Nicola has a vote to fund.
Interest rates increased
- Thread starter Dirk Diggler
- Start date
Soldato
Got mine today, it'll stay in the joint account and probably pay in to some other increased rate somewhere.
Soldato
Will the rates increase again by the end of the year? I ask because I’m going to hopefully have a mortgage drawn out for my first house purchase and current rates are fine and would probably lock it down for 3-5 years to weather the storm
I'm 99.9% certain they will, yes.
Yes, but do your sums/ask your broker to do your sums. Also, consider whether you would sell - as whilst you can port, you are tied into the provider you initially went with and not all of them have the best rates/allow porting.
Reason I say do your sums - I did a 5 year fix on my property. After just 3 years it had gone up in value by ~20% which, through no effort on my part, had made my loan-to-value 70%.
I had signed up to my 5 year fix with just a loan-to-value of 90%. This meant if I was free to chose a new provider, I could have been locking in a juicy <2% rate from April.
Obviously rates "only have one way to go", but that is exactly what I thought when I initially locked in 3 years ago.
Soldato
My 2year fix ends 2/11/22 and was already on 2.09%
Wanting to remortage and take a further £12 - 15k to do a kitchen refurb. Hoping my broker can find something good but definitely umming and arring about going longer term fix. I'm not looking to move but you never know.
When we looked at all this at Christmas we were looking so positive and now there's so much uncertainty.
Adulting sucks
Wanting to remortage and take a further £12 - 15k to do a kitchen refurb. Hoping my broker can find something good but definitely umming and arring about going longer term fix. I'm not looking to move but you never know.
When we looked at all this at Christmas we were looking so positive and now there's so much uncertainty.
Adulting sucks
Soldato
Soldato
I also don't get the "single people hogging a 3 bed semi" argument. There was barely any difference in price between 3 bed semi and 2 bed flat, so I got the house. It's only about 800 sqft, which is smaller than the victorian 2 bed terraced I grew up in up north, and seeing as I'm down south now it cost about 3x the price.
I strongly believe that all property adverts should be required to display sqft in a clear and filterable way because it's a much more useful metric than beds and baths.
I strongly believe that all property adverts should be required to display sqft in a clear and filterable way because it's a much more useful metric than beds and baths.
Soldato
In my experience:
4 bed Edwardian Semi - 3500sq ft (ex. loft)
4 bed 60's Detatched - 2500sq ft (ex. loft)
What's a 4 bed new build now <2000sq ft (inc. loft)?
Well actually, nobody really knows. Everything points to further rate increases, though they should be at least 5% already and a few 0.25% increases is going to do nothing as far as inflation goes.
Watch the US Federal Reserve. If they continue to increase rates like they say they will, the Bank of England and all central banks have to follow suit or they end up with a currency crisis. I'm sure nobody wants to be paying £10 for a loaf of bread.
Soldato
New build 4 beds near me (they're all detached):
low end: £470k ~ 1,200sqft
high end: £600k ~ 1,650sqft
The lofts aren't usable by default, but I suppose you could board it and put something light like xmas decorations up there.
Our 4 bed semi (built 6 years ago) is 123m².
This was built by a non profit, so was quite large relative to other estates which were around 105m².
If the housing stock is good then that is a dimension that should be considered.
Where I live most of the houses are £800-900k for 1000sqft. A vast majority of stock is owned by single/dual/investor occupants who moved in decades ago.
Soldato
Did you say that was Herts? Wow - here in the burbs (zone 6) 2500sq ft is about 900k semi, 1.1m detatched
TBF I haven't checked prices for a few months.
Associate
Agree with this, it seems to be a very British way of doing things, overseas most properties are assessed only on SQM and the cost per SQM, which makes a lot of sense.
In our block here in the UK there are smart / posh 1, 2 and 3 bed flats. A 3 bed is approximately 20 SQM more than a 2 bed, but costs 250k more to buy (market rate)!!! that works out at an additional cost per SQM for the additional 20m of 12,500 pounds per SQM, which is madness in my opinion.
In Europe, where we live most of our time, it is purely an assessment of the cost per SQM x the apartment floor area, bedrooms etc. don't come into it.
Soldato
Yup, in the uK , cost is linked to number of bedrooms which is dumb to say the least.
I have seen 2 bedrooms that have same SQ as a 3 bedroom. It’s stupid
I'm not convinced sq/ft or number of bedrooms are exclusive measures of usefulness. For e.g. I want to go on holiday with my 2 year old and separate rooms, not floor space, is absolute priority.
Similar I've seen very large sq/ft houses poorly divided/space wasted on hallways.
An 800sq/ft 3 bed for example is a great starter home for a family of 2 + 2. An 800sq/ft 2 bed is useless for a 2+2 family.
Similar I've seen very large sq/ft houses poorly divided/space wasted on hallways.
An 800sq/ft 3 bed for example is a great starter home for a family of 2 + 2. An 800sq/ft 2 bed is useless for a 2+2 family.
They get better paying jobs?
Associate
I agree, in making a purchase decision, i.e. is the home right for you, room configuration plays a role, it has too, but it shouldn't really be used as a defining number for the valuing of a property. For that an assessment of actual property space, or floor area seems more sensible.
20 years ago a mate of mine purchased a 2 bed Edwardian apartment. He still lives there but it is now 4 bed, he moved a few walls. He hasn't added any extra space, but now it is a 4 bed it must be worth a lot more.