GRcade

OrangeRKN wrote:I had my own problems last night: trying to move savings out of a savings account and into my current account ahead of paying the deposit, it got blocked by the bank as an unusual and potentially fraudulent activity. Fair enough, they want to be extra careful and give me a number to ring to confirm the transaction. They also give me 24 hours to ring this number otherwise my account will be temporarily suspended. Okay, fine. Ring it up, get told the queue is over 60 minutes long and to ring back later. Do so later in the evening, get the same message. Finally ring sometime after midnight, thinking maybe it will have quietened down - nope, I end up staying on hold for over 2 hours before my call is answered sometime after 2am. And I didn't have any other choice because the local bank branch is closed due to covid.

That would absolutely do my nut in even at the best of times. But for buying a house? Mega stress levels.

Strangely enough my flat is 11 years old and sold for about £200k when it was brand new. We bought it last year for £160k. New builds though.

I think Help To Buy tends to push up the price of new builds but it didn't start until 2013.

jawa2 wrote:
Cost then / Equivalent cost today

1997: £32k / £60k
2004: £101k / £159k
2011: £145k / £181k
2017: £195k / £210k

So in 1997 (back when there was 110% mortgages remember) that two bedroom flat could be bought with a yearly income of £15k equivalent. So, a single person on not much more than minimum wage, attainable for retail workers, cleaners etc.

In 2017 you would almost certainly need some kind of deposit, which at a reasonable 10% is £21k. To afford the mortgage, you're looking at an income of at least £50k, so an above average paying job for most single people, or a joint mortgage of two middle earners. Just about affordable for a nurse and a teacher combined - with the deposit being nearly a year's salary of one person.

Even before getting into the complexities or job security, social housing and private renting which only adds to the struggles of getting on the property ladder, it's easy to see folk have a harder time now.

Bunni wrote:...it's easy to see folk have a harder time now.

I absolutely agree, Bunni.

Buying property nowdays is an impossible notion for many people in lots of areas across the UK. The situation has been worsening under multiple governments since the mid-90s, with the "number of people wanting to buy a property" versus "the number of properties available" comparison becoming dire. It hasn't helped that job security has generally lessened and decent wages harder to come by.

It sucks big time.

How have people here moved their TV to a new house safely when you've not kept the original packaging? I've seen some basic TV boxes you can buy for this sort of thing online but they seem remarkably expensive for what they are - some up to £60 or so. My main TV is 55in.

Take in your car, face it against the back cushion and put its seatbelt on.

Drumstick wrote:Take in your car, face it against the back cushion and put its seatbelt on.

Pretty much this.

And wrap it in bubble wrap if you feel the need.

Thanks all. I only have an old, small 2-door car so will take some measurements to see if that approach could work. Otherwise it'll need to go in the moving van.

Even if it goes in the moving van, they normally are able to tie object to rails which will achieve the same thing. Just cover it in 3-4 layers of bubble wrap. Good movers take good care of your belongings. Speak with them up front about what they can do.

It's possible to get generic packaging for large screens that resembles a regular screen box, with adaptive padding - it's possible your local movers know of a box supplier who can provide something like this, if it comes to that.

When I moved recently I just put the TV in the back of my car and wrapped it with the duvet. There was so much other stuff in the back of the car like the essential boxes we needed when we first moved in that it didn't have any space to wiggle, nevermind get damaged.

BBC News - House prices up 8.5% in 2020 amid tax holiday

UK house prices climbed 8.5% in 2020, the highest annual growth rate since October 2014, according to official figures.

The average UK house price reached a record high of £252,000 in December 2020, the Office for National Statistics said.

The North West had the highest growth of 11.2%, while London rose just 3.5%.

I wonder how close we are to the next big crash, turbo-charged by the pandemic and amplified especially in the UK thanks to Brexit!

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:BBC News - House prices up 8.5% in 2020 amid tax holiday

UK house prices climbed 8.5% in 2020, the highest annual growth rate since October 2014, according to official figures.

The average UK house price reached a record high of £252,000 in December 2020, the Office for National Statistics said.

The North West had the highest growth of 11.2%, while London rose just 3.5%.

I wonder how close we are to the next big crash, turbo-charged by the pandemic and amplified especially in the UK thanks to Brexit!

It felt certain for ages but it hasn't happened, so I'm still sceptical. That said the last quarter saw a small decrease I think if we see sustained house price decreases over a long period of time that's when we're start to see things crash.

Wouldn't count on it; property is considered a safe or safe-ish investment. In other words, the worse and more risky the rest of the economy gets the more appealing it becomes as an asset. If you buy stock in the middle of a financial crisis the company can go bust and leave you with nothing but if you buy property you can pretty much guarantee it will recover eventually if you wait it out.

Add to that the fact the no government wants a housing crash and will bend over backwards to avoid one and don't be surprised if house prices keep rising in the face of a struggling economy.

Trying to get a completion date agreed when we have to give notice to our landlord is pretty stressful huh?

It looks like we're going to end up giving our notice on only a verbal agreement to the completion date being in a certain week which is not what I wanted to have to do (and providing our landlord will accommodate us negotiating a week's extension to our rent otherwise we will have to pay an extra month's rent, also something I had really wanted to avoid!).

This would have all been so much easier if I could just talk to the people in the chain rather than everything going through solicitors and estate agents.

I'm not sure that I agree with your assessment that houses are that safe. If I paid 500k for a house and the market crashes it's possible that I will lose a huge percentage of the value of the home so the value goes down to 125k. If I've got a substantial mortgage on the property it would make it harder to renew as I've trying to borrow say 300k on 125k worth of value and I may get the house repressed through negative equity. Interest could also spike making my repayments double and again I'm probably going to lose the house. Also the area where I have my house could become undesirable, I know in the past when house prices did drop it became almost impossible to sell houses in places like Croydon so although I own the house that has some theoretical value it's impossible to realise. Then houses have fixed costs you've got to pay to keep them habitable to retain their value.

With shares it's unlikely that you'll lose 100% of your investment as even if the company goes under, share holders are the first group to be paid back from the sale of any assets that the company holds.

That said I think there is a level of just belief in the value of houses that keeps the prices high, which is why I think it'll take a year or so of tiny 0.3 percent declines in price to get to the point where people accept that house prices can fall to get to the point where a large drop is possible. Also the government are seemingly going to do everything they can to keep house prices high.

Hopefully it crashes everywhere except central Bristol.

I have further "the freeholder of my building is a banana split" news.

Our windows need replacing before I put the place on the market and so I text the woman that used to live upstairs as I remembered she had her windows replaced a few years ago. I asked if she had permission from the freeholder or just did it.

She just replied. She asked them if she could have double glazing installed. They charged her £250 to "investigate" and then declined her request.

strawberry float me.

She ended up getting like for like replacements (single pain, wood frames) and didn't tell them.

Leasehold is the most ridiculous strawberry floating system ever.