dotty

Looking at UK property websites today the prices seem to be coming down.

The average house price in London was only 230,800 pound. This seems low, I mean that sort of money would not even get you a house in most parts of Sydney or Melbourne. I was amazed. Our house on the Sunshine Coast is worth that much at least.

We even found 2 houses in Highgate, (My parents area) that we could afford.

I wonder if all this is a temporary lull as the war starts or Good news for those going back.

captaincook

I've got to say all those people moving to Brisbane/Oz may be surprised when they get here as house prices are going through the roof. It appears to be levelling out for average homes but anything with views or near water is selling for amazing prices. We sold late last year ready for the move home and live in Kangaroo Point and houses on tiny lots are going for $500k+ probably doubled in 2 years.

It looks like this may be the best year to move back for many a year. House prices in London and SE falling, huge supply of property in London and most of SE to choose from, pound heading south and thanks to Mr Brown should head lower once the war is sorted and costed and tax rises bite. Plus he has to come clean in the next budget on his over optimistic forecasts so should give the pound another dent. Hopefully rates will then be cut as well which should lower the pound even more.

Hooray its nice to be on the right side for once ! The crazy thing is it looks as though there are also plenty of jobs still available in UK. Just hope when we get home it all recovers quickly - wishful thinking maybe.

AndrewR

For what its worth I suspect that prices in london/south east will remain subdued for the next couple of years...at the top end of the market prices will probably fall. In the rest of the country prices will continue to inch up...there'll be no crash as theres still a fair bit of demand, but the next several years should see far more restrained growth. As to the currencies..well this is a guess, but i think the pound could ease back a little bit against canuck/ozzie dollars, but really who knows?
To all those planning the move back ...good luck and I hope circumstances work for you.

darrenb

Ive currently got my house on the market. This time last year it would have been snapped up in a week or two. At the moment its been on the market for 6 weeks and even though we've had a few viewings no one has made an offer.

12 months ago people were panic buying in fear of further price rises that would price them out of the market. Since then things have slowed down people are now sitting back and seeing which way the market will go. People are happy to view many places, sit back, have a think and not give a second thought as to whether they might miss out.

Hope this helps a little.

D

scoobydooathome

Yeah but those houses at 230.000 are in conjested dumps nothing like the palace you live in now ...

joebloggs

scoobydoo...you are such a classy guy...mealy-mouthed and negative, always putting people down if they so much as express positive opinions about the UK.
Good luck if you move Dotty! As some-one who has been abroad and then come back I have to say it was the right move for us.

dotty

Cheers scooby, but thanks to the spiralling aussie house prices we will be looking at houses way way above a measly 230,000 quid.

We also want smaller. Hours of pool cleaning, mowing, window washing, weeding, fly screen cleaning, vaccuming and mopping we want small, then spend all those free hours actually having a life instead of maintaining a stupid big house. I cant wait to face a weekend without all those chores, especially when its 38 degrees.

Carrianne

Dotty come to Scotland you can get a castle up here for that money with 14 bedrooms. Saying that we are now just catching up with the property boom, in the past few months, people are offering 40% over the asking price seems silly to me. Very 80's when everyone who does this, ending up with negative equity if they cannot add value to their property.

We are hoping we catch up remain like this for at least a year to get as much money on our apartment as possible. We don't have a big house worth hundreds of thousands so what ever money we get will do us ok.

Carrianne

karawara88

For those of you that don't live in the south, up here in sunny Lancashire £230000 could buy you about twenty terraced houses. !!!

The prices are not dropping but whereas six months ago the asking price was being met now its not and offers are usually 5k or so below asking price.

Also in better areas first time buyers have been priced out the market so there is a whole load of property for sale, so buyers can be a bit more picky.

And !! so many propertys have been snapped up as buy to let. That loads (around here anyway) remain empty, rentals are falling.

So I think that in the next 12 months landlords will try and off load property to stick cash into ?? If only I knew

Its fine and dandy for anyone coming back, but for us that are North of Watford and didnt make a massive killing, life in Oz is not going to be big houses and swimming pools.

bored_bean

That's likely true, and even here prices are levelling out. Looking at www.vbestates.com shows the
cheapest 2 bed flat at £155,000. Looking at www.realestate.com.au shows that I could buy an awful lot of house for that in all but the poshest suburbs of Brisbane. It's all a matter of what your savings can buy you and how much you want to live on top of your neighbours.

etlniwd

Before you all get to carried away, a look at the facts wouldn't go amiss.

The average price of a property in London is :

Flat £196k
Terraced £233k
Semi-detached £245k
Detached £412k
Weighted average £231k

source http://www.imakenews.com/hometrack/e...e000135951.cfm

The median price of a property in Sydney is

Units and Townhouses $344 (£134k)
Houses $450 (£175k)

source http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...172604032.html
Note that one is median and one is average so it's not a direct comparison but not far off the mark.