Graham S Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I thought the 'right to buy' thing ended a few years back? Brendan, is your place council or a housing association? I went through the paperwork for our place, we can buy up to 75% of ours BUT they will value it as it is now, not the [insert rude word] hole that it was years ago. So that means we pay 75% mortgage the 25% rent, which seems stupid along with the fact i'd be making them money should I sell for a profit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham S Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 That does vary massively, unfortunately we don't all live like houses like this. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22152294.html As lovely as that is, that's more a posh hotel room or batchelor pad! Not very 'homely'. Wouldn't say no though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 And the average salary is?? £££££££??? apparently not much different to the rest of the country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey. Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 apparently not much different to the rest of the country. Really??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Really??? Have any info to suggest otherwise. Certainly would be keen to see. imi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cossack Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 the intrest rate is gona be what ever you bank is gona give you tbh, id say youll be lucky seeing anything under 4% the more equity generally the better the rate you can get! they know that you can shop around then and are usually keen to get you buisness (esp with good repayment history) renting is a bit of a waste of money tbh if you can afford a mortage at the same sort of repayments, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathanc Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Have any info to suggest otherwise. Certainly would be keen to see. imi Not too sure about other field but I know for sure in IT guys in London are paid more compared to elsewhere. A starting salary for a junior software developer with no experience starts at £25,000. If you have a good degree or 1 year experience you could easily earn over £30,000. OTE is around £45,000 after about 3 years experience (full dev cycle etc etc). It's hard to earn that much elsewhere after 3 years... However, I think that is fair as the cost of living in London is much higher compared to other places. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Not too sure about other field but I know for sure in IT guys in London are paid more compared to elsewhere. A starting salary for a junior software developer with no experience starts at £25,000. If you have a good degree or 1 year experience you could easily earn over £30,000. OTE is around £45,000 after about 3 years experience (full dev cycle etc etc). It's hard to earn that much elsewhere after 3 years... However, I think that is fair as the cost of living in London is much higher compared to other places. In IT it does seem to be the case, whilst I was working at Deloitte our counter parts in the northern offices were paid less than us, some offices nearly £10k difference but it is swings & roundabouts. They had mortgages of £300 a month, in London it was 3x times that easily. Plus other things were cheaper too, like work carried out in garages, shops etc. My wife is from Chesterfield, the shift between house prices are shocking! Totally rip off in London in comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubbyTwo Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Looking back I made the right decision 2 years ago buying a house. I rented with the GF first for 6 months to check we could acutally love together, then we just went for it. At the time it was a struggle as you needed an uber deposit to get a good rate. We ended up putting down £25k and got high 4% interest through a good financial advisor who worked hard for us. We bought our house for £170k for a decent size 3 bed with drive and garage, had been rewired, double glazed + doors and had a new central heating system. The rest of the house was still in the 1940s lol, too ages to update everything. Just about to remortgage again and have been offered a 5 year fixed at 4.1% which Im happy with considering we didnt have any extra cash to put down. There are some very good deals about at the moment, some with low interest and no arrangement fees etc. We have just got one sorted through a financial advisor that comes with pretty much everything included (legal, searches etc) for £190 fee, and our monthly payments have dropped £30 as well. My advice would be to find a reputable mortgage advisor and speak to them, they have access to deals you wont find on the highstreet, me and the wife tried our banks and they couldnt come close. Some great deals to be had, and if you can put down anything from £25k+ as a deposit you can then initially qualify for some very good rates. Nows a great time to buy so go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Here's the property-as-investment bit: Maybe my post about house prices vs average salary was off the mark. I've googled it and came across this: http://monevator.com/2012/03/15/house-price-to-earnings-ratio-2012/ Graphs like this (http://monevator.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/house-price-earnings-graph.jpg) suggest prices are overvalued, but that assumes the super-long term trend is a constant price:salary ratio, possibly a bad assumption. This graph (http://monevator.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/House-price-earnings-ratio.jpg) suggests property is better value. I'm not sure what's holding house prices up. Demand/desire is strong, but demand by itself isn't enough. Lots of people would really like some expensive jewellery (or insert another expensive item of your choice here), but you still have to be able to afford it. Here's the pragmatic bit: To the OP: I would say go for it. The above discussion is concerned with property purely as an investment that appreciates over time. But there's a lot more to it than a cold, hard asset class. It's your home. Every month you're paying a (repayment) mortgage, you're increasing your equity in your home. Even if house prices fall, at that discount you're almost guaranteed to get back what you paid for it if/when you decide to sell. There are always doom-sayers predicting a crash in the housing market. Occasionally they will be right, but usually they will be wrong. When I was buying a house the Daily Express was running almost daily headlines predicting an imminent crash, so much so I was convinced the editor was looking to buy another house and hence was trying to talk the market down before buying. I clearly remember going into Tesco straight after signing the contract at my solicitors and seeing one such headline at the news-stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barneybrendan Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Am i right in thinking that the percentage i would get off acts as deposit as i wontt need a 100% mortgage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbleapple Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 apparently not much different to the rest of the country. Don't think you are correct. A professional nearly 'always' gets more in London than the rest of the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamanC Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Yes, its a good time to buy at the moment due to interest rates being 'low'. Just brought myself and the wife a pad after renting together for the last couple of years. There are good deals to be had so as mentioned before, get a mortgage adviser on the case although ours couldn't help due to the lack of self employed bookkeeping records. Regarding the OP, I have no idea but I wouldn't mind know how I could get help buying a house! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Am i right in thinking that the percentage i would get off acts as deposit as i wontt need a 100% mortgage. I would expect so (i could try and find that out 100% for you tomorrow) as the property's 'real' value is the pre discounted value ie the bank stands to gain a sizeable asset even if you defaulted on the mortgage. Brendan, i work for a housing association and deal with a few of these annually. Firstly for others enquiring the right to buy did stop a few years back (right to acquire replaced it but has far less benefit/discount) HOWEVER people like Brendan ie long term tenants that were tenants when the scheme was available retain their right to buy option. There is usually a clause in the contract that means if you sell within 3-5 years then you would have to repay all/part of the discount sum, ie you can't just buy it and immediately sell to release the discount % equity. Massive benefits are if you are ok with the mortgage for those 3-5 years your are 99% on to a winner, beyond that if hard times come, downsizing or moving to a cheaper area can release some equity. Downside is only that you are off the council system so back to square one if you needed to go that way and obviously on your own re repairs etc etc. On that note and if you want to be sly* then hold off the rtb application and get on the phone about that leaky gutter or shoddy bathroom. We have stock maintenance plans that include 20year cycles for kitchens etc and if you are at the tail end of one of these (what have you had done in 18 years UPVC windows? new kitchen or bathroom?) then you may be able to get that done before the RTB. (*This is a bit underhand.) I think you should do it, but no rush as the prices are flat at the moment... Just checking, are you on mains drainage and do you pay any service charge or is it currently just plain rent? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barneybrendan Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 yes we are on mains .i know that for sure as i had to move the old clay main street drain as it ran right through the middle of my front garden.now moved back to enable the drive to go in.We just pay flat rent aswell.we have had a new roof new double glazing and new central heating.im not botherd about bathroom anfd kitchen as thats crap anywaywhat they put in.I dont think we would sell on anyway,its more a case of we are spending so much money on redoing a house that isnt actually ours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Sounds all good then, the sewage and service charge enquiry was just to ensure your ongoing costs are just the mortgage + repairs etc. You sound like your in an ideal situation to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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