This morning property news

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Expert saying either stay put or if you are going to buy offer 30% off and expect to achieve 20% off otherwise wait until next year when 20-30% off will be the norm.This is as mainstream as it gets

it is not good for people who may have lost their jobs - and there are a lot of them around, don't believe the government when it says that the economy is holding up well - they may be forced to downsize and lose out, making a bad situation worse .... it is not good for people who are coming off their fixed rate deals and their payments suddenly jump by a few hundred pounds, at a time when all other prices are going up and they suddenly realise that they can no longer afford their house ...

I have said this before, I have never met anyone who fondly remembers the last house price crash, do you not wonder why if it is such a wonderful thing? House price crashes come alongside such things as recession and unemployment and high interest rates and unfortunatelly the people who suffer the most in these situations are the poorer ones.

Incidently, I think evil buy-to-letters are doing ok at the moment - rents are going up as people are waiting for prices to fall before they buy.

Justaphase - whilst nobody has fond memories of the last time it went tits up that situation was caused, as it is now, by people treating their houses like cashpoints and, dare I say it, being very, very greedy.

Bubbles have to burst - insane house prices benefit nobody and I speak as someone whose house will soon be worth less than I paid for it.However, seeing as we chose not to over extend ourselves financially we'll get by.

I do think the focus being on houses in the media is stopping the real news which is a looming recession from really hitting the headlines.All the factors from the last recession and crash are in place unemployment is rising inflation off the scale and interest rates due to rise its just that we ar eproperty obsessed and its top story atm

Oh helllllo!
Marvellous! Glad you sold NH?
lol at you nob from OO. Maybe your buyers don't watch the news? I don't.

rents AREN'T going up according the The Motley Fool yesterday.

Cloud cuckoo land is right though, did everyone really think that prices just would keep on rising and rising and rising? I know they have done for years but surely it was bloody obvious it was completely unsustainable.

Hardly any mortgage deals around atm, people paying their mortgages with their credit cards etc, it is all dire if you over stretched yourself in the first place. And there was plenty of irresponsible lending going on while there's not much lending going on at all now.

If you borrowed beyond your means then you're a fool. Surely even on a fixed rate mortgage you have to have considered what would happen when it ends?

I second OO's nobs!

If you lose your home because you borrowed too much and now can't afford the repayments then that's your own fault.

The BtL market has effectively removed a lot of the affordable housing from the market, but not for long because they will have to sell soon.

Saying all buy to letters are evil is silly, especially when the growth was organic - you bought a house, needed to move then realised you could keep the old one etc.

However, BTL'ers have played a big part in distorting the market with these scumbag "make millions from property and never do a stroke of work again" companies buying up swathes of typical first time buyer property.

These parasites are now dumping huge parts of their portfolio inducing panic, price depression etc.

Also you can argue that BTL'ers have really bought some neighbourhoods into bad repute because they often have little pride in the exterior of their houses and the constant turnover of tennants means that nobody really cares.

Why will BTL's have to sell soon sorky?

I don't get the 'evil btl's' thing either . I have a btl because dh and I are forces and live in service accommodation, if we didn't btl we would be looking at taking out a brand new mortgage when we're at the end of our careers.

perhaps you were a fool to borrow too much .... or perhaps you had no choise because house prices were sky-high

and losing your job is rarely your own fault

I totally agree that bubbles are bad, the reason they are bad is because they burst and cause horendous grief in the process ... usually to the people at the bottom

In recent years, there has been a great deal of irresponsible lending and borrowing. Yes, the banks shouldn't have approved some of the crazy mortgages, but borrowers have a responsibility too. Just because the bank will loan an individual a certain amount of money (and they 'qualify') doesn't mean you can/should accept it.

the market is flooded with btl and as the interest rate increases will you be able to afford to cover the mortgage with the rent? many won't.

as the house prices decrease more people will be tempted to buy, thus not needing rental properties, it's all cyclical.

It's never a win-win situation.

and btw the "evil btl" was me being sarcastic, I think this is a way too simplistic view of the world. We also kept our first tiny flat when we upsized and we are renting it out.

We don't have to sell, as long as the mortgage covers the interest payments which it should hopefully do as rents are rising where we are. If we were pushed (if say, I lost my job, which I am very worried about and with a baby on the way can not do much about getting another one), then we would probably rent our bigger place out and move back into the flat. This should be fun - a toddler and a baby in a one-bedroom 40m2 place. But I digress...

I am just worried about what is happening and am really puzzled about people being so pleased about it. It is not a good thing, believe me.

I think all these stories show that houses stopped being homes and became commodities which are liable to ups and downs.Being a potential; buyer atm i am seeing big drops and desperate agents so it really is game over.Surveyors are down valuing and lenders are raising rates and deposits required so they are expecting drops.I think 30% is not unlikely now

"I am just worried about what is happening and am really puzzled about people being so pleased about it. It is not a good thing, believe me."

Some are pleased because it gives them hope that they can eventually find secure family accomodation in a reasonably safe area. The real shame was that the hyperinflation of the cost of accomodation happened in the first place.

The same idiots in the media who were cheerleaders for unsustainable price increases are now wailing about "doom and gloom". A bubble should never have been allowed to develop in the price of something that is essential to all our lives. For a start it has been a massive transfer of wealth from poor to rich.

An utter disgrace that the mortgage companies were not regulated when they were lending so recklessly.

Heads they win - as long as prices kept rising they could pay themselves massive bonuses and salaries.

Tails we lose - the taxpayer winds up bailing them out

It should have been either lots of regulation and bail outs when needed OR little regulation and no bail outs.

Prices of houses should come down. They are ridiculous. I wish the housing market hadn't been propped up as long as it has been.

but see, the problem is, I don't think that affordability has increased

the reasons that house prices are falling is because people can not afford to buy them - because their incomes are shrinking (through high inflation), mortgage rates are going up and people are losing their jobs

so in reality houses are still unaffordable, despite being cheaper