Are house prices really on the rise?
 

Forget London as it seems to work under its own rules..

House prices seem to have been stagnant for a long time,but the media keeps telling us that they are rising.
The BOE keep threatening of base rate increase as a bubble is being created,but is it ??


The housing market seems dead,many houses have been on the market a long time...

Has the cutback in mortgage lending having an effect now?



Is it all a bit of a scam to make us think that all our houses are worth more than they are,making us all feel a bit better about ourselves?

Mine has gone up a bit.I live in Manchester as well :)

Mostly in the SE and bigger cities.

Same with the so-called evidence of being out of trouble.
Not many jobs or house price increases up north...but then, the north won't matter for another seven months....

I used to live in a suberb of Manchester,and my parents still do..


Their house has dropped around £15k in the last 3-4 years..Although there are some desirable parts that must be on increase,is Didsbury/Alderley still nice ?

It was only ever going to be a false rise, and now stagnate for several years imo

Especially Since rest of Europe can't afford to buy off us , as they didn't artificially introduce the feel good factor.

I guess its really patchy.

I know the flats round here (West Mids), including low rise and single storey blocks have stagnated, there is just too much supply and not enough demand. A colleague of mine is in a situation where he wants to spend money to improve it, but the net value of investment required to refurbish it wouldn't give a linear increase in its value or sell-ability - he'd make more money with a lick of paint and selling it as it is.....even though it requires new screed floors throughout. The market doesn't appreciate the improvements made by any non-visual/non-aesthetic works that aren't structural; a flat with a knackered subfloor and good laminate flooring will look identical to one with a new sound subfloor.

Then we have this obsession with numbers of bedrooms, the market is flooded with 3/4 bed houses that in reality are one or two decent bedrooms and several box rooms. A four bed house with two box rooms will always try and command the same premium as a true four bed house....It'll get interest, but it won't sell unless it takes a hit on price. Really the government needed to put strict regulation on minimum bedroom sizes....and it needed to be done before the last boom....cheers Labour.

Now, I'm not one to brag, but I keep getting hassle off estate agents to sell. And last week I had a hand written begging letter from a family looking for houses in our street (probably due to school catchment areas :rolleyes: ) and not being able to find any. So for me, there is demand...whether they'd pay over the odds for it remains to be questioned....I seriously doubt it; They'd likely struggle to get a mortgage for starters unless they can pay a hefty deposit up front. I'm curious to see what they'd offer, but I don't want to waste their time (the money would be useless in the bank - its a struggle to get enough interest to counteract real-world inflation :mad: ).

Yeah any two bed terrace around here with a loft conversion is automatically listed as a three bed house. No! It's a two bed terrace with a bloody loft conversion.

And if its round my neck of the woods that'll be a two bed terrace...with loft conversion....and a downstairs bathroom behind the kitchen! :rolleyes: Three flights of stairs to have a bath...I don't think so!

That's a huge argument and influence on the real world value of British houses; the quality, layout and size of the UKs housing stock - new and old, leaves alot to be desired.....For example, sensibly speaking who wants a 3 bed house (well, two bedrooms and a box) with space to park one car, that's situated miles away from local amenities? So why are builders today still building these types of houses?...not fit for purpose.

Hell, there's even new housing being built with garages too small to fit a modern car!! :cuckoo: How can anyone expect property prices to be sustained if this is the crap being built for us?

It's all about maximising profit basically from the limited land they have permission to build on.

I think in Germany there are some laws about minimum sizes and stuff? We wouldn't want to interfere in our Holy free market of course.

Not that things were always rosy since some of the terraced cottages in the sticks here are tiny too, and presumably in the late 19th century a family was expected to live in them. Some of the terraces in the towns are also tiny. But I believe stats do prove our houses are shrinking. I really hate recently built houses with a passion; they seem to be build to cheaply and flimsily.

Too lazy (and short of time) to find a link right now, but I'm pretty sure I saw figures just a few years ago that showed the UK ranks among the lowest in the developed world for average house-size measured by floor area. Typical margin compared with houses in other large European countries or US/Canada is 30% or more smaller (and of course, you'll probably be paying quite a bit less for your house in those other countries, on top of getting that extra floor-space).

You guys should see the houses they build out here in Croatia, mine is huge by normal UK standards at a soon to be 170 square metres was 130 when I bought it, the locals think nothing of 300 square metres which is average here, they only say you have a big house when it starts getting around the 500 mark. :cuckoo:

As for house prices, " The only way is up, baby" over the long term. :thumb:

Care to explain why that is? You would need people to be able to borrow more and more to sustain this.

I can only go on personal experience, but where I have mine they have rocketed! (Herts). I've two friends that have sold their houses within days for substantially more than they were valued last year. One by nearly £50 in a year!

Yes, I work for Persimmon homes and they are now selling 200 homes per year more in the NE division than before the peak of the housing market. There is now no haggling on the prices like when the recession started.

Well, it would be about time NE caught up

Whilst mine hasn't jumped up, it's avoided the 'new house slump' that most go for and is now worth a little more than its list price, 3 years after buying it (Sheffield)

There are strict guidelines on the minimum size of new build dwellings in this country as well. These also apply when converting an existing single dwelling into flats.

I also know that Persimmon over the whole country is increasing prices not just the NE. I'm friends with the 3rd top boy for Persimmon and he is pushing his policies all over the country including Scotland and it means more money for Persimmon with less outlay.

That isn't an issues for most builder as about 15 years ago they were all told to build more properties on less land. I bet that pi55ed them off when the government told them that, hence why there is more town houses and three storey houses and why most houses are about 0.8m apart. Also the reason no bunalows are built.


I completed a few 3 bedroomed houses recently that were to be bought by the council but they changed their mind as due to the bedroom tax they can only lease 2 bedroomed houses as no one wants the 3 bedders

£50 eh?

What will they spend this new found fortune on?

A whole new house in Scotland maybe?

:)

Have a bit of a think about it, I am sure you'll get there in the end.:thumb:

We bought our new house in 2010 for £199k
Just remortgaged with Halifax and they valued it at £233k.

Rather stupid of them as other new houses are still being built and sold for £200k. :wonder:

But hey, the loan to value rate was in out favour!

:D

Do you know how they compare to other countries in minium size though?

Perhaps you can explain it to me oh Warren Buffet of property?

:lol1: I'll give you a clue or two, Inflation and availability particularly in areas that have good schools, infrastructure/amenities and jobs, simple really.:thumb:

:lol1: I might have forgotten a k somewhere there.

I am still buying property for 2010 prices. I always ask 15-20% minimum discount irrespective of the price. I check out what owners had paid for their property then go in lower.

We don't fare that well but aren't the worst. I read this article by RIBA some time back, it's quite interesting (if you are a saddo like me:D)

Google ' a case for space' if the link doesn't work.


http://www.architecture.com/Files/RI...seforSpace.pdf