Would you buy a house now?

[Leahd89]

So DH and I were close to completing and selling our house, we didn't realise we needed planning permission for our decking so as soon as it is approved the house sale will go through. Obviously this will take longer with the lockdown but we had already moved in with my parents as we only recently seen a house we liked and had the offer accepted.

My question is would you sell your current house and stay put/rent for a while as we don't know what will happen with house prices? I don't want to buy a house now and find the prices drop dramatically in a 6 months time, what do you guys think?

If the sale of your house goes through at the current price then you are in a very good position. It depends on whether you are increasing your mortgage on your proposed new house or not? If the price is similar then you're insulated from house price drops to a certain extent - especially if you're planning to stay there for a long time. If not, or if you're increasing your mortgage then I would probably hold off for now. I think house prices will drop quite a lot personally. It's balancing risk of this happening with your own personal circumstances and the reasons behind your move.

We are. Currently renting and we've done the sums (for us personally) that show house prices would have to drop hugely for us to better off financially to carry on renting (particularly wrt the chance to build up equity).

It's not a short term move for us and we think that house prices will have to go up again at some point because fundamentally there are still too few houses for the number of people in the UK. A few years negative equity doesn't matter in that situation: house prices are only important when you need to sell.

If you can sell at the price agreed then yes complete! Things are likely to stop afterwards even if it’s just a short term thing. An awful lot of people are already pulling out or renegotiating, so if your buyers don’t you’re in a great position.

I would only buy now if it was a long term buy. We completed last week, but it’s a long term home for us and we bought a doer-upper so are already slightly cushioned from a price drop.

We just found out our buyer managed to complete and has moved in with his parents until we can complete so I don't see him pulling out, we only recently had our offer accepted so we're right at the start of the process. We had hoped to get in for another viewing with an architect but have to wait until lock down is over. I don't know the ins and outs but the owners are selling through a debt company so I think they bought at the height of the market (the agent said 'high 300s') and are having their house repossessed. We've had an offer accepted at £230k and I know it was previously sale agreed at £250k but that fell through, we are having to take out a bigger mortgage and think we will be there for at least 5-10 years possibly longer. I think we are getting a good deal but I suppose like everyone I'm still worried about ending up in negative equity