When do I sell my London pad?

[tpsman]

Are you sure the valuer isn't just an estate agent telling you what you want to hear with regards to the price? When you put your place on the market, you might find yourself having to lower the price to make the sale.

[Unix]

Are you sure the valuer isn't just an estate agent telling you what you want to hear with regards to the price? When you put your place on the market, you might find yourself having to lower the price to make the sale.

Not been to London lately eh? People will be offering sexual favours just to get the chance to bid.

[doodab]

Are you sure the valuer isn't just an estate agent telling you what you want to hear with regards to the price? When you put your place on the market, you might find yourself having to lower the price to make the sale.

Not in central London at the moment. It's really a law unto itself, the value of good property just keeps going up and up and fast.

I'm sure it has to stop sooner or later but I've been saying that since 2005. The financial crisis barely caused a blip, and it seems it's accelerated since then with the renewed influx of foreign money, so who wants to call the top of the bubble? It might not top out for years, it might be a gradual slowdown, it might be a bona fide crash, the only thing that's certain is that no one really has a clue what's going to happen.

[eek]

Not in central London at the moment. It's really a law unto itself, the value of good property just keeps going up and up and fast.

I'm sure it has to stop sooner or later but I've been saying that since 2005. The financial crisis barely caused a blip, and it seems it's accelerated since then with the renewed influx of foreign money, so who wants to call the top of the bubble? It might not top out for years, it might be a gradual slowdown, it might be a bona fide crash, the only thing that's certain is that no one really has a clue what's going to happen.

+1, there are a lot of very rich people around the world for whom an expensive London home / flat is a safe place to store some money...

[fullyautomatix]

Not in central London at the moment. It's really a law unto itself, the value of good property just keeps going up and up and fast.

I'm sure it has to stop sooner or later but I've been saying that since 2005. The financial crisis barely caused a blip, and it seems it's accelerated since then with the renewed influx of foreign money, so who wants to call the top of the bubble? It might not top out for years, it might be a gradual slowdown, it might be a bona fide crash, the only thing that's certain is that no one really has a clue what's going to happen.

It is astonishing. I just cannot think a couple in their twenties would fork out half a million for a flat. It has to be some sort of investor syndicate that is behind snapping up all the properties that are coming on market.

Check this one out.

3 bedroom terraced house for sale in Kingsley Place, London, N6, N6

a terraced property under offer for a million quid. You got to earn 250K to get a mortgage on this one.

Unless wages in London are rising rapidly I cannot see how anyone could be able to afford those hundreds of thousands more in just mere months.

[doodab]

Unless wages in London are rising rapidly I cannot see how anyone could be able to afford those hundreds of thousands more in just mere months.

They can't. It's not for the likes of you and I with mortgages, or people earning a mere quarter mill a year, it's a rich mans game. You're talking about people with millions in assets already.

Socially I think it's a disaster TBH.

[Ticktock]

They can't. It's not for the likes of you and I with mortgages, or people earning a mere quarter mill a year, it's a rich mans game. You're talking about people with millions in assets already.

Socially I think it's a disaster TBH.

It's not just earning enough to be able to get a large enough mortgage - don't forget they'd also need to get a deposit of at bare minimum £100,000. So yes, homes in London are rapidly becoming not for "normal people". You either need to be one of the super-rich, or else a council / housing association tenant.

[OwlHoot]

They can't. It's not for the likes of you and I with mortgages, or people earning a mere quarter mill a year, it's a rich mans game. You're talking about people with millions in assets already.

Socially I think it's a disaster TBH.

WHS, but what can one do?

That Telegraph article the other day was spot on - The Centre of London will become a dreary enclave of megarich foreigners and a few trustafarians and indigenous old timers hanging on, but with a periphery more like something out of Escape From New York, as places like Paris and (I'm guessing) Berlin largely are today.

Hark at me, sounding almost like a socialist!

[sasguru]

It is astonishing. I just cannot think a couple in their twenties would fork out half a million for a flat. It has to be some sort of investor syndicate that is behind snapping up all the properties that are coming on market.

Check this one out.

3 bedroom terraced house for sale in Kingsley Place, London, N6, N6

a terraced property under offer for a million quid. You got to earn 250K to get a mortgage on this one.

Unless wages in London are rising rapidly I cannot see how anyone could be able to afford those hundreds of thousands more in just mere months.

They can't. It's not for the likes of you and I with mortgages, or people earning a mere quarter mill a year, it's a rich mans game. You're talking about people with millions in assets already.

Socially I think it's a disaster TBH.

It's not just earning enough to be able to get a large enough mortgage - don't forget they'd also need to get a deposit of at bare minimum £100,000. So yes, homes in London are rapidly becoming not for "normal people". You either need to be one of the super-rich, or else a council / housing association tenant.

Nonsense, all.
Depends on your age. There are plenty of people in their 30s/40s/50s who bought in London in the 80s/90s/early 00s and rode the property market upwards. So their salaries are kind of irrelevant, they can use their existing high-valued property which is wholly or mostly paid off as deposits to move into more expensive properties while keeping to a realistic mortgage level. This is particularly true for couples who each bought a property when it was cheap and merged their assets.

[Ticktock]

Nonsense, all.
Depends on your age. There are plenty of people in their 30s/40s/50s who bought in London in the 80s/90s/early 00s and rode the property market upwards. So their salaries are kind of irrelevant, they can use their existing high-valued property which is wholly or mostly paid off as deposits to move into more expensive properties while keeping to a realistic mortgage level. This is particularly true for couples who each bought a property when it was cheap and merged their assets.

You appear to have missed the part in the initial post that you quoted saying people in their twenties.
For people in their 30s? It would be a push to say that the starter home they may have been able to afford 10 years ago will have risen enough, and they will have paid off enough on their mortgage, to allow them to trade up.
40s and above may be better, but I doubt it on the whole. The push over the past 20 years or so was to mortgage yourself to the hilt, borrow as much as you could for your first property, re-mortgage to get as much cash out as possible when you can and rely on rising prices to cover you. These people are unlikely to have large amounts of equity sitting around.