Owning your own home

Pension funds are investing in rental properties but it's mostly big assets for rental (i.e build to rent schemes) which will be debt financed to a set LTV (e.g. 60%). They probably do encourage supply as they often / usually buy new, or enter into forward funding to develop them out. But I think they probably on average have less time in the market than owner occupiers (where the average is probably pretty long as it includes all the "I bought my house in the 1970s" crowd) so I just didn't follow why they have some sort of resilience due to capital gains.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the market is going to correct magically in a way that is great for homeowners, I'm just not sure I follow your arguments for why investors are necessarily better equipped to ride out turbulence.

Going to be getting a new mortgage and thinking of chucking 40k of savings (which is about 2 years of payments) at our remaining amount then go interest only for 2 years.

Ignoring any more exotic investments, you can get a guaranteed 5+% before tax in a 2 year fixed savings account: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#fixedsavings

Or 4.5% in a fixed 2 year ISA: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa/#fixed (if you're a couple, then you can each put £20k into a cash ISA each tax year).

So the question then becomes one of whether the interest rate (and any fees) on the mortgage is high enough to justify kissing goodbye to that cash.

The photos of your drum look really good. I'm mystified why they've put yours on so much lower than the Chichester road house they sold a few weeks ago. Yours is much nicer than the Chichester road house imo.

Eta there is a small size delta but yours has a reasonable sized garden and the other one they recently sold has a postage stamp for a garden. I guess it'll all come out in the wash- GLWS.

Does anyone have any experience with acoustic plasterboard/other products that would help soundproof a party wall? Looking for recommendations for what to buy! Thanks

I did a layer of tecsound followed by acoustic plasterboard with acoustic sealant against a wall in a small kitchen that backs onto a common stairwell. It made a difference but it's not brilliant. Done lots of googling on this and seems you definitely need to separate the new wall from the existing, ideally with an independent frame, leave a small air gap then fill void with rockwool, then plasterboard, ideally mounted on resilient bars or other clips. I couldn't afford to lose that kind of space. Don't regret doing just tecsound and plasterboard but without a gap to absorb sound and break chain of vibrations you'll not see a huge difference

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/135426977#/?channel=RES_BUY

The housing market is completely fucked.

This would have been 250k unextended back in 2012. Yeh it's had a lot of money thrown at it, but we have had a cost of living crisis, mortgage rates are through the roof, and the asking prices still keep going up.

Makes no sense to me. Perhaps it never will. I sold a similar house for 702k in 2021 and thought I did well to get out then!

As the Tory party Chairman said- just go out and get a better job....

Makes no sense to me.

Supply stays static but demand goes up because the population keeps going up and money is still relatively cheap to borrow? If one of those things changed, and the later is slowly changing anyway, maybe we'll see something different happen.

Bloody hell lads £800k for that :/

I expect it'll sell for that too.

4 bed house in Leytonstone, garden, nicely decorated, no work required. It’s prob already sold.

Move a mile inwards into Clapton and that’s over 1 million of your pounds.

Edit - An extra bedroom 5 mins down the road from that. £1.9 fat ones

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134942825

TMH one is over double the size, nicer and more desirable location

Wrong side of the A12 too. The Francis Road area is a lovely little spot but no, this is into proper High Road territory.

Yeah but £1.9 million.

I thought that was castle territory.

All of that area around there is actually ok (harrow green). I'd have happily have stayed there but the garden was too small with two kids.

My bro in law lives on the same road as the house I linked to earlier and paid 450 in 2017. But his was a bit of a state. He's extended it now and whilst it's not as nice as the 775 one I'd say he's at 725 now after having spent about 75k on it. When will this end?

I thought that was castle territory.

Ha ha ha oh you etc.

Maybe ten years it was. Now it's London victorian terrace / semi starter pack money

I'm sure I've posted this before, but how about this shed on a shitty main road nowhere near a tube or facilities for £625k?

This is near me, sums it up quite nicely. Bought by a developer in 2017 for 445k and needed a lot of work. Put on the market at 650k in 2018, way above the highest similar house at the time. Didn’t sell so the developer rented it for 2-3k until 2022. Listed it at 800k and it went for 850k.

I have no idea why someone paid that much for it. Perfectly well done loft extension and side return. Added a utility/downstairs toilet I think. But not exactly Modern House territory.

Edit, E10, near Lea Bridge Road, so not even a prime location. Although we just got a BLOK gym round the corner.

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E10, near Lea Bridge Road, so not even a prime location

ralphwiggumheartbreaks.gif

I live there too! I like it, just not close to a tube station.

Yeah, it's true. But it's really coming up in the world - Bloc, Cups and Jars, Pinch. And while it's not hip, the opening of Aldi was a landmark moment - getting food round here before then was a nightmare.

I'll be honest, I love it here. I lived in Stokey and Clapton and I always felt a bit rough and ready around those perello-munching middle class types. But then I lived in Tower Hamlets and Dagenham and I felt a bit too poncy for those chicken-shop, flat roof pub types. This area is a lovely spot if you're part hipster, part scumbag.

hmm

leytonstone 1 - 0 catford

we will come back

Surveyor clearly not a fan of period correctness.

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This area is a lovely spot if you're part hipster, part scumbag.

Scumster? Hipbag? I think we can coin a new demographic here.

hipster X scumbag