To wait for this crazy market to calm down or buy ASAP?

[featherfence]

Me and dh can't agree on if to buy ASAP at the premium prices that are currently happening in our area or wait until prices (might) calm down and continue to rent in the mean time.

We have effectively been priced out of the original type of properties we were looking at but I'm worried that prices will continue rising and we'll never buy anywhere and also the SD saving is definitely appealing to me but dh thinks we'll be better off waiting until that's over.

Meant to add if anyone has their tuppence worth I'd be grateful to hear them.

How much does the SD holiday save you?

I think I’d wait. I think it would be very easy right now to get swept along in a feeling of needing to buy “something” and not actually buying the right property for your needs.

You could wait, prices may drop slightly but it’s not guaranteed. The problem you will have is everyone who is wanting to sell or buy is doing it now so when stamp duty ends you won’t have as a big a choice as the properties coming onto the market will be the ones where people have no choice -divorce/death/relocation
If prices drop it will become harder to get a mortgage, banks will want bigger deposits/undervalue houses etc in order to protect thier investment.
On the other hand you don’t want to buy now and possibly have negative equity that will take years to ride out.
We bought now but managed to find a house that had dropped in price as vendors needed to get rid of it quickly as had finished renovating an inherited house and needed to sell as needed to buy siblings out of the inherited house. That should protect us against a slight dip on property prices “

@BrieAndChilli

You could wait, prices may drop slightly but it’s not guaranteed. The problem you will have is everyone who is wanting to sell or buy is doing it now so when stamp duty ends you won’t have as a big a choice as the properties coming onto the market will be the ones where people have no choice -divorce/death/relocation If prices drop it will become harder to get a mortgage, banks will want bigger deposits/undervalue houses etc in order to protect thier investment. On the other hand you don’t want to buy now and possibly have negative equity that will take years to ride out. We bought now but managed to find a house that had dropped in price as vendors needed to get rid of it quickly as had finished renovating an inherited house and needed to sell as needed to buy siblings out of the inherited house. That should protect us against a slight dip on property prices “

You can say the same to the buyers pool which will be equally reduced as many would have bought in the great British housing rush post lockdown. So less property and less buyers queuing for each. If price drop, the deposit will grow in % term, so again, double edged sword and doesn’t mean you ll worst off if banks ask for more equity relative to value.

It s also possible that a larger amount of transaction than usual fail when comes the June deadline as most buyers would stretch to breaking point and won’t be able to stomach the extra 15k of stamp duty.

Let’s face it, we have a totally irrational, bubble like panic buying only driven by sentiment, all other factors are pointing flashing red, but who knows for how much longer the UK housing market can defy gravity.

@BrieAndChilli that scenario would be a dram come true for us right now!
We are in £800 range and could also now put the stamp duty saving of £15 k on a property on top.

However we are worried about potential negative equity
Also worried we'll be entirely priced out everywhere or stock will be atrocious

Annoyingly we had to wait until dh got his permanent contract this week to move so feel like many boats have sailed since this year!

Does any one know what happened right before the threat of the last SD ending? Maybe that might be helpful but who knows if this SD thing is going on forever it's really affected us and I think in a negative way

I think things will calm down. One factor is lack of stock with people shielding. Also distressed sales will be allowed again.

We are trying to work out the same thing. We have to move because of new jobs and have a buyer for our house (June deadline!). We are planning to rent for a bit between selling and buying but I'm worried prices will continue to rise while we are renting and we won't be able to afford what we want. It doesn't help that even now there's very few properties on the market in that location that we actually like... Worried there will be even fewer in as few months' time!

Op we had this exact dilemma! It was annoying when SD holiday was extended, as we'd waited, assuming the market would calm down a bit and chains also not being dependent on deadlines!

Have decided just to bite the bullet as feel we'll be priced out otherwise. I still expect the market will stabilize or even drop but I don't think prices will nosedive, so just going to get on with it. In the longterm prices always rise, so even if you "overpay" on paper this year, as long as you plan to stay a while it'll balance out.

Also the stamp duty ending is staggered, with nothing payable on the first 250k until end of September - so still a possible saving to be made!

We're in the same position here. The market has gone mad in the South West.

Estate agents have told us that lots of people from upcountry are buying up property with cash at the moment. Everything is overpriced but we're not sure which way things will go so not sure what to do.

I’ve sold mine but not found anything else, prices seem to be going up daily where I am. My brother reckons it will all calm down and drop by the stamp duty. He also says people are always dying, divorcing or desperate. Easy for him to say he’s settled in a house but I don’t want to buy something that doesn’t suit and be stuck with it.

This is always the gamble. The market has been somewhat depressed due to lock down with people waiting, the stamp duty holiday simply kept it breathing. There is a huge amount of pent up demand, my bet would be on there are going to escalate fast come the summer.

They may drop, but by waiting you risk being priced out even more. And no one can predict. I would add one word of caution, many life time renters are in that predicament because they just kept waiting dor the drop that never came.

We are in exactly the same position and have decided to go ahead and buy. It does feel like we're overpaying and the market is a little crazy but we know we want to move. We're buying somewhere that we expect to live in for at least 10-15 years and the reality is that no one can predict what is going to happen in that time. There may be a period where the price drops but no one knows. People can guess or make assumptions but it's just that. I've found a lot of old threads and articles with people saying the market will crash and it hasn't. What ifs will always be there but I do agree it's scary when you're spending so much money!

Not sure even if you found somewhere immediately you'd make the SD date. Solicitors are struggling to keep up with existing clients let alone take on nee ones

Exchanged on Thursday in a chain of 3. We're first time buyers and it's taken way too long that if the SD hadn't been extended we'd not have made it despite having a mortgage in principle long before the holiday was announced

Ah it's such a difficult decision. I think it's mostly important as a first time buyer, as once you already have a property market fluctuations aren't as important - if your house price dips, the next house you buy will be less too.
If it were easy to work out what was going to happen in property everyone would do it!
I do think that you'll be pushing it to make the June stamp duty deadline now anyway so that might make your decision a little easier!

It is difficult. We sold our old house 6 months ago but had to wait for dh ft perm contract to come through for new job with the post probation pay rise to start looking annoyingly which was only last week.
We can now move ASAP but finding prices rising and properties disappearing it wasn't quite how we imagined we'd end up buying a house tbh and the lovely detached houses we initially thought we'd have are now small semi's!

If we didn't make the stamp duty and the house was overpriced I'd probably give up and start again unless it really was the dream home. Good point about chains taking a long time though.

I'd crack on but that's just me.

We moved end of summer 2019 and a few people thought we were a bit bonkers due to brexit and we should have waited.
We were happy with our choice.

My feeling is the backlog in moves means you will see overheating for a while.

Tough decision, but I personally don't think they'll drop a huge amount if anything. Extra time would allow you to save a bigger deposit, but it depends if house prices are likely to increase at a greater rate to what you can save.
If you decide to buy, speak to estate agents and see if you can get viewings in before they go live on Rightmove.
We bought in 2016 as soon as we knew we could get a mortgage. Brexit had just happened and there was talk of how it could affect the housing market. There seemed to be a knee jerk slowing of the market in the aftermath of the leave vote. We didn't know what to do but went ahead as l was worried we would eventually get priced out. I'm glad we did, there was no big predicted crash and we would never have afforded the house we have by today's prices.

Nobody knows what is going to happen, it is a very strange time... but I do sadly expect some distressed sales in the next 18 months.

I think a better mindset is that you cannot second guess the market but you can start looking for a home and try and find somewhere that will work for 5-10 years (and longer if you couldn't move) in which case you should hopefully ride out some market changes and overall be a better investment than renting for all those years.

I always think it is important to remember that you even though you can buy right now, in the future you might not be able to get the same mortgage/have ill health/have to leave your job which could all run the risk of preventing you buying anywhere....

Yes all good points we are mid 30's and all the mainstream banks offered us mortgages currently so I'm not too worried but obviously things can always change.

I think we will continue searching and hope something comes up.

There were so many rumours about the stamp duty holiday being extended I don't think you can use what happened leading up to March.
I think prices will even out, but reading the papers and most 'experts' predict an increase over the next few years. With optimism from the vaccine and summer coming amd with many people having extra savings as they couldn't take holidays last year (or this), that money may well get spent on housing deposits.
As a seller I'm prepared to go in to rental if my ongoing purchase should fall through. It will be a hassle, I really don't want to have to rent (especially in London), but I'd rather be a cash buyer ready to move quickly then to have to be in another long chain.

London's a slightly different kettle of fish now though? I was looking to buy in London but since coronavirus not and the places I was looking in have a lot better value for money than when I looked before.
I imagine prices won't ever drop as much as they've risen in the last year though but wondering if I'm buying right into the peak.

The housing market is so unpredictable atm it is a really difficult situation. You could end up priced out or overpaying and in negative equity. I usually think whatever is happening just get on with it and buy as there is never a perfect time, but this feels different and my gut actually says I would want to wait a while because there is a lot of panic buying. I think the market will dip slightly come end of Autumn /Winter.

We’re in the same position, I just put a post up before seeing this. Houses are going for 30,40 even 60k over asking. We absolutely can’t compete with that. Our gut feeling is so stay put for a year (we stay with family) and whilst it isn’t ideal we can continue saving to put down an even bigger deposit

Always a difficult decision when there is a frenzy and prices keep rising...will they drop...no signs of it in our area in e london...everything goes fast for silly money but several have fallen thro many times so on market again and then sold fast etc....i keep reading about price increases in certain areas but a look on rightmove shows a few houses reduced constantly and on the site for 2 years...but probably over priced initially.