lol prices will only go up.
long term (10 years) yes, but they can go down short term
lol prices will only go up.
I house I have in Hertfordshire and it has seen this commuter belt effect as well. I bought it in 2007 at its then peak price. Took an equity hit between 2008 and 2011, since then it has been nothing but upwards and sharply. Its now worth a little bit short of double of what I paid for it.
On face value it seems completely unsustainable, but year on year the market proves me to be incorrect.
Rental prices being so high is part of the reason house prices can be so high.
The UK obsession is property is crazy and it does indeed drive prices and rent up.
Interestingly the rent in Berlin is absolute peanuts compared to London. As in, shockingly low. Nobody owns, it's all management companies.
Berlin has (or had after speaking to my mum about it last year) a shortage on properties so yes it's quite cut throat. also comparing rent prices like for like isn't the right idea. salary structure is different in germany than the uk.I was walking through Berlin with a friend, very central area, and she mentioned how much some apartments there cost to rent. She thought it was very high, my jaw was on the floor at how cheap they were.
Only minor point in the UK favour is that renting in Germany is pretty cut-throat with multiple applicants touring the place at the same time and then race to get it. But I don't know if that's common or just what I saw on that one occasion. Anyway, renting in the UK is horrendous. I'm sure it pushes puts more pressure on people to want to buy, though on the other hand it makes it a Hell of a lot harder to save up that deposit.
Even if London prices stall, couples with flats there still can't afford to buy houses or large garden flats in London when they have a family, so they move to the home counties. They've got equity from 5 or so years in the London property market and that cash transfers to the home counties' markets, keeping them buoyant.
Rises are everywhere.
My friends bought a house in Harborne,Birmingham for £250k 3 years ago. Sold it yesterday for £369k. That's a serious profit over such a short period of time.
Nobody owns because it was so difficult to get a mortgage in the past, and the interest rates were terrible (I owned a flat for a few years in Munich in the 2000s). Now that has changed more and more Germans are buying.The UK obsession is property is crazy and it does indeed drive prices and rent up.
Interestingly the rent in Berlin is absolute peanuts compared to London. As in, shockingly low. Nobody owns, it's all management companies.
I gather Berlin is somewhat unique and far cheaper than the real of Berlin anyway, for whatever reason.Nobody owns because it was so difficult to get a mortgage in the past, and the interest rates were terrible (I owned a flat for a few years in Munich in the 2000s). Now that has changed more and more Germans are buying.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-property-idUSKCN0XL0LG
Only a few weeks ago I met up with a friend in Munich and he was just buying his first place in Augsburg, he's around 40. He said he was fed up of living in a white walled wooden laminate floored identikit rental property (all rental properties are like this) and wanted to bring his family up in their own home where they can do what they want.
myself and my wife are looking to buy our first home right now. We've been looking now for around 6 weeks and have found nothing that has potential, needs work for the right price etc (Southampton). We've managed to save up a lot over a few years, tightening our belts, not living lavishly, no holidays and the result is £47k all to go down as a deposit. We are now living with inlaws temporarily which is super depressing, whilst we try and find our first home. We need to find a place fast as I'm not getting any younger, we want to start a family etc. It's not great at the moment, feel like a bit of a failure and all that.
We've had a £210k mortgage agreed at just under 3% so we are looking around the 240-250k mark for a property. But what that gets you down here is either a right dump in the middle of chaville, or a pokey little 2 bed with no gardens, no potential to expand the property etc. It's very depressing it really is. Just don't know what to do at the moment.