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.

@ThirdSpaceFan1 💜

I think they've tripled holiday home tax in some counties, but it seems to make little difference. Many of those people can either afford it, or they find loop holes. All they have to do is to register their holiday home as their permanent residence, and their actual home as a holiday home, and they get out of it. If they're retried or work from home, and spend almost half the week at their holiday home, this wouldn't be that difficult to do I imagine, and I doubt people check up on these things.

Has the offer been accepted yet?

And do you know what the offer was? It could be well below asking.

As a first time buyer with no chain and a MIP you are in a good position.

I lost out to a property last year to someone like yourself. My offer was more but the vendor went with the lower offer to someone chain free (he did the right thing as our chain collapsed)

If it's just an offer you can still view and make an offer yourself, it just means you are not the only one interested. If you liked it other people will too.

@spottydinosaur No it hasn't been accepted yet, but I've been told they are chain free like me too. Trying not to focus on this particular house too much now. Was having a frustrated morning this morning.

OP don't give up. We got our house after offering on 10+ because the sellers wanted their family to remain a family home. Try lowering your budget and offering over. You first house is always a compromise, if you're looking at houses, maybe you could look at flats instead? My experience was that being a first time buyer is not an advantage, estate agents like easy sales and ftb don't know what they're doing.

I feel like we're miles apart in terms of understanding so anything I say will sound like a criticism when I don't mean it to be.

Coming from the south of England, most FTBs don't expect to have a house, let alone a house with a garden or patio. Most are lucky if they can afford to buy a flat. Many will accept an hour long commute or longer just to stay vaguely close to family. Not because they want to, but because it is necessary.

I agree you should be able to live somewhere you feel safe and not on a busy road. But more compromises seem to be needed than you are currently allowing, including the possibility already mentioned (not well received) of moving to an area less dominated by tourism. I've been to North Wales and some area definitely seemed more suited to the holiday market than others.

I understand that you're feeling down today and maybe need to wallow. But going forward you need to focus on possible solutions to your problems. In some ways you are fortunate. Wales is cheap compared to many parts of England and you are a FTB so could move quickly if you could find an area that you can afford more easily. But you're going round in circles at the moment it seems with feeling like you should be able to afford to live in a tourist hot spot when realistically you can't, unless you compromise on something else like getting a flat instead of a house.

Coming from the south of England, most FTBs don't expect to have a house, let alone a house with a garden or patio. Most are lucky if they can afford to buy a flat. Many will accept an hour long commute or longer just to stay vaguely close to family. Not because they want to, but because it is necessary.

Having recently moved from the South of England I thought the same. Realistically though there just aren't many flats here. Or if they are they're in the very popular areas, and are still bought as holiday lets or second homes. So it's not simply a case of OP compromising and buying a flat.

The place I live in is absolutely not a tourist hot spot, and the issue still exists here. People are pushed out of the tourist hot spots, so the demand in other local areas sky rockets.

We are in a similar position but in the North. Villages that were peripheral to the very popular villages and were just about affordable before the pandemic are now also out of our reach. We have had to really widen our search area . Many of us have just accepted that this is what we now have to do if we want to get on the housing ladder. We will commute back into villages that are largely occupied by holiday makers and second home owners for our jobs and businesses. Those that don't need to work in those villages will look for new jobs nearer to their new homes and locations. I think some parts of the UK will just become designated holiday villages. Like Disney Land but real villages (without resident villagers under the age of 40). Workers will be bused in to service the needs of holiday makers, second home owners and old people who were able to buy a long time ago. I think some parts of the Lake District already feel a bit like this.....

If you want a vaguely decent habitable house (I get what you are saying about all the compromises too!) moving away is the only way we can do it. Fixer uppers in popular areas are not cheap anymore. Yes, it is heart-breaking but the government are not interested in this issue and however much we wish it wasn't the case, this is the reality. I don't mean to sound harsh either. It's just the way our country is now. I have no idea if there is or ever will be a 'solution'.

OP. when I was first looking, I haunted the agents in the areas I wanted to buy. Went into their shops every Saturday morning, got to know their sales people, made sure they knew I would look at anything below a certain price limit and that I had funds available.

It doesn't work with Purple Bricks or the online firms but try the little local agents who know the area well. You may have more luck.

It's absolutely rubbish OP. There needs to be some sort of additional council tax on properties that aren't lived in by the people who own them, or which aren't a long term let. Things like Air BnBs need to be absolutely hammered for additional taxes.

I feel bad for you. Holiday lets need a massive regulation overhaul. I'm in NW England and have stopped going on holiday in wales because every other house seems to be a holiday let and it makes me too guilty. We're going to scotland instead where as long as you avoid edinburgh etc, the impact doesn't seem to be the same.

I've stopped choosing Airbnb /holiday lets altogether unless it's long established or has no impact. I've been to a couple where the owners just built additional accommodation on land they already owned, so not taking anything away from locals.

It's hotels and proper BnBs otheriwse.my need for a cheap holidays isn't worth destroying communities

I'm sure there is nothing simple about it. I wouldn't deny it's very hard for FTBs these days, affordability is harder than it used to be.

Any "solution" will involve big compromises, which is true in the whole of the UK but especially in hotspots like holiday areas or expensive areas.

I'm sure I could look on Rightmove and see houses and flats in Gwynedd within OPs budget. But they wouldn't be appealing to OP or they would have already viewed them. My main point is if what you want isn't affordable you have to be pragmatic and find alternatives, whether the compromise is buying a flat, buying further away from your ideal area, buying in a less scenic area or whatever.

North Wales sounds like a sellers market at the moment, which makes it hard for buyers.

Yeah a lot of ours are just people's extensions now or huts on their land, as you say. We have two big dogs so our options are limited with hotels etc.

They were supposed to replace the housing stock with new builds. But they didn't. The RTB scheme wasn't inherently bad, it was the non replacement.

Can you put in an offer as well?

So do I blame Thatcher for this. She just did it to cynically win working class votes, it wasn't for the long term benefit of people needing social housing.

It benefitted a few people at first (and I don't blame them for taking advantage of the scheme as who wouldn't? ) but it screwed over future generations.

There's no way it would be viable for any government to keep building more and more social housing just to sell it a few years later at a below market rate.

It is really tough OP, but you will find something. It never seems to be a good time to buy when you are buying (and I fully agree that all the talk of a buyer's market right now rings false).

Which estate agents do you work for?

The point is though that people who bought then set up their dc for the future with an inheritance. They grabbed what they were cheaply given. There was never any money given to rebuild social housing. Local authorities got nothing. No one wanted the expense or maintenance. There needs to be a clear understanding a council property isn’t for life too. Lots were given to junior teachers and council workers. Wind on a few years and they are still taking up the properties with much bigger salaries stopping others from having their advantage.

I don’t think Wales is that attractive to second home owners. We know people who have sold.

@DonkeyBella This is already happening here. There are places that have been totally Disneyfied. They're like one big holiday park where hardly anyone real lives. I sort of get it with some villages because they're so remote, a lot of modern locals would be reluctant to live there as they want to be closer to work, but some of it is actually happening where the places of work are. It will be the death of of the Welsh language here.

I've considered moving away. If I want to keep living in Wales, the Valleys would be the cheaper place, but generally they're rough towns with high unemployment (in my price bracket at least). I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this, but might have to. You're right about fixer uppers not being cheap anymore. I've seen a few that look like they need at least 10k worth of work, at a minimum, probably 20-25k, but the owners only knock off about 5k.

OP, I sympathise, but you just have to gang on in there and get estate agents to pre-advise. Don't wait until they are listed, that's too late.

DD just bought her first flat in London. Previously she had to put in an offer for a rental without even seeing it, having got the heads up from the agent. Be ready to go, and book a viewing before it goes to market. DD was on the books of several agents, very clear in what she wanted and could afford. She got a first in the door look and put in a full asking offer the same day with caveat if delisting straight away.

It's mad, but that's what you have to do now

The local Council is planning to bring in Article 4, whereby future conversions to holiday lets will have to go through planning permission first. If lowering house prices is the goal, then I'm not sure if it will make much difference. People will still be able to buy as many holiday homes as they want, and it will only make houses more temporarily affordable for the seemingly never ending amount of middle class people who want their own little slice of Wales.

No that wasn't the case at all. Thatchers Govt placed stringent restrictions on how right to buy funds could be spent.
The treasury made billions (£47billion) over time and it's unclear how much of that was allowed to be spent on rebuilding but estimated at less than half.

https://neweconomics.org/2022/05/the-damaging-legacy-of-right-to-buy