Owning your own home

Does the ground floor get sole access to a garden?

Has anyone here applied for one of the help to buy mortgages yet (second wave)? I thought that they had bought them forward to this month but the bank websites I've looked at are still not showing their lending rates or the details...

My girlfriend & I have just managed to save up enough for a normal/standard deposit/mortgage but we thought if the banks were lending at a 75% rate on the help to buy we might use the government help to buy money & make profit from our saving for 5 years then pay it off. But if they're still lending at 95% as some people seem to be suggesting, I think it'd be better to just get a standard mortgage with all of our deposit...

So if anyone has any (not too personal) information from the lenders it'd be appreciated in order to make a decent modelling spreadsheet.

Doesn't look like it, have a read of this link, page 10 in particular to your question:

http://www.helptobuy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Help-to-Buy-equity-loan-buyers-guide.pdf

Does the ground floor get sole access to a garden?

Nope. Same access I have.

Doesn't look like it, have a read of this link, page 10 in particular to your question:

http://www.helptobuy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Help-to-Buy-equity-loan-buyers-guide.pdf

You cannot choose to take a lower mortgage if your affordable income
multiple suggests you can afford and sustain a higher one.

madness!

wow, it is a shit as i thought

"Staircasing payments can be made at any time and must be a minimum of
10% of your home’s prevailing market value – whether that value is more or
less than when originally purchased. You may wish to check any additional
criteria with your current lender.

An independent valuer must provide a valuation of your property and you will
also be responsible for the associated administrative cost. Enquiries about
administrative costs should be made to the Post Sales HomeBuy Agent. "

Does the ground floor get sole access to a garden?

Yes in my case. I think it varies place to place.

Only skimmed for a second, but isn't that about help to buy 1?

Interesting Guardian article. Always slightly worrying when your area is used to illustrate a potential property bubble :/

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/14/britain-housing-bubble-house-prices?commentpage=1

Does it make more financial sense to buy a one bed with a small mortgage, or buy a two bed with a maxed out mortgage and rent out the spare room?

It depends. If you're definitely fine with having a lodger it can make sense, but bear in mind there is a big premium for two beds when what you should primarily be thinking about is square feet/metres.

Pokey two beds with the same square footage as big one beds always go for more, which doesn't really make any sense.

You could always do what we did: buy a one bed with potential for extension (via the cellar in our case) to a two bed.

Of course you may not be able to afford that on your own, in which case the lodger scenario makes more sense.

We know a couple who are buying a three bed which needs a lot of work, they're going to do it up then rent out the other two rooms. I wouldn't do that personally, but financially at least you can't fault their logic.

It seems that an identical flat to mine, but on the ground floor (I'm on third) had just been advertised at 15pc above what I've paid - and I haven't even moved in yet. I highly doubt they'll get that much, and it may just be a fishing attempt, but things feel like they're going a bit silly at the moment.

You say that but if you're in a hot spot it's quite possible, see the comment at the bottom of that article!

Yes in my case. I think it varies place to place.

Yup. Some just have the garden to themselves, sometimes it will be a shared freehold (so you share access to the garden with another flat, but there is no 'dividing line' - ours is like this), sometimes the garden will be split in two with an often imaginary line. A private garden is best, obviously, but as with everything you've got to look at the bigger picture.

It seems that an identical flat to mine, but on the ground floor (I'm on third) had just been advertised at 15pc above what I've paid - and I haven't even moved in yet. I highly doubt they'll get that much, and it may just be a fishing attempt, but things feel like they're going a bit silly at the moment.

List price means nothing.

Although psychologically, people will actually pay higher amounts if an item is listed at a higher value, whether or not it's actually worth it.

Going back to the other week.. from that Guardian article..

"You're 400 yards from Harrods, and the same distance from Hyde Park." The price is £11.5m."

"des Forges reckons a good 50% of his clients are British, a mix of old London money and more recent fortunes. For the rest, Greeks are sharply up (their numbers have tripled since the eurozone crisis began), but Knight Frank has sold central London properties to buyers from 70 different countries over the past 12 months"

Anywhere nice to live in Essex, with easy access to National Rail into Liverpool Street?

List price means nothing.

Although psychologically, people will actually pay higher amounts if an item is listed at a higher value, whether or not it's actually worth it.

It doesn't mean nothing. But it doesn't mean that somebody will pay that amount, it's true. I mentioned it to my dad last night and today I get an email from him telling me that he's been on the phone to the agent, getting a feel for what the seller's after. He should've been the journalist in the family, not me..

I can list my flat for £10 billion. It means nothing.

I'll take it

Sold.

I'll pay you after I change the locks.

I can list my flat for £10 billion. It means nothing.

Are you actually trying to make a point with that ridiculous hyperbole, or are you just in a belligerent mood today?

are you actually trying to make a point with that ridiculous hyperbole, or are you just in a more belligerent than usual mood today?

ftfy

;)

I'll pay you after I change the locks.

Change the locks to what?

Are you actually trying to make a point with that ridiculous hyperbole, or are you just in a belligerent mood today?

Yes, my point is people can list their property at any value they want. Does it represent what the property is worth? No. Not at all.

You would expect most people to list at what they think it's worth or what they want for it or what they think they can get for it. These are all different values. You are talking about a 15% difference. It's meaningless.

my new flat

Yes, my point is people can list their property at any value they want. Does it represent what the property is worth? No. Not at all.
You would expect most people to list at what they think it's worth or what they want for it or what they think they can get for it. These are all different values. You are talking about a 15% difference. It's meaningless.

Lots to say on this, but I'll summarise:

• List price does not mean "nothing", as you yourself point out above.
  
• A 15% rise may be meaningless to you, but if it had happened 3 months ago I wouldn't have been able to buy this place.
  

Anywhere nice to live in Essex, with easy access to National Rail into Liverpool Street?

Rainham

"- List price does not mean "nothing", as you yourself point out above."

The list price could be based on a wonderfully accurate valuation or it could be from a random number generator. Do you know how they came upon the list price? No. So, once again we're back to the number being meaningless.

"- A 15% rise may be meaningless to you, but if it had happened 3 months ago I wouldn't have been able to buy this place."

Does your dictionary not include words such as "bargain" or "haggle"? The listed price of your property increasing by 15% could be someone going "ooh housing bubble let's chance it" and they get no offers because people do their research and they sell to you anyway. Once again, you don't know any of the behind-the-scenes of their pricing calculations so it's meaningless. What if they were made redundant after listing or had to move away somewhere and you offered 50% of asking price for a quick cash sale - they might accept. Once again, the listed price is meaningless.

Rainham

It's rainham sheds - YouTube