£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!

My 70 something aunt and her husband have just bought a large house with a big garden in that price bracket, although not in Manchester. They have both been retired for many years and I don't think have a huge income. Neither of them come from money or had an inheritance. They worked in the middle east in the 80s tax free and made a lot of money there, then they have bought, renovated and sold houses in the UK every 5 years or so for the last 30 years. Each time they made a profit.

They show no signs of wanting to downsize.

That’s interesting about them not wanting to downsize

one thing I’ve never asked anyone my age is about the size of property they want in an ideal world. I am early 30s and couldn’t think of anything worse than owning a large property in some of OP’s original post - because all I see is huge maintenance costs and garden costs. Wonder if it’s just me or common in my age group, or common across all ages

Most of the sellers are just completely deluded IMO, have any of these houses actually sold?

the ones I was watching are still for sale.

Kind of as expected? LOL

It’s not the salaries it’s the equity. We have a household income of £110 excluding bonuses but are currently looking to buy at 1 mil. This is only because we have bought and sold both separately and together

So not ten times your salary like some people did and will be heavily regretting now?

@KeepPumping about 3.5 times which feels uncomfortable enough 😂

I live a different direction out of Manchester but that’s exactly the sort of house we’d be looking to buy next at that sort of price point (although probably with more land).

I work in professional services and if I take the job I’m currently applying for will be earning between £200-250k and DH is middle management on around £60-70k depending on bonus.

We’re not actively looking to move but probably will in the next few years.

Uni profs? They’re not on large wages…

Fair enough, no worries about not getting back what you pay?

@KeepPumping not really. The prices have been solidly high, it’s a desirable area of Cheshire. Even if it were to drop we have very young children and plan to raise them here so it feels like any risk like that is worthwhile for a house we hopefully plan to stay in for 20 years plus. I have been more wary of previous purchases knowing I will want to sell within a few years but less so here despite the higher price point

Good points, sounds like a plan!

This one has been relisted and it’s now at £550k so they were in total dreamland. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/174796034

Yes, looking at the price history they are still firmly stuck in Dreamland.

I think this whenever I visit my in-laws in the south west. House prices there are insanely high considering it’s pretty rural, nothing much there and no sign of any high paying employers I can see.

And terrible transport links.

It’s nice, there’s just no sign of how anyone can support paying the prices to live there on jobs you can get there.

It’s not a tourist hotspot so it’s not 2nd homes, I guess mainly rich retirees, some WFH people... But pretty much South East commuter belt prices for a place nearly an hours drive from a railway station that’s then still hours from a major city.

People taking equity out of London blew mini-bubbles all round the UK, as London deflates so the rest of the UK deflates.

Yes, house prices have risen far above what most people can afford, at least outside of London/SE/big cities. Some of these more rural areas shot up a lot during the pandemic with ex London/SE people buying but are now deflating rapidly. I expect some of these places that rose rapidly will also see the largest falls.

London is like a big debt puddle, it ripples out with the toxic debt effect on the way up, and the equally toxic fallout when the puddle dries up.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/london-house-prices-fall-again-as-property-slowdown-drags-on/ar-AA28rlYw