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💪

Presumably OP is too busy waving her magic fairy wand and making plucky young homebuyers' dreams come true to reply this morning.

Maybe this thread should’ve been titled “I encouraged young people to borrow half a million and didn’t tell them that the interest wasn’t stable. Aibu?”.

Agreed. Paddington saves marmalade sandwiches, which must be proving useful for tackling the cost of living crisis. Bread and marmalade prices are not on the way down… unlike housing.

As op is talking about Airbnb here so day rates, cleaning and washing, I would have thought is a biggest money drain.

and likelihood of airbnb banned. esp if we get a labour government, i think its on the cards and they will allow individual councils to vote to ban holiday lets/airbnb. i am certain many london councils will do that, as well as brighton, bristol and other holiday hotspots. Cambridge City Council is labour controlled so i suspect they will also follow. Most lucrative airbnbs are in lefty cities or in beauty spots (that are so blighted by tourism that even the socially conservative locals see the insanity of it all due to local families being forced to live in premier inn)

Omg!!!! OP you are just so out of touch with reality!!!!! You also come across as a complete arse!!!!!!!!!
Tell Liz truss shes a arse too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Although this thread has given me a good laugh!!!!!!!!!!

A very good analysis on why the UK is different to other places, thank you.

OP I’m sure you had the best of intentions with your post

Then you're very naive.

You still have to maintain the property, though, and repair broken stuff- possibly more so than with a long let with a good tenant, and deal with complaints. As you say, Airbnb has it's own extra costs too.
Personally I'd rather have a long term tenant. When we had to let a relative's property (for care home costs) we got excellent tenants on a long let, they stayed the entire time until the owner passed away and the property was sold, which was a matter of years- they had wanted to buy it and we'd have happily sold to them, but they had to move area for family reasons. Oh, and we never put the rent up, either, even though the letting agents once did without telling us....we just told them to drop it right back down again and apologise to the tenants.

I will love it when AirB&B goes down the shitter.

And when I rule the world I'll ban too-many-students-crammed-into-thin-walled-terraced-house type rentals in residential areas. Did you know you can turn a 3 bedroom house into a 5 bedroom house with the stroke of a pen? Clever, huh?

Sorry, I forgot the !!!!

Happened in Edinburgh already - all short-term lets that have a shared common area have to apply for planning permission which the council is minded to refuse. Have lost our long-term Edinburgh Fringe apartment we rented for 15 years but sadly but realise that something had to give.

Perfection

Uber bearish article in the Telegraph.

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/10/13/markets-latest-economy-sterling-pound-bailey-bank-england-ftse/

A looming crash in the property market will take house prices back to 2013 levels and spark a big drop in consumer spending, a top City economist has warned.
Simon French, senior economist at Panmure Gordon, predicted that house prices will fall 14pc over the next three years as mortgage costs surge.
This would take the average house price adjusted for inflation back to levels last seen in the first quarter of 2013, before the Help to Buy scheme was introduced.
Mr French added that the house price crash would have a “negative wealth effect” as declining values prompted homeowners to tighten the purse strings.
He warned the impact of the price falls would translate to a £35bn a year – or 1.4pc of GDP – reduction in consumer spending over the next three years.

@vera99 you didn’t read that as a call to prevent a house price crash then ? For more intervention to ensure it doesn’t happen because that’s exactly how I read it.

The consequences are too high, I think this is the point demonstrated by the willingness to borrow for tax cuts, they don’t give a fuck how much debt youre in, they don’t give a fuck how much debt their in, as long as the wheels keep turning.

Prices dropping to 2013 levels seems quite optimistic to me.

Yes, indeed. I'm optimistic they could go much, much lower.

Affordability for new market entrants is already now less than 2013 levels, adjusted for October 2022 salaries and lending conditions. Posted about that months ago - you don't need to be a 'Top Economist' to calculate that.

I think that is in nominal terms as it assumes a 15% crash in actual price and then no capital growth and inflation so the price I guess relative to predicted earnings if they keep pace with inflation and would thus affordability would be that as of 2013 if that makes sense.

As for more intervention as auntsalli suggests like what? In 2008 to prevent a global economic crash interest rates went to virtually zero and QE started printing nearly a trillion pounds of 'funny money'. That has to stop now and the pain will need to be taken. Either that or a crashing pound and hyperinflation could take us somewhere very dark indeed. It goes without saying whatever problems the world is facing globally then successive conservative governments acting out the fantasy of Brexit have exacerbated the situation terribly.

BTL was a one-way bet with low-interest rates and rising asset prices. That I would predict has come to a shuddering halt and no one will be coming to rescue them nor should they. Single homeowners may have something that comes for support or at least one would hope so.

If our house fell by 14% it would take it back to 2018 levels.

I hadn’t thought about that one. But yes, it will likely happen I think, which makes op’s figures even more un achievable.

I agree the other on costs will be higher. For starters, furniture and furnishings, which aren’t often provided on long term lets these days. I can imagine that Airbnb would only be worthwhile if renting for several days or the owner turning the property around.

Good, when people are being turfed out as tenants to make the property an air bnb then something has gone drastically wrong. I blame a lot on the property porn shows.

I've just seen the most recent posts from OP about sharing a studio between 4 sisters and 'just live with your parents the rest of time, simples' and I am crying laughing 😂

It's absolutely a wind up thread but jesus it's entertaining. I hope someone starts a second thread when this is full, I need a good laugh.

Apparently that works because people only need to work for half the year.

Ah of course. That makes sense.

I might change careers and go into real estate myself because I don't know what they're smoking but I want some.

Oh please! Stop misrepresenting me!

If you go back and read what I wrote, which you seem very unwilful to do 🙄, you'll see I said that there are roles available in the contractor market that you can do 6 months at a time, and there are plenty of gig economy jobs that allow you to be based wherever you like!

Plus you seem to have forgotten a little thing called the Covid-19 pandemic? You know - the one that meant a shift towards people working from home these days?!

I really don't see the problem anyway - the solution is so flexible, especially if you have aging parents - the load can be shared!