House buying madness

[Sandles12]

Tell us about your experiences in this mad housing market...bidding wars, prices escalating, sales falling through.

We recently viewed a house on sale for 235000. Nicely renovated bungalow with largish garden. But no utility room and two bedrooms out of four are v small. No room for tall wardrobes in master so one room used for these.

To put this in context our dream home would've been this price 3 years ago. Bidding is now at 270000. Our last bid was 261000. We can afford to go higher than current bid but don't think house is worth it. We are in a good position as we don't have to sell our house straight away which is fully paid off and have large deposit, yet we never seem to land the house. Just not willing to pay crazy prices. Is there an end in sight...who knows??!

It’s interesting, because in large parts of the country a 4 bed bungalow with a garden for under £300k would have been unheard of for many years.

This is the thing about ‘leveling up’. You get the good bits and the bad bits!

Yeah house prices vary vastly across the country. Suppose it's all relative.

When would you plan to sell this house? Would it matter if you made a "loss"? Could you see a loss as a premium on living in the property you want to?

That seems incredibly good value for a large bungalow! I sold a small 2/3-bed bungalow in need of total refurbishment and with a minuscule garden for £325k in 2020. It was snapped up at the asking price by the first viewer.

That 4bed bungalow in my area would be upwards of 400k easily. 270k would get a small 2 bed mid terrace with a tiny garden.

NI house prices somewhat lower. Suppose it's what you think you should be able to get for your money in the area which was A LOT more a few years ago. Just hoping in a year's time there are less crazy bidding wars. Suppose I'm thinking if I can spend less on a house I can reduce work/ live mortgage free soon/ retire earlier.