how do people afford to buy houses nowadays?

Originally Posted by rubberduckofdeath

Cheers Pete, sounds lovely but I don't fancy the commute each day

Screw the commute i'd rather go to the beach.

Dan

All very well having a huge mortgage but the gearing is so so scary.

Plus, a lender will add a higher percentage advance fee - ie money for doing absolutely nothing - to the loan. Usually £2K+, all for lending beyong their normal 75% criteria. Then nthere's the arrangement fee, a fee for this, another fee for that. It irritates me so much but I'm a solicitor, not a mortgage advisor, and as I'm not an 'Approved Person' - approved by the FSA that is - I'm not allowed to advise clients on mortgages nor on the fees that lenders impose.

So I sit there wondering whether clients really appreciate what they're doing and whether they realise that their mortgage lender is ripping them off wholesale.

So basically it's not worth buying a house then?
Unless you can pay a downpayment of £100k, then you might make money on it if the value keeps rising.
But wouldn't it have to stop someday?
And what if you buy a house, and the council decides to make your neightbours house into a council flat a'la chav-ville.
Then you will be stuck where you are, picking Carlsberg special brew off your lawn every morning while the neightbourhood deteriorates...

Spoken like a true optimist!

[TSM]

Have a look at auctions, its got its good side and bad side.

Look at www.eigroup.co.uk they host nearly every property auction houses catalogues in the country.

Forget about a company called Choices as they dont actualy auction houses, they copy other auction houses catalogues and charge a fee. They have been sued by the company i work for and many others.

There are many nationalities that have a completely different outlook in respect of home ownership.Brits see it as an investment,one that they can realise in the future.But how many do that? Ok they move house and borrow a bit more whilst retaining a little of the gained equity to buy a car,bike,clear credit cards or whatever. Or they go the whole way and struggle for years merely to leave something for their kids?

You see as long as you think that renting is "paying dead money" and the cultural concept of "an Englishmans castle is his home" prevails......nothing is ever going to change.

Originally Posted by Sythree

as I'm not an 'Approved Person' - approved by the FSA that is - I'm not allowed to advise clients on mortgages nor on the fees that lenders impose.

bit of money to be made for you there surely?

Oh and BTW if you're self-employed the mortgage companies want a 25% deposit - so if the average house value in the UK is now 200k that's fifty thousand spondoolies (now where did I leave my wallet...).


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Originally Posted by rubberduckofdeath

Simple answer, a lot of people won't buy houses. I earn a lot of money for my age but still have no chance on my own and it will be very difficult even with someone else.

Hi how much do your (exact) what do u do?

Why buy a house, the government will only sell it to pay for your care when you go senile.

[TSM]

Originally Posted by e.d.

Why buy a house, the government will only sell it to pay for your care when you go senile.

Thats why you sell it to your children for pennys and make sure there is a contract that says that they cannot evict you until you have died.