Housing market

FairwayDodger said:
I found the schedule from when I bought the flat about 14 years ago. I couldn't believe how much it cost but we're now looking for about 2.5 times what the asking price was back then. Sounds great but it will all just get eaten up by the cost of the new place.

Stamp duty up here is also insane thanks to the SNP. I reckon the stamp duty we pay will be almost as much as my first flat cost to buy. :angry:
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Really? Up to £335,000 Scottish Land Tax is less than that paid in England. And you can get a lot of property for less than £335,000 in Scotland.
 
FairwayDodger said:
Yes really. You don't get a decent house in Edinburgh for that.
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But with Edinburgh you are talking the prime location in Scotland - so of course house prices will be more - and you pay more Land Tax. You'll get diddly squat, in respect of even a vaguely decent house in a goodish area, for £335,000 down here in Surrey. And I would earn exactly the same living in Scotland as I do living in Surrey.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
But with Edinburgh you are talking the prime location in Scotland - so of course house prices will be more - and you pay more Land Tax. You'll get diddly squat, in respect of even a vaguely decent house in a goodish area, for £335,000 down here in Surrey. And I would earn exactly the same living in Scotland as I do living in Surrey.
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I'm not sure of your point. Mine was that, at the likely purchase price, I expect to pay £thousands more in stamp duty than I would anywhere in England, prime location or not.
 
FairwayDodger said:
I'm not sure of your point. Mine was that, at the likely purchase price, I expect to pay £thousands more in stamp duty than I would anywhere in England, prime location or not.
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My point is simply that down here at your price point you wouldn't get anything like you are looking for in any location vaguely as attractive as Edinburgh. Your money goes a lot further in Scotland than it does in down south and even adding a few thousands (and it is not that many thousands I hazard a guess) does not balance out the many tens of thousands you'd have to pay for equivalent property in equivalent location down here.

And its not as if I get paid more for living down here. I get paid the same as I would if I lived in Edinburgh - but I could buy a much nicer place in Edinburgh than I have down here. In many ways you are rather fortunate with Scottish house prices - despite having to pay a bit more in Land Tax. And I don't think it is such a bad thing that the SNP government has made Land Tax lower in Scotland than in England for houses under £335,000 (as that is the vast majority).

That said - at £600,000 you'd pay £33,350 - in England you'd pay £20,000 - which I grant you is quite a whack of a difference.
 
FairwayDodger said:
Updating this, my flat has gone on the market today. Absolutely bonkers valuation so will be interesting to see how much interest it gets!
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Good luck 😀
I've had an offer of asking price, but holding out for the moment, got viewers from Glasgow and Essex coming up for a look, was not expecting that.
 
Just buying our first place in Cambridge.

Not really bought much and spent a lot doing so.

At least we are out the ladder and out of the renting spiral.

We decided not to go for the out of town route as it would seriously impact our day to day lives. The time gained from living in Cambridge massively outweighs the extra cost.
 
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ScienceBoy said:
Just buying our first place in Cambridge.

Not really bought much and spent a lot doing so.

At least we are out the ladder and out of the renting spiral.

We decided not to go for the out of town route as it would seriously impact our day to day lives. The time gained from living in Cambridge massively outweighs the extra cost.
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Always a difficult jump... a guy in our office doing similar right now was moaning how much easier it was when the oldies (i.e. me!) bought their houses as they were so cheap... he changed his tune when I said the interest rate was nudging 15% ! Also, regional differences are huge, grew up in Guildford, first house was............in Swindon! When I bought my second house (in 1990) near Cirencester, a 3 bed semi, my made in Guildford paid the same money for a one bed flat. Ouch
 
Would much rather buy a place at 2.5x earnings with 15% interest rate than 10x earnings with 2% interest rate.
 
Currently selling a house in Surrey and looking to buy in Cambridgeshire (Ely).
We've had multiple viewings, have a second viewing tomorrow and only had our house on the market for 1.5 weeks. Hopefully the one tomorrow goes well.

Ely - houses stay on the market for longer over there so I hope that people will consider offers up to 10% under the asking price.
 
jp5 said:
Would much rather buy a place at 2.5x earnings with 15% interest rate than 10x earnings with 2% interest rate.
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Perhaps, due to my advancing years my memory is failing me but I am struggling to remember when I managed to buy a house the purchase price of which was only 2.5 x earnings.

In the early 90's, when interest rates were at their peak 3 bed semis were being sold for asking prices of around 6 x average earnings.
 
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