Suzbits

Eventhough the sun is shinning here in the UK, I am not having a good day

We got our PR visas early September, job for OH was due to start last week and I have now been offered some work too for when we arrive. Have had the house up for rental since July, dropped the price 3 times and we just can't rent the bl**dy thing!

It is so frustrating, I thought the visa would be the stumbling block, never the house!!

I know there is nothing we can do but wait until the financial melt down here stops and people start moving, but it is so frustrating when our dream seems to be ebbing away.

Sorry for the rant!

Am Loolah

Oh, suzbits - you don't need to apologise for the rant ... you are not alone. I know that doesn't help - but there are so many "stuck" in your situation.

I've worked in Real Estate for a total now of about 10 years both in the Uk and here in NZ. I believe you have to remain philosophical to remain sane ... what's meant to be will be. You can not stress about something you have no control about ... bummer and frustrating I know, but I think true.

Have some house renting karma.

Lenmil

I kind of know how you feel but in my case we are trying to sell. It's not going to happen any time soon i think.

Fingers crossed for you.

MOSO

You're definitely not the only ones! We are now on our 5th lot of people who would 'love' to buy our house but guess what - they can't sell theirs AHHHHHHHHHH!

We had planned to go at Easter - the house has been on the market since Jan - to think the first people who saw it were going to offer £380,000 until the house they preferred came back onto the market so they withdrew from ours - we're now down to £339,000 and still stuck.

I had a chance encounter last week with a lady delivering a church newletter through our door, she commented on the fact we were for sale and so was she and she was trying to get to New Zealand to live - talk about coincidence - she knows of another family less than 5 mins walk from here in the same boat. It's a bit reassurring I suppose that there are 3 families within a half mile radius just trying to get to NZ and can't.

Still, given the current financial mess we are lucky that my husband's contract here has been extended and we can hang on for the near future(although the visa's ticking down......) It's just SO frustrating - why didn't we do it last year?!!!

Charlie Paynter

A post I wrote a month or so ago predicted that the housing market will only get worse and will not see any improvement for a good couple of years. However, I was predicting the sale of houses, but did not think that the rental market would be hit. Fingers crossed Suzbits.

Suzbits

Thanks for all your comments, I have picked myself up again - a cup of tea and a few chocolate biscuits later and things don't seem so bad

Charlie Paynter

Have you thought about a house exchange with someone from the area you wish to go to? Either rent or swop. There are loads of people in NZ who wish to return but cannot as their house will not shift.

weejie

In the same boat,not even had a viewer yet Thinking of reducing price again to see if any interest follows. My OH is not helping when he says it would have been better if we did this a year ago but I was not ready to do it then....men!!
Anyway,good luck everybody out there trying to sell or rent to be able to follow the dream and set off for NZ.

Phyllis x

Charlie Paynter

One word of advice if you are trying to rent out your UK house before making the trip. Make sure you can actually afford it when the tenancy agreement expires and you not only cannot get another tenant, but you are 12,000 miles on NZ wages! When we returned from NZ a few years ago, we rented out our NZ house and serviced the shortfall from the UK, and it was easy when earning £'s, but it would have been a nightmare the other way round. Remember, do not commit financial suicide for the sake of it!

CarolineSwan

hey good luck , we in same boat now we put ours up last week so praying someone wants to rent soon as oh job starts in dec, looks like we may have to leave a few months mortgage here just incase

over50

Hey Suzbits, if its any consolation we have been trying to sell ours since May and we havent had one viewing as yet.... so it looks like most of the uk wanting to move to NZ are all in the same boat. Of course there will be some who sold before starting the immigration process maybe we should have done this last year after all....... but hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it.....
So sit tight hopefully all will fit into place soon.
Steve and Dee.

eddie_nz

Drop the rental amount

It will rent just a question of cost.

To give you an extreme if you wanted 1 mill it would never rent, if you put it up for 10 quid it would go in a heart beat. Somewhere in the middle there is a happy medium.

You could rent it you just cant rent it for what you want at the moment.

Don't tell me no one is viewing, its not being viewed as people perceive it to be too expensive. That is unless you live next to sellafield

Charlie Paynter

Eddie, I am assuming that you are living in NZ; as you do not realise that the bottom has fallen out of the housing market - literally! August / September alone was 95% down on sales compared to last year.

This downturn has the hallmarks for being the Mother of all downturns! Watch this space. In fact this subject deserves its own dedicated thread!

Suzbits

We have dropped the price by over £300 a month, if we go a lot lower we will not cover our mortgage and associated rental costs. And we are not getting viewings as no-one is moving in our area - and no it is not the back of beyond, just a nice 4 bed detached house in a village on the outskirts of a small city - normally a desirable location!!

Also we had an estate agent round this week to see if would be easier to sell and the value of our property has dropped £80,000 since January and would need to look at offers upto £20k less - financial suicide!!

So for now we are going to continue to try renting it.

eddie_nz

Bless

Right the bottom has fallen out and people can't get mortgages ( quite literally they can't), but they still have to live somewhere so they rent...

Now this thread is about renting, some stats are showing rents a going up due to BTL passing the costs straight in to tenants.