Autonomy

yet more fuel for the fires?

10,000dhs flat fee process fee. Anyone know the rate offered by Dubai Bank on this (didn't see a rate?).

Seems to be a lot avail still...

and no, I'm not thinking of buying - just curious to look at the numbers...

W10

In an interview three weeks ago, the CEO claimed:

1, They deliberately held tonnes of flats back because they knew there would be demand
2, They were selling like hot cakes
3, The 99% mortgage deal was not in any way an indication that they were desperate to sell

ha

Eeyore

Absolutely not. Because of course, 99% mortgages are commonplace in strong, healthy, robust property markets all over the world, aren't they?

Errr...

I'm with Alvin Hall on this one : if you need to take a 99% mortgage deal, you can't really afford whatever it is you're buying.

ray2gill

But is the 99% mortgage for Nationals or Expats, there is usually a difference. Normally only the National rate is advertised. I thought 85% was the max expats could obtain.

rushey

UK now does 120% mortgages for 1st time buyers. Property market still growing here

Over to you Gareth .........

R.

Eeyore

Be accurate, rushey - what's actually growing is the number of people so desperate to buy that they're massively overcommitting themselves. And mortgage lenders are letting them do it, which is something they'd never have done even a few years ago. It's just basic desperation, with buyers not thinking clearly about what they're actually doing.

If you have to get a 120% mortgage, you *definitely* can't afford whatever you're trying to buy. If you're stupid enough to go ahead, though, it's going to take you years before you're in a useable positive equity situation. That's part of the whole reason why banks used to offer no more than 80% mortgages; it protected both the bank and the buyer.

When 99%, 100% or 120% mortgages are the only way to keep first-time buyers (the engine of any property market) in the system, you know that all is not healthy.

IndieG

The next step is to go sub-prime Home loans to all amnesty seekers .............

IndieG

So did the US ........... now a second hand car is more expensive than a house in Detroit.

rushey

Never said it was "healthy" Gareth just stated it was still growing. I am with you its nuts people are taking out mortgages greater than the value there houses but thats the culture over here. Just bankroll everything and worry about it all later.

Read article at the weekend that estimated people who had fixed there mortgages 2-3 years ago when rates were so much lower will not be able to survive when the fixed element rolls off onto there underlying variable rate. Estimates were showing increases in repayments of £2bn in the next 2 years. Watch the economy fall apart then !!!

R.

jvr20

last year the total personal debt in the UK was about GBP 1 trillion!

IndieG

But is the market really growing here? It appears this is becoming more and more of a buyers market. My husband's colleague was looking to buy a villa in the Ranches - then changed his mind. He was chased by the agent for 2 months, the price was dropped, commission reduced etc. Hear more of these stories now.

I also heard that customers/potential buyers have got their home loans approved, but remain undisbursed for 2-3 months whereas previously it used be disbursed within 3 days - max a week.

Eeyore

Over on a different forum, you can read about the situation in the Lakes... apparently there are a great many houses there that have been standing empty for months (somebody counted 10 in a single road), and other people report that although their house has been up for sale for months, they haven't had any potential buyers knocking on the door to look round.

That's probably partly due to the sheer cost of these places, and partly because there's such a glut of villas for sale in the Springs and AR (there are dozens of villas in Springs 15 that are empty and have been up for sale for months). It's definitely becoming a buyers' market, and that *always* brings prices down.

In the case of all the empty villas in the Lakes, one wonders if they simply haven't sold... or that they *have*, but the new owners are being forced to ask such high rents (because they have such enormous mortgages) that they just can't find tenants? Because let's face it, if you're in the plus-200K rental market, who'd want to live in the Lakes when you could live in Jumeirah or Umm Suqeim?

W10

Aye...its still the lax laws (I know personally that millions of dollars in cash are still being used to buy off plan properties) which are keeping the off plan market alive. And thus fuelling the continued price rises.

Secondary market seems to be stagnating (not that people are losing money, just struggling to sell)

IndieG

They no longer need to buy properties to launder money - much cheaper way of doing it thanks to free zones and banks Only wish the DFSA regs applied to all banks outside the DIFC!