Is this a bad time to buy a house?

[cheapertorent]

We could either buy VERY cheaply in the next few months and compromise on area and house size or save for another couple of years and buy somewhere better in a nicer area. If we bought cheaply we’d have to move again in the mid future, which incurs more costs yet again.

Considerably anxious that in a couple of years interest rates will have sky rocketed.

It’s a really uncertain time and it’s hard to know what to do for the best, especially since we want to think about starting a family next year. The state of the country financially and the housing market is so worrying.

Are you currently renting?
When is your rental contract up if so?

Is this a bad time to upsize?

I would not buy now. Prices are starting to fall. It will be a balance between lower priced houses and higher interest rates. But the risk of buying now is negative equity and overpaying. I follow Moving home with Charlie on YouTube, he gives good advice on the current situation.

@YaffleYaffle yes renting, contract up in just over four years. We rent at a reduced rate (80%) ‘rent to buy’ scheme to enable us to save and have the option to buy this new build at the end of four years although it’s a very small two bed so won’t be suitable by then, hopefully.

@Binjob118 I’ll take a look, thanks. Do his videos suggest it’ll be that way for a couple of years or is it all still unknown at present?

I think his outlook is for a 20-30% fall. But obviously this is guesswork. He has very good advice for how to negotiate and not overpay.

Charlie is on tik tok too if you prefer that.

lloyds bank forecast an 8% drop next year - 18% worst and unlikely case scenario

i would not be getting advice off tik tok myself…

i would have a look at what a range of commentators are saying

you shoudk do your own research of course

but general view is that there is not going to be a massive crash but more a gentle decrease. It won’t be like the financial crash for lots of reasons.

yiu should take into account the money you’d be paying off the capital of the mortgage as well as rent

also any value you can add through doing works - although building expensive at the moment so that might not be viable

i personally am going to wait a few months to see how things settle

i think if there is anything that can be said with any sort of confidence it’s that prices aren’t going to go massively up - but they condo drift up…

"i would not be getting advice off tik tok myself…

i would have a look at what a range of commentators are saying."

What's wrong with following appropriate content on TikTok, alongside other commentators?

The person mentioned has been in the industry for 22 years, featured in The Times and The Telegraph, appeared on the BBC, a finalist in this year's Property Press awards for delivering quality content.

I'm not his mum but you do sound very scathing just because someone uses sm to reach their audience.

If you are going to be in the house long term 5-10 years then its better than continuing to pay off someone else's mortgage. However I would try to buy the worst house in the best location and look at wats to add value.

What’s your long term goal? If it’s to own mortgage free staying in rental is always counter productive because you’re not building equity. We checked what our mortgage would be with the new rates and the interest is still less than our rent, with the rest of our payment being equity.

Equally if you’ll move again in a few years (I’m not sure how long mid-future is) and prices go down this might impact on laddering up.

The other thing to remember is an offer isn’t legally binding if you’re not in Scotland. If the market dramatically changes you can walk away (with a small loss if you’ve engaged a solicitor/surveyor) or chance your luck with a reduced offer, right up until exchange.

What's the "mid future"? If it's under say, 2-3 years, I, personally wouldn't think this was a good time to buy.

If house prices did go down, then you could end up with negative equity, and then, of course, you'd find it very difficult to move. It's obviously not a given they will go down, but if interest rates continue to rise and things are generally tight for people, demand will go down, and more people may be pushed into selling.

If you could buy somewhere you'd happily stay for 5 years plus, or somewhere you could actively add value to (without borrowing more) then that would be different. But in the current circumstances, I'd be reluctant to buy somewhere that I only viewed as a short term home.

I'd at least give it the winter and see what things are looking like in spring.

It is impossible to call at this point, and anyone who is predicting specific figures is pulling them from their hindquarters. My guess is that there will not be any dramatic falls in house prices in most areas, but also no rise, so if you can stay where you are it is a good time to wait and save.

The person mentioned has been in the industry for 22 years, featured in The Times and The Telegraph, appeared on the BBC, a finalist in this year's Property Press awards for delivering quality content
I'm not his mum but you do sound very scathing just because someone uses sm to reach their audience

Never having heard of the bloke before today, this is the second time in 3 hours I've seen his YouTube channel mentioned. I've now watched a couple of his videos and the guy speaks a huge amount of sense, very interesting thoughts and analysis. And I say that as someone who has been involved in the property world for over 20 years.

Gary Stevenson doesn't think that house prices would really 'crash', there may be some headwinds due to interest rates but as the rich are getting richer and can pay for assets in cash, this would limit some of the damage. However, mortgages would become unaffordable for most due to cost of living and more cautious lenders. He was the top trader in Citibank post '08 by betting that interest rates would not rise for years (indeed they did not rise for 14 years) and the inequality gap would widen. He also predicted that the house prices would rise over the course of the pandemic.

I think I’d try to wait a few months but unless you’re planning on moving again very quickly, and provided you can manage the mortgage I think it’s actually a pretty good time to buy. Around me there are houses which would have flown off the shelves 6 months ago being reduced and people are taking offers. So as long as you don’t over stretch yourself you could pick up a bit of a bargain.