It's a Buyer's Market: experiences in 2023/2024 ?

[wheretolivehelp]

Just wondering what other buyer's experiences have been like on this side of 2023? Any horror stories? Issues with sellers? Guzumping? Guzundering? Problems with EA?

There's a few threads with Seller's experiences on MN (many saying their buyer can't afford the mortgage for their (overpriced?) property and so re marketing them).

What good and bad experiences have you had as a buyer?

Hope this thread will be useful to the buyers of 2023 and 2024!

Thanks @wheretolivehelp !

Ok - you see a property as a home. So do I - I have one property which is my home. I too would like everyone to have a home and think more social housing should be built. Will vote Labour in the hope that more can be done to help those struggling to get affordable housing. I think you're getting angry at the wrong people, like my group Gen X or even worse, the "boomers."

You do sound angry, and young people have a reason to. But it should be directed at government who make the policies, not older people who have just lived very normal lives and yes, been fortunate to have lived through a period of house price growth. But all most of us did was buy a property to live in as you are trying to do. That it was easier for us is not our fault but a result of decisions various governments have made over the years.

On a different note, I don't know about Milan but I certainly got ripped off over coffee and other things in the tourist areas of Rome! You pretty much expect it these days in expensive cities and London is not an outlier. And Singapore has its own social problems that many tourists don't notice like the way they treat their migrant workers.

If the seller doesnt sell they stay where they are and dont make the next purchase, meaning that seller has to drop their price probably, or stay where they are as well, this means the property market slows down and only the smaller number of property actually sold makes the new price (this is very dependent on how much people can borrow so the person unwilling to sell at a realistic price will still see the value of their property drop) A 40% reduction in mortgage applications says that the consequences of not taking on loads of debt for basic shelter are nowhere near as dire as you say, and in fact when the cost of debt goes up demand for houses goes down.

I agree with @NewFriendlyLadybird and @Twiglets on P10.

If the third bedroom is a box room that is basically big enough for storage, then there is nothing in this world that you or anyone can say to convince me it is a "bedroom". Therefore, it should not be sold as a three bedroom house - that is incorrect and false advertising.

OP, you are being ridiculous here. Of course it isn't false advertising. Millions of people have grown up in houses like these, using the small room as a bedroom. Fact, if you can fit a bed in it, it is a bedroom. You might have enough money to be able to choose a different property which has 3 double bedrooms - acknowledge your privilege and just look at the ones that suit you. Every house particulars has measurements in the details, and the overwhelming majority have floor plans. If something that is so normal up and down the country is beneath you - fine. Move on. But you are making yourself sound ridiculous with 'false advertising' claims. If you can't read property details, maybe you should learn how to.

It is a 2 bedroom with boxroom house, people will soon suss that out anyway, and if using a mortgage their bank will value accordingly, the days of making photos "look good" and "makeovers" to sell a house are over.

3 bed houses where the 3rd bedroom is a ‘boxroom’ are usually priced below a house with 3 double bedrooms in the same area though. I would have thought that these would become more rather than less desirable now with more people wfh and needing a separate office space.

Is there a link to the house? It is very easy to compare with PropertyLog.

https://www.propertylog.net/

And this is a lovely description and it is definitely not beneath anyone, it’s perfectly fine to accept it for what it is. The argument here is that some people dare to price them for 700-900k in London, claiming there’s a third bedroom (when it’s a shoebox), looking for idiots and complaining “it’s the market” when no one wants to buy it. Waste of everyone’s time imo. And yes it is false advertising, sadly not as regulated as the goods market is. Because it is actually illegal to make false claims.

Not sure what offices people work in, but box room is definitely can’t provide sufficient office space imo. Just because it can fit a desk, it doesn’t mean that you can work comfortably there. The only purpose of a boxroom is storage, utility, coat rack.

Of course it can, @Wanderergirl. Maybe you wouldn't be happy with it as an office / study, but plenty of people would be.

Yes, but not at any price, the 700k-900k chancers in London someone mentioned are right out of luck now.

I didn't mention the merits of the asking price, did I? I was solely discussing room size / purpose.

Without a link there is no context for the discussion anyway.

Yes in tougher conditions maybe. When family of 5 is squeezed in the small house and struggling to get by. The only escape for working dad is a shoebox room.

But we are talking about living in the houses way above 600k in London. Imagine paying 4-5k a month for a mortgage, just so you can work from a shoebox 😂 honestly, nonsense from capital N. Families that can afford to pay 4-5k mortgage monthly won’t entertain this, trust me. Hence why all these houses lurking unsold, with their “3rd bedroom” idea.

Now you've made up a whole fantastical back story to go with it.

I'm glad that you speak for the entire cohort you refer to. I'm sure none of them would be happy with a box room for a study. Or maybe they would! 🙄

I do yes. Did a lot of wfh during covid and haven’t seen any of my colleagues in such rooms. Have you actually tried to work for 8 hours in the room you can barely fit a grow up in? It's a fantasy made up by sellers whose entire life achievement is that house.

I have enormous sympathy for first time buyers and others struggling within the property market. But some of the posts on this thread are ridiculous.

Lots of people are privileged to have a small room that they use as office space. Not many have the luxury of having space for a spacious home office!

The post where house price increases are “theft” by the owners/sellers was another.

Yes I get lots of the angst about the unfairness of people of my generation being able to afford a flat years ago and move up the ladder, but this was also true of my late parents as well. In London and the SE especially, but not exclusively, it’s out of reach for many currently. But this isn’t the “fault” of current property owners.

There are many factors which has brought about this situation. But actual current owners aren’t all responsible for property inflation. There are some on here that think all owners should sell and automatically knock over 20% of their property price to help others. But realistically there are also experienced sellers who just want to sell at a fair market price and move for whatever reason. They aren’t trying to screw their buyers. But their property is worth a fair market price set by the market.

First time buyer here (25, F). Recently bought a flat in Edinburgh, nice desirable area, close to city centre/ princes street. I would say it’s been a challenge getting on the property ladder myself but certainly not impossible at all.

Smooth from offer stage to legal settlement. There were a few note of interests and offers on the table but they were able to offer a quick decision and quick transaction. Both parties chain-free. Sellers and selling solicitors were professional. Though I was not a big fan of the EA, or any EA I’ve dealt with for the past few months.

The three bed semi with two double bedrooms and a single is an incredibly common house type. It's nonsense to object to these being advertised as three bedroom houses just because they're not three double bedrooms! Yes, the third bedroom is small but it's fine as a child's bedroom or a home office.

Many of my colleagues are still having to WFH from a kitchen table or a desk in the corner of their bedroom - many people don't have the luxury of a single bedroom to WFH in let alone a large home office!

I will repeat myself again, I have no issue with tiny 3rd bedroom. I wouldn’t want one, but it’s my personal preference. However, I haven’t met anyone who pays 5k for a mortgage and enjoys the perks of shoebox room. And that’s how much the mortgage on one of those 700-900k London terraces costs these days circa 5-6k. So someone who can spend this much on property will rather go ahead and rent big place for 3-4k and keep the rest, which would be spent on bank interest anyway.

Someone mentioned SE London, I’ve been on this market for a while and all I see is a massive stockpile of unsold houses. Nothing is selling around here apart from few very cheap properties. And there’s a reason for that, high debt cost which makes these houses undesirable for the price.

The life achievement thing is a bit harsh, but I agree with everything else, people want more space than a box room, but the reality is that the big banks and corporations dont want people WFH any more anyway, they took massive bets on commercial property after all, cant have people not using all that lovely office space?

Crashy, you’re getting so much softer in your attitude to homeowners.

Carry on like this and we’ll be besties in no time.

"Life achievement" is OTT, "greedy", "chancing it" or "just not getting how bond markets set borrowing rates" would be more appropriate.

Now you've gone and ruined it