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!

Again, I was replying to a specific thing you said that I felt was false.

As I have said many times on Mumsnet, No I don’t believe there will be a crash, but Yes, I do believe we are in the process of a house price correction after prices were artificially inflated during Covid & the stamp duty holiday and I expect prices to fall in the region of about 10% over the course of the 2 years 2023 & 2024. That is just my opinion and I’ve always made it clear it’s personal opinion and of course we’re all guessing really as can’t know the future.

I don’t “always report you” I think I reported you once for a personal attack. I don’t report people for having different views to my own.

Just to add to the above, Mumsnet wouldn’t even respond if anyone did report others for a difference of opinion that hurt their feelings. If you have had several posts deleted it’s not for that reason.

Not sure where you live @wheretolivehelp but local councils are required to maintain a register of local residents that would like to self build and aim to provide the number of serviced building plots that are registered for. I'm sure some councils are better at fulfilling this than others but this website gives more details about how it works.

We also contemplated new zealand but they are quite stringent about who they give visas to. I'm a software engineer and luckily it is considered one of those "high demand" jobs and allows me to work in most places, my partner however works in advertising and that's not so high on the list. We have also done the expat thing in Dubai and Singapore, if choosing between those 2 I would def recommend the latter, I kind of despised Dubai but that all depends on what you want to do really. Isn't Europe also in pretty bad shape when it comes to cost of living, high taxes, etc? What are the other reasons/factors for wanting to leave the UK?

@Jinimcoroneo

Sick of seeing the poorest in our society systematically destroyed by our government(s).

My partner is the same as you re: niche IT skills.

It's not so much the COL that makes me want to leave as - well - everything.

Our housing stock is in terrible condition and people can't afford to maintain their homes.

The elderly are treated like second class citizens.

The disabled always seem to be the ones who have to fight the hardest for help and then they get the very least.

It's like living inside a psychopath.

I just want to be somewhere kinder.

I started a thread for buyers on Rightmove price increase/decreases tomfoolery:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/4921287-today-i-noticed-two-ways-in-which-rightmove-is-hiding-price-increases

Historical average base rate for the UK is about 7%, why do you think 4%?

House prices started to be artificially inflated under Blair/Brown, the idea that we just have to unwind the Covid/Stamp Duty bubble may be comforting to some, but not real world thinking IMO.

@CrashyTime I don't actually think that Covid/Stamp duty holiday is the only reason for house prices falling (or stagnating in some areas). But I do see it as a major contributory factor. I'm sure there are other more complex reasons I don't understand but as you know, I'm not an Economist.

The basic point is that if you look at the interest rate chart that I posted on the other thread the most compelling reason is clear - cheap mortgage debt, and then even cheaper debt (and money printing and silly schemes like HTB) to try and stop that bubble bursting! Add this to a mania level of sentiment (present in all Ponzi Schemes/Asset Bubbles) and you don`t need to be an economist to understand it.

Well some of what you say I agree with ( HTB not being genuinely helpful to FTBs) and some I don’t (comparing the housing market to a Ponzi scheme). The main difference between our views is that I expect the housing market to recover in the not too distant future whereas you expect it to get significantly worse & crash, if you’re still using that word.

Time will tell whose guess is right but we’re not going to convince one another to drastically change our outlook.

I commented a couple of pages ago, as we were just about to go on the market and needed our asking price to be able to offer on what we wanted. Luckily we were offered our asking price by the second person that came to view, so today have started negotiations on the overpriced probate property. Wish us luck!

Hoping you get the house. Please come back and update us.

you obviously we’re sensible and priced your house right.

Just interested Twiglets1 on your views that women returning to work after having babies that has also fuelled house prices! My in laws bought their 1st home (a new 3 bedroom semi with garage in an expensive area in south east) on just one salary after living with their parents when they got married and after a council home in 1958. You could never do this now.
Also think the stamp duty holiday was very wrong, it too fuelled house prices
and ditto help to buy for FTBs.
Really like your posts. Always fair helpful.

Aw thank you Linda 😀

I guess more women returning to work after having babies did contribute to the rise in house prices as more households became double income.

Nevertheless I absolutely agree with women having the same rights as men with regard to continuing to work after having children.

Earlier than that. They'd have the double income before having the baby (and a much lower income after that because of paying for childcare).

Years ago women sometimes had to give up work upon marriage (eg school teachers) and mortgages were only awarded on a single (usually male!) income. It was very difficult for a single woman to even get a mortgage on her own. It was an incredibly sexist set up - an unmarried sister could end up being the responsibility of an elder brother.

I doubt any of us want to go back to those days! Banks now do take childcare costs into account so having children can really impact on ability to get a mortgage.

Good Luck!

Yeah, I can totally see where you're coming from and I think New Zealand or somewhere in Scandinavia would probably not have many of those issues, the trouble is getting a visa. Also, just to put it in perspective, I'm American and have decided not to move back for everything you are saying and more. Sure the salaries are higher and the houses are better, but work life balance doesn't exist, benefits are rare, I have a friend who has gone bankrupt BC she got cancer and doesn't want to live BC if she does she will be homeless (she's barely mid 30s), there's no concept of holiday/vacations and the govt treats the most vulnerable the worst. The UK is not my favourite place by any stretch, but we also haven't found anywhere else that is significantly better and worth the hassle of starting over. Depressing huh?

I am so sorry about your friend. It must be heartbreaking to be from a country where your options are bankruptcy or death. My friend recently switched job and his new firm wanted an extra $800 pm to add his partner to his policy.

Your college tuition fees are also absolutely insane, then you have guns, that you HAVE to drive everywhere, and you are right, it feels like American society is entirely centred around towing the corporate line and not a lot else.

How is Canada these days? He was talking about Canada when things were getting bad with Trump (and homophobia massively flared up - he is gay).

For us.... maybe a yurt. Maybe a cabin in Alaska :D

If I was physically capable of living an off grid lifestyle with no house and no mortgage I would absolutely be doing it, without a shadow of a doubt. Sadly, my body will not let me.

I think Norway would be a culture shock for many people, and seriously expensive for most people, and as we used to say, there is a reason that the backpacker hotels in Earls Court are always rammed with people from Aus/New Zealand, the grass is certainly not always greener. I remember being in Australia years ago and commenting to a guy in the pub who knew my relatives about how great it must be to have all those beaches on your doorstep and all he could talk about was his dream of visiting Scotland and walking about in the Highlands in the rain!

Yeah, the choice of bankruptcy or death is such bullshit. Her parents have remortgaged their home, she has depleted her savings and still the bills pile up. It's despicable honestly, in what Americans love to call "the richest country in the world". I guess it depends how you define wealth, I certainly don't think it is. You also bring up a few things I completely forgot, college tuition is insane for sure. Both of my parents are doctors who went to medical school in India, they moved to America with no debt, however their colleagues in America had well over 500k of student loans to pay off and some still are, well into their 50s and 60s. The gun thing too, ugh, don't even get me started. When I was in high school we had mass shooting drills more often than we had fire drills.I don't know much about Canada but I've heard it's a good middle ground between Europe and America, but I've never lived there. I do know that we have some friends who live in Vancouver and they can't afford to buy a house. they rent in Vancouver and rent out a property they own in Toronto to make up for throwing money down the drain (paying rent). Off grid is def the way to go. If I could live mortgage free in a tiny home I would, but I'm too high maintenance :( If there was somewhere you could buy cheap land, build your own sustainable house, be mortgage free and live off the land, that would be ideal. I wish I knew where you could do that and still have some benefits. The latter rules America out imo. Best of luck though! I wish my posts were less depressing but the state of this world is just bleh, not much good I'm afraid.

You're not wrong. I've lived in 4 very different countries and there are pros and cons no matter where you go, nowhere is perfect and there will always be somewhere that looks better than where you are.

I think you pick a country you like, with or without citizenship, and gradually accumulate points for assimilation, language etc. Eventually you fit in enough to be accepted, BUT, the big But, you need enough proven income to be accepted in as not being a burden on the state. No country with a social security system is going to accept people who have nothing. Only work will count.