSource=uverify%20wall

bullet proof you say...

Blossomtoes · 12/10/2022 21:35

If we all sold up tomorrow, what would people do? There would be an enormous shortage of properties, and homelessness would be rampant.

If landlords sold those houses they’d still exist. You’ll have to sell up eventually once this government has gone because you won’t be making any money. The public sector will be happy to take them off your hands so they can become social housing. Hope you don’t lose too much.

Original poster
RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:35

organisedmother · 12/10/2022 11:16

@RazahFluffy this is rubbish my mortgage has just increased £332 a MONTH

You're thinking short term. The long term gains will make that seem like nothing later. Believe me, in the property market we have a saying - 'cash always finds it's way back to housing'.

OP posts:
Butchyrestingface · 12/10/2022 21:36

Mooda · 12/10/2022 21:11

This is 100% a pisstake, well done for sustaining it for this long OP - every cliche thoroughly and depressingly ticked off.

Most of them lack the staying power. This one can go the distance, in the words of the inimitable Michael Bolton.

Original poster
RazahFluffy · 12/10/2022 21:37

Blossomtoes · 12/10/2022 21:35

If we all sold up tomorrow, what would people do? There would be an enormous shortage of properties, and homelessness would be rampant.

If landlords sold those houses they’d still exist. You’ll have to sell up eventually once this government has gone because you won’t be making any money. The public sector will be happy to take them off your hands so they can become social housing. Hope you don’t lose too much.

A significant proportion would be immediately hoovered up by Chinese investors, and they are quite happy to keep the homes empty.

OP posts: