£800K houses in nice but not uber desirable areas of the north

[Fibrous]

I live in a nice enough but not particularly trendy area not a million miles from Manchester. It's not Trafford or Cheshire or any of the traditionally expensive areas surrounding Manchester. There are loads of houses on the market around the £800K mark and upwards. These are older houses, beautiful, but not necessarily modernised.

I'm just wondering who can afford these houses? They seem to be sitting on the market for ages - so maybe that answers my question. But my DP and I are on fairly good (well above average) professional wages with no kids, and we can't justify the massive mortgages on them or the modernisation costs. All of our friends are dual income professionals with good jobs (medics, engineers, business owners etc), and none of them are buying anything more than about £500K.

Are these houses now just out of people's price range, or who are they for? We had an influx of Londoners cashing in and moving up in covid but that was a brief spurt.

Is this the same elsewhere in the country?

Looking at the sale history for some that are on sale for about 900K, they last sold for about 200K twenty years ago. That sounds infinitely more affordable!

Yeah this is why I said I don’t live in one of the trendy property hotspots in Manchester. I know some are very expensive - parts of south Manchester and Cheshire. That’s not where we are.

Starting salaries for Profs is £73,700. Is that enough to afford a £800k house? I think not.
It was the casual implication that university professors are very high earners that I was questioning. This is not true. There are many other professions in which decades of experience would yield much higher financial reward.

That may be the case but it clearly isn't universal all over Manchester. I'm sure there are some areas favoured by wealthy Londoners which are holding up well. Having said that, I've just checked Rightmove for Didsbury and Cheadle Hulme, both very desirable areas in/ near Manchester and things are definitely not all selling in 2 weeks as there are multiple reductions.
I would assume that your doctor/ civil servant acquaintances had either a good amount of equity from a previous house, a large gift from family or have no children and can stretch to a very high mortgage. I think all of these things will become gradually less common over time.

The asset wealth of the post-war generation is being inherited by Gen-Xers who can then afford expensive property in their turn.

@rainingsnoring no they were ftb. And it’s not stretching when their joint income is around 150-170k a year.

I would disagree with you. The repayments on the mortgage, even with a 30 year term, would be a large percentage of their salaries, more than the 1/3rd recommended. Perhaps this couple can manage okay as they don't have children or don't need to pay for childcare. For me, it's a stretch, especially if interest rates go up later in the term.

That doesn't make any sense. Many Gen-Xers won't inherit at all as their parents are not wealthy, a lot of current wealth will go on many years of care for Silent Gens/Boomer parents who are living a long time, we may have a significant fall in asset prices before too long so a lot could vanish. Apart from all those things, most Silent Gen/Boomers had 2-3 children. Even assuming an above average inheritance, which doesn't get spent on care fees by either parent, the money still needs to be split 2 or 3 ways in most families. And then, there is the fact that most people inherit at around age 60! Sure, there will be a few fortunate people that inherit very large amounts but not enough to be able to sustain current prices, hence the falling prices at the top end of the market. This is one reason why home prices are likely to stagnate at best in the longer term.

Manchester is very expensive. Just been looking at rentals fairly close to central manchester (and central) and could not believe the prices...I had assumed they'd be Sheffield/Leeds prices. Apparently Manchester is the 2nd highest rental prices in the UK after London.

People are struggling to find places to rent so that's pushed rental prices up, then more people cash in buying houses to rent out as they know they can make money doing this and that pushes sales prices up. People moving from London to Manchester as it's seen as an up and coming place to move to also increases prices. Supply and demand I guess. Maybe with all the new development in the city centre there will be more supply and prices will come down?

Gen Xers ARE 60. And it’s my lived experience. Friends are inheriting from grandparents and parents, enough to offer a deposit or pay off mortgages to create equity to move up. We have no such inheritance so won’t be getting a chunk of cash any time soon.

Only some Gen X are 60! Some are only 45. As I already said, some lucky ones will inherit and that will enable them to buy or pay off a mortgage. We have already discussed this on this thread. I am making the point that this doesn't apply universally, a lot of it will be spent on care and then split between siblings or grandchildren. Therefore Gen X/ Millennials will not be as wealthy as late Silent Gen and Boomers. Your own example has proven my point.

It sort of feels like housepricecrash is more the forum for you rainigsnoring. It's full of people creating their own arguments why as to why it is unsustainable and this IS the year that house prices will fall. Most of them have been there for about 25 years, and every year its 100% gonna be this year. Their mums must be desperate for them to move out of the box room by now... Youd get on with them like a house on fire, they even have a special thread to report what they've discovered on mumsnet........

But I also guess you already knew all of that....

I never said it was universal. I would never have inherited any money at any age as no one in my family has ever done so - we’re not a wealthy family in any generation! But that’s how a lot of people in their 40s/50s are affording more expensive houses. They inherit enough to bump their budget up, or their parents inherit and pass it on. It doesn’t make any difference to the point of this thread if they have less than their parents did.

Obviously some people are very high earners but I think a lot of wealth is acquired generationally through inheritance

There's always one who feels has to resort insults because they don't like what someone else posts and feel threatened by them. I don't use house price crash forum and never have done but you clearly do so perhaps the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak.

The way you wrote it did make it sound like that. I guess it was open to interpretation. I agree that inheritance and gifts definitely makes things affordable that would not have been on salaries alone. Whether it is sustainable is one of @Fibrous's questions and I think not for the reasons given, ie that Gen X and later generations will be poorer overall.

Of course you don't, what a Silly Billy I am, I'll just trap trap off over the bridge....

I certainly don’t think there will be a house price crash as there is wealth around propping up the property prices.

However I very much agree on the wider point that it is unfair who can get on the market these days - the gap is extreme (ie the points made by multiple people that rents are extortionate compared to what they used to be and salaries, and not everyone will have the luxury of being able to live with their parents to save/be gifted a deposit…)

Appreciate this post is about Manchester but I live in London, both DH and I earn above 100k each and we were gifted 300k to be able to afford a modest 3 bed terraced family home here. The house is nothing special. The 300k quite frankly puts us in a very fortunate position that many others won’t have and how is it right that we could only afford a family home here despite having good salaries by being gifted what I think is an astronomical amount of money. Astronomical gifts is what is propping up property prices and it’s skewing who can afford to buy. Would I decline our gift? No. Can I see that it’s unfair? Yes, very very very much so!!

I think it’s a bit bizarre to suggest that my post might imply this is a universal experience. It obviously isn’t. Most people in this country inherit very little, and most people don’t own expensive houses.

Fair enough. It was based on someone I know who is a prof who lives in a £1,000,000 house (maybe they have inherited some money? Or have a rich wife?) but I do appreciate that that won't be the same for other people who are profs, and I am very aware that academia is very underfunded and generally poorly paid.

Those type of houses are built for London commuters who, for personal reasons, may need to live in the north. Having said that, however, most dual income medical professionals living near Manchester would be able to afford an 800-1m house if they were doing NHS and private work.

Like I said, it's you implying things about house crashes. I haven't said that. You just feel threatened by the idea that there are factors that might cause values to fall over time. I can't control your insecurities but whatever they are, you should control them better and stop troll hunting.

As I said, it's open to interpretation as it's a brief statement only. Pleased we agree that many will not inherit and therefore won't have the means to buy expensive houses.

@Givemethesun I totally agree with your wider point that this is a major problem for society but I very much doubt that anyone would turn down a gift like that if it enabled them to buy a home.

I'm about to buy a house in that bracket. Late 40's, 2 wages, paid of last mortgage so have a sizable deposit. Can currently afford the mortgage and will downsize at retirement.

Only a small minority of medics do any significant private work. Most of the younger ones are definitely not affording properties of that value.

Trafford/South Manchester/Cheshire continue to hold their value and haven’t dipped in the 30 years I have been a house owner.

Although there are some reductions most of the desirable houses are snapped up and usually there is something wrong with the ones that are sticking.

There has been so little on the market recently - about 25% less than usual according to family member who is in the business, but there seems to have been an influx of new properties coming on now.

The BBC move and other big firms to Manchester is definitely having an impact.

OP perhaps although you don’t see it as a desirable area, others do?
Are local houses on the step below also being priced accordingly, so a 3 bed detached being 150-200k less than this one?