Broken hearted over the housing market

[EarthSight]

I'm a first time buyer who's been looking and struggling to buy a suitable house for a while. On Friday, a decent house came on the market that wasn't perfect in terms of the area that I wanted to live in, but I thought I might actually have a chance if I moved quickly.

I got on the phone with the estate agents on Saturday who couldn't do a viewing that weekend as they were full, but asked me to call back today, and then the agent who was in charge of the property would be in too today.

I've just been contacted to say that the house has already received an offer. Although I won't know for sure, when houses in my area receive offers that quickly in Wales, it's usually because a cash buyer from Manchester or Cheshire has seen the place online. Almost all houses under 150k in my area are owned by people who live in those areas. This cooled off during 2023, but it seems like we're going back there again. :(

What hope do first time buyers like me have when we can't even view the place, somewhere that's going to be the biggest purchase of our lives before others put in an offer?? It's really hard to not be defeatist because I know I don't stand a chance against these people who can afford to outbid average working class people like me by 5-10k each time, for their lovely little holiday home or investment in Wales.

No real point to this post but I feel so incredibly down today. It's been a really hard past 5 years and I just can't get a break.

That is sad. Hopefully labour will make it harder for people to use property as an investment

For all people talk about it being a buyers' market at the moment, it really isn't, there's an undersupply of properties too - and it's got worse with the summer and the election. In my area too, there is a mix of properties that are just stuck on the market and other properties that sell in days because there's a queue of waiting buyers in that price range looking for that type of house.
At some point some confidence has to start returning and more people will list houses for sale - these things are cyclical.

Hopefully not. If you’ve got the money to do so you absolutely should be able to buy as many properties as you want.

You need to widen your search, OP, or change your expectations. Wallowing won’t change the situation.

Yes it really isn't, and it wasn't last year either. My experience was that most houses in a first timer buyers price range were holiday homes or owned by landlords - none of which were in any hurry to sell and who were very confident in listing their houses at high prices, as they were hoping to sell to other people like them, not people like me.

However, what's perverse is that there are so many empty properties here, and not just holiday homes. I pass them all the time. Some look like they've been empty for years. One place we used to pass had been empty for around a decade.

They sit there abandoned whilst first time buyers struggle to find anywhere decent to live. I assume that it's because they're some kind of inheritance that the owners can't agree what to do with, or they're owned by people who just want the little plot of land and don't mind the house rotting away.

@TisTheSummerSeason Not at the massive expensive of people like me you shouldn't.

Absolutely this.
People should not be allowed to buy as many properties as they want to in a bloody housing crisis.

I don’t have a property portfolio 😂 But people absolutely should have the right to buy what they want.

You need to widen your search or change your expectations. Stop blaming others because you haven’t managed to buy a house yet.

That really shit. Have you registered with all of the local agents? You need to build a network - go and see houses you think might not be right but could be, just to get time with the agents. When they get to know^ what you want, they'll have you in mind and call you BEFORE stuff makes it online in future.^

You don’t know that’s what’s happened OP. It’s more likely that it went on the open market on Friday, prior to that the EA had contact a couple of people on their books to arrange a viewing and once it went live the other slots for a day of veinings on Saturday were taken quickly. Then someone made a made an offer on Saturday at the viewing.

Contact all the agents in your area, ask if they have anything that they are valuing or waiting for the photos etc. Be the person they call when they’ve a new listing, not the one that phones up too late.

I was in the same boat a few years ago. Constantly outbid by people who mathematically must have had deposits 3-4× as large as mine.

But just as I gave up, I got a call that a buyer who had outbid me and won had pulled out. So had the second highest. I've been in my house almost 2 years now.

Just keep trying. You will get there.

Why?! In Iceland you can only buy a home there if you are Icelandic or you're a resident and you have to prove it.

Because Iceland has a housing crisis and the last thing they want is foreginers buying up houses for holiday homes.

It's not a hard concept to fathom. There should be a cap on how many properties you can buy.

I agree with the OP, thankfully I'm already a homeowner but I think "investment" properties and holiday homes need to start being taxed to high heaven so that local people have a chance to get on the property ladder in their own communities. Houses should be homes first and formost, not a gold brick commodity, especially in a housing crisis.

If a house gets on the market on Friday, call for a viewing on Friday. As a first time buyer, you have the advantage of not being in a chain. Don’t lose hope.

Quite. It happens in other countries as well. I don't see what's wrong with that. Otherwise housing gets reduced to a rich person's commodity, not homes for people to live in.

I think there's a difference between holiday homes and longer term properties for residential letting.
Higher costs for landlords will be reflected in higher rent. Where are renters going to find affordable homes? It's a bloody great mess.

Oh and for the record I blame Thatcher for the destruction of social housing. She screwed this country big time putting the emphasis on home ownership.

And yet everyone was up in arms at the thought that Capital Gains might go up against 2nd+ homes.

Personally, I'd like to see council tax banding sorting out so that is reflects today's property prices in the region; and then stamp duty eligibility linked to it and the number of properties you've owned.

So, for example, if you are a first time buyer who is buying a low band property you don't pay any. If you are not a FTB but only have 1 home then you pay a small amount at the same banding. If you already own a home and this is a 2nd home etc for you then you pay even more stamp duty, even at the lower bands.

Similarly, if you are a FTB buying a Band F property, you pay a chunk of Stamp Duty. If you are not a FTB but this home will be your only property, you pay more. If this Band F is a 2nd home or investment for you, you pay even more.

And I'd have cpaital gains on property balanced along similar lines.

And I'm not against strong restrictions on overseas property owners, either. If not an outright ban.

It was like this when we were buying our first house 9 years ago in the south east. You have to get on the estate agents books so they’ll call you to book viewings before the house officially goes on the market. Then you can view straight away and put an offer in before/as soon as it’s put up. You have to be quick, you can’t wait a day to call.

Holiday home owners ruin rural communities and make buying property in them unaffordable for local people.

I've got to that point with all my previous house searches - you do get lucky eventually!! Two of my previous houses were ones where a sale had fallen through and we were able to get in there by virtue of being ready to move and not having a chain to speak of. Our current one is a house which hadn’t even got to the market.

pester agents about houses on their books showing as sold STC and if you have an area in mind then consider flyering or putting notes through the door of houses that you’d be interested in.

your luck will change soon!

What did Blair / Brown do to fix it in 13 years of power?

The square root of fuck all

Everyone knows it’s cheaper to get people to buy homes. However in my day, we had two salaries and two people saving. Houses were around 3-4 times DHs salary but 5-6 times mine. I would have struggled on my own. Same now for many.

I think it’s a case of being proactive and immediately available to view. I heard loads were selling up in Wales due to the Welsh government and hostility toward second home owners. After 4 July I would expect more to be available.

In that case I'd introduce rent caps based on property size and average local wages and if a landlord wants to let over the price of the cap they get progressively taxed on everything above a reasonable market rate.

Quite frankly I believe the majority of rental housing should be council owned. I doubt Labour would go to the extremes I think it needs to to make decent housing properly affordable and a right but I am hoping they'll at least do marginally better than the Tories for the sake of people like the OP who can't even buy a modest priced house in her own community.

@TheDarkMonarch great post. There is much that could be done right now, before Labour so much as stick a spade in the ground. They'll just build a ton more houses though, concrete over more arable land with their faux Georgian dreaming and it will be the equivalent of a sticking plaster on an arterial bleed.

It will get worse under Labour, we will zero immigration control so I expect the housing crisis is going to become acute in the next few years.