A good time to sell?

realdanbreen

Friends of ours are intending downsizing and are considering selling now-while prices are good, pre brexit etc- before actually having found a new house. Make sense?

terrydel

realdanbreen wrote: »

Friends of ours are intending downsizing and are considering selling now-while prices are good, pre brexit etc- before actually having found a new house. Make sense?

No expert, but looks to me like the market has topped out, and I think its getting harder to sell as months go by, tho its all relative and its nowhere near what we'd have called 'hard' a few years ago. Prices are high so yes in that sense now is a good time, and I think most would agree that after brexit things are likely to get worse rather than better, but how much worse nobody knows.
But I've been trying to buy for a year now and my experience is that prices are leveling off and in some cases we are seeing reductions in asking prices, and quite a lot of them. A lot will depend on the area your friends house is in.

Zascar

realdanbreen wrote: »

Friends of ours are intending downsizing and are considering selling now-while prices are good, pre brexit etc- before actually having found a new house. Make sense?

No one knows. But it's probably not a bad time. Markets are high and we are long overdue a recession. If I was in that position myself I think I'd sell and rent for a few years. I know people who did it in the last recession. Sold at the peak in 2007 approx and bought again a few years later. Pocketed a huge chunk of cash and bought a nicer house for less money.

Impossible to time it perfectly this boom could go on for 5 years more who knows, but being late and trying to sell on the way down is going to be a nightmare.

Lux23

It really depends on the house. A friend just got 20K over asking but its a fab house, and there's very little to do to it. But other properties that need even a bit of work are slower to shift. Plus Brexit is in about 10/12 weeks; you would want to move fast to shift the house before that.

realdanbreen

Well

Lux23 wrote: »

It really depends on the house. A friend just got 20K over asking but its a fab house, and there's very little to do to it. But other properties that need even a bit of work are slower to shift. Plus Brexit is in about 10/12 weeks; you would want to move fast to shift the house before that.

Well I'm not expecting the market to nosedive on November 1st!. If there is a decline post brexit it probably won't be for several months.

hoganj

No expert here either, I think all you will get here are opinions..
My logic/take on it is:
Depends on your target market. Either first time buyer flat or not.
- If the property is targeted at a FTB then:
-- There will be competition as per the last few years, lots of people trying to get their foot on the ladder and out of renting etc
-- Is their job safe in a Brexit world? A first mortgage is a big monthly outgoing that they have to be committed to, so this may reduce what they are willing to pay

- If the property is NOT targeted at a FTB then:
-- I think these (usually) more expensive properties move slower than FTB places so less competition for them
-- People who buy will have more savings/deposit because they are selling another place, possibly less affected by Brexit but who knows really

I'll be selling a FTB place soon so I might wait will after Brexit. My job security is a big factor, I do not want a mortgage and no job to pay it.

riclad

Its a good time to sell, prices are not rising ,
no one knows how much brexit will effect the economy,
the value of sterling is falling,
it may be more difficult to export to the uk, in 2020,
when there will be custom controls .
more documents and checks will be needed to send good into the uk.
i think the amount of exports to the uk will decline after brexit .
i think it makes sense now to downsize ,if you intend to move to
another area or you want to reduce your mortgage .
By buying a smaller house or a house outside dublin.

jimmycrackcorm

Ex is just going through the buying process now. It's been very obvious that prices have topped and it's getting difficult to sell. Experienced very few competing bidders, pulled out if a sale and the asking price then dropped, and very quickly accepted on another property with the vendor agreeing to requests for items to be sorted before contacts signed.

terrydel

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Ex is just going through the buying process now. It's been very obvious that prices have topped and it's getting difficult to sell. Experienced very few competing bidders, pulled out if a sale and the asking price then dropped, and very quickly accepted on another property with the vendor agreeing to requests for items to be sorted before contacts signed.

I'd a solicitor say to me very recently that prices have gone up since I lost out on a particular house a few months ago (its apparently coming back on the market because the person who outbid us has pulled out) which I found extraordinary.
She was asking if I'd still have an interest in it. Found it all a bit strange actually.

Lux23

realdanbreen wrote: »

Well
Well I'm not expecting the market to nosedive on November 1st!. If there is a decline post brexit it probably won't be for several months.

But people are waiting for that nosedive, so they will hold off either way unless they're desperate to buy.

riclad

I do,t think the market will nose dive,
i think we are at peak price,s , house prices will not increase by any significant extent.
Builders are selling more houses to dublin city council ,
because theres only so much buyers who can afford to spend 300k on
a new house .

catrionanic

It probably depends on the area too. We live in Malahide, which is an expensive area, and bought our house in late 2018. Since then, asking prices in nearby estates seem to be down around 5-10% on what they were when we went sale agreed last summer. Two of our neighbours have their houses up for sale, and they've said there hasn't been a lot of interest.

I think that generally people have reached their affordability limits when it comes to house prices. It probably is a good time to sell.

SozBbz

Lux23 wrote: »

But people are waiting for that nosedive, so they will hold off either way unless they're desperate to buy.

Well they might end up waiting a long time them.

There are signifcant costs in waiting in the long grass for something that might never come.

realdanbreen

Would it be reasonable to assume that whatever (if any)effect brexit has on house prices it is not going to mean an increase in prices?

SozBbz

realdanbreen wrote: »

Would it be reasonable to assume that whatever (if any)effect brexit has on house prices it is not going to mean an increase in prices?

I think its hard to see any immediate increase in prices, but that has more to do with a ceiling in affordability levels.

Cash buyers are pretty much done (aside from those trading down), and unless wage growth suddenly leaps ahead then I don't see any factors to push prices up with the macro-prudential rules remaining the same. If they change, then yes, I think prices will go up again, but this would be wrong and stupid on so many levels, so I hope the Central Bank hold firm.

My thought are...

- supply side issues have not been adressed so demand remains strong
- prices are probably at a peak however I don't think they'll crash, more likely to become stable wiht normal fluctuations of +/- a few % points over time.
- if you have the finance and it fits your circumstances, its still a fine time to buy a roof over your head. You have to live somewhere and rent is expensive.
- maybe not the best time to buy a rental property, yields wouldnt be great as the buy price is high, taxes are high and theres no guarentee that rents will remain at this rate over the longer term.

listermint

Prices have now topped affordability and the Salary mortgage ratio limitation is doing its job exactly.

If it wasnt there, the market would have run away with itself again.


People have not learned anything, Its just the banks cant lend to them anymore.



The rules are a godsend.

Dolbhad

SozBbz wrote: »

My thought are...

- supply side issues have not been adressed so demand remains strong
- prices are probably at a peak however I don't think they'll crash, more likely to become stable wiht normal fluctuations of +/- a few % points over time.
- if you have the finance and it fits your circumstances, its still a fine time to buy a roof over your head. You have to live somewhere and rent is expensive.
- maybe not the best time to buy a rental property, yields wouldnt be great as the buy price is high, taxes are high and theres no guarentee that rents will remain at this rate over the longer term.

I am of the same opinion. I think the demand vs supply ratio at moment means there won’t be a big drop in price over Brexit. If it wasn’t for the 3.5 salary and 10% deposit rules, I think another bubble would have happened.

I don’t think it’s a good time to buy if your sole aim is a profit. But if property can work for min 3-5 years and you can find a property and afford, go for it.

I do think we may need to have some sort of relaxation of rules and maybe increase 3.5 to possible 4 times salary. But the 10% deposit should remain to create some sort of buffer if market crashes. But the 3.5 times salary together with the 10% deposit, with the rental market the way it is at the moment, is very restrictive.

Also it doesn’t deal with the reality that the property market is very different depending on where you live. Sometimes I think Cork is mental for prices and then I talk to Dublin friends and think I’m lucky. We work in the same role but friends in Dublin are paid more. But not in proportion to the cost of living in Dublin. So although the mortgage we put can get is similar, in reality they can’t buy anything whereas I can.