Houses

[Greg2607]

2 hours ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Where in Ibstock did you live? I’m off Usbourne Way 

I was on mill hill wood way. 

[The Year Of The Fox]

56 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

I was on mill hill wood way. 

Basically opposite me then. Nice estate that is 

[Tommy G]

4 hours ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I rent out my original home and the current mortgage expires next May. I need to make enquiries with my advisor whether buying myself out of my current deal and locking in long term with todays interests rates will be more cost effective than not buying myself out and taking the hit on the presumably higher interest rates next year. 
 

The thing is, I’ve been contemplating buying another place and releasing the equity from above for the deposit. But as someone mentioned above, it’s a terrible time to buy. 
 

I talk about higher interest rates, but I also think we’re heading towards a property crash, or overall recession. I’m a plumber and I can’t begin to describe how mental the construction industry has been since the pandemic began. Prices of everything have risen, certain materials have been very difficult to find (rumours in the building merchants are that HS2 are buying everything up, driving the prices up further) 

 

The past 3 weeks though our company have gone scarily quiet. We’ve had 4-6 lads in the yard at times, just sorting out the storeroom.
 

People are tightening their belts big time, probably due to the fuel and energy prices. And it’s not just people who you might consider on the breadline. Even people with normally a quite a bit of disposable income are doing so. It’s not just a local thing either, my brothers an architect in Oxford and he’s saying the exact same things are happening down there too. 

I have to agree with you - tradesman have had a good time from 2020 until now, I think people will be looking at their finances and saying shall we get that new bathroom this year? Shall we do the patio? etc, I think a lot of people will hold tight, especially after the autumn. I had an extension built during the pandemic. The bricklayers I started with were £160 a day, by the time we finished it was £200 a day, in the space of 6 months..........I suspect now everything will start to slow down - I know you don't want to hear that being in a trade yourself but I think people will only start to spend the cash on home improvements above the necessities when the economic worry starts to ease. 

[Greg2607]

2 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

I have to agree with you - tradesman have had a good time from 2020 until now, I think people will be looking at their finances and saying shall we get that new bathroom this year? Shall we do the patio? etc, I think a lot of people will hold tight, especially after the autumn. I had an extension built during the pandemic. The bricklayers I started with were £160 a day, by the time we finished it was £200 a day, in the space of 6 months..........I suspect now everything will start to slow down - I know you don't want to hear that being in a trade yourself but I think people will only start to spend the cash on home improvements above the necessities when the economic worry starts to ease. 

does that mean I might be able to find someone to build a brick bbq at a reasonable price now?? I've watched loads of youtube videos and figured i'd have a go myself... then a mate did the same and it looks like a 5 year old has built it! - i'm not massively handy myself and I don't want to really balls it up. 

[The Year Of The Fox]

5 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

I have to agree with you - tradesman have had a good time from 2020 until now, I think people will be looking at their finances and saying shall we get that new bathroom this year? Shall we do the patio? etc, I think a lot of people will hold tight, especially after the autumn. I had an extension built during the pandemic. The bricklayers I started with were £160 a day, by the time we finished it was £200 a day, in the space of 6 months..........I suspect now everything will start to slow down - I know you don't want to hear that being in a trade yourself but I think people will only start to spend the cash on home improvements above the necessities when the economic worry starts to ease. 

It’s inevitable, and rightly so. I’ve been thinking of getting my kitchen done but I’m definitely holding off for now. 
 

I bet your plaster was hard to come by wasn’t it during your extension build? That was a commodity at the time.

 

I’m lucky in that I work for my company I do the work a building contractor who does insurance work. Unfortunately people will always have fire/floods irrespective of how quiet the industry is at any particular time. 

Edited 30 March 2022 by The Year Of The Fox

[Tommy G]

3 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

It’s inevitable, and rightly so. I’ve been thinking of getting my kitchen done but I’m definitely holding off for now. 
 

I bet your plaster was hard to come by wasn’t it during your extension build? That was a commodity at the time

Correct - plaster a nightmare, I was buying bags off ebay and gumtree. It was really odd, I had a contact at a builders merchants, asked him to hold some bags for me in exchange for 6 bottles of wine etc. Another issue was timber, the guys priced the roof up, by the time we agreed it two months later it was another £500 because Timber was going through the roof. If I started the build now just two years on I wouldn't be able to afford to do it. 

[Greg2607]

3 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Correct - plaster a nightmare, I was buying bags off ebay and gumtree. It was really odd, I had a contact at a builders merchants, asked him to hold some bags for me in exchange for 6 bottles of wine etc. Another issue was timber, the guys priced the roof up, by the time we agreed it two months later it was another £500 because Timber was going through the roof. If I started the build now just two years on I wouldn't be able to afford to do it. 

pun intended?

[The Year Of The Fox]

15 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

does that mean I might be able to find someone to build a brick bbq at a reasonable price now?? I've watched loads of youtube videos and figured i'd have a go myself... then a mate did the same and it looks like a 5 year old has built it! - i'm not massively handy myself and I don't want to really balls it up. 

I have to do a bit when patching up old flues and I find it really difficult- the brickies make it look easy. 

[Tommy G]

10 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

pun intended?

Accidental pun! 

[FoyleFox]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

I have to agree with you - tradesman have had a good time from 2020 until now, I think people will be looking at their finances and saying shall we get that new bathroom this year? Shall we do the patio? etc, I think a lot of people will hold tight, especially after the autumn. I had an extension built during the pandemic. The bricklayers I started with were £160 a day, by the time we finished it was £200 a day, in the space of 6 months..........I suspect now everything will start to slow down - I know you don't want to hear that being in a trade yourself but I think people will only start to spend the cash on home improvements above the necessities when the economic worry starts to ease. 

People are definitely holding off. Just had the electrician this morning, and he said it's slowed a great deal for him in the last couple of weeks. Prices are still increasing rapidly. We've got to do our bathroom asap as it's very broken (previous owners doing not ours) the tiles we looked at on Saturday have increased £2 sq mtr today. 

 

In addition to the uncertain cost of living, people who had surplus money during the lockdowns due to not going out and no holidays are doing those things again. Having been cooped up for 2 years, if people can afford it, they are doing things they enjoy rather than home improvements.

Edited 30 March 2022 by FoyleFox

[ajthefox]

Not to derail the thread too much, but I'm an architect and just in terms of materials shortages etc I wanted to add a couple things.

For one, Brexit had a sizable impact on material supply chains because we build our buildings with very little (if anything) that is manufactured here. Obviously the customs issues, trucker strikes etc all had an impact on that. Similarly, the production of some things completely stopped during the pandemic, and the backlog of all that to my mind is probably still not clear.

 

I was working on a 315 unit student block, who had to do the top 3 floors with a different supplier of plasterboard because British Gypsum didn't have enough stock for how quick it was all being bought up to make up for all the delays. That is how bad it was. My old place has just had a bridge we designed over the Silverstone pit straight installed this month. It was supposed to have been finished for the 2020 GP. They've had other issues but the pandemic massively exacerbated it.

 

No-one costing anything is giving any assurances about their budget estimates, because anything priced now could be way more expensive in a couple of months.

 

Point being, when you've got big commercial contractors spending hundreds of millions a year struggling to get materials, you can guarantee the smaller markets will do too. 

 

It's still far from normal in the construction industry. A recruiter on linkedIn said it was the best time to be applying for a job in architecture he'd seen in 15-20 years.

[The Year Of The Fox]

36 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

Not to derail the thread too much, but I'm an architect and just in terms of materials shortages etc I wanted to add a couple things.

For one, Brexit had a sizable impact on material supply chains because we build our buildings with very little (if anything) that is manufactured here. Obviously the customs issues, trucker strikes etc all had an impact on that. Similarly, the production of some things completely stopped during the pandemic, and the backlog of all that to my mind is probably still not clear.

 

I was working on a 315 unit student block, who had to do the top 3 floors with a different supplier of plasterboard because British Gypsum didn't have enough stock for how quick it was all being bought up to make up for all the delays. That is how bad it was. My old place has just had a bridge we designed over the Silverstone pit straight installed this month. It was supposed to have been finished for the 2020 GP. They've had other issues but the pandemic massively exacerbated it.

 

No-one costing anything is giving any assurances about their budget estimates, because anything priced now could be way more expensive in a couple of months.

 

Point being, when you've got big commercial contractors spending hundreds of millions a year struggling to get materials, you can guarantee the smaller markets will do too. 

 

It's still far from normal in the construction industry. A recruiter on linkedIn said it was the best time to be applying for a job in architecture he'd seen in 15-20 years.

On an industrial level I’m sure things are booming. Factories are going up left right and centre (“levelling up”?) round NW Leics. New build sites around here are opening up all the time. But there’s definitely a pinch coming from the direction of the private customer 

[kenny]

1 hour ago, ajthefox said:

Not to derail the thread too much, but I'm an architect and just in terms of materials shortages etc I wanted to add a couple things.

For one, Brexit had a sizable impact on material supply chains because we build our buildings with very little (if anything) that is manufactured here. Obviously the customs issues, trucker strikes etc all had an impact on that. Similarly, the production of some things completely stopped during the pandemic, and the backlog of all that to my mind is probably still not clear.

 

I was working on a 315 unit student block, who had to do the top 3 floors with a different supplier of plasterboard because British Gypsum didn't have enough stock for how quick it was all being bought up to make up for all the delays. That is how bad it was. My old place has just had a bridge we designed over the Silverstone pit straight installed this month. It was supposed to have been finished for the 2020 GP. They've had other issues but the pandemic massively exacerbated it.

 

No-one costing anything is giving any assurances about their budget estimates, because anything priced now could be way more expensive in a couple of months.

 

Point being, when you've got big commercial contractors spending hundreds of millions a year struggling to get materials, you can guarantee the smaller markets will do too. 

 

It's still far from normal in the construction industry. A recruiter on linkedIn said it was the best time to be applying for a job in architecture he'd seen in 15-20 years.

Always worth mentioning the Suez canal blockage that caused mayhem with construction materials.

 

There is only 1 gypsum factory in the UK and it closing was a huge error.

[FoxFromCoalville]

On 29/03/2022 at 14:55, Tommy G said:

I've just remortgaged - not the best experience. House valued at 345, want a mortgage for 190 odd LTV between 50-60%, at the start of my conversation with the mortgage advisor she was quoting rates of 1.55%, I've juct locked in a fixed rate for 5 years at 1.98% - if I had tried to do the same deal again this week its gone, looking at 2.05%. I'm quite shocked but relieved at the same time. You will see fixes at 3 odd % by Xmas I expect.

You can arrange to remortgage around six months before your current mortgage expires and lock in a good rate. the good thing is even if the rates decrease you’re not actually committed to the first one you signed up to so you can take the better rate (if rates drop in the six month period)

[Nalis]

Whats the view of gazumping? Bad move or fair game?

 

I got gazumped this week in this seller's market and only just coming to terms with it. I'm obviously biased but despite knowing it can legallly happen, its just seems to me that its morallly bankrupt from the vendor and also the eventual buyer. I know things arent completed until you exchange so not that naive however, I would like to hear the other side of the argumeny out of curiosity. Have you ever done to secure a property?

[FoyleFox]

Wrong. Once the deal is agreed, it's agreed. 

 

We were several weeks into buying a property when the vendor said they'd received another offer. We could increase our agreed price by £10k or they weren't selling to us. Ultimately, we bought an alternative and better property but I'm still aggrieved with spending £500 to not buy one because the vendors were @#$@#!!

[The Blur]

On 07/04/2022 at 22:18, Nalis said:

Whats the view of gazumping? Bad move or fair game?

 

I got gazumped this week in this seller's market and only just coming to terms with it. I'm obviously biased but despite knowing it can legallly happen, its just seems to me that its morallly bankrupt from the vendor and also the eventual buyer. I know things arent completed until you exchange so not that naive however, I would like to hear the other side of the argumeny out of curiosity. Have you ever done to secure a property?

 

I thought gazumping is illegal in England but legal in Scotland or have I got that another way around?

Edited 8 April 2022 by The Blur

[Nalis]

7 hours ago, The Blur said:

 

I thought gazumping is illegal in England but legal in Scotland or have I got that another way around?

Unfortunately its the other way around

[Nalis]

8 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

Wrong. Once the deal is agreed, it's agreed. 

 

We were several weeks into buying a property when the vendor said they'd received another offer. We could increase our agreed price by £10k or they weren't selling to us. Ultimately, we bought an alternative and better property but I'm still aggrieved with spending £500 to not buy one because the vendors were @#$@#!!

Yeah its just shitty move isnt it? Glad things worked out for you though.

Edited 9 April 2022 by Nalis

[The Blur]

1 hour ago, Nalis said:

Unfortunately its the other way around

 

I have spent a while wondering why a liberal thinking country like Scotland allows this while England does not!  

 

Sorry that it has happened to you although- property market is full of stories of househunters finding a better home after losing out.   Fingers crossed for you.   

[Ian Nacho]

Got an offer accepted on a flat about 3 months ago and it’s taking a painfully long amount of time. Still waiting on the inquires from the searches. The service charge is being paid so I guess there is no incentive for the freeholder to quickly respond. 

[FoyleFox]

The months seems an awfully long time to be waiting for searches. I'm sure ours were only 2 -3 weeks and that was in the middle of a full lock down. I thought things had improved in the conveyancing world, timescale wise. 

[FoyleFox]

Am interesting breakdown on the pricey and not so pricey areas of Leicestershire for property. 

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/property/new-heat-map-shows-house-6914335

[FoyleFox]

More bad news for borrowers. 

 

https://news.sky.com/story/banks-to-tighten-lending-to-homebuyers-as-cost-of-living-crisis-bites-12588075?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

10 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

More bad news for borrowers. 

 

https://news.sky.com/story/banks-to-tighten-lending-to-homebuyers-as-cost-of-living-crisis-bites-12588075?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter

 

Yeah never an ideal situation, but it's in the best interests of everyone that lending is dealt with responsibly. If taking out a mortgage a few months ago meant that the buyer would have barely any money left over each month, the ongoing increases in fuel bills mean that (without extra pay or some very smart spending cuts) some people will just not be able to afford their mortgage repayments. It's in everyone's interests to find a way out of the energy cost crisis, but with the ongoing situation in Ukraine and no widespread grants for home solar panels etc I doubt it will be any time soon before prices drop