Genie Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 4 minutes ago, villa4europe said: yeah when we came over to the UK last september we had a look at a new build but the timing just didnt work, that also came with its own challenges as they wouldnt give me a mortgage while living abroad so the option of sitting in germany while the house was built was a non starter, they wanted to give me a special new to the country mortgage paired with a special new build house mortgage from the housebuilders mates so you can imagine what that looked like i think waiting for a new build would at least stop the frustration while renting, kidderminster has a lot coming too but like you say it can be a new estate which im wary of, there was a 1400 house development approved last week in my old stomping ground Where I live it’s the first phase of an 1100 house build. It’s lovely, lots of green open spaces, houses set back from the roads, wooded areas, woodland walk pathways. I’ve been here 4 years and love it. Later in the development they seem to be more and more cramped, smaller gardens, tighter roads etc. I think with the big developments they tend to make the early phases more attractive to help sell the later phases (you’re in the industry so probably know all about this already). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 8 minutes ago, Genie said: Where I live it’s the first phase of an 1100 house build. It’s lovely, lots of green open spaces, houses set back from the roads, wooded areas, woodland walk pathways. I’ve been here 4 years and love it. Later in the development they seem to be more and more cramped, smaller gardens, tighter roads etc. I think with the big developments they tend to make the early phases more attractive to help sell the later phases (you’re in the industry so probably know all about this already). Also worth adding, the later houses whilst in less desireable positions, smaller garden, closer together are far more expensive. I bought mine for £340k in 2018, they sell the same house on a main road now for £432k. I got a couple of grand towards stamp duty, turf, fencing, outside tap, upgraded lighting (spots) in kitchen, diner, utility and all toilets/bathrooms included. They give you none of that now. As soon as you move in you have to put up a fence and turf your own back garden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desensitized43 Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 15 hours ago, Mister_a said: It’s basic economics though. If ‘people always needs houses’ then the prices will continue to rise, as that indicates a lack of supply. I can’t see massive investment in affordable housing being high on any current or future government’s priorities right now, they don’t even care if we can’t afford to eat or have the heating on. I would think that a policy of building enough houses that the value of the biggest asset people ever own falls is sure to be the biggest vote loser ever. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osmark86 Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 (edited) In Stockholm the market for housing is getting a little ridiculous. Prices have grown at an alarming pace due to artificially low interest rates over the past ~15 years. People continuously move to Stockholm from the rest of the country + immigration which pushes up demand. New housing is not built in the same pace as demand putting pressure on prices. The rental market is falling behind as many apartment blocks are converted from rentals to tenant-ownership associations. The average increase in income is barely beating inflation. Inflation peaked at around 6% (target is 2%) this year so the central bank is finally being sensible and making decisions about increasing the interest rates. During this period amortization requirements have also been boosted (which one could argue is beneficial). Couple this with a general belief amongst a lot of people that have never seen high interest rates in their lives (my generation and younger) who are also houseowners that interest rates will never rise. It could get sweaty for some houseowners. If I had just bought a house I would be shitting bricks over the potential bottomline each month now with the looming interest rate hikes. I believe a lot of households will be bled by mortgage payments now. Pretty happy I've got an affordable rental right now.. Edited May 5, 2022 by osmark86 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 (edited) Government are apparently looking at extra long term mortgages where when people die the mortgage is passed on to their children. The idea behind it being it will enable people to buy a bigger house than they might otherwise be able to afford. Apparently looking at a model in Japan where mortgages last 100 years +. This isn't the way to fix the problem of unaffordable housing is it. It is a supply and demand issue so there needs to be a massive house building program in addition to cracking down on people having 2nd/3rd homes. More availability would then bring house prices down. Edited July 2, 2022 by markavfc40 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted July 2, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted July 2, 2022 2 hours ago, markavfc40 said: Government are apparently looking at extra long term mortgages where when people die the mortgage is passed on to their children. The idea behind it being it will enable people to buy a bigger house than they might otherwise be able to afford. Apparently looking at a model in Japan where mortgages last 100 years +. This isn't the way to fix the problem of unaffordable housing is it. It is a supply and demand issue so there needs to be a massive house building program in addition to cracking down on people having 2nd/3rd homes. More availability would then bring house prices down. I'm sure my son would be thrilled for me to leave him several hundred thousand pounds worth of debt when I die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 The lengths they’ll go to to prop up the housing market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 4 hours ago, markavfc40 said: This isn't the way to fix the problem of unaffordable housing is it. It is a supply and demand issue so there needs to be a massive house building program in addition to cracking down on people having 2nd/3rd homes. More availability would then bring house prices down. I agree about the crackdown on 2nd/3rd homes etc and holiday lets, but anywhere I go, I see huge housebuilding projects. Over in Lichfield and Telford, just miles and miles of new developments. Huge amounts of flats going up in Birmingham all the time. The latest census data showed that the population increased over 6% between 2011 and 2021. Thats 3.5 million in 10 years, despite the effects of Brexit and a pandemic. That means huge amounts of homes are needed even just to stand still. In short, I have no idea how the crisis can be sorted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 The government and local councils can easily sell off land to builders but the problem then becomes about infrastructure. Major investment is needed in doctors surgeries, hospitals, roads etc. There is a reluctance to spend in these areas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 17 minutes ago, Genie said: The government and local councils can easily sell off land to builders but the problem then becomes about infrastructure. Major investment is needed in doctors surgeries, hospitals, roads etc. There is a reluctance to spend in these areas. I'd go with the NHS. But to be fair there are a few new state of the art hospitals going up. As for the roads, if you drive for a living you will see they cannot be a digger anywhere left stationary, most of the motorway network is being modernised, repaired all round the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 Housing is like everything. It's supply, demand and affordability. It's a complex market and you can have governments intervene for what they believe is a positive reason and it has unexpected impacts. Take the reduced stamp duty period we had, that was to help stop a market crash due to covid. But what was not understood was that there was a boom coming anyway because of work from home and the new switch to remote working. People wanted more space. So all the government did was Gove a tax break which fuelled even more house price inflation and made even more people out of reach of owning a home. The same when people say clamping down on 2nd and 3rd properties. Without private landlords you can cause huge damage to the rental markets. Ireland has shot itself in the foot like this. They put in controls to stop landlorda raising rent more than 8% on a year and a set amount over 3 years of the same Tennant. Only new builds and new houses to rental market could set the rent at whatever level they wanted but were then bound by the se rules. What that lead to was it became less and less financially viable for the private landlords to keep renting out their properties and so they sold up. This reduced the supply of properties for rent and rents in Ireland have exploded to insane levels young people are just emigrating again as cost of living is too high. So what the government thought was a good idea to help people from increased rents led to astronomical rents and made the situation worse. It's simply supply and demand. Build enough houses for the population and it will keep houses affordable. However the vast majority of home owners don't want more houses or apartments in their area and the nimby councils are always on their side. Home owners want house prices to go up up up as they get wealthier from that. It's a highly complicated topic is housing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted July 2, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted July 2, 2022 5 hours ago, markavfc40 said: This isn't the way to fix the problem of unaffordable housing is it. It is a supply and demand issue so there needs to be a massive house building program in addition to cracking down on people having 2nd/3rd homes. More availability would then bring house prices down. By 2nd and 3rd home ownership is that directed at private individuals or big businesses that own vast amounts of properties? The housing crisis is manufactured to keep us all in debt, there's vast amounts of brown field land and country side that could be used to house people but if that happened supply and demand dictates that prices should drop,.meaning less debt. That's not going to be allowed to happen. I'm seeing an increase in the press directed at 2nd home ownership by private individuals and its worrying when the bigger problem of big businesses, pension funds owning 1000's of homes for profit isn't being mentioned. Theres a class war going on and people just aren't seeing it. The media are directing our attention away from the super rich and pointing it at a few working class people who have purchased a second home to ensure they have a decent pension or additional income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 8 hours ago, markavfc40 said: Government are apparently looking at extra long term mortgages where when people die the mortgage is passed on to their children. The idea behind it being it will enable people to buy a bigger house than they might otherwise be able to afford. Apparently looking at a model in Japan where mortgages last 100 years +. This isn't the way to fix the problem of unaffordable housing is it. It is a supply and demand issue so there needs to be a massive house building program in addition to cracking down on people having 2nd/3rd homes. More availability would then bring house prices down. I think thats half right, cracking down on 2nd 3rd 4th etc homes that needs sorting. I dont agree about the building though as there is enough places. the issue is the affordability factor. Where i am you get very little for 300k these days. Its ridiculous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 Having more than one property is a pain in the arse anyway. Yes makes you money but the headaches it can cause you. Is it really worth it for all the stress it can cause if you get a bad tenant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 4 hours ago, Xela said: I agree about the crackdown on 2nd/3rd homes etc and holiday lets, but anywhere I go, I see huge housebuilding projects. Over in Lichfield and Telford, just miles and miles of new developments. Huge amounts of flats going up in Birmingham all the time. The latest census data showed that the population increased over 6% between 2011 and 2021. Thats 3.5 million in 10 years, despite the effects of Brexit and a pandemic. That means huge amounts of homes are needed even just to stand still. In short, I have no idea how the crisis can be sorted! I reckon the number of multiple homes owned purely by individuals in the UK will be well over 500k - be it "holiday homes", homes for renting out etc. etc. It's a tough one to balance in terms of ensuring that people can still afford to rent but also that second+ homes are culled off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilko154 Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 Is anyone clued up on mortgages? Our's fixed term ends in October, couldn't really time it any worse. Obviously the interest rate is going up by a lot making our monthly payments a lot more. I'm trying to work out whether to fix for 2 years or 3 years. Interest rates can't stay high forever, so I would be hoping to re-fix in 2 years at a much lower rate. But who knows what's going to happen... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 3 minutes ago, wilko154 said: Is anyone clued up on mortgages? Our's fixed term ends in October, couldn't really time it any worse. Obviously the interest rate is going up by a lot making our monthly payments a lot more. I'm trying to work out whether to fix for 2 years or 3 years. Interest rates can't stay high forever, so I would be hoping to re-fix in 2 years at a much lower rate. But who knows what's going to happen... Firstly, nobody knows for certain. Secondly, the new interest rates are not high, and they could go higher and stay higher. The last 10 years we’ve had incredibly low interest rates, not normal ones. They’ve risen towards where they would historically sit (still below it). I personally wouldn’t expect the rates to come back down anytime soon. We’re going to be fighting inflation for a long time, and the lever for that is higher interest rates. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 What genie said. Id fix it personally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 2 hours ago, wilko154 said: Is anyone clued up on mortgages? Our's fixed term ends in October, couldn't really time it any worse. Obviously the interest rate is going up by a lot making our monthly payments a lot more. I'm trying to work out whether to fix for 2 years or 3 years. Interest rates can't stay high forever, so I would be hoping to re-fix in 2 years at a much lower rate. But who knows what's going to happen... As @Geniesaid interest rates have been historically the lowest they have ever been over the last 10 years or so and I wouldn't expect them to return to those levels any time soon. For context when I got my first mortgage in 1998 I got a fix at around 6% and that was considered a good deal. They are far more likely to continue to go up from where they are now, not go back down. I'd be looking at a five year fix minimum if I was looking to fix now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 53 minutes ago, markavfc40 said: As @Geniesaid interest rates have been historically the lowest they have ever been over the last 10 years or so and I wouldn't expect them to return to those levels any time soon. For context when I got my first mortgage in 1998 I got a fix at around 6% and that was considered a good deal. They are far more likely to continue to go up from where they are now, not go back down. I'd be looking at a five year fix minimum if I was looking to fix now. I think if it hits 6% nowdays mark alot of people would be losing or have to sell their homes. Alot of people i know took mortgages out and didnt really plan for massive interest rates. If it goes near that figure i think they would be in massive trouble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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