House Price Poll

[ridda]

There is NO SUCH THING AS A LADDER.

Houses are places to live in, not investments to achieve capital growth.

This is the right answer.

 

[Eric Potts]

I agree : I bought a 2 bed terrace in Brighton 18 years ago . I'm still here - i've never needed to move and still don't

 

[Gwylan]

I agree : I bought a 2 bed terrace in Brighton 18 years ago . I'm still here - i've never needed to move and still don't

That's fine if you don't have kids. I'd have stayed where I was if I didn't have to accommodate two children. Still, it meant that I downsized to Brighton so things have ended up fine.

 

[drew]

There is NO SUCH THING AS A LADDER.

Houses are places to live in, not investments to achieve capital growth.

Typing something in bold isn't going to change the fact that most people understand what the property ladder is, ie you start with your small flat, suitable for a couple and then when the kids start coming along you look to move up the ladder to get a bigger property.

Why is that had to accept?

 

[Ned]

on that point, i dont believe we need more houses built, we need more suitable houses made available. ie, there should be some form of encouragement to get couples in their 60+ to down size and free up the 3-4 bed houses they rattle around in.

My mother is a widow who owns her own house having lived there for over 40 years. She doesn't want to move because she knows all the neighbours, her doctor and local shopkeepers. Her kids (ie me) and grandchildren stay over so she keeps the bedrooms available for them. Why should she be encouraged to downsize?

 

[nwgull]

I'll actually be quite sad when my mum and dad downsize, which will probably be sometime in the next few years, as I have loads of good memories of times in their house. I hope for their sakes that house prices remain reasonably stable so that they get a nice windfall as both have lost out on their pensions through not fault of their own.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Typing something in bold isn't going to change the fact that most people understand what the property ladder is, ie you start with your small flat, suitable for a couple and then when the kids start coming along you look to move up the ladder to get a bigger property./QUOTE]

Then you get divorced, move into a small flat and start all over again.

 

[beorhthelm]

Why should she be encouraged to downsize?

i thought i put that already: to free up the supply of family sized homes.

i know, no ones want to think about it or for their parents/grandparents to have to move, lots of memories and social attachments. i have a Gran not happy to move either, she lives in a 3 bed house and my late Grandad did too. my parents, my partners and my cousins parents all have 4 bed houses. my sister is in a 2 bed flat with baby, same with two cousins, myself in a 1 bed flat. it doesn't make sence to have 2 generations in large homes while the younger generation cannot afford to buy similar sized homes.

the idea we can just bulid our way out of this quadry is unfeasable and we'd have to build/move lots of support infrastructure (schools, shops, GPs etc). i dont know how it can or will be resolved, but there needs to be at least a discussion on issue.

 

[Bob!]

What about the men and women - like my next-door neighbours - who had kids and needed a bigger house, so bought around 2006 / 2007?

They bought at c. £410K, the house value today is c. £370K.

There was no "speculation" on their part, it's just that was the going rate for the sort of property they required.

But, surely, they made a profit on their former home, having sold it at the peak of the market and therfore don't have a 100% mortgage, and can therefore take a drop in house prices.

Unless, of course, they mortgaged to the hilt banking on rising house prices and spent the difference on cars, holidays etc. I which case they get no sympathy from me.

 

[phoenix]

Typing something in bold isn't going to change the fact that most people understand what the property ladder is, ie you start with your small flat, suitable for a couple and then when the kids start coming along you look to move up the ladder to get a bigger property./QUOTE]

Then you get divorced, move into a small flat and start all over again.

No, then you get Divorced and cant afford a small flat so you have to pay £600 per month to rent.Then you throw yourself under a train.Because it is such a miserable existence.But what is even worse than that, the only joy you get is watching your team do well on a Saturday.Then when they are 1-0 up some silly pratt gets himself sent off,and totally fcuks your weekend up.And that pratt !! can afford a house.Thought I would keep the football theme going.Glad to get that off my chest.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

No, then you get Divorced and cant afford a small flat so you have to pay £600 per month to rent.Then you throw yourself under a train.Because it is such a miserable existence.But what is even worse than that, the only joy you get is watching your team do well on a Saturday.Then when they are 1-0 up some silly pratt gets himself sent off,and totally fcuks your weekend up.And that pratt !! can afford a house.Thought I would keep the football theme going.Glad to get that off my chest.

Blimey mate! Chill why don't you! Sorry I even mentioned it now...

 

[Ned]

But, surely, they made a profit on their former home, having sold it at the peak of the market and therfore don't have a 100% mortgage, and can therefore take a drop in house prices.

Not neccessarily a profit caues if you sell at the peak of the market then ergo you are buying at the peak of the market & as more & more households are single occupancy then the price of smaller houses/flats increases with demand greater than that for family homes.

 

[wellquickwoody]

There is NO SUCH THING AS A LADDER.

Houses are places to live in, not investments to achieve capital growth.

Better start calling you 'Comrade', you can forget the 'Lord' waffle.

 

[Lush]

England is a small country, lots of people want to move here and live here and the population is growing. Unless a government decides to pave over vast tracts of countryside, I would have thought that the simple laws of supply and demand would mean that property prices won't fall far for long. Or is that a naive view?

 

[phoenix]

Blimey mate! Chill why don't you! Sorry I even mentioned it now...

I am great really mate.

 

[Castello]

There is NO SUCH THING AS A LADDER.

Houses are places to live in, not investments to achieve capital growth.

At last someone with some common sense.

Property over the period of a life will accumulate at a steady rate to match inflation. In between people can speculate and indeed make money. but that money comes from somewhere. in the case of property its coming from all the people struggling to find a decent place to live.

I, under pressure from My wife bought my house in Tottenham 11 years ago for 130k. At its height just 3 years later i saw that similar houses in my street were going for 250k. I fail to see what had been done to justify that sort of increase. I wouldnt have benefitted. If i'd sold, i'd only have paid the profit into another house.

However a lot of people lost out, not least the homeless who have found it harder and harder in the south to find decent accommodation.

I am still in the same house and will be until i retire. it is now worth about 180k, which is coming back into line with inflation.

In reality to me, its just a cheaper way of providing a roof over my head, that will ensure that when i retire I have somewhere to live, and not having to worry about some landlord throwing me out.

If you wish to call me comrade for holding these views please do so, I am proud to be a socialist. Perhaps if more people held this view of property we wouldnt be in the mess we're in now.

 

[Raonull]

Hi,
Yes house prices have to be low enough to enable buyers, to get on the property ladder in the first place?

 

[HovaGirl]

Surely house prices have to be low enough to enable buyers to get on the property ladder in the first place?

Absolutely. If you imagine a 30-year-old on a salary of about 30k p.a., and his partner on a salary of about 18k p.a., at the 3xsalary + partner, they could get a mortgage of almost 110k. Somehow, they have to scrape up savings of 35k (bank of Mum & Dad?) for the deposit on a property of 35k + 110k, which means 145k. What can you get for 145k in Brighton, in which to raise a family? Not a lot. If the partner then has to give up work or go part-time to raise the children, then they will be in trouble. Until this average young couple can get on the small-house property ladder, the people whose house they need cannot move themselves. Stagnation. Many of Brighton's houses, even standard 3-bed semis, have been split into two or even three units by the buy-to-let brigade. Fine for students or Londoners' weekend pads, but hopeless for raising Brighton's future generations.

 

[HovaGirl]

There is NO SUCH THING AS A LADDER.

Houses are places to live in, not investments to achieve capital growth.

Quite correct. Over the very long term (a generation or two), house prices will rise, eventually. But in the very short term, they should hardly have risen at all. Houses should be seen as long-term investments inasmuch as you might hope to downsize later and leave the property to your children.

 

[mikeyjh]

Absolutely. If you imagine a 30-year-old on a salary of about 30k p.a., and his partner on a salary of about 18k p.a., at the 3xsalary + partner, they could get a mortgage of almost 110k. Somehow, they have to scrape up savings of 35k (bank of Mum & Dad?) for the deposit on a property of 35k + 110k, which means 145k. What can you get for 145k in Brighton, in which to raise a family? Not a lot. If the partner then has to give up work or go part-time to raise the children, then they will be in trouble. Until this average young couple can get on the small-house property ladder, the people whose house they need cannot move themselves. Stagnation. Many of Brighton's houses, even standard 3-bed semis, have been split into two or even three units by the buy-to-let brigade. Fine for students or Londoner's weekend pads, but hopeless for raising Brighton's future generations.

I don't disagree with the sentiment, but the problem with using Brighton as an example is that salaries are well below average and house prices are well above average - Whereas somewhere like my home town of Derby where salaries are above average, house prices are way cheaper than Brighton, everything is more affordable.

It must be very frustrating being young and wanted to buy in Brighton.