Newbury / Thatcham House Prices Options

[Strafin]

I wonder what the average house price is around here? It's a shame that you have saved so much and still can't live in the town you erm, live in! You know what I mean though. I don't mind renting, but it is the greed of the landlords who basically want a second home paid for, but then an income on top of that and a couple of holidays a year.

[DJE]

Moi aussi, but from the other side of the fence. A couple of years ago we bought in the St Bart's area, we were the first to view and we offered full asking price. And we're more than happy with how it's worked out given what we feel the house is 'worth' - to us as a home rather than financially speaking.

Nothing wrong with offering the full asking price. As long as the full asking price is reasonable. Though I would always start lower, for obvious reasons.

Here's an interesting graphic that shows how overpriced houses have become against average (median) earnings since 1997 - but caution; I don't know if it shows asking prices or actual transaction prices, and I don't know if the median earnings are calculated nationally or locally either.

With say, a 70% mortgage to buy a house 10 times your earnings, thats a mortgage of 7 times your earnings. If interest rates go up, that means trouble. People who lied about their income on self-cert mortgages found that out in the past....

[DJE]

I wonder what the average house price is around here? It's a shame that you have saved so much and still can't live in the town you erm, live in! You know what I mean though. I don't mind renting, but it is the greed of the landlords who basically want a second home paid for, but then an income on top of that and a couple of holidays a year.

Follow the Land Registry link I gave and you can find that information, broken by house type, geographic area, timescale, etc., it's easy.

[Andy Capp]

Starting with Thatcher's sell off, this country's housing policy has been a ruinous.

[blackdog]

With say, a 70% mortgage to buy a house 10 times your earnings, thats a mortgage of 7 times your earnings. If When interest rates go up, that means trouble. People who lied about their income on self-cert mortgages found that out in the past....

Interest rates will go up. They have to.

I get the feeling that no one has actually worked out how to cope with it and hence Carney's 'promise' to keep rates low for another two years.

Many economists are calling for an immediate increase before the problem gets even less manageable.

[DJE]

Starting with Thatcher's sell off, this country's housing policy has been a ruinous.

It's when 'an Englishman's home is his castle' segued into 'an Englishman's home is his pension, simply living in it makes him a sassy entrpreneur with entitlement to riches, sticking a few twigs in a vase like they do in makeover programs boosts its price by £50K, and it is all deserved money even though made without any real effort' that things went wrong.

[DJE]

Interest rates will go up. They have to.

I get the feeling that no one has actually worked out how to cope with it and hence Carney's 'promise' to keep rates low for another two years.

Many economists are calling for an immediate increase before the problem gets even less manageable.

Until they do go up, savers and people with private pensions are getting caned.

There is no point in having bank savings, really.

Public sector employees with index-linked pensions are OK though, at everyone else's expense.

IR's should have gone up long ago. The government is trying to inflate it's way out of debt instead (but hasn't even reduced the structural deficit as far as I can see.)

Politicians took over the economy from the treasury, with disasterous results.

I seriously think we are in the calm before the real storm at the moment. Or, at best, decades of stagflation as in Japan.

[motormad]

I wonder what the average house price is around here? It's a shame that you have saved so much and still can't live in the town you erm, live in! You know what I mean though. I don't mind renting, but it is the greed of the landlords who basically want a second home paid for, but then an income on top of that and a couple of holidays a year.

That is exactly it.
I am basically the only local family my Mother has - I grew up in Thatcham.
Now part of that is the fact that I want to move away but the other is a sense of security, I feel I have my "place" and I know where everything is, unlike if I were to move.. imagine that.
I don't WANT to move away.

However it may be the only option I have. I would move closer to most of where my friends are, Farnborough/Camberley area, or the midlands and "start over"

I don't mind renting either - But as you say it's the greed.
I had a proper argument one time with the chick I live with here. It's her Nans house and we rent it from her (tax free of course....)
She (the chick I live with) was saying that she was going to move up north with her boyfriend, buy a house, and then like move her boyfriends Mum out and rent that house out.. or something. Ultimately that is 3 properties owned by 1 person, which I think is wrong.

A mate at work feels the same and thinks that in order to own more than 2 properties, if you are renting them out you should be forced to open as a limited company and pay taxes and have the necessary insurances and what not.
I completely agree.

[Strafin]

I also agree and have said in the past that no individual should be able to own more than one house. Got panned for it on this forum though!

[motormad]

Probably most of those who panned you were the numpties who were doing it!

[Strafin]

Follow the Land Registry link I gave and you can find that information, broken by house type, geographic area, timescale, etc., it's easy.

I couldn't get that to work, but I'm on the iPad at the moment so using Safari as a browser. I went to the ONS website and that suggests £300k but that was all the south east and London.

[JeffG]

I also agree and have said in the past that no individual should be able to own more than one house. Got panned for it on this forum though!

I don't myself, but what is the problem with owning more than one house? If you mean houses which are rented out, often as flats, then without this there would be an awful lot more homeless people.

[motormad]

The problem with owning more than one house is when you exclusively rent out your 2nd, 3rd, 4th.... etc

Assuming £400 a month per rentee you are getting that money tax free. If you have a 3 or 4 bedroom house you may be charging let's say £1600 a month for the rental of that property.
It doesn't cost £1600 a month to live in a house
You'd be making a clean £500-600 a month profit. TAX FREE.

Now someone wants to buy that house, well they can't.

People who own houses privately and rent them aren't necessarily doing a favour to anyone, other than their bank manager.

[x2lls]

The problem with owning more than one house is when you exclusively rent out your 2nd, 3rd, 4th.... etc

Assuming £400 a month per rentee you are getting that money tax free. If you have a 3 or 4 bedroom house you may be charging let's say £1600 a month for the rental of that property.
It doesn't cost £1600 a month to live in a house
You'd be making a clean £500-600 a month profit. TAX FREE.

Now someone wants to buy that house, well they can't.

People who own houses privately and rent them aren't necessarily doing a favour to anyone, other than their bank manager.

What gives you the daft idea that renting out is tax free?
http://www.which.co.uk/money/tax/guides/ta...ncome-is-taxed/

[motormad]

Oh, yes because everyone declares they are renting out don't they.
I've rented at 4 properties now and not a SINGLE landlord or lady paid tax on it - how do I know? Because I asked them all.

Legislation means naff all .

[Claude]

I don't think people have a right to live where they grew up, neither do I think there should be a limit on the number of houses people own, but I'm going to dig around and see if I can find Strafin's old thread because I'm interested in the arguments in favour.

If someone is successful in life and earns more money than they spend they will build up a pot of savings. Let's say that pot gets up to £250k. Should they just keep it in the bank earning miniscule interest? No, they'd look to invest it so that it grows, in order to give them security for later in life.

What's one of the best investments in the UK? Bricks & mortar, or that's what nearly everyone I know thinks.

If the person buys a 2nd house and they continue to make money from being successful at their job why can't they buy another house, and another etc.

I appreciate the situation you're in MM, but it's free market economics at play. There is supply, and demand for housing, and the price is set accordingly. It's a sad situation but you either have to suck it up and buy a pikey house in Newbury/Thatcham, or move 'oop north' where house prices may be cheaper. I'm not sure what alternative options there are.

Keep saving and your time will come. Keep spending money fixing your car's broken suspension and you'll be waiting longer to get a place of your own.

[DJE]

Oh, yes because everyone declares they are renting out don't they.
I've rented at 4 properties now and not a SINGLE landlord or lady paid tax on it - how do I know? Because I asked them all.

Legislation means naff all .

Report them. They are criminals, and they are using their gains to pay for properties, thus denying honest people the chance to own them.

I'm surprised that they told you they weren't paying tax, too.

It is quite likely, considering their unscrupulous behaviour, that they have also lied to their mortgage lender about the property being rented out, as BTL mortgages tend to have higher interest rates, and rental properties are subject to CGT when sold.

I wouldn't be surprised if they also lied about their income on a self-cert mortgage, a fraud that has been rife in the past few years and contributed significantly to the housing bubble.

Considering that interest rates are at a record low, anyone struggling to pay their mortgage at the moment should be asked how they persuaded a lender to give them a mortgage in the first place. It's time interest rates rose significantly, too.

Fraud is one of the key causes of the property boom, and the resultant bad debts got the reckless lenders (banks) into trouble. The rest of us are paying for this criminality through overinflated house prices, loss of tax revenue to the government, and bank bailouts.

Fraud and tax evasion are rife in the UK property market.

That is why I would not hesitate to report a fraudster to the authorities.

[motormad]

I would report them but it's a bit of a sticky situation as they were all people I knew and I am not the kind of person to rat on friends.
However it is tempting for the people whom I do not currently have much of a sense of commaradery for.

However what you say is my problem here.
That people are profiteering and thus the market becomes monopolized. I'll wait for them to all move into OAP homes and when they're busy weeing into a bag I will have my own house just to live in and not become an ****.

I appreciate the situation you're in MM, but it's free market economics at play. There is supply, and demand for housing, and the price is set accordingly. It's a sad situation but you either have to suck it up and buy a pikey house in Newbury/Thatcham, or move 'oop north' where house prices may be cheaper. I'm not sure what alternative options there are.

Keep saving and your time will come. Keep spending money fixing your car's broken suspension and you'll be waiting longer to get a place of your own.

I am well aware of that.
I've already considered moving North or towards Farnbruv as prices are cheaper.
I'm annoyed at the fact people have multiple houses and rent them out when I (and people like me) could buy them. And those people who do rent out majoritively do not pay tax on their earnings for the rent.
P.s I will spend my money how I choose.

[DJE]

I appreciate the situation you're in MM, but it's free market economics at play. There is supply, and demand for housing, and the price is set accordingly. It's a sad situation but you either have to suck it up and buy a pikey house in Newbury/Thatcham, or move 'oop north' where house prices may be cheaper. I'm not sure what alternative options there are.

Keep saving and your time will come. Keep spending money fixing your car's broken suspension and you'll be waiting longer to get a place of your own.

I am all for free markets, as long as fraud isn't part of it.

But with housing benefit, help-to-buy, right-to-buy, public sector key employees being given housing priority, being able to put buy-to-lets in pension plans, stamp duty, restrictive planning legislation, NIMBYs, an inherited monopoly on UK land inherited by a tiny minority with properties in trust, MPs getting free houses, and taxpayers propping up banks who would otherwise foreclose on properties occupied by people who cannot afford them, there is no free market in the UK.

There is government interference and vested interests through and through.

That is why we have about the pokiest, shoddiest, most expensive homes in the western world, and are encouraged to enslave ourselves to bankers to aquire them.

[Andy Capp]

I am all for free markets, as long as fraud isn't part of it.

But with housing benefit, help-to-buy, right-to-buy, public sector key employees being given housing priority, being able to put buy-to-lets in pension plans, stamp duty, restrictive planning legislation, NIMBYs, an inherited monopoly on UK land inherited by a tiny minority with properties in trust, MPs getting free houses, and taxpayers propping up banks who would otherwise foreclose on properties occupied by people who cannot afford them, there is no free market in the UK.

There is government interference and vested interests through and through.

That is why we have about the pokiest, shoddiest, most expensive homes in the western world, and are encouraged to enslave ourselves to bankers to aquire them.

Perhaps we could call it payback for giving the world the technology for pollution and industrialisation!