house

[henrys]

i often wonder
how expensive it is to buy a house

[havinmysay]

either go and c an estate agent or keep wondering!!!

[rugeleyboy]

i have just got a solicitor to act for me and i have got them to �2250 including stamp duty.

it all depends on what kind of money your spending and where you are going to live.

as HMS said, go to an estate agent and find out for yourself. the longer you leave it the more you will spend!!

[rugeleyboy]

lol @ paul

[jno]

actually... there's been a lot of talk in the industry that prices will start to fall; they've just got too expensive to make any sense. But of course nobody has the least idea when or how far. If you can, though, I'd try waiting a year.

Current average is over �200,000

http://money.guardian.co.uk/houseprices/story/ 0,,1952577,00.html

[rugeleyboy]

they could also go up �10,000 in a year?

[Octavius]

Well that as may be jno, but these big city bonuses will keep London and the South East well out of reach of the 'average' buyer for the next year at least.

If you are a first time buyer then you won't have to worry about the cost of selling and moving. So lets take that as an e.g.

If the house is on the market (and you buy) for �200,000

You can expect that the finances will roughly be:

Your Own deposit at least 5%: �10,000
Mortgage @ 95% Loan to Value: �190,000
Mortgage repayment after 25 years at an avg rate of say 5% would be �1,100 per month, totalling circa �330,000 after 25 years. (if the rate went up to 10% then the total payable would be circa �520,000 after 25 years of �1,700 per month).

With a �200k house you will have to pay Stamp Duty of 1% (3% if it is over �250k) so that would be an extra �2,000

Add the following:
Mortgage arrangement fee, say �350
Valuation & Mortgage Survey fee, say �500
Full survey, say �1,000
Legal, LA searches, transfer fees and conveyancing, say �1,200

So if the house is �200k, in very basic generic terms it will cost you in the region of �205,500 to buy it (excl moving cost and furnishing).

[RATTER15]

Does anybody do the, buy one get one free offer? ;-)

[Octavius]

Silly me. I forgot to add, that in order to get a �190,000 mortgage you need to be earning in the region of �50,000 per year with no outstanding credit card debts or existing loans (based on a single purchaser multiplier of 3.8).

Some offers will be as much as x5 or x6 but be very careful of those. Also some offers reduce monthly payments by extending the loan term to up to 50 years. Again this is fine, but bear in mind that with �190k mortgage you will end up paying around �1m after 50 years.

[rugeleyboy]

are people using the �200,000 price as a national average? i went to look at 3 houses yesterday all 3 bed ,central heating,double glazed and so forth, only one had a conservatory and they were all in the �115,000 bracket??

i am buying to let!

[RATTER15]

Rugeleyboy, �115.000 would buy an average 2 bed flat in Devon or maybe a 2 bed slum.

[Octavius]

Lucky you. In my area the average house price is �750,000. But of course, it is those properties that you refer to that bring the national average down.

Perhaps I should release some equity and buy a row of terrace houses in Wales. At least then the locals could rent from me rather than be able to own a property....

Thats capitalism!

[rugeleyboy]

those houses for �115,000 are not to bad house's the slum houses around here are fetching about �85,000 and if you go 23 miles to stoke we could get a 3 bed semi for �45,000.

octavious.... did i come over big headed?? its not really lucky me, its for a pension more than anything?

[ali_alic]

rugeleyboy - I buy to let as well, also to provide a pension. All I will say henrys is that the last house I bought (a doer-upper) cost us �165K to buy and do-up, it was worth �215K when finished. Our mortgage is �550 per month and the people who rent it out are paying �750 per month plus bills (the only thing we are paying for is the water rates, they are paying poll tax, gas, etc) They even paid to have a land phone line put on. So I would say that in general it is often more expensive to rent than it is to own.

[ummmm]

A 2/3 bed victorian terrace in my area would set you back �130/�160k

[jno]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4dbd683a-7a00-11db-8d7 0-0000779e2340.html

[Octavius]

If you can get your mawlers on a decent plot of greenfield site, this could be prime development land in years to come with the need for more housing stock to be built.