First Time buyer Anyone else worried about the house prices?

[AdamW]

( 15k combined )

So how the hell can we afford to buy these 60K 2 bedroom terraced house's on that ??

If you can get a house for 60K, then try as hard as you can to scrape £3K together. It isn't easy, but if you have any sympathetic parents/relatives you might find it possible. Banks are more willing to lend you money if you can put a deposit down, the minimum is generally 5% (i.e. £3K in your case) although you get better deals the more you can put down. Also if said relatives would be willing to be your "guarantor" (i.e. safety net) in the case that you find you are unable to pay the mortgage, then the banks will be more helpful.

The remaining mortgage will cost you around £320-£350 a month on a repayment (paying back capital AND the interest) basis.

Around here mortgage repayments are usually around 20% cheaper than the equivalent rent on the house, so you may find it no more expensive than renting in the long run. Advantages are that you can do what you want to the place (within reason) and at the end of the day you have an asset.

There is another option, which I will ramble on for a bit about... I bought my place a bit over 2 years ago. I wasn't earning much at the time so I had the choice of either a very small 1-bed flat or a fairly sizeable studio. I opted for the latter, and removed and built studwalls in such a way that I now have a decent-sized 1-bed "apartment" (not technically a flat, no corridor ). There is a point to this. A colleague of mine who was earning the same also looked at properties at the same time, including one like mine. He turned his nose up at the prospect of living in a flat and said "I'm going to wait for the property prices to fall in a few months, then buy a 3-bed house.". Well guess what? The property prices rose the month after I bought mine, then the month after that, and so on. Now, the houses that he wanted to fall in value by 30% are worth nearly twice what they were before. In the meantime he has been paying £700 a month in rent. So that is about £18K he has spent and ended up with nothing to show, and he has missed out on whatever rise my flat will show when I come to sell it.

So the point is: is a 2-bed terrace the bottom rung, or can you stoop lower (as I did).

Do you know of anyone you can rent the 2nd bedroom to? I know people who have pretty much covered their mortgage through tenants.

 

[masona]

I don't know if this is true, I've heard you can get a 40 yrs mortage for a lower payment to start you off. As time goes on you can reduce the years by paying more toward it, like I say I don't know much about it.

 

[revolt]

( 15k combined )

So how the hell can we afford to buy these 60K 2 bedroom terraced house's on that ??

If you can get a house for 60K, then try as hard as you can to scrape £3K together. It isn't easy, but if you have any sympathetic parents/relatives you might find it possible. Banks are more willing to lend you money if you can put a deposit down, the minimum is generally 5% (i.e. £3K in your case) although you get better deals the more you can put down. Also if said relatives would be willing to be your "guarantor" (i.e. safety net) in the case that you find you are unable to pay the mortgage, then the banks will be more helpful.

The remaining mortgage will cost you around £320-£350 a month on a repayment (paying back capital AND the interest) basis.

Around here mortgage repayments are usually around 20% cheaper than the equivalent rent on the house, so you may find it no more expensive than renting in the long run. Advantages are that you can do what you want to the place (within reason) and at the end of the day you have an asset.

There is another option, which I will ramble on for a bit about... I bought my place a bit over 2 years ago. I wasn't earning much at the time so I had the choice of either a very small 1-bed flat or a fairly sizeable studio. I opted for the latter, and removed and built studwalls in such a way that I now have a decent-sized 1-bed "apartment" (not technically a flat, no corridor ). There is a point to this. A colleague of mine who was earning the same also looked at properties at the same time, including one like mine. He turned his nose up at the prospect of living in a flat and said "I'm going to wait for the property prices to fall in a few months, then buy a 3-bed house.". Well guess what? The property prices rose the month after I bought mine, then the month after that, and so on. Now, the houses that he wanted to fall in value by 30% are worth nearly twice what they were before. In the meantime he has been paying £700 a month in rent. So that is about £18K he has spent and ended up with nothing to show, and he has missed out on whatever rise my flat will show when I come to sell it.

So the point is: is a 2-bed terrace the bottom rung, or can you stoop lower (as I did).

Do you know of anyone you can rent the 2nd bedroom to? I know people who have pretty much covered their mortgage through tenants.

Thanks for your great reply...

I didnt think about flats, i'll have to look into this a little and talk it over with my girlfriend.

I really dont want to rent anywhere as as you said you pay all that money out and get nothing for it, if you fit a new kitchen you basically are doing the lanlord a favour and cant take it with you lol

I have some savings put away so if i use those as a deposite that might help more huh... also will look into this.

We might wait and see what my girlfriends wage rise is at the beginning of 2005 and also i might be on a little more so who knows

anyways thanks for everyones input about this....

Cheers

 

[david and julie]

Given the terrible problems that people such as revolt are facing in the housing market. I can't understand why the powers that be seem so reluctant to give planning permission on more affordable or alternative types of living accomodation.

Specifically I mean such as park/mobile homes or even the old pre-fabs of years gone by. Many farmers and landowners have land which is uneconomical for agriculture and are being subsidised by the rest of us. Yet they are continually refused planning for this type of scheme.

Another is house boats etc, I recently read that residential moorings are near impossible to find,even in the remotest of areas. Again the owners are nearly always refused planning permission.

Yet in contrast we have really ugly boxes cropping up all over our towns and cities, which clearly lack space, are squashed in anywhere they can and are only there to make fortunes for developers.

Either way revolt and I am sure we all wish you the best of luck.

 

[revolt]

Given the terrible problems that people such as revolt are facing in the housing market. I can't understand why the powers that be seem so reluctant to give planning permission on more affordable or alternative types of living accomodation.

Specifically I mean such as park/mobile homes or even the old pre-fabs of years gone by. Many farmers and landowners have land which is uneconomical for agriculture and are being subsidised by the rest of us. Yet they are continually refused planning for this type of scheme.

Another is house boats etc, I recently read that residential moorings are near impossible to find,even in the remotest of areas. Again the owners are nearly always refused planning permission.

Yet in contrast we have really ugly boxes cropping up all over our towns and cities, which clearly lack space, are squashed in anywhere they can and are only there to make fortunes for developers.

Either way revolt and I am sure we all wish you the best of luck.

Thanks david and julie,

I hope somthing happens in the next 6months to help our situation.

Winning the loto would be a BIG help, but by the time we win that 2bed terraced will be over 1million lol

Cheers again for all yuur help