House Prices

[heretoreaditall2019]

So a house went up on Rightmove for sale last week with 2 photos, one at the front and another of an overgrown garden. I rang the estate agents today to ask whether they would be putting more pictures up soon so people can have a better idea. The estate agent told me that they won't be putting any more pictures up yet because the house is cluttered at the moment and they have the keys for a viewing. Apparently they have already had an offer on the house but it's under negotiation because it's too low. I asked her how can people make an offer without pictures in a week and she said oh they have viewed the house. I think they are just lying. Why do estate agents lie so much!?

I’d imagine it’s probably someone with the cash / resources to quickly turn it around and rent it out so they don’t really care what it looks like as it’ll never be their home, they’re probably happy enough to proceed knowing it’s 3 bed/1 bath and avg rents down that road are £xx.

We’ve had it with 2 properties down ours, one of them has massively backfired on the bloke who didn’t do any of the work needed on the property (which is disgraceful really, it’s a nice road and the house sticks out like a sore thumb because it’s not been touched since the 70s - previous occupier died). He wanted the most money he could for it, so rented it out to “unhousables” who’d been evicted previously or summit (his words, not mine!) for bounty money off the council - he is charging them an extra 40% on what my neighbour rents their nice modern house for. Somehow they’re not paying him rent though, but obviously no one can get evicted due to covid, and he’s now on the brink of bankruptcy apparently as he has a huge mortgage on the thing

 

[Moe]

I’d imagine it’s probably someone with the cash / resources to quickly turn it around and rent it out so they don’t really care what it looks like as it’ll never be their home, they’re probably happy enough to proceed knowing it’s 3 bed/1 bath and avg rents down that road are £xx.

We’ve had it with 2 properties down ours, one of them has massively backfired on the bloke who didn’t do any of the work needed on the property (which is disgraceful really, it’s a nice road and the house sticks out like a sore thumb because it’s not been touched since the 70s - previous occupier died). He wanted the most money he could for it, so rented it out to “unhousables” who’d been evicted previously or summit (his words, not mine!) for bounty money off the council - he is charging them an extra 40% on what my neighbour rents their nice modern house for. Somehow they’re not paying him rent though, but obviously no one can get evicted due to covid, and he’s now on the brink of bankruptcy apparently as he has a huge mortgage on the thing

Serves him right then I can’t stand slum landlords.
I see this practice happening more and more renting out to undesirables for top dollar rent via the council and no thought given to nearby residents.

 

[Yel]

@Mrs McCarthy I stand by what I said. I don’t dislike Estate Agents I find them amusing and I’ve had enough dealings with them. I also have a good friend who is one and socially is the best company ever but I do know the tit they get up to.

I think estate agents have their reputation for a reason, but that's of course not to say they're all bad. End of the day it's a sales job with no required qualifications that at one point could earn someone a lot of commission. So it's not surprising the kind of things that some of them got up to.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Serves him right then I can’t stand slum landlords.
I see this practice happening more and more renting out to undesirables for top dollar rent via the council and no thought given to nearby residents.

oh 1000% serves him right, and I never know why landlords are surprised by these sorts of situations happening! I also don't know why councils allow it to happen, we looked around the house as well as ours and it's scarcely liveable. There's no central heating it's this weird air system, the bathroom is horrific, the kitchen scarcely exists because they didn't back in the 50s when the houses were built, windows are all really old (that silver trim?) so it must be freezing to live in. I guess the council have no choice as housing stock is so low (especially as we're in London).

I never understood how they paid rent anyway as there are 3 adults in the house and none of them work & only 1 young girl, the smell of weed was REALLY bad the first few months they were there so I assumed they were dealing, but they're not?! I know this is very NIMBY but this is a very affluent borough and it really upset me that it was happening because we've sunk our life savings into this house, we could have gone to a 'normal' borough (without outstanding schools, with more crime, yadda yadda yadda) for significantly less money if were happy smelling weed all the time? I was looking into selling up a few months after we got here. This is awful but I did complain to the local councillor about it & the community policing team and they were really good, they now go out in their car to smoke weed which is obviously not fab for anyone else on the road. They also park their car on the pavement outside their house which means it's hard for their elderly & disabled neighbours to pass, they have to cross the road, which is just inconsiderate as the road has quite a lot of elderly.

I do appreciate people end up accidental landlords and it's tit that they're being penalised by the new regulations, but I'm glad that it stops these have a go landlords with no experience, no standards, and no links to their local communities from causing issues for the rest of us? I think a big problem is that lenders don't lend for renovations (anymore?) so the only people who can buy these elderly people's homes that require a lot of work are BTL landlords. Not saying that all landlords are slumlords & all tenants are bad, but where we're in a really well connected borough I do worry we'll end up with one of those HMOs with 30 men in eventually, which has happened to my MIL's road and her husband's van gets done in every other month now, after never having it broken into once in 40 years...

 

[Italy2]

I’d imagine it’s probably someone with the cash / resources to quickly turn it around and rent it out so they don’t really care what it looks like as it’ll never be their home, they’re probably happy enough to proceed knowing it’s 3 bed/1 bath and avg rents down that road are £xx.

We’ve had it with 2 properties down ours, one of them has massively backfired on the bloke who didn’t do any of the work needed on the property (which is disgraceful really, it’s a nice road and the house sticks out like a sore thumb because it’s not been touched since the 70s - previous occupier died). He wanted the most money he could for it, so rented it out to “unhousables” who’d been evicted previously or summit (his words, not mine!) for bounty money off the council - he is charging them an extra 40% on what my neighbour rents their nice modern house for. Somehow they’re not paying him rent though, but obviously no one can get evicted due to covid, and he’s now on the brink of bankruptcy apparently as he has a huge mortgage on the thing

Yes I can appreciate that some people might be interested and someone might have actually made an offer etc.. but the estate agents to just tell me on an enquiry that oh the house already has an offer and people are offering without photos etc is just typical estate agents conversations. They are not the most pleasing to deal with as I work on the conveyancing side and all estate agents do all day is ring people up to get an update (I'm sure they do more work so please don't have a go at me)...

It's just such a frustrating group of people to deal with who have no qualifications, so cocky and are on commission when a house purchase is the most expensive purchase and investment of most people's life.

The house that is on market is a very standard 3-bed semi house with 1 bath, nothing special and think it belongs to old people looking at the curtains from front windows lol. I think I'm going to wait and see how it goes.

 

[Moe]

oh 1000% serves him right, and I never know why landlords are surprised by these sorts of situations happening! I also don't know why councils allow it to happen, we looked around the house as well as ours and it's scarcely liveable. There's no central heating it's this weird air system, the bathroom is horrific, the kitchen scarcely exists because they didn't back in the 50s when the houses were built, windows are all really old (that silver trim?) so it must be freezing to live in. I guess the council have no choice as housing stock is so low (especially as we're in London).

I never understood how they paid rent anyway as there are 3 adults in the house and none of them work & only 1 young girl, the smell of weed was REALLY bad the first few months they were there so I assumed they were dealing, but they're not?! I know this is very NIMBY but this is a very affluent borough and it really upset me that it was happening because we've sunk our life savings into this house, we could have gone to a 'normal' borough (without outstanding schools, with more crime, yadda yadda yadda) for significantly less money if were happy smelling weed all the time? I was looking into selling up a few months after we got here. This is awful but I did complain to the local councillor about it & the community policing team and they were really good, they now go out in their car to smoke weed which is obviously not fab for anyone else on the road. They also park their car on the pavement outside their house which means it's hard for their elderly & disabled neighbours to pass, they have to cross the road, which is just inconsiderate as the road has quite a lot of elderly.

I do appreciate people end up accidental landlords and it's tit that they're being penalised by the new regulations, but I'm glad that it stops these have a go landlords with no experience, no standards, and no links to their local communities from causing issues for the rest of us? I think a big problem is that lenders don't lend for renovations (anymore?) so the only people who can buy these elderly people's homes that require a lot of work are BTL landlords. Not saying that all landlords are slumlords & all tenants are bad, but where we're in a really well connected borough I do worry we'll end up with one of those HMOs with 30 men in eventually, which has happened to my MIL's road and her husband's van gets done in every other month now, after never having it broken into once in 40 years...

You need to keep complaining. The council will have an anti social department so keep a log of what is happening. Try and get neighbours to do the same. Some people won’t want to get involved but others will. You could also write to environmental health if the house is in such a bad state. Keep up the momentum. Also send your complaints to the Landlord.

 

[Consumerism_fatigue]

It looks like my flat purchase is about to fall through I offered to split the difference so I put in an extra £15k and asked that she reduced by £15k. Her first reaction is stubbornness, which is frustrating. The facts are there; lenders don’t think her property is worth that much and I am willing to immediately go £15k into negative equity to secure it. She is thinking about it though, so fingers crossed.

Anyway, c’est la vie! My broker shared that not only are many properties now coming in undervalued by the lenders, they’re also changing their lending criteria for people who already have a mortgage in principle. He said as many as 60% are being denied their mortgage when they try to move forward with the transaction.

I expect this is the beginning swell of a much larger wave that will go through the property market.

Good news: the seller reduced by 15k as she’s realised she would lose her new house otherwise.
Briefly annoying news: Lenders are reducing their salary multipliers, so for a moment they wanted to lend me less based on 4.5x my salary rather than 5x. I’ve been able to successfully appeal it, so the purchase is FINALLY going ahead. I was able to appeal as my original MIP was at 5x my salary and my job status hasn’t changed e.g. no furlough or pay cut.

For others actively looking to purchase, definitely check you can still borrow what you thought you could 6 months ago and expect an undervaluation from a surveyor. Was chatting to another broker and he said he’s had a property that was being sold for 4.8m being valued at 3.6m and another should have been 650k but was valued at 530k.

I’ve not seen any evidence 90% and 95% mortgages are coming back soon, especially considering the loan multipliers are being reduced and surveyors are being extra conservative.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

You need to keep complaining. The council will have an anti social department so keep a log of what is happening. Try and get neighbours to do the same. Some people won’t want to get involved but others will. You could also write to environmental health if the house is in such a bad state. Keep up the momentum. Also send your complaints to the Landlord.

Thank you for this, can confirm the anti social behaviour people were the ones who stopped the weed smoking from happening in the house, they were fab! They even sorted out the front garden which was a miracle there were weeds about 5 foot high spilling over onto the pavements too. It turned out they were known to the police & social services, one of the adults has a 13 year old who has run away repeatedly, so sometimes you see another child around the property - absurdly she's always really scantily clad so I dread to think what's happening there the poor girl.

Thankfully they've shafted their landlord way, way worse than they've shafted the street so they'll be gone as soon as the covid restrictions on evictions are lifted apparently (allegedly they've not paid rent in 8 months?!). I dread to think how that'll happen, their neighbour is a friend and when I've been round hers I've heard banging and shouting from their house, apparently it's constant so the neighbour reckons it's trashed anyway. She's asked to come over ours when the eviction happens because she's scared (she lives alone). I just can't understand how the landlord ever thought this would be a viable business, did they not do any references or CRB or anything?!

 

[Moe]

Thank you for this, can confirm the anti social behaviour people were the ones who stopped the weed smoking from happening in the house, they were fab! They even sorted out the front garden which was a miracle there were weeds about 5 foot high spilling over onto the pavements too. It turned out they were known to the police & social services, one of the adults has a 13 year old who has run away repeatedly, so sometimes you see another child around the property - absurdly she's always really scantily clad so I dread to think what's happening there the poor girl.

Thankfully they've shafted their landlord way, way worse than they've shafted the street so they'll be gone as soon as the covid restrictions on evictions are lifted apparently (allegedly they've not paid rent in 8 months?!). I dread to think how that'll happen, their neighbour is a friend and when I've been round hers I've heard banging and shouting from their house, apparently it's constant so the neighbour reckons it's trashed anyway. She's asked to come over ours when the eviction happens because she's scared (she lives alone). I just can't understand how the landlord ever thought this would be a viable business, did they not do any references or CRB or anything?!

Something doesn’t add up here regards to rent. Surely in this type of situation undesirable tenants, the council would pay the money direct to the landlord.
I’ll ask around to see if this is confirmed.
The next door neighbour has probably gone through hell and if on their own it can be quite scary.
You all need to stick together and report report report every little thing just to piss the council off and let them know you are not going to be pushed over.
One example you see streets kept pristine and others strewn with rubbish and that’s because some people won’t tolerate it. Good luck x

 

[Pixipoppy]

Good news: the seller reduced by 15k as she’s realised she would lose her new house otherwise.
Briefly annoying news: Lenders are reducing their salary multipliers, so for a moment they wanted to lend me less based on 4.5x my salary rather than 5x. I’ve been able to successfully appeal it, so the purchase is FINALLY going ahead. I was able to appeal as my original MIP was at 5x my salary and my job status hasn’t changed e.g. no furlough or pay cut.

For others actively looking to purchase, definitely check you can still borrow what you thought you could 6 months ago and expect an undervaluation from a surveyor. Was chatting to another broker and he said he’s had a property that was being sold for 4.8m being valued at 3.6m and another should have been 650k but was valued at 530k.

I’ve not seen any evidence 90% and 95% mortgages are coming back soon, especially considering the loan multipliers are being reduced and surveyors are being extra conservative.

Is this something that’s changed in the last couple of months? We had a AIP early June, hopefully hasn’t changed since then.

 

[Consumerism_fatigue]

Is this something that’s changed in the last couple of months? We had a AIP early June, hopefully hasn’t changed since then.

Yeah my broker said it’s only come up in the last couple of weeks, but it may not affect you if your AIP is so recent! My AIP was in April I think? So when the new policies came in my broker assumed it wouldn’t affect me, but turns out it almost did!

I’ve honestly been shuttling back and forth between “Yay I am so happy” to “is this even worth the stress”. Still, I can’t complain too much as my friend offered on her place March 2019 and it’s still not completed!

 

[hnoz]

We've just had our place valued for a remortgage and they've put it at 25K above the last valuation which was only last August so seems lenders aren't being all that cautious after all.

 

[Pixipoppy]

Well I can definitely say the housing market where I live has started up again with a vengance! I’ve been phoning estate agents about various properties I’ve seen which have been listed since March/April - all have gone in the last 2 days, all had several offers on them and I’m assuming went for well over the asking price. Now it looks like there’s too much demand and not enough houses - good for the rental sector I guess! So we are back to either renting for another year or buying a new build.

 

[Consumerism_fatigue]

We've just had our place valued for a remortgage and they've put it at 25K above the last valuation which was only last August so seems lenders aren't being all that cautious after all.

That’s great news for you! Every area will be different I am sure.

 

[Yel]

Budget today!

The stamp duty holiday for the first 500k I expect is only one of the props coming out. With the job loses there will need to be quite a few tools used to bring stability / stop falls.

Hopefully some of the measures will look for long term prosperity , but not holding my breath.

 

[Pixipoppy]

Budget today!

The stamp duty holiday for the first 500k I expect is only one of the props coming out. With the job loses there will need to be quite a few tools used to bring stability / stop falls.

Hopefully some of the measures will look for long term prosperity , but not holding my breath.

I really hope they do something similar with LTT in wales but I doubt they will

 

[Yel]

Well I can definitely say the housing market where I live has started up again with a vengance! I’ve been phoning estate agents about various properties I’ve seen which have been listed since March/April - all have gone in the last 2 days, all had several offers on them and I’m assuming went for well over the asking price. Now it looks like there’s too much demand and not enough houses - good for the rental sector I guess! So we are back to either renting for another year or buying a new build.

I'm not seeing anything like that around here (south east). Good properties have been going under offer but still lots of things that have been around since the start of the year.

There's always going to be a bit of pent up demand, it's how long that lasts for is the question. The economy isn't going to bounce back as quick as some people say, and it's not as fucked as others say.

 

[hnoz]

That’s great news for you! Every area will be different I am sure.

Honestly it isn't good or bad really, when you are staying put the house price doesn't matter in the slightest! We are no better off, I was just surprised that it came back high after everything I've been reading.

 

[Yel]

That’s great news for you! Every area will be different I am sure.

Not aimed at you, but this mindeset that for home owners an increase in value is good news is so harmful for the economy and society. A home should be that, not an investment vehicle. Everytime they go up in value it causes misery for others that weren't born at the right time and takes away money from being invested in something productive.

I really hope they do something similar with LTT in wales but I doubt they will

It's a bit something and nothing. It's not really to help the plebs, just like help to buy is mainly a help for the house builders. Would be better to let it be a free market and stop proping it up at the expense of others. But so much of the UK economy is based on house prices they have to rig it. Who know where it will end

 

[Yel]

Nothing not already leaked in the budget.

I wonder if they now do want house prices to have some relationship to earnings as the have-nots is a rapidly growing segment?