Still trying to buy in Cambridge!

[goldenpeach]

Just wondering how many frustrated renters are there in Cambridge!

We have offered on various houses in the past year and not a sausage.

Still it looks like this year there is bigger supply as many 'sold' properties are back on the market and there are lots of houses up for sale.

Prices are high as kites, even higher than last year. It is rather puzzling. Even villages are not 'affordable' anymore.

Just wondering what is going on as sales have slowed down but prices haven't...

Which house are you looking for? I know one, 3-bed, large living room plus extension, garden, garage, off high street cherry hinton, all local amenities, around 300k or could be less.

Thanks for your suggestion. We do look at rightmove on a daily basis and do a lot of research before we view. I'm after buyers' experiences....

We are looking in Cambridge city but it's mission impossible, despite having compromised on many things. We don't mind buying a wreck, but there is quite a bit of speculation on those.

We recently put the only offer on a couple of houses (one at the time) and they were turned down as sellers wanted full asking price. These are houses have been up for sale for a few months now. One switched estate agent and ours is still the only offer.

Once this house is advertised I will let you know. It is a lovely spacious house; we just cannot afford it, unfortunately.

we bought at the end of last year after 10 months of renting... like you we put in numerous offers but were outbidded on all of them (except the one we finally got accepted on). A lot of places went for more than the asking price which is unheard of in london !

Here is the house Goldenpeach.

www.hockeys.co.uk/ViewProperty.aspx?adid=GVJ00010225

Thanks, we are trying to be careful as some sellers are asking over the odds.

Not many sales and not much competition but prices are in fantasy land. There is a house bought very recently, which is selling for nearly double the price they paid. The renovation is really awful so it's pure greed.

Still hoping not to buy in village as I recently lived in small town and missed the city. I don't drive so I have to take that in consideration.

I know what you mean. When you buy a house you often have to add 10-20K to the actual price to renovate it. Good luck anyway!

I think part of the problem is lots of people paid over the odds, got themselves a humungous mortgage and therefore can't afford to drop the price. It's artificially inflated the market and people are holding on in the hope that things will bounce back. We know people offering on a house (think they're the only offer) but the vendors refuse to drop the price (I think they can't afford to move at all if they don't get a certain amount)

Certainly in my area prices have continued to rise so Cambridge does seem to be bucking the national trend.

I feel sorry for those who overpaid and I'm sorry if they are forced to sell in these tough times. I appreciate they are stuck and know people who are where we used to live.

However the houses we are looking at have been bought for much much lower than the asking price and in some cases they need renovation.

Some of them are ex buy-to-lets or the elderly owner died so there is no excuse for their silly prices - they need everything done.

We check on houseprices.co.uk before we view and it makes for shocking reading!

Would you buy the most expensive house in the road, located in the worst area of Cambridge? A road where everything sold for 250K and which now boasts a house near 400K

Oh, I forgot the real shocker....

There is a house bought for 250 in 2006, now on the market for 575. It's not in a premium location.

This is owned by the estate agent who is selling it.

Good lord GP!That's a bit ridiculous isn't it?

Are they actually selling these wildly overpriced houses then? Or just letting them sit on the market?

They are not selling. Only houses in good areas might sell but not all. At 500K you have your pick and they are lingering.

That tells me the price is wrong.

My DP does massive research and it's amazing what he finds out from the internet. He has bought title deeds of houses we wanted to offer on.

Sometimes I wish I didn't know...

We got outbid on three houses up to December and then no competition at all on two others but the owner refused to budge (not because they overbought).

Hi there - this sounds so depressing. We are looking to move to Cambridge next year from Greenwich. Just from a few trawls of estate agent websites Cambridge house prices seem ridiculous. Our Greenwich 3 bed, with the Thames at the end of the road is bigger, and far more reasonably priced than anything I've seen in the city centre. And if there are bidding wars going on too .. it's going to be a nightmare!

Our neighbours have just sold their house (whoo hoo, but that's another story...!) Anyway, it was priced at £329,000 and they got £360,000. I'm hearing that house prices here have gone up by £60,000 in the past year and more and more sellers are getting way above the asking price...scary stuff.

Our previous landlord sold his 3-bed house for £300,000 but they asked £325,000. It was sold pretty quickly; the house is lovely and big. The agents started showing it even before the "house for sale" went on. So may be you need to contact the agents and let them know which house do you want so they could show you houses which are not yet advertised.

JorjiB, what and where are you looking for? Are you looking near a particular school? How much you could pay, approximately no more than £ for a 3-bed house in this area.

We're looking for the holy grail! Nice area, good primary and secondary school and more space than a London rabbit hut. The property market in London is definitely a lot slower and prices are still lower on the whole than 2 years ago. Ironically a great time to move from Cambridge to London

Cambridge is overpriced and plenty of buyers with more money than sense.

We are keeping an eye on London again as it has been impossible to get anything in Cambridge. Looking at sold prices, there was a tiny window of opportunity in 2008 but you wouldn't have guessed from the inflated asking prices. Rightmove has an archive so you can check old asking prices.

DP adds: Selling property in Cambridge is all about theatre. Sealed bids, open house viewings, booking someone else at the same time as you, not letting you see the property until they have a lot of people to view, letting you see it before it's on the market, the illusion of massive interest and insistence on bids over asking price, calling you to tell you that they don't want you to miss the market. All the tricks of the trade. I am led to believe that prices never fall in Cambridge but fell further than the rest of the country in 2008. I wonder if 2008 is about to restart.

We bought during that blessed window in 2008. Near Cherry Hinton Hall, unfashionable but very pleasant area. 4 bed modern-ish terrace in poor decorative condition for less than 240,000. Atm I would be renting and waiting (as we did for several years), not trying to buy. It's just crazy now, because so much pent up demand after a quiet couple of years.