To hate homes under the hammer

[Cappuccinowithonesugarplease]

I know most young families can't afford to buy houses outright, but I see all these more affordable homes go to greedy landlords just in it for the profit. Eugh it makes me sick! Would be so refreshing to see some of these homes go to people who won't just tosh them up cheaply to sell again or rent them out

I used to watch it but got fed up of the 'well if you want to sell on you are going to need to get rid of the dreadful carpets, put in a new kitchen and bathroom, update the electrics, but if you want to rent it out: a quick coat of paint and you are good to go with a +7% profit...' I hated the way renters were seen as cash cows and substandard accomodation was seen as fine.
Yes this is a bigger issue, when Right to Buy was brought in, there was an idea that councils would replace the stock sold, they didn't, and so the housing market is in this mad state where prices and rents are ridiculously high, and there is no security of tenancy...we need to use models of housing like Europe still has and not focus so much on purchasing, make social renting the norm again. In my opinion.

See I never realized this was a thing for mortgaged houses, only if they are to be rented out? Surely if such regulations apply to mortgaged properties than its just glorified renting. Mortgages are obviously better than renting but it still sucks that you end up paying another house's worth of money to the bank as well as the one for yourself.

It needs a kitchen and bathroom in order to be valued, and assessed by the lender as suitable security, in case they need to repossess and resell. There's a reason these houses are at auction in the first place. It also needs to have a roof and windows i.e. be weather tight.

Absolutely this.

I agree with you op

Probably lots of "friends" who are doing the work off the books, so cheaper because no VAT, no income tax, no NIC, etc. Guys doing the work happier because of no IT/NIC (and maybe even still wrongly claiming benefits). Owner is happy because not only is the job cheaper, they're evading VAT too! The only things they get done "properly" are the gas and electrical installations because of the regulations.

It's a mug's game trying to renovate a house if you're using "proper" trades who are charging VAT, putting their staff wages through PAYE, and paying their own tax and NIC on their profits.

As the owners aren't intending to sell any time soon, they don't care that there are no Fensa (or equivalent) window certificate, nor the usual 5/10 year guarantees that buyers would typically want to see. It's only really the gas and electrical safety reports needed when they rent out a house.

I tend to agree, but I have always assumed that the expenditure on these things will be at trade prices. Some of them are trades people themselves, so it won't cost them for at least some of the actual 'work' and where it does those with bigger portfolios are almost certainly negotiating the costs they need to pay for work done where they use the same tradespeople in some kind of contract

For sure, most people could not get these things done for the 'budgets' being quoted.

Landlords are such leeches on society; I completely agree with you.

I don't mind house flippers - they are turning run down properties into habitable (and more importantly - mortgage-able) accommodation.

It's the buyers with an existing "portfolio" that I'd have lined up against the wall and shot.

They may as well show the same programme each time as it's all the same old same old

@Pudmyboy

I hated the way renters were seen as cash cows and substandard accomodation was seen as fine.

I agree. I cringe when I see the shoddy way they cover up problems. There was one I saw where there was damp on the walk in the dining room. Typical landlord owner saying he'll have it renovated in a month for £5k to include new kitchen, bathroom, rewiring, decoration, etc. When it showed the final result, the idiot had just put wood panelling over the damp wall rather than deal with the causes of the damp.

|I think a lot of the episodes are repeats from a few years back which might explain the cheaper prices.

The smug ones I can't abide
But then they won't have to live in it will they as they zoom off in their Ferraris to their pile in the country.

Most houses brought at auction aren't mortgageable... so wouldn't be able to be sold on the standard market. Most people don't have the cash to buy, even a "cheap" house without a mortgage.

Not quite homes under the hammer but similar I was watching 'the great house giveaway' and was struck by the MASSIVE irony of the show.

The point of the show is how no one can afford to get on the property ladder. So the show buys a cheap 'first time buyer' houses at auction (using extortionate bridge loans) and allows to poor people to work themselves to the bone day in and day out for 6 months to to 'flip' the house (rewiring, new heating, new windows, full re-plastering, new kitchen/bathroom, sometime even serious structural work that even pros wouldn't take on etc... which they are suppose to try and source free if they can and fit with the help of family).

All the costs and fees (including the high interest on the massive loan) are added to the house buying cost and if it makes more than that they can keep the profit split between them as a deposit for a house (the lucky ones get about £12k which likely equals the wages they lost, many get nothing).

It will often be a case of:

This house was bought for £120k
It was renovated for £18k (and they'll be called out for not doing it for £8k etc...)
Stamp duty, Auction fees, Estate agent fees, Council tax, Utilities are £11k
Bridge lone repayment is £20k
Profit line is above £169
House sold for £175k

Profit of £6k split between 2 people (but really its more like 8 people when you account for all the family help).

So now a £120k house is approx. 45% more expensive for a first time buyer.

Not only is it massive exploitation (essentially slave labor but with the unlikely promise of getting a house, and it seems clear the fees are not explained upfront) but this 'flipping' houses means they are buying all the cheap houses then using the poor people who can't afford them themselves to do all the work for free to up the price of the housing market so they can't ever afford these houses.

Its like watching lambs to the slaughter or ants in a death spiral.

Since it became wall-to-wall landlords, they could just play Money Money Money by ABBA for all of them, with Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but The Rent by Gwen Guthrie for variation.

I liked it when you got the occasional skint young couple looking for their first place on a shoestring.

I used to watch it when home ill but not seen it for a couple of years. Agree with PP it always seemed like the same episode!

The episodes I saw were always a 2 up 2 down terrace somewhere up north, investor ‘extending their portfolio’ buys then does the same budget makeover with grey walls, carpet and kitchen. The end.

If they're auction properties they are unlikely to be attractive and viable to first time buyers. You need avaliable cash for the property and the works. Time and skills. People with experience of property or trades are most likely to be able to have the resources to do it.

Many of the properties have suffered years of neglect then been out of use for years and are being brought back into use.

A cosmetic turn around in a month with the main expenditure being grey paint, not so much, but where they have been brought up to a modern standard ready for someone to move in, that's no bad thing.

Lots of people expect to move in to a property that requires no work. That bumps standards and prices up.

For those who don't like the music, just think of Martin's invisible piano and make up your own tunes as he plays.

I pray HMRC have someone taking notes.

I love HUTH. Its tacky day time viewing, with cheesy music and the very lovely Dion Dublin. Not a programme to get political about.

I get annoyed when they talk about their other rentals and when they refurb the place as cheap as possible to get maximum rent.

The horrible dark grey ridge carpet that belongs in an office really annoys me.

I'm sure when it first started it was more based on people buying their first homes to live in themselves?

apart from anything else it is so bloody boring. They buy a cheap house , knock walls down to create a large kitchen diner, paint it all white with grey carpets and then sell.or rent it for a profit.Yawn.

apart from anything else it is so bloody boring. They buy a cheap house , knock walls down to create a large kitchen diner, paint it all white with grey carpets and then sell.or rent it for a profit.Yawn.

The rental crisis is not down to evil landlords.

It is a bit. 👀