If you have bought a house for way over its true market value in the last few years..

[Beach Hut]

Housing in the south east has never been affordable for first time buyers without help.

What makes you say that - loads of people are buying houses for the first time by saving their money for a deposit in the South like we all had to.

They just need to start earlier and save a lot more.

 

[Gully]

I bought my first house in West Sussex in 92, when the housing market had bottomed out following a collapse in the market, it was certainly possible then. I won't say it was easy as I wasn't on a great salary, but I was able to find the 5% deposit and legal fees to manage it without any parental assistance. I accept that it was probably easier then than at any time since as the market has boomed, but lenders are willing to give 100%+ mortgages to first time buyers, at lower rates than the early/mid 90's and on higher multiples of salaries. I think that anyone who wants to buy a house is better to forget saving for a deposit (except legal/search fees) and just go for the maximum mortgage as they are really struggling to keep up with rising prices, their savings won't earn as much interest against rising house prices.

Of course, everything can change, at the end of every boom there is normally a bust...however, with demand outstripping supply this is likely to amount to a cooling down at best.

 

[Yorkie]

What makes you say that - loads of people are buying houses for the first time by saving their money for a deposit in the South like we all had to.

They just need to start earlier and save a lot more.

The very reason I moved to Yorkshire back in 1971. My husband's wages were £20 a week, houses were £6K and lenders would only lend 2.5 times annual wage.
Houses in Yorkshire were £3K and my inlaws lived there. What else were we to do? Women's wages weren't taken into consideration because we would be expected to have babies and stop work.

 

[Muhammed - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

i bought my first house in 1984, the mortgage was affordable and easy to get.
23 years ( and one divorce) later i bought my second property in april of last year, it was a lot more difficult to obtain the finance and is costing an arm and a leg. with the recent rise in interest rates it now costs me £756 a month.
for the life of me i cant see what chance the kids of today have of buying anywhere? with the (non) availability of council accommodation they are being forced into the private rental scenario which generally costs more than a mortgage repayment would cost

 

[Simster]

I overpaid for my house AND my mortgage is with Northern Rock.

 

[desprateseagull]

mattress extentions, anyone? (to stuff cash under..)

quite glad i am not caught up in this malarkay -unofficial NSC word of the week.

with all these BoE bailouts, how long before THEY run out of cash?? i thought there were rules limiting a UK bank's exposure to certain risks..

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Blimey, you've got me worried! I'm just about to buy a house here for 19,000 pounds - maybe I shouldn't?

(And no, I didn't miss a nought off!)

 

[Beach Hut]

The very reason I moved to Yorkshire back in 1971. My husband's wages were £20 a week, houses were £6K and lenders would only lend 2.5 times annual wage.
Houses in Yorkshire were £3K and my inlaws lived there. What else were we to do? Women's wages weren't taken into consideration because we would be expected to have babies and stop work.

Maybe the case with your husband but you have made a sweeping statement saying houses are unaffordable in South East to first time buyers which is not really true given city bonuses etc

 

[Simster]

Maybe the case with your husband but you have made a sweeping statement saying houses are unaffordable in South East to first time buyers which is not really true given city bonuses etc

Correct, because surely market prices are driven by affordability and willing to pay. Yorkie is simply applying her own personal circumstances - which, I agree, doesn't reflect the population at large.

However, the one absolute truth is that people need to borrow more (as a percentage of income) than ever before. The debate is whether or not this is necessarily unhealthy.

Personally, I think there is an argument for simply relaxing the lending rules on income multipliers, because people make borrowing decisions based on remaining disposable income, rather than mortgage costs. And since your £ buys more than it has ever done before (as the standard of living rises), this means that more money becomes available for mortgage borrowing.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Can somebody please explain the concept of 'buying a house over its true market value'?

Surely the market value of something is precisely what the market [ie YOU] are prepared to pay for it.

Unless of course you offered three times the asking price, but that seems a little unlikely.

 

[Marshy]

Yeah lets have a face off with HB&B about who's house is worth the most...

 

[Publius Ovidius]

If anyone is interested. The monthly supplement of the Land Reg market analysis has been released.

http://www.landreg.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/hpir0807.pdf

House prices in England and Wales exhibit slow monthly growth for residential property transactions that completed in July 2007.

Whilst still positive, the 0.1 per cent rate of monthly increase is the lowest rate experienced since June 2006. The change raises this month’s average house price
to £181,460. The annual change in house prices is 8.8 per cent.

The growth rate divergence between London and the rest of the country persists. London and to a lesser extent, the South East, continues to ensure positive house price inflation.

you need to get out more BOF

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Housing in the south east has never been affordable for first time buyers without help.

we bought ours without help...we saved up for a deposit ( £1250 at the time) and then got a mortgage and bought our first house......

So actually it has!!!!

 

[rool]

I overpaid for my house AND my mortgage is with Northern Rock.

So, Frank was right after all then?

 

[sten_super]

you need to get out more BOF

These are the kind of statistics I have to sit, read, review and process all the time for my job

 

[Simster]

Ah but rool, whilst we overpaid two and a half years ago, the house is now worth over 300k more than the value we paid for it.

And Northern Rock have been bailed out by the BoE so I don't care about that either.

 

[rool]

Ah but rool, whilst we overpaid two and a half years ago, the house is now worth over 300k more than the value we paid for it.

And Northern Rock have been bailed out by the BoE so I don't care about that either.

I'm disappointed for him

 

[rool]

Just would like to add that I also purchased my first property with my child bride with no help either and that was in Brighton. There are and were much cheaper areas of the South East where it would have been even easier.

 

[Grendel]

Maybe the case with your husband but you have made a sweeping statement saying houses are unaffordable in South East to first time buyers which is not really true given city bonuses etc

That completely disregards that fact that a very large number of people in Sussex don't work in the city or earn a huge amount of money - my bonus last year was £400.

Say, for example, I wanted to buy a one bedroom flat in Haywards Heath for £134,950 (as one down my road is up for) and assuming the unlikely event that I had saved enough for 10% deposit, the mortgage repayments would amount to approximately 90% of my monthly salary. I can't say I view that as affordable.

 

[Bozza]

Housing in the south east has never been affordable for first time buyers without help.

Never?

In 1996 (I think) I bought my first property - a 3 bed Victorian terraced house in Worthing by saving for a 5% deposit myself and then paying the mortgage myself. No help sought by me from anyone and none provided.