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Original poster

Are you still waiting for the property crash?

74 replies

raisinbran · 26/04/2010 18:35

Back in 2007/08 I expected house prices to fall by upto 30% and have been holding out waiting for house prices to become realistic ie 600k home for 450k.

How many of you are still waiting?How long are you prepared to wait? 2012?

There is a nice house on The Wirral priced for sale at 639k but available to rent for 1800 pounds a month seems a bargin except for the uncertainty of having to leave suddenly.

Many lovely houses around 600-800k for sale but are there so many people out there with such great salarys they can get mortgages to fund,the purchases?

OP posts:
ohseriously · 26/04/2010 21:13

Yes! I think the fundamentals keeping house prices ridiculously high are starting to disintegrate. It is only low interest rates left now that QE has stopped and the country is on its economic knees with borrowing.

The desperation with which Gordon Brown/BOE has kept house prices high for the VI's of this country is shocking. Just makes for a bigger crash when it finally happens IMO

It is all down to sentiment - there is a 'home buyers strike' on Facebook gaining momentum but the headlines are still ramping unless you look between the lines!

PandaSam · 26/04/2010 21:19

I'm waiting for the crash to finish! My flat lost 25% since i bought it in 2007...now starting to regain some value.

I think most people just didn't bother selling and waited for the down turn to stop. Because of so much government intervention very few people have been at risk of reposession (compared to last recession) so the market won't 'crash' like it has done before

NoseyNooNoo · 26/04/2010 22:10

I can't see there being a fall in prices - well not in my part of Surrey. Vendors are greedy. They put their house on too high and won't sell for less than asking price. They'd rather not sell than take an offer lower than what they's have got in 2007.

noddyholder · 27/04/2010 11:52

I sold and rented in 2007 and bought in winter 08 at 30% off peak.I have just sold that house and am in rented again for different reasons this time BUT I think the true crash is yet to come.there has been a mini boom for teh last 5 months but all my friends/colleagues involvd in property say its over and the market is about to turn downwards again.I would expect 10% down by the end of this year and a further 10-15% in 2011 then a plateau for several years.recent recovery has been based on unsustainable things like QE and ridiculous interest rates! Even rates going uo by 1% will cause chaos A mess and no mistake.

hahaimawitch · 27/04/2010 12:02

Sorry but we have just sold at a valuation that amazed us. The estate agents say it is boom time, not enough property but interest rates are low. We aren't being greedy, just done what was advised and sold in 24hours!

noddyholder · 27/04/2010 12:03

I know that is the case atm We sold in Feb completed in march at v good price but prices already faltering here in the SE.V lucky to sell pre election well done!

expatinscotland · 27/04/2010 12:04

No.

We're renters for life.

clam · 27/04/2010 12:05

Well, remember that the estate agents would say that, wouldn't they?
Sounds like you've been very lucky, anyway.

noddyholder · 27/04/2010 12:11

The market is suddenly flooded here because people have seen some sales at silly prices recently but nothing selling.

expatinscotland · 27/04/2010 12:13

Lots on sale here. No one has the kind of money sellers are wanting to not much is moving.

OrmRenewed · 27/04/2010 12:15

Round here nothing much is moving. Lot of houses have been on the market for over a year with virtually no interest. Mostly over-priced. First time buyers can't get mortgages so no-one can move on. If prices were allowed to fall to where they should be things might shift.

OrmRenewed · 27/04/2010 12:17

We've just put ours on the market 15k less than the highest valuation and in the middle of the range of the lower valuation. We want to sell and will be making similar level offers when we buy.

expatinscotland · 27/04/2010 12:18

Same here, Orm. I guess people don't really have to sell.

I look at properties online, because my life is pretty boring, and some of the houses on sale look like they haven't been updated. EVER.

And if they haven't been updated, you can imagine the plumbing and electrics haven't, either.

But they're still asking for loads of money for them.

So they sit on the market for years.

OrmRenewed · 27/04/2010 12:22

Mortgage chap was saying that some people are at risk of negative equity if they sell too low. Thanks to stupid prices in the last few years.

expatinscotland · 27/04/2010 12:24

I guess so. I see one's 'priced to sell' and yet I know the seller and the place needs thousands of pounds worth of work.

So the place just sits on the market for donks.

Original poster
raisinbran · 27/04/2010 12:33

Thanks for your interesting comments.

I can understand people not wanting to sell if it will result in negagtive equatity and they dont have to.

Just thought by now there would be more people who have held out selling but are needing to move on due to debt, divorce, death or even pensioners down sizing to release cash......

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 27/04/2010 12:39

Doesn't appear to be so at all, raisinbran, at least not around here.

I guess a lot of people own their homes outright or don't need to move, because there's no real price falls at all, just stagnation.

noddyholder · 27/04/2010 12:41

According to the IMF 45000 repossessions were averted at the end of last year because of the massive fall in interest rates.Some people who would have sold when prices were lower didn't have to as their mortgage payments fell so drastically

expatinscotland · 27/04/2010 12:43

Yet inflation is rising. We can't go on keeping the interests rates so low just so people can hang onto over-priced house, surely?

expatinscotland · 27/04/2010 12:44

I dunno. Like I said, we're renters for life.

MaggieW · 27/04/2010 12:50

Depends on demand for the area. Here is SW London there always seems to be demand from young couples/families looking for a family home, so any realistically priced homes that come on the market go very quickly. Mind you, even highly priced ones are going too as there isn't a huge amount on the market and hasn't been for the past couple of years. Prices plateaued last year, didn't really fall, but are definitely on the rise again and I can't see that changing as compared to areas such as Fulham, literally two miles away, where a 3 bed house can sell for nearly a million, this area is seen as good value.

tanmu82 · 27/04/2010 12:51

Where we live, you'd be hard pressed to get a 3 bed semi that doesn't look ex authority and in need of renov for much less than £300,000. We rent, and will do so for the foreseeable future as we don't have anywhere near enough of a deposit to afford that on a good rate.

I would love to buy, but don't want to buy a house at the risk of then having to work ourselves to death and not enjoy our lives. Besides, we can afford to rent a much nicer property than we could afford to buy....

noddyholder · 27/04/2010 12:56

There are no first time buyers though.Prices keep rising in the middle - high range as mortgage rates fell and these people could borrow.Anyone who thinks prices will keep rising sfterthe election is in for a shock!FTBers need to be around to keep things going.labour may have halted the crash with its antics but it won't last

OrmRenewed · 27/04/2010 13:38

Agree noddy. Lenders are asking for 10 or 15% deposit. If you are in your early 20s earning a normal wage looking for your firs home, where do you get that from when the cheapest house is 200k? Not to mention the other costs of buying a property. If first time buyers aren't buying, how do people on the next rung get to move up, and then shove the next lot up a rung?

SethStarkaddersMum · 27/04/2010 13:45

We do think there's going to be a crash in our area (Yorkshire) once the govt cuts really start kicking in because so much of the economy round here is dependent on the public sector.
I heard (maybe read in Moneyweek?) that the reason the market's still ok in London is because of all the foreign buyers taking advantage of the weak pound.... which isn't going to happen up here.

For now buyers are still holding out for high prices though. There's a house in our village on the market for £1.1 million which they just haven't got a hope of because no-one with that kind of money wants to live around here. But I am sure it will be a very long time before they are prepared to reduce the price.