Australia Bound

Just following on from the other House related threads.

If the UK house prices crash over the next year or two, who's chances of moving to Oz are scuppered?

I know that a crash is unlikely but prices in England and Wales are dropping and Scotland has pretty much frozen.

If there is a major drop over the next two years, we're pretty much screwed unless one of us gets employment before we leave. All our money is tied up in the house. We are hoping to use our equity to lay a major deposit on a property in Oz.

it's quite a sobering thought actually.

Anastasia Beaverhausen

"Experts" having been predicting a crash for ages now. Is it ever going to happen? I doubt it. Prices may not grow at the same rate as over the past few years, but I cant imagine that a lot of place will go down.

I am in Reading, and it is hard to imagine that my house will ever go down in value. There is too much investment in the area, too many big companies (Microsoft, HP and Oracle) have HQs in Berkshire, the job papers look good and big parts of the town are being re developed. The future for the area looks like it will prosper, and house prices tend to stay in line.

With the Olympics now coming to London, Reading looks likely to profit out of it. Good transport links to London and the south coast (sailing) and plenty of hotels to accomodate tourists.

I know the rest of the country is different, but I am not worried about a crash where I am.

jonni boy

we are in the same boat but i don't think they will crash as they did in the 80's, i do think they will level out though, but won't that have a knock on effect in Australia as an estate agent over there told us that it was us British sending the price up over there and that the average aussie was struggling to keep up. i hope this is right or were all bolloxed

bridiej

All it will mean for us is it will be more of a struggle, but we'd still go.

Dreamaway 10

Know how you feel its typical lets just hope it does not happen and things start to pick up soon.

gobbyjock

Don`t forget not everyone has a house to sell and some people are going out to Oz with just a couple of grand and really making a go of it.

Centurion

I think that there may be some differences seen regionally according to demand. The South East is always a pretty safe bet for example.

Overall I would agree a crash not really going to happen but we will see some decline in certain regions and stagnation for others.

But as just mentioned - it wont stop people emmigrating. You dont need a house to sell to do that it just may make it financially easier for some.

Australia Bound

We're all making a go of it. It's a big move regardless of how much money you take.

kevinl

Going to drop our price £10k next week.
Doesn't mean our house value has dropped £10k, just means the estate agent overpriced it.
Even at £10k off the house has still doubled in value in 5 years...
If we get a buyer that is.
Or we keep dropping until we do reach a level that sells and thats then what its worth.

We will then set our lifestyle in OZ to what we have.

If we ever get the ruddy visa that is.

Kevin

pogsy

I was reading in the press that the analysts are predicting two quarter percent drops in the interest rates before the end of the year, the first maybe tomorrow when the BOE meet. So this will hopefully give buyers more confidence again. Heres hoping.

ABCDiamond

I don't think it was the British that caused the price rises over here, I think he was leading you on

Only 12,510 people born in Britain arrived here as permanent migrants in the year to June 2003, so maybe about 4,000 families spread over Australia. Compared to a quote from the HIA at the time (Housing Industry Association) "the housing industry needs to build 159,000 homes a year"

However, prices have stabilised here in much the same way as in the UK.

Ceri

He/she is Bull sh*ting you like most good real-estate sharks do, I mean agents lol


At the time of the boom , most of these sales in our area were from interstate and investment buyers, not from new immigrants ( they accounted for little). There were a lot of interstate buyers, especially from Sydney and not an increase of Brits
None of the so-called property experts or banks predicted the coming boom at the time, they predicted it at the very start of the boom - when it first started to rise a little and not before, when they actually saw a little movement, then havoc broke out and prices kept shooting up. ( I was here when it happened, and none of the big experts before any movement of the prices did predict it, the actual coming of this boom)

When house prices started to rise, people went a bit panicky, and started to buy as it was just rising. A lot of people ( first time buyers, young couples etc) at the time were scared if they did not get in on the property market "now" they would not be able to afford it in a couple years/months etc.
Houses were being sold within the week here.

British people did not put the prices up. There were not ( and are not) enough of them to do that. I think figures at the time, it was from mostly interstate movent, combined with investment buyers and first time buyers - plus a few other factors like "panic mode". And at the time, the first home owners grant had just came in , $14,000 at the time to build new ( which played a huge, huge factor in this boom ) then the lowest interest rates Australia had seen in quite a number of years. People were buy, buy and buying.

Just a view from a humble observant who was here before and during the boom and not a so-called property "expert" , or a real estate agent shark etc .
You'd cry if you saw what the house and the land prices were like in Brisbane and other places before the boom ( wish we'd bought a load of homes and land now, ridiculously low prices here at the time compared to now).

We were very lucky with our purchase of land , which has easily way over four or five times doubled in price basically from what we paid for it ( bought from a private seller who was in big financial difficulty and needed money). We bought our land before the boom, not that we predicted it either, it was just when we decided to buy that's all, and saw a nice bit of land which we both fell love in, built the home on it a few years later after taking ages to design our home.

Saying all that; I can remember the British house boom started around about the same time as ours here, didn't your interest rates over there drop pretty low the same time as us in Australia?, which was one of the big causes besides many other factors here in Aus for the boom too..

cheers

P.s Congrats on getting the Olympics - I was rooting for France, the poor dabs

gobbyjock

I`m not trying to infer that you weren`t making a go of it. As I have said in previous posts the house selling lark is a real pain - jumping through hoops for buyers who want to have their cake and eat it, all at a time when you have the added stress of visa`s, validation and leaving friends and family.

ROBnCAZ

Couldn't agree more.....we are waiting on the sale of C's parent's house (who are coming with us incidentally -WHEN they sell the house)

On the market Jan 2004 £790K
On the market now £650K (after spending £25K in last year to make more attractive)!!!

Who says house prices are not falling?

At this rate, looks like we are going it alone til they sell up and join us......currently saved in bank = £900.00.......Looking to be in Oz for xmas. Think we should have about £5K by then....will be a struggle but life's a game - let's play!

sudds

As in all sales you can only get what someone will pay for it..........prior to getting the visa i put house up for sale as i have been buying and selling for 21 years and i for one have a gut feeling there is a crash coming.
So my advice would be get rid if your serious about going even if it means taking a hit.
For what its worth
sudds