Property post Covid

Comfy Old Boots

Comfy Old Boots

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Myself and herself have mortgage approval. If Covid 19 was not with us, we would be out looking to buy a house in South County Dublin. We are in rental at the moment and can move immediatly. Not in a chain or a lease.

I'm just wondering if any of you have any advice? Some people are saying there will be a massive property price crash, whilst others are suggesting that due to demand being so high, the prices will not drop that much. I am certain that there will be less competition due to people losing jobs etc and that might limit the actual selling price to the asking price instead of that plus 8% caused by lots of people looking and trying to buy the same property.

Any suggestions for me? I know there is no crystal ball. One colleague suggested making offers at 2012 prices. They were a lot lower then and can't see a seller going for something like this. Any wisdom :rob offered will be much appreciate :bow
 
Location, location, location - The demand for nice houses will be as strong as ever and with people experiencing working from home and companies knowing it works people will want to buy where they want to live.

I’d not be looking for a deal I’d be looking for quality in location, that’s where your money will be the safest and growing
 
With proposed unemployment and business failures predicted, I cannot fail to see why property won’t be affected and more on the market, leading to a depression of prices
However any depression may be short lived and the bounce back is predicted to be spectacular
Who knows ?
 
Sit back and Wait Property around Dub etc has been well overpriced for 15 years

Ask Stephen "Electric Monk" for his history about the Dublin house It caused him no end of angst for 3 or 4 years when they went to Waterford
 
It really is a crystal ball question isn't it. I'd just look at it as 'you're buying a home, if it is £30k less or the same price as you expected...in the long term, so what ? You're paying rent now which compared to putting it into your own property is dead money'

JohnnyBoxer said:
However any depression may be short lived and the bounce back is predicted to be spectacular
Click to expand...
Where's this from Johnny?
I sincerely hope there isn't a spectacular bounceback, all that will happen is that this bloody hamsterwheel so many are happily stuck in 'making money' will continue to fuck the planet
 
I think there will be a lot of activity in the housing market after this. Also I'm wondering what will happen with mortgage rates (they are very low now, but I expect we'll go into an inflationary period post-COVID so they may rise...it's probably a good time to fix your mortgage rate now while it's low?).

There will be quite a few divorces I suspect putting family-sized homes on the market, driving demand for smaller (2-bed) housing, and maybe the rental market will be bouyant?

A good time to watch the market and be ready to move fast once the world starts to return to some sort of normality (whatever that is!)

All in all, the last few years have been incredibly turbulent, and my guess is the immediate post-COVID future will remain just as turbulent!
 
You are all saying pretty much what I’ve been thinking / been advised by others.

My Dad used to always say about property and recessions and bounce backs, it does not really matter if you property goes up or down in value, as long as you bought it to live in and want to live there.

We are looking in a nice area in Dublin. No kids and little chance of them, so a smaller house in a good spot is the dream. I expect a lot of others will be the same. I am inclined to buy the best we can afford as soon as we find one when things return to some form of normality. We could wait for a ‘crash’ that might not happen. As long as we are happy with the house and can afford it there is no problem.

Good comment about the interest rates. Worth working into our calculations. A fixed rate is a prudent idea.

Here, I just used the word prudent in reference to my actions. Who’d have thought
 
Davey B said:
Where's this from Johnny?
I sincerely hope there isn't a spectacular bounceback, all that will happen is that this bloody hamsterwheel so many are happily stuck in 'making money' will continue to fuck the planet
Click to expand...

Economist on BBC News yesterday said the fallout dip would be greater than in anytime in the last 100 years, but the regeneration could be greater and quicker, look at yesterday's BBC News feeds
 
Can't see any interest rate rises for the foreseeable, maybe 2 to 3 years at current rates and then only small 1/4% rises, overall average rates over next 10 years wont pass 3% max (IMO)
 
Smelly Old Boots said:
My Dad used to always say ....... it does not really matter if you property goes up or down in value, as long as you bought it to live in and want to live there.

No kids and little chance of them,
Click to expand...

If you have no kids, like us, then my advice would be the same as your dad, to forget looking at it as an investment and buy a house to live in

Think of it as a consumable that you will enjoy using, a bit like cars and bikes, but of course you will generally not lose on a house

Also, depending on your finances, don’t necessarily get the biggest mortgage possible, it’s nice if you can keep a decent disposable income

We moved recently and bought a house that was older than our last one, but that meant we got all the stuff on our tick list for a lot less than we could actually afford, even a swimming pool which was Wifey’s dream. And we still have a nice nest egg left

By the time we die or end up in a home it won’t have made much if anything but we don’t care as we have nobody to leave it to

Enjoy it while you’re alive! Ain’t no pockets in shrouds :rob
 
JohnnyBoxer said:
Economist on BBC News yesterday said the fallout dip would be greater than in anytime in the last 100 years, but the regeneration could be greater and quicker, look at yesterday's BBC News feeds
Click to expand...

Cheers, will go find it. :beerjug:
 
The OP's dad's advice was spot on.

If we are in line for a depression, which though is worrying would be entirely plausable, the concept of half a million pound semi-detatched houses in pretty average areas just doesn't stack up. It seems inevitible there'll be long term damage to many sectors of the economy which ultimately serve underlying housing demand and pricing.

There will always be people in the market who will want to talk it up.
 
I think that there will be a huge dip in property price in the short term but i dont think it will last long

If you have a Mortgage in principle agreed you will be in a decent position if you can second guess the bottom of the market but a mortgage in principle offer only lasts so long and is not binding on the bank to honour it and they can change their minds ( seen it done many times) at which point you have to re apply and the decision could be very different on amounts agreed in principle

So if you have seen the place you want dont hang about and regard it as a home not a flip it for profit opportunity
 
Easyrider5258 (Mark) said:
Can't see any interest rate rises for the foreseeable, maybe 2 to 3 years at current rates and then only small 1/4% rises, overall average rates over next 10 years wont pass 3% max (IMO)
Click to expand...

Agree - they'll keep it low as long as possible (to stimulate the economy), but not lower than it is now. Just read a report saying they outlook is to increase after 18 months...
 
Worth pointing out that I am Irish and buying in Dublin. The rules are a little bit different over here. Mortgage rates are higher as it is. About 2% higher than the european central banks. Irish banks are a bunch of ^&*(^. Anyway, we are not borrowing as much as we can. We have set limits based on repayments and fitting in with the standard borrowing rules put in place a few years ago to try to control the property market.

To qualify for a mortgage here, you need to have 20% of the purchase price as a deposit or 10% if you are a first time buyer. I had a house years ago and don't qualify for the first time buyer rates. Luckily I have savings from that house sale at the height of the boom years ago and we have our deposit. However, we could have looked for an exception and borrowed up to 90% of the houses value. Only a certain amount of these special exceptions are handed out each year and they only last for 12 months.

Most of these offers have been withdrawn by the banks. So if we had approval for an exemption mortgage, we would have to apply again. Worse still, mortgage approval only lasts 6 months before you have to apply again and banks don't offer an exception the second time. use it or lose it stuff. So, I recon a lot of folk will be a bit stuffed. Covid has used up their time and the banks are going to be very cautious. I might be wrong about some of the above but that is how i understand it.

Anyway, all this is just talk until we can actually go and look at houses.
 
It’s true, no one knows what’s going to happen but, if I was a gambling man, one thing I would bet on is that the price of property won’t go up in the short term. You’re in a good place, financially, so relax, do plenty of research (we’ve all got time for that :rolleyes:) then plenty of viewings once circumstances allow. During this period property prices might come down.

My thoughts are, in cities like Dublin, they will just stagnate. Even if there are less buyers and more properties available people will sit on them (rent out?) and wait for the bounce back - I would.

One question about Dublin property ‘have the prices have been rising disproportionately over the last 5 years?’ If so there will be repossessions which means cheap houses at auctions.
Either way you’re in the position to take advantage so don’t rush in - just my thoughts.

Good luck :aidan
 
gspod said:
It’s true, no one knows what’s going to happen but, if I was a gambling man, one thing I would bet on is that the price of property won’t go up in the short term. You’re in a good place, financially, so relax, do plenty of research (we’ve all got time for that :rolleyes:) then plenty of viewings once circumstances allow. During this period property prices might come down.

My thoughts are, in cities like Dublin, they will just stagnate. Even if there are less buyers and more properties available people will sit on them (rent out?) and wait for the bounce back - I would.

One question about Dublin property ‘have the prices have been rising disproportionately over the last 5 years?’ If so there will be repossessions which means cheap houses at auctions.
Either way you’re in the position to take advantage so don’t rush in - just my thoughts.

Good luck :aidan
Click to expand...

Property prices have not been rising disproportionately over the last number of years. I think it's at something like 2%. The central bank brought in the measures I mentioned to try and tame the wild increases of the past. It's sort of worked.

I've never considered auctions. I must look into that.

You are right though, I would say a lot of people who were think of trading up or down will sit tight for a good while now and see what happens. And, yes, we are very lucky people. Both still have our jobs and are secure. There is not a day that goes by when I don't think how lucky I am. I feel very sorry for people that are shafted by this crisis through no fault of their own.
 
There is not a day that goes by when I don't think how lucky I am. I feel very sorry for people that are shafted by this crisis through no fault of their own.[/QUOTE]
Amen to that.
Interesting about property prices in Dublin - media over here make out it’s all gone crazy over there again, so that’s good news.
 
Smelly Old Boots said:
There is not a day that goes by when I don't think how lucky I am. I feel very sorry for people that are shafted by this crisis through no fault of their own.
Click to expand...

Me too, almost to a feeling of 'guilt'. Odd as that may sound (and I live in a terraced house in Yorkshire...I'm not Mr Rich)
 
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