Mortgage Rate Rises

Caporegime
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13 Jan 2010
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Llaneirwg
So if the UK does cut interest rates, and house prices continue their silly increases, how is that viable long term?

I just don't understand how the country will operate if house prices go over 10x income or more/keep climbing.

Naturally it has to stop or literally no one will be able to afford a house.

We need either a massive house price decrease, or a massive wage increase.

Ah. You're forgetting multi generation mortgage terms!

Thou shall not stop the gainz
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
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West Midlands
So if the UK does cut interest rates, and house prices continue their silly increases, how is that viable long term?

I just don't understand how the country will operate if house prices go over 10x income or more/keep climbing.

Naturally it has to stop or literally no one will be able to afford a house.

We need either a massive house price decrease, or a massive wage increase.

You assume people need to buy houses? Well the richest will be able to and the rest will have to rent!
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Aug 2006
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ChCh, NZ
I know it’s all horses for courses but having a look at the houses in the UK, I’m not finding it expensive in the slightest. Not when compared to where I am in NZ. Maybe I’ve been here too long now, but I actually think the UK is rather cheap.

We’re exploring moving back to the UK next year, and been actively looking at houses in the Banbury, Oxfordshire area. We can sell our house here where we are and buy something similar in Banbury. If we start looking at villages outside Banbury, there’s money left on the table after the sale and purchase.

What is however more worrying, are the low wages on offer in the UK. If I had to start from scratch there with UK wages, it’ll probably bring the house prices into sharper focus for me. However for the moment, we’re really liking what we’re seeing with regards to housing prices.
 
Caporegime
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Surrey
I know it’s all horses for courses but having a look at the houses in the UK, I’m not finding it expensive in the slightest. Not when compared to where I am in NZ. Maybe I’ve been here too long now, but I actually think the UK is rather cheap.

We’re exploring moving back to the UK next year, and been actively looking at houses in the Banbury, Oxfordshire area. We can sell our house here where we are and buy something similar in Banbury. If we start looking at villages outside Banbury, there’s money left on the table after the sale and purchase.

What is however more worrying, are the low wages on offer in the UK. If I had to start from scratch there with UK wages, it’ll probably bring the house prices into sharper focus for me. However for the moment, we’re really liking what we’re seeing with regards to housing prices.

Well, yeh that's the whole point isn't it? You can only gauge how expensive a house is, by how much you can earn to afford it. If the average income was £100k a year, an average house price of £280k would be wonderful.

As you point out, wages are utter dog **** in this country on average which is what makes the housing so expensive.

Edit: just looked it up and New Zealand is considered as having one of the most expensive housing markets in the world, so no wonder you don't think the UK is too bad when just comparing prices.
 
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Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2010
Posts
22,843
I know it’s all horses for courses but having a look at the houses in the UK, I’m not finding it expensive in the slightest. Not when compared to where I am in NZ. Maybe I’ve been here too long now, but I actually think the UK is rather cheap.

We’re exploring moving back to the UK next year, and been actively looking at houses in the Banbury, Oxfordshire area. We can sell our house here where we are and buy something similar in Banbury. If we start looking at villages outside Banbury, there’s money left on the table after the sale and purchase.

What is however more worrying, are the low wages on offer in the UK. If I had to start from scratch there with UK wages, it’ll probably bring the house prices into sharper focus for me. However for the moment, we’re really liking what we’re seeing with regards to housing prices.
It's always been at a discount to foreigners. When I was in China every single managing director I interacted with gleefully informed me of their London properties when I said I work in London.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2010
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22,210
There's probably a salient lesson to labour on chinese builder evergrande going to the wall - need a growing economy to sustain the building momentum,
and chinese state seems to have decided not/can't underwrite losses.

I thought he had a wonderful view of a Lake/coastline in NZ, maybe it's someone else who posts, Banbury won't provide that.
 
Soldato
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Worcestershire
It's always been at a discount to foreigners. When I was in China every single managing director I interacted with gleefully informed me of their London properties when I said I work in London.
Don't understand how that's a discount for foreigners. Surely real estate in China is cheaper, that is just a few wealthy individuals being happy to sink a lot of cash into London property for the clout or as an investment.
 

TNA

TNA

Caporegime
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13 Mar 2008
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Greater London
Don't understand how that's a discount for foreigners. Surely real estate in China is cheaper, that is just a few wealthy individuals being happy to sink a lot of cash into London property for the clout or as an investment.

All relative I suppose. Depends on where in China you are from. If from Hong Kong then yeah, prices here might seem relatively cheap. Pretty sure there are plenty of places in China where houses are much cheaper than here also.
 
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Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2010
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22,843
Don't understand how that's a discount for foreigners. Surely real estate in China is cheaper, that is just a few wealthy individuals being happy to sink a lot of cash into London property for the clout or as an investment.
The wages are higher in foreign countries which makes our real estate relatively cheap.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 May 2009
Posts
19,954
So if the UK does cut interest rates, and house prices continue their silly increases, how is that viable long term?

I just don't understand how the country will operate if house prices go over 10x income or more/keep climbing.

Naturally it has to stop or literally no one will be able to afford a house.

We need either a massive house price decrease, or a massive wage increase.
Well, yeh that's the whole point isn't it? You can only gauge how expensive a house is, by how much you can earn to afford it. If the average income was £100k a year, an average house price of £280k would be wonderful.

As you point out, wages are utter dog **** in this country on average which is what makes the housing so expensive.

Edit: just looked it up and New Zealand is considered as having one of the most expensive housing markets in the world, so no wonder you don't think the UK is too bad when just comparing prices.

Why do people need to be able to afford a house? There's rental for those that cannot afford to buy. Isnt it Germany where the majority of people nowadays rent?

It also depends on outgoings. e.g. if a couple earn 100k between them, but have minimal outgoings a 200k house is no problem. If another couple earn 100k between them but have 2 kids, a car and other outgoings, that 200k house will be a lot harder to buy.
I bought 5 years ago and have 90k left to pay. I've been overpaying because I know when I have kids in the next ~1-2 years, its going to be much harder/impossible to overpay my mortgage. We'll also probably end up buying somewhere else and renting out where we live now.
 
Soldato
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Hampshire
Why do people need to be able to afford a house? There's rental for those that cannot afford to buy. Isnt it Germany where the majority of people nowadays rent?
If our rental market worked in a similar way you may have a point. But our model is gouge for maximum price with poor regulation which favours the landlords.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Oct 2012
Posts
10,852
Location
London/S Korea
So if the UK does cut interest rates, and house prices continue their silly increases, how is that viable long term?

I just don't understand how the country will operate if house prices go over 10x income or more/keep climbing.

Naturally it has to stop or literally no one will be able to afford a house.

We need either a massive house price decrease, or a massive wage increase.
It’s down to building more houses. Mortgages for the 28% of properties that are owned with one aren’t at 10x income they are much lower. Very clearly the supply can’t meet the demand. The current market can and likely will continue to push on with prices as it can sustain it. The other thing to note in real terms prices have fallen so we will likely see demand rise.
 
Soldato
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10 Sep 2003
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Midlands
My remortgage is due end of July. With Barclays I can get a 1y no fee fix for 4.89, wondering if it's worth taking that and reviewing in a year. It's either that or I jump on a tracker at 5.74 with no fee and pin my hopes on a rate drop later this year
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2010
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4,099
Location
Worcestershire
The wages are higher in foreign countries which makes our real estate relatively cheap.
London, 7th priciest city in the world, relatively cheap to foreign buyers. Just because the UK has depressed wage growth compared to a lot of countries recently does not mean that buying in London is relatively cheap in any sense. 7th most expensive city to buy in in the whole world.
 
Associate
Joined
21 Jan 2013
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1,835
Location
Banbury, Oxfordshire
My remortgage is due end of July. With Barclays I can get a 1y no fee fix for 4.89, wondering if it's worth taking that and reviewing in a year. It's either that or I jump on a tracker at 5.74 with no fee and pin my hopes on a rate drop later this year

End of June here and in the same dilemma (albeit with offers of a 2 year fix at 5.26% or a tracker at 5.89; BOE rate + 0.64%) just so tough to guesstimate best course of action with relatively big impact if you get it right/wrong though admittedly not as big an impact as fixing for longer at 1.x% would've been :D
 
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