Is now a good time to buy?

[Izzycam]

I wonder what people's views are on buying in the current market? Certain houses seem to be greatly discounted at the moment mmmmmmm!

[julie798]

buying

If you have the cash, then bargains to be had at the auctions, but I would wait a little longer if taking a morgage, thinkthe market will drop abit more yet, only my opinion though

[Izzycam]

I wonder !

[lorenzo]

Discount, yes.

But is it good value yet.

It must be said that there are some good value deals (auctions etc) here and there, though still rare.

But will value get better later?

Questions questions.

[Kathryn]

Looking at it from a distance it seems to me that the stuff that is really heavily discounted was just hugely overpriced in the first place. I have watched my areas of interest and the properties that I would be interested in have not been reduced at all. I suspect the owners are open to offers but only within reason. I would not be prepared to sell my properties at massive discounts because I don't need to at the moment and I think a lot of people are in that position.

If it's a really good property with something special going for it, water view, period features etc at a bargain price then I would go for it. I would not buy a bog standard 2 bed apartment or starter home on an estate just because it has ben reduced.


That's my opinion for what it's worth, probably not much really.

[Izzycam]

Yes, it's a tricky one this, I agree entirely most houses were overpriced last year ect ,but a lot of people will have to sell with the current credit crunch!, I just wonder how much lower people will be prepared to go before there's uproar.

[King_Maker]

IMHO, property prices still have a long way to fall.

If a BTL is yielding over 10% p.a., then it be worth a look.

[renterstoolkit]

I would wait 18-24 months and here is why:

Let s say you bought a BTL 2 years ago for £200K at 95 LTV, 5.5% fix for 2 years, rents just break even (around £1000pcm, which is a 5% yield, standard for year 2006...)

Let s say the market has taken a plunge of 15% (which by end of year is a near sure thing).

Then when your mortgage gets to expiration of the 2 years, you have the choice between:

- remortgaging : today s best rate is around 7% for 75% LTV ; new value of property = 170K ; new possible mortgage = £127,500 ... OUCH !!! you have to find around £70K to be able to remortgage the exact same property as 2 years ago... so you surely don't !!!

- continue with this mortgage : yes but it has shoot up because BoE+1.75, so now it s 7.5%, which is 2% more, which is basically more than £300 more than the previous arrangement...

Conclusion: you have the choice of having to fork out £300 each month to subsidise your tenant in the property (that is when you are lucky to have a tenant) or to sell and take a hit of around £35K... Well, it may not be good times to burn £300 a month, and many new-landlords may just find it impossible to cope with, and sell...

Conclusion of the conclusion: in the coming 24 months, I would not be surprised to see massive sell out of recent BTL buys... which will make the property market plunge even more. So you may be able to buy BTL types of properties at far better value in 1-2 years.