Thoughts on property prices

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scott_e
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Re: Thoughts on property prices

Post by scott_e » Sun May 17, 2020 10:12 am

Lazydonkey wrote:
Sat May 16, 2020 7:30 pm
We are selling Shell's flat this year after getting rid of mine a few years ago. For us the hassle outweighed the benefits. I reckoned every call from my letting agent cost me £500 min.

My flat went down £10k in 10 years and Shell's looks like it might make about the same in 12 years.

I guess if it's a cash purchase then it's a different matter but for us, when finance was involved it's not something i'd rush to do again.
That is really interesting. I know nothing about the property rental business but toyed with the idea of purchasing a flat and renting for 10 years or so to hand over to the kids to give them a foot on the ladder. They are probably better ways to give them a foot up, then got the taxes complications too.

I found this article useful, again out of my comfort zone really but want to learn. The "Hargreaves Lansdown" "Good if you need hand-holding" platform would seem suitable, base rule being continuous investment and steer away from day trading:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savin ... redealing/

Having said that, my bitcoin portfolio is doing well ..... made £50 last week :lol: in the build up to "the halving" .... its more about learning about crypto rather than serious investment .... serious crypto investment would take balls of steal !

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renmure
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Re: Thoughts on property prices

Post by renmure » Sun May 17, 2020 1:41 pm

We sold our townhouse in Aberdeen 4 weeks before the lockdown started. It sold for the asking price and we had 3 folk wanting to buy it. As it was a fixed-price (priced at the survey valuation) we chose the ones we liked best. That was a bit of luck tho. I wouldn't want to be selling at the moment, not because of concerns about valuations and prices but just due to the general uncertainties.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s I had some rental properties in Dundee in the HMO class. I rented to students mainly so that involved buying property that you probably wouldn't want to live in yourself and thinking more about the income side of things rather than the capital appreciation. When it was good it was good but when it was bad, the worst was a repair bill (thankfully covered by residential landlord insurance) for over £22k. I was pleased to get out of being a landlord.
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Gonzago
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Re: Thoughts on property prices

Post by Gonzago » Wed Jun 17, 2020 11:30 pm

In about 2 months I am going to move to Spain if nothing interferes with me this time. So I can say about Spanish property market as I had lots of talks with local real estate agents. They say that in the nearest future the prices are going down due to the situation with covid-19 but real estate market will not take too much time to regain its previous prices 8) so if you are going to buy a new apartment or a house better not to let it go. But if you want to sell your property then it is advisable to sit still and wait..

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robin
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Re: Thoughts on property prices

Post by robin » Fri Jun 19, 2020 8:43 am

scott_e wrote:
Sun May 17, 2020 10:12 am

I found this article useful, again out of my comfort zone really but want to learn. The "Hargreaves Lansdown" "Good if you need hand-holding" platform would seem suitable, base rule being continuous investment and steer away from day trading:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savin ... redealing/

Having said that, my bitcoin portfolio is doing well ..... made £50 last week :lol: in the build up to "the halving" .... its more about learning about crypto rather than serious investment .... serious crypto investment would take balls of steal !
There's nothing much wrong with HL's share dealing platform but note that most "day traders" and "amateur investors" (not derogatory, just cannot think of a better word for people who invest their own savings directly into shares) will lose money/underperform the market. Sure you pick some fantastic winners, but plenty of mediocre ones too, and the odd total lemon :-) That's all OK when you're playing with money you can lose, but it's literally one step away from an online bookmaker, and we all know how that ends! It's tempting to chase your losses by doubling down on an investment that is a "sure thing", etc.

Also watch out for fees and spreads - if you would only make 2-3% a year on certain lower risk investments, that might take a while to translate into a profit because you have to claw back the fees and the bid-offer spread (the difference between what a broker will sell a share for and what they will pay for that same share).

Good luck with the bitcoin ... :-)

Cheers,
Robin
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Andy G
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Re: Thoughts on property prices

Post by Andy G » Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:53 am

I'd hold off on buying anything for now. Once the mortgage holidays end, I'd envisage there being a lot of property on the market, and as Ed mentions with AirBnB effectively being dead in Edinburgh, the rental markets are saturated. Not sure what the West looks like.

There are all sorts of residential and commercial hitting the auctions at the moment, and I fear this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg.
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ferg f
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Re: Thoughts on property prices

Post by ferg f » Sat Jun 20, 2020 11:29 am

Fully agree with Andy G, once the mortgage holiday is over plus a couple of months it is going to be a buyers market unfortunately. Prices will be down as to what they were 12 months previous.

My estate agent is also advising that rental properties are going to be in demand and will move fast. They were proven correct as one of our flats went empty just before lockdown. We were going to get it all painted and freshened up to let out quickly but lockdown put stops to that. So that was lying empty for three month, as soon as the estate agents started back we got a call in days with three people wanting it (hadn't had it freshened up) and they suggested the best option, a week later there was rental income coming back in at the same rate as pre-lockdown!

If you know your area, do your research and work with a good estate agent it is a good investment. I don't have a pension, the properties that we have, some have small buy to let mortgages, are our pension.

I am lucky though, my wife use to work in housing for the council and she has kept up to date so we don't use the estate agent as full management service.

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