House prices rose 7.3% this year, average now almost £250k

matt100 · 29 Jan 2021 at 10:22

Having had mortgages in the noughties, then not at all until last year the difference was staggering.

We've swung from the bank ignoring unsustainable credit card debt by consolidating it into the house and telling me what to say my income was to hit a multiple that allowed them to lend me 100% of a crazy number comparative to my income at the time to them talking to me like I'm a criminal when my income has quadrupled and I have no debts.

I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing and I honestly wish more people had said no to me when I was young and stupid because that lead to a decade of stress and a lot of collateral damage in my life but it's definitely swung back too far I'd say.

mattx2 · 31 Jan 2021 at 15:35

FoxEye said:
There's a lot of developers down here sitting on land but not building. Apparently it's just not profitable enough to build.

I would like to see either a use it or lose it clause put in to land sold for development or a very high tax on unused land.

If your not going to use it productively then the council/government will sell it to someone that will

HACO · 31 Jan 2021 at 16:22

mattx2 said:
I would like to see either a use it or lose it clause put in to land sold for development or a very high tax on unused land.

If your not going to use it productively then the council/government will sell it to someone that will

Awesome policy.

Psycho Sonny · 31 Jan 2021 at 17:08

Would like to see negative interest rates within the next 2 months to see what happens to mortgages.

HACO · 31 Jan 2021 at 18:10

Psycho Sonny said:
Would like to see negative interest rates within the next 2 months to see what happens to mortgages.

No ***** you do. Maybe a return of 100% LTV mortgages on top of that? Perhaps a government guarantee?

Psycho Sonny · 31 Jan 2021 at 18:24

HACO said:
No ***** you do. Maybe a return of 100% LTV mortgages on top of that? Perhaps a government guarantee?

Yeah and it's not surprising every post about taxes gets your vote. Just like the above.

Maybe you should switch jobs. Creaming every time tax is mentioned.

Diagro · 31 Jan 2021 at 20:00

We wanted to look for a new house this year...

In the area we wanted with the size we wanted, they have gone up around 40 to 50k.

Lucky for us we have around £200k as a deposit and I can get a mortgage of £280k... so we can still afford the houses we're looking at.

Just annoying, as that extra 50k, could be used for lots of stuff

FoxEye · 31 Jan 2021 at 20:22

Diagro said:
We wanted to look for a new house this year...

In the area we wanted with the size we wanted, they have gone up around 40 to 50k.

Lucky for us we have around £200k as a deposit and I can get a mortgage of £280k... so we can still afford the houses we're looking at.

Just annoying, as that extra 50k, could be used for lots of stuff

In what time period did they go up 40k? In one year or since the last time you looked (or both

)

glenimp617 · 31 Jan 2021 at 21:00

Diagro said:
We wanted to look for a new house this year...

In the area we wanted with the size we wanted, they have gone up around 40 to 50k.

Lucky for us we have around £200k as a deposit and I can get a mortgage of £280k... so we can still afford the houses we're looking at.

Just annoying, as that extra 50k, could be used for lots of stuff

This is the situation we're in at the minute. Hopefully we'll find out next week if we're moving or not.

Psycho Sonny · 31 Jan 2021 at 21:39

Diagro said:
We wanted to look for a new house this year...

In the area we wanted with the size we wanted, they have gone up around 40 to 50k.

Lucky for us we have around £200k as a deposit and I can get a mortgage of £280k... so we can still afford the houses we're looking at.

Just annoying, as that extra 50k, could be used for lots of stuff

That's why it's important to buy as young as possible. Plus it's not all bad to have grown that much in a short space of time it must be a sought after area. Which means future increases should be just as good.

Maybe fix your mortgage for 2 years and then the extra LTV in 2 years time will save a large chunk of interest to make that extra £50k blow a bit softer.

Ali195 · 1 Feb 2021 at 10:05

FoxEye said:
In what time period did they go up 40k? In one year or since the last time you looked (or both )

When we looking at new builds back in 2015 I was disgusted by the entire process. Queuing in a Barrets showroom listening to some lady in front prattle about tiles she wanted for 15 minutes.

When we finally get seen we find out they're all sold but building the next dozen further up the street. Great, there're identical to the existing bunch so no real surprises, just as we're about to take a look around we ask about prices but they couldn't confirm. I asked why if they're going to be finished in 2 months but explained head office had not confirmed pricing BUT will likely be £20K more. I was abit confused why because they were identical to the existing just finished, same garden size, room, built to same basic spec (obviously you can change cosmetic stuff later). Well she said prices were increasing. We walked away. Was a rip off to start with.

In the end we gave up on new builds, all were rabbit hutches with three toilets we didn't need, small bedrooms, tiny garden. It was only the four beds that seemed reasonable but they were silly money.

matt100 · 1 Feb 2021 at 10:17

Diagro said:
We wanted to look for a new house this year...

In the area we wanted with the size we wanted, they have gone up around 40 to 50k.

Lucky for us we have around £200k as a deposit and I can get a mortgage of £280k... so we can still afford the houses we're looking at.

Just annoying, as that extra 50k, could be used for lots of stuff

I mean obviously you wouldn't have had £50k.

£50k spread over the life of the mortgage and it's real money for sure but unless you've had to put £50k of savings into it because you've capped out your mortgage borrowing limit which would be quite weird then you weren't going to have £50k to drop on anything.

FoxEye · 1 Feb 2021 at 11:51

Ali195 said:
In the end we gave up on new builds, all were rabbit hutches with three toilets we didn't need, small bedrooms, tiny garden. It was only the four beds that seemed reasonable but they were silly money.

Talking of new builds, there was a small brown-fields site a mile or two away from us (I often find myself browsing the planning permission site to see how this town is changing).

Now, a developer submitted a plan for something like 12 houses on the site, many detached or semi-detached. Nice places with gardens. Nothing was built.

The developer then submitted a new plan for 24 houses, now mostly terraced. Gardens were smaller, as were the houses. Nothing was built.

A little while later the developer submitted a plan for 40 houses (this is a fairly small site btw), tiny houses, no gardens, not even any parking. Like the previous submissions, outline planning was granted.

But it really hammered home to me what house building is currently about. *Especially* now the central govt is actively overriding local planning authorities, with a "grant everything" approach now adopted (seriously, local planning auths might as well not exist any more. Everything is approved on appeal).

What it's all about now is putting the most buildings (I won't say homes or even houses) on a single site as possible. Quality of life is not a factor. Just cram them in.

413x · 1 Feb 2021 at 12:55

There's a significant development near me. On face it looks quite nice. The houses are those 'look nice but in a couple of years will look dirty' types.

The new terrace types with jagged roofs, indented 'parking' space. Tiny or no garden with a little bit of communal greenery.

Bigges issue is the infrastructure round here isn't great. Not enough doctors appointments. Poor public transport to Cardiff. And there are so many 'homes'.

I certainly wouldn't want to live there. But obviously they all seem full

This is the type. Those gardens!

HACO · 1 Feb 2021 at 12:59

FoxEye said:
Talking of new builds, there was a small brown-fields site a mile or two away from us (I often find myself browsing the planning permission site to see how this town is changing).

Now, a developer submitted a plan for something like 12 houses on the site, many detached or semi-detached. Nice places with gardens. Nothing was built.

The developer then submitted a new plan for 24 houses, now mostly terraced. Gardens were smaller, as were the houses. Nothing was built.

A little while later the developer submitted a plan for 40 houses (this is a fairly small site btw), tiny houses, no gardens, not even any parking. Like the previous submissions, outline planning was granted.

But it really hammered home to me what house building is currently about. *Especially* now the central govt is actively overriding local planning authorities, with a "grant everything" approach now adopted (seriously, local planning auths might as well not exist any more. Everything is approved on appeal).

What it's all about now is putting the most buildings (I won't say homes or even houses) on a single site as possible. Quality of life is not a factor. Just cram them in.

NIMBYism is a major major issue in this country, I see it in my neighborhood all the time. EVERY good proposal is flooded with people who disagree, usually with absurd reasons (e.g. the build changing bird migration patterns that negatively affect the quality of life for local bird watchers who might not be able to travel to watch birds). Always the actual concern is that new local developments might affect their property prices and they may grow by 3% next year instead of 5%.

Now if you plan to develop something that's seriously worse than what's there, some of those people will change their minds and will agree, because it will make their houses look better in comparison.

I would centralise the planning permission system and let a qualified office assess plans on their own merits rather than some local office singing to the tunes of local homeowners who only care about their own property prices.

phil675 · 1 Feb 2021 at 13:01

Something I find odd about new builds is they are cramped and overpriced, but people are queuing up to move in straight away.

HACO · 1 Feb 2021 at 13:02

phil675 said:
Something I find odd about new builds is they are cramped and overpriced, but people are queuing up to move in straight away.

Thanks to Help to Buy equity loan scheme. AKA let's put another 20% on top of property prices to increase builder margins and let the government guarantee that loan.

glenimp617 · 1 Feb 2021 at 13:10

phil675 said:
Something I find odd about new builds is they are cramped and overpriced, but people are queuing up to move in straight away.

Yep, they are.

There are decent quality new builds, with a decent amount of space.......but damn do you have to pay for it.

Typical new builds around me (persimmon, taylor, bloor etc etc) £400k.......the same, but actually built well from a small indy are up for £500k.

If you are happy with thin walls, roca toilets, symphony kitchens, and 1mm turf over clay gardens then fair enough.

What many people don't realise though, is that £400k is just for the house.....pretty much EVERYTHING else is a costed extra (and that includes TV points in the living room, and tiles in the bathrooms). You can very easily spend an extra £20k-£30k to be able to live in it, plus an extra £15k for all the costs to actually move in.

HungryHippos · 1 Feb 2021 at 13:20

TheOracle said:
If you are happy with thin walls, roca toilets, symphony kitchens, and 1mm turf over clay gardens then fair enough.

Haha that's so true, I'm actually on my 3rd new build in 3 houses.

First was TW, then Linden Homes (do not recommend them, they are now rebranded Vistry), and back to TW again.

This house was built like 8-9 years ago now so it's not new new, but as far as construction goes it still seems to be holding up pretty well.

I ripped out the Roca toilets and such, and revamped the internals.

What I am left with is pretty good, thin walls is probably the main complaint I could have but it's a detached house, and I don't live with anyone else at the moment, so that is not an issue for me personally. Structurally speaking though no major gotchas discovered.

My Linden house had walls and floors that had never heard of a spirit level. The vinyl they put in the bathrooms was laid over this topsy-turvy floor. They had to come back and sand the hell out of it, then use levelling compound and relay new flooring.

glenimp617 · 1 Feb 2021 at 13:23

HungryHippos said:
Haha that's so true, I'm actually on my 3rd new build in 3 houses.

First was TW, then Linden Homes (do not recommend them, they are now rebranded Vistry), and back to TW again.

This house was built like 8-9 years ago now so it's not new new, but as far as construction goes it still seems to be holding up pretty well.

I ripped out the Roca toilets and such, and revamped the internals.

What I am left with is pretty good, thin walls is probably the main complaint I could have but it's a detached house, and I don't live with anyone else at the moment, so that is not an issue for me personally. Structurally speaking though no major gotchas discovered.

My Linden house had walls and floors that had never heard of a spirit level. The vinyl they put in the bathrooms was laid over this topsy-turvy floor. They had to come back and sand the hell out of it, then use levelling compound and relay new flooring.

Well one good thing about the walls is that it's easy to wall mount TVs and hide the cables