Charlie Paynter

Not sure where to have put this thread, but MBTUK it is.

It would be very interesting to learn of peoples experiences and opinions on the state of their respective housing markets (which is a good precursor for the economy as a whole).

Over the last 6 or so months, I have read many people trying to sell up to either emigrate to their chosen land or, return to the UK, yet are unable too, due to the worsening housing slump. Living in the UK, I am under no illusion that the slump here could be the Mother of all slumps, but would like to hear from others what they are experiencing and what their own opinion is, especially if you remember other slumps like the early nineties (I do) and the late seventies (I do not).

One thing is for sure, it will be very 'interesting' over the next year or so and therefore peoples well laid plans are going to go AWOL - including trying to get back to Old Blighty!

Kath & Graham

We were lucky enough to sell here nearly 4 years ago move to Perth and have a nice house and a lowish mortgage, then sold it before we came back at a really good price . We returned a year ago bought a house at a sorta not too bad price,but now we wanna return to Oz and have lost thousands of pounds on our property We have noticed that nothing seems to be moving here and will therefore have to return to Oz renting this house out and no money and have to rent out there. We wanna go even if we have no money of sorts.

Grayling

I think the 'mother of all slumps' will hit Australia and NZ when the real implications of the decline in their currencies and economic fortunes is felt.

There are still a lot of people in denial about what is happening

G

Fleaflyfloflum

Yes, most of them in the Barbie

Giantaxe

This is the first time since the Great Depression that house prices have dropped on a nationwide basis in the US. There have been regional busts many times (for example, Texas in the '80's) but this slump, with a few pockets of resistence, is truly nationwide.

sfr09

Hi Mpg
I notice you are in Market Harborough, our intention was to come back to Leicestershire have been looking at property on the internet , still all the same houses and prices that we saw when we were over there for a holiday in July so I am guessing that not alot is selling. We have our house on the market here and first open is this sat so we will have more of an idea after that of the market here. But now am feeling very doubtful as for one it may be hard to sell and the exchange rate is plummeting down at a rapid rate which is a worry

wiltshire_1

The current situation in the UK is a worry but I'm hoping we ourselves are in a pretty "safe" position - I hope! We have no house or mortgage in the UK or here in Australia so we don't need to worry about selling properties in a plumeting market and we don't have interest rates on a mortgage to worry about either. In fact we have no debt - not even on cards so rising interest rates should have too much of an effect on us. When we come back to the UK (in 16mths time) we will just rent a property (we might even be lucky and the rental prices drop too!) until it's "safe" to buy one.

Kath & Graham

What worries me is the work force, I have seen so many companies close down near me big car sales places and lots of little shops etc are going under, a very very worrying time According to the radio the other day, along with the national unemployed they reckon in two years time on top of that will be another 350,000 people very scary indeed, especially for the young kids left/leaving or due to leave school over the next couple of years they have no chance..

quoll

The work force in Aus is going to be under the pump too - the numpties we currently have in government dont have a clue what to do to insulate us from the worst of it. They flip flop like bloody landed cod. If they go ahead with their inane emissions trading tax then we will be down the gurgler quicker than you can say "which gate does Qantas depart from". At least with the UK you have a glimmer of hope on the horizon that you will have an election and someone with half a brain might get in (better than the no brainers of the moment!). At least the UK banks are guaranteeing savings to a certain level and you have the old age pension as a safety net whereas our super funds are going down (and down without much up at the moment)

lobby lou

we rent our house in wiltshire .......we have bought a house in cyprus ...which we may rent out when not there....and are very lucky that dh conpany pay our rent in uae...as rental prices are mad here and have risen so much in the last 6 months

backagen

In Adelaide the house prices have been rising steadily but much more slowly than the last few years. I purchased a block of land in Jun for $75000 and just sold it (only 3 months later) for $87000 so that's not too bad.

Depending which reports you believe, prices are predicted to rise by anything between 5% and 20% in the next 12 months.

Having said that the global economic situation seems to be highly unpredictable at the moment so my opinion is ANYTHING could happen, which is one reason I sold the land because I don't want to take the risk of loosing my money if prices fall!

However I also sold it so I have money to move to UK.

3 go mad in Adelaide

We were lucky enough to get off the UK housing ladder just in time with a decent price for our house (only a couple of grand under the asking) and we are currently renting in Australia, having left all our money tied up in the UK in a couple of high interest accounts (they are doing very well!).

We are heading back next May and as we still have all our equity (we used savings/shares, etc to finance the actual move) and with the way house prices are going over there, I think we may just be quids in! (this is more luck rather than judgement though!).

spuds

We still own our property in Australia and have rented it out. This (almost) pays the mortgage on it and occupancy rates are still very good in Melbourne so hopefully this will continue for a while. I have thought about pulling our money out but the UK seems to be an even worse prospect and it's practically impossible to speculate on what's going to happen next.

While Australia cannot stick its head in its many miles of lovely sand, it does seem to be a little more isolated than the rest of the Western world from the economic meltdown. Demand for property and migration to Australia is still huge and it's nowhere near full yet! It's different from the UK and US in this respect so while houses do seem to be taking longer to shift, they are also still going up in value, albeit more reasonably than they have done in the past and elsewhere.

We sold our UK house to move to Oz 5 years ago and then regretted it at leisure as the UK houseprices went ballistic for the next few years. Luckily, it's all worked out OK for us. We sold it when the market was strong and prices were good (not quite at the peak but not far off) and houses here now are just not going anywhere. Friends of ours bought their 1st house around 2 years ago and are now in negative equity While renting can be a pain, there are lots of properties now available and you can get a big house at a decent price as desperate vendors try to claw back some cash.

There are so many repossessions advertised here in the UK, I've never seen anything like it before. It's tempting to look at some of the properties coming up as they are real bargains (compared to what they used to be) but the prediction is for worse to come.

It's definitely a worrying time all round and pretty hard to work out where to put your money. Australia seems as safe a bet as any!

username 34

rental prices are increasing as the market plummets, more people NEED to rent and HAVE to rent so rents have increased to profit from this fact. People cant get mortgages, are selling up coz they cant afford mortgages and theres people who've had their houses repo'd. All need rentals to go to and for people like us - we own a property we rent out in the UK - their misfortune is our silver lining as our rental is not only making more money but we have no trouble guaranteeing tennants for a long time to come.

Previously with people being able to buy houses so easily, getting such mad mortgages, the rental market was hard with the tennants fewer on the ground and rental prices being negotiatied down all over the place.

CBANDY

I just hope that when that silver lining runs out no-one will be ripping you off. I just think it is wrong to charge more at these times. If someone has lost their home the last thing they need is an unscrupulous landlord ready to kick them when they are down.