London Propery Prices 2007

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Theres a first floor flat on Moray Rd which went for £230K a couple of weeks ago. The agent called me to tell me that the basement will be coming on the market, this is a march price rather than a february price, so although its a basement itll come on at £255k. its in the same building

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 06:48 (eighteen years ago)

Someone here lives in Stamford Hill don't they? You should go get your place valued and then celebrate. According to locationlocation prices in Stamford Hill have gone up by 40% since August. same again by christmas

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 06:50 (eighteen years ago)

There was a place in Brockley that looked nice, and i called early, there hadnt even been any viewings yet. it got sold without a viewing

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 06:54 (eighteen years ago)

I told an agent/broker that there was no way i'd be able to get a 250k place, theres no way the bank would give me the money, its more than 6x salary. he told me not to worry about it, they can get me far more than that, they dont care about those limits anymore, because people dont bother with savings or pensions or any of that stuff, so there are no other outgoings

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 06:57 (eighteen years ago)

i nearly bought just before christmas, a place for 180, but it didnt quite work out, for various reasons.

luckily they have another in the same building now for 240

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 06:58 (eighteen years ago)

i told one agent my budget, and she said sorry this isnt 2006!

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 06:59 (eighteen years ago)

she then said look just buy anything it doesnt matter what

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 07:01 (eighteen years ago)

one estate agent only has pages and pages of properties on its website. only one isnt under offer.

i enquired about it

its under offer

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 07:02 (eighteen years ago)

i put bids in on 3 places last night.

along with a bunch of other people

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 07:03 (eighteen years ago)

dont even really need to move in if you dont like it, by the time its all gone through, just put it back on the market for 10-15k more

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 07:05 (eighteen years ago)

someone told me yesterday they thought buy to lets were silly because theres no profit in it, and rental prices are driven low by the huge glut of rental properties, and you barely cover your mortgage

im like, i think the money made from rent is just a bonus to cover some of the cost, not the actual reason!

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 07:08 (eighteen years ago)

Don't take any financial advice from estate agents, they're just a bunch of spivs.

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 08:44 (eighteen years ago)

Yes, "look just buy anything it doesnt matter what" is not what I'd call sensible advice.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 09:26 (eighteen years ago)

theres no way the bank would give me the money, its more than 6x salary.

I'm glad to hear it. Banks in Ireland are busy giving out 40-year mortgages for 14 times people's salaries. It's not a good plan.

― accentmonkey, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 09:27 (eighteen years ago)

Yes, "look just buy anything it doesnt matter what" is not what I'd call sensible advice

it is when a house is going for 200 and then less than a month later one on same street is going for 225

theres no way the bank would give me the money, its more than 6x salary

as i pointed out, this is wrong, theyll give way more than that, i was mistaken

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 09:33 (eighteen years ago)

anyway estate agents dont need to lie anymore. they dont really need to even speak

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 09:34 (eighteen years ago)

Why anyone bothers with them when selling houses is a mystery to me?

― Ed, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 09:35 (eighteen years ago)

(full stop?)

Agreed.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 09:37 (eighteen years ago)

although its a basement itll come on at £255k

Wow- I didn't realise - I could sell my 4 bedroom detached house, with large garden, overlooking fields and a golf course, in a quiet cul de sac and buy a basement flat in London...where do I sign? Come on people - move to the east midlands! Plenty of jobs, cheap(er) houses and nice countryside.

― Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:35 (eighteen years ago)

AARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Where do these people get their information from?

Certainly not me. I get stupid journalists ringing up going "can you give me the gender breakdown on the buy to let market in 2005 and 2006?" and I have to dig it out. But will *I* get credit for the info?

Interest rates are going up and up. Income multiples and mortgage terms are going up and up - the whole point is that you get on the property ladder NOW NOW NOW and then refinance in a couple of years when it's gone even crazier and you have more equity in your home due to inflation.

I used an estate agent but I have my financial advisor beat them into line. Hah! When estate agents hear where I work, they get the frighteners put on them and don't try to pull no fast stuff.

I'm sure by the time I post this, x-posts will have driven the value of this post up by 40%.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:46 (eighteen years ago)

The thing about these mad 40 year deals is that the interest is so high that even though the time frame is twice as long, your repayment only goes down by a couple of hundred pounds as the interest is so high! You are paying interest on interest people, this is crazy!

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:47 (eighteen years ago)

A few things to bear in mind, Mr or Mrs 600:

- just because a bank might be prepared to lend you more than 6 x your salary, it doesn't mean you can afford it (especially if interest rates go up)
- just because prices have gone up, it doesn't mean they won't come crashing down at some point
- just because Estate Agents "don't need to lie any more", it doesn't mean they won't lie, or that they are economic experts, or in fact that they know anything about anything

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:49 (eighteen years ago)

i suspect mr 600 is being sarcastic altho everything he says is still true.

― blueski, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:50 (eighteen years ago)

I just spoke to another one, they dont have ANY properties to sell at all! not one! every single one is under offer

theyre hoping to get a couple at end of month though

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:55 (eighteen years ago)

i didnt say i could afford it.

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:56 (eighteen years ago)

i dont see london prices crashing for a long while. and they wont crash theyll level out, but its some way off surely

― 600, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:59 (eighteen years ago)

This thread is just too much like my job.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:01 (eighteen years ago)

Threads like this make me want to rent for the rest of my life.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:02 (eighteen years ago)

Threads like this just make me really glad I live in a totally unfashionable and therefore reasonable part of London.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:07 (eighteen years ago)

To be fair, Brockley's never exactly been touted as the new Hoxton either.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:08 (eighteen years ago)

To be fair 600 was looking at a grown floor flat in one of the sketchier parts of hackney with bars on the windows last night, and brockley the night before.

Can you move house prices with giant Johnny?

― Ed, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:08 (eighteen years ago)

Seems there's going to be a big class divide between people who've got property and people who haven't if things keep going like this. Surely there has to be a crash sometime? The only people I know that are my age who own had help from their parents, not an option in my case unfortunately.

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:11 (eighteen years ago)

I cannot move house prices with my magic powers, just track where they are going. Buy To Let has got to run out of steam, but as posted upthread, it's not about the extra income from the rent, which barely covers the mortgage - property prices are rising so fast that it's about equity now.

The only thing I can add is that a lot of it is panic buying right now, because interest rates *are* rising - people are desprate to lock in a mortgage with a fixed rate now.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago)

Why anyone bothers with them when selling houses is a mystery to me?

It's fine if you're living in the property you're selling, but if you're not, it's an arseache to have to think about organizing viewings yourself. Also if you're selling on your own behalf, it's too hard to reject people's sob stories about why they can't afford to give you the absolute best price.

Still though, they are absolutely not worth the money, unless you're thinking of going to auction.

― accentmonkey, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:14 (eighteen years ago)

people are buy to letting on minimal equity and interest only mortgages, which sounds like insanity to me.

― Ed, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:15 (eighteen years ago)

What *can* you do with your magic powers?

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:15 (eighteen years ago)

Argh, this is the company that *invented* the interest only (Endowment) mortgage and I still think it's insanity. They only really work in bullish economy where investments rise faster in value than interest rates. And at the moment, the fastest rising investment is property!

But dont' say that too loud around here, they love them.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:16 (eighteen years ago)

but this is not even with an endowment, this is pay the interest only and expect house prices to rise to build equity and just sell at some point in the future (or re-mortgage to flip equity into other properties)

― Ed, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:18 (eighteen years ago)

Huh? Is that even legal? I'm pretty sure that Compliance won't let us sell interest only mortgages without some kind of investment plan in place.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:19 (eighteen years ago)

Oh it's legal and lot's of providers are doing it, some even for buy to live.

― Ed, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:24 (eighteen years ago)

I could afford to buy seven years ago because I'd spent most of the '90s being paid increasingly silly money as a software developer but renting cheaply in rural Cumbria (and I had no social life). Hence, I had savings.

Now, of course, after 16 months unemployed in 2001-02 and a (stalling) career change there's no way I could get on the property ladder if I was starting from scratch without taking advantage of one of these insane rest-of-your-life 6 x income mortgage deals. When I switch or remortgage next year, I'll probably be looking at one of these sign-your-life-away I-can't-believe-you're-gonna-give-me-the-money products to get me out of unsecured debt/get the monthly repayments down.

Eventually, moving out of London (out of the UK altogether, perhaps) will be the only option.

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:35 (eighteen years ago)

>> Eventually, moving out of London (out of the UK altogether, perhaps) will be the only option.

Yeah, it's looking that way. I do have the option of moving to LA, but I hate hot weather :(

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:41 (eighteen years ago)

Ha ha ha ha ha, oh the LA market? Some friends of mine sold their house in the London suburbs (worth nearly twice what they paid for it) and then just took that and used it as a deposit on an overinflated property in LA.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:46 (eighteen years ago)

one estate agent only has pages and pages of properties on its website. only one isnt under offer.

i enquired about it

its under offer

In my experience estate agents' websites are always out of date, the best way is to write down their numbers and keep pestering them about new properties.

― braveclub, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:49 (eighteen years ago)

Well I dunno, my brother-in-law has a lovely big house and paid about £250k for it a couple of years ago. This is in suburbia of course, but I'd be happy living somewhere half the size of his place.

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago)

Well, I might conceivably have job opportunities - without another complete career change - in LA, Montreal or rural PA (I don't fancy any of those) but really we were thinking (more idly musing, to be honest - it's just a pipe dream) of Portland, OR, Northampton, MA, Raleigh, NC - those sort of places. $200k gets you a lot over there...

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:54 (eighteen years ago)

You could buy a freaking mansion in Vermont - I could buy two of my mum's house for the price of my one-bedroom. (And she has a separate flat upstairs that she rents to cover the rates.)

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 11:55 (eighteen years ago)

really good programme on the radio the other morning, seems obvious but for some reason i'd never thought of it, making the point that homeowners get all giddy when house prices go up, but actually that just means their next property is going to be that much more expensive, so it really gets you nowhere - unless you plan on moving someplace much smaller or in a cheaper town, which is rarely the case

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 12:08 (eighteen years ago)

I don't think I will be living in London in 10 years time.

― blueski, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 12:17 (eighteen years ago)

Because it's not about the total price of your house, it's about the *equity* - which provides leverage to buy a more expensive house next time.

The single biggest thing which affects how much you can afford isn't actually your salary but your deposit.

The price of your house rising gives you FREE EQUITY without your having to pay down your mortgage - so you can trade that in for a more expensive house next time, so it doesn't actually matter how much other houses have gone up, so long as they have gone up in the same increment that your equity has acrued through inflation.

This is why the first step on the housing ladder is the hardest, and it gets easier once you already have a house.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 12:19 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 131 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I do know people who bought in their 20s and they are LAUGHING now - they are the people who can actually afford these stupid madmoney £400k flats in Clapham and stuff.

But you know, I spent my 20s getting drunk and pulling boys and playing in bands and not worrying about mortgages, which is as it should be. These people with their £400k flats all spent their 20s getting accounting qualifications and tedious things like that.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

I put a £13k deposit down

this has only further ignited the FEAR. £13k?!?! upfront?!?! i am entirely sure that i will NEVER have that sort of money.

i know a few people under 30 who own their own properties...a couple of couples, two people who joint-own with the local council, and one city boy.

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

hehehehe :)

that was some good explainin' there kate.

the thing with shared ownership for keyworkers is none of the bvggers wanted it, so i think it's similar to housing assoc stuff, ie definitions of low income might be different to what you think...

― CarsmileSteve, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

Credit card debt? How about having a massive unsecured debt-consolidation (ha ha) loan AND credit card debt? How's that grab yer, eh? How d'you like them apples?

My current financial situation is just like 1997 - except negative. I blame Koogs.

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

Those of you with a mortgage - make sure you check to see if your mortgage supplier is offering better deals than the one you're on to attract new customers. If they are, phone them and ask to be transferred. If you kick up a fuss and threaten to go elsewhere you just might get lucky. I've done it.

― Dr.C, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

My mother DRILLED INTO MY HEAD when I was younger, never get a credit card. Never get a credit card. I felt like a knob when I saw my mates going out and splurging on CD-buying sprees or holidays on their cards and I couldn't even hire a car. But then I did a spell working for a credit card company and REALISED how much they screw over their customers, honestly, it is such a racket. And saw a couple of my friends drive up totally absurd debts - $20-$30k of debt! - with nothing to show for it! And I was very glad of my mum's warning.

Mortgages are kind of a racket, too, but you do get something out of it at the end of it. And Mortgage Backed Securities hold up the American economy and all (I did my apprenticeship working for the only bloke in America who really understood how it all worked, Fanny Mae and Section this and that) but it would really bend your puny earth brains if I started talking about that, mwah hah hah. Next evaluation, I will ask for a gold badge for mathematical excellence.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

this has only further ignited the FEAR. £13k?!?! upfront?!?! i am entirely sure that i will NEVER have that sort of money.

Kate will know better, but I think you can get 95%+ mortgages now - they were rare in 2000 and, besides, the product I wanted (I was effectively self-employed, which cut down my options a bit) was 90% only.

Yeah, it kinda astonishes me that I ever had money like that. I wasn't alone - I'm sure there were plenty of IT contractors (some a lot wilier than me with the whole limited company scam) who rode that gravy train in the mid-late '90s and earned more money than they ever expected. Still, my time in the land of disposal income was sandwiched between two lengthy spells of unemployment and I have since re-learned to look closely at prices in the supermarket.

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

I'd like to have avoided credit card debt, but I can't spirit money out of thin air unfortunately. At least I've had it on 0% for the last year and a half. If my wife hadn't got fired and we'd got pet insurance before 1 cat fell off the roof and other cat got cancer (in the space of 6 months) we wouldn't be in this mess. We have pet insurance now, thankfully just in time for surviving cat to be diagnosed as asthmatic.

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

People are able to get 120% mortgages now, which is insanity.

― Ed, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

You can get up to 110% mortages now! (I think - actually I need to check - I know that they do 100% and over.) the sub-prime section of the business is BOOMING.

(But this brings up a whole nother kettle of fish in terms of ethics - mortgage brokers get paid on the mortgage deal getting signed - they don't actually care if you can keep up the repayments or not, they still get the money even if you default - compliance is supposed to keep a close eye on this, but add mad London markets to a booming sub-prime business and things get murky.)

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

PET insurance?!?!? ::sputters::

For half my life, I didn't even have health insurance for myself!

Though I'm not going to go down that road for fear of offending the kittie police on ILX.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

I have six credit cards! I've bounced the debts around quite effectively so I haven't paid very much interest.

My first credit card was simply to wipe out my overdrafts - continually being within a few quid of a £30 charge AND paying interest for being in the red vs 0% for six months. It seemed to make sense. I had a new job at the time and the future seemed rosy enough to be confident I could pay it off (perhaps with one future bounce). Not the case.

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:20 (eighteen years ago)

If you had vet bills of £5000 you'd get pet insurance pretty sharpish, I'd bet :(

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:22 (eighteen years ago)

I wouldn't have vet bills of £5000.

I don't have any pets. And call me an animal hating bastard, but while I was growing up and still had pets, any animal that would have needed that much in medical bills would have gone off to sing with the angels in heaven pretty quickly, thanks to my mum's thrifty theology.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:24 (eighteen years ago)

But... you know, people make choices to spend money on what's important to them. I've probably made some financial decisions that would seem like total madness to others.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

I'm 26. I want to buy. I am in a good job, have large savings and no debts. Can I afford anywhere? No. Fucking couples!

Also people bragging about no credit card? Fuck off and die thanksverymuch

― kv_nol, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:47 (eighteen years ago)

I hate people enjoying other people in uncomfortable positions. There is nothing positive in crowing.

― kv_nol, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 16:47 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not enjoying other people in uncomfortable situations. I'm thanking my lucky stars that I was partially lucky enough, but mostly sensible and well-advised enough not to get in such a situation myself.

I've learned from others mistakes - both those of my friends and my own father - and not repeated them. And I am very very grateful that I am in such a healthy financial situation now because of it.

If it's bragging to be grateful for one's own financial security - and this is as a single woman, I'm not half a couple, thanks very much - then guess I'm guilty in your book. There are lots of other things in my life I can't take for granted.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:05 (eighteen years ago)

Stop going on about it then! I'm off this thread, good luck London!

― kv_nol, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:10 (eighteen years ago)

people who don't need credit cards are indeed very lucky, especially if they're homeowners

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

I dunno. I only ended up getting a credit card so I could buy some things online that wouldn't accept anything else. I guess the student overdraft rendered credit card un-necessary in my case, but the biggest thing I've ever bought has been a mere computer rather than a flat, car etc.

― blueski, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:15 (eighteen years ago)

Why is there such hostility towards people who don't have credit cards?

I mean, I'd think it was just the usual flack I attract for just being me, but people gave Emsk the same kind of shit for living without one, too.

This idea that they are something you "need" is mystifying. It's part of the outrageous debt culture that the US and UK are based on, but if you mention that they are a totally self perpetuating scam, then you get this kind of "ohigod, you freak" reaction in a way you don't get if you suggest the London housing market is overinflated.

I mean, yeah, my front window could fall in tomorrow, and then you'd be laughing at me because my savings wouldn't cover something that major.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:18 (eighteen years ago)

kate i just said you were lucky! is that hostile? you yourself said the same thing. to give you an example of why i needed a credit card - i moved into an unfurnished flat. i didn't own a chair, a couch, a table, a bed - nothin. i could have survived without a credit card i guess - in a sleeping bag - but yeah, it's necessary sometimes, and not just for "emergencies." FWIW i agree with you that if you can possibly avoid using it you shouldn't.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:29 (eighteen years ago)

I was talking more about kv_nol's extreme reaction - but that's probably more a personality clash. Who knows.

The last time I moved into an unfurnished flat, well... I asked around from friends and family if anyone had any furniture, borrowed a cot while I saved up to get a futon, got a second hand sofabed after a while, then someone gave me a sofa they were throwing out. When I saved up some more money, I got a desk and a chair, then bookshelves, all these things gradually. I never did manage to get a table before I moved out - I was still using a cardboard box with a scarf thrown over it for a tablecloth.

I mean, sure, even if you don't have family in the country, there's always freecycle, Oxfam.

I guess this makes me a hippie or something.

When I was a kid and we first moved to America, I noted how much my friends' families went out to dinner, and I asked "why can't we go to Ponderosa every week?" or whatever, and my mum told me "because we can't afford it" and I would say "just put it on the credit card, like they do!" and my mum got really cross and said "you have to pay that money back eventually!"

Debt is no longer thought of as something you have to pay back eventually, it's like this thing you carry around on your back like an identity. Actually, one of the only recent times I had trouble through not having a credit card was buying a house, because it's viewed as a form of identity - I had no debt trail in the UK, therefore I didn't exist, despite having 5 years of never having gone into overdraft on my bank account. I had to get someone to notarise that I was who I said I was!

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:40 (eighteen years ago)

It's not hostility towards people who don't have credit cards, it's hostility towards people who are being preachy towards people who DO have credit cards.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:44 (eighteen years ago)

meanwhile those married couples who own their own homes continue to laugh at the rest of us.

― blueski, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:45 (eighteen years ago)

If anyone is misunderstanding my comedy shouting as "preachy" then well, I guess that's my fault for not labelling comedy shouting as such, even with Adric jokes.

But it's born of frustration at being inside this business.

I suppose just because people know that something is terribly bad for them doesn't stop them from doing it, or I'd be a 10 stone teatotal sylth.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:48 (eighteen years ago)

> My current financial situation is just like 1997 - except negative. I blame Koogs.

sorry.

i have stupid amounts of money in the building society (have about 10+k in current account gaining 0% interest because i can't remember how to transfer it to the mail only savings account) but that and 4x my wages = a shoebox in zone 7. the one time i started looking at houses i got laid off 4 weeks later. moved to london. the next time i even thought about thinking about looking at houses was the same with added relationship meltdown. was not to be, i guess.

― koogs, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 17:56 (eighteen years ago)

Looks like I'm gonna be living with my dad for a while yet. Even with savings I can't afford anything , and renting would take up about three quarters of my wages, a mortgage even more.

I don't have a credit card either, more companies seem to take Visa Electron these days. I probably have a terrible credit rating, as I tend to wait for BT to send me phone bill reminders. I should set up a direct debit.

― jel --, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:07 (eighteen years ago)

I just want to be a dilettante, without the implied vices *sigh*

― jel --, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:14 (eighteen years ago)

Earlier I said this: " I went for a variable rate instead because it worked out at least £100 a month cheaper", but I've now realised I was talking bollocks. It was probably about £25 a month cheaper at most.

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:22 (eighteen years ago)

more companies seem to take Visa Electron these days.

really? i thought this was dying out. alix changed her account in the end to get a new debit card cos she was fed up with Electron being accepted in so few places.

― blueski, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:24 (eighteen years ago)

In the US, you can virtually use a bank debit card with a visa or mc logo on it anywhere.

― Ms Misery, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:25 (eighteen years ago)

Nah, Steve, loads of people take Electron these days, well at least Amazon, and ticket websites do, and most shops.

The only problem I've had recently is trying to get tickets for Lords

― jel --, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:34 (eighteen years ago)

Sam, Electron is sub Visa Debit/Maestro (MC Debit) which work everywhere. Electron and Solo are the equivalents for people on low incomes/teens/people with no or bad credit history.

― Ed, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:42 (eighteen years ago)

I have no idea why they are less widely accepted.

― Ed, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:42 (eighteen years ago)

*Shakes head from the comfort zone of having bought back in the 90s* I'm temping at a company that does ads for real estate developments. The money is lousy but I'm tempted to stay to see what effect the housing market turmoil has on the ads. And there is perverse amusement to be had from seeing Prince William County, VA townhouse developments advertised using images of urban hipsterism.

― j.lu, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:46 (eighteen years ago)

Something to do with needing additional security (shouldn't be used somewhere you can't sign/enter your PIN), probably because they only give them out to people who are shite with money (like, for example, me).

― ailsa, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

I wonder what my "credit history" is like

― RJG, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:50 (eighteen years ago)

you can find out! It is only £2 or something. Or you could apply for a credit card and see what they give you.

(I've just managed to get a £100 overdraft facility for the first time in four years, yay me)

― ailsa, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 18:53 (eighteen years ago)

This thread is like a flashback to late 1980s dinner party.

― Bob Six, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 19:05 (eighteen years ago)

Ha, yeah. Not that I was there. That said, this thread has been a lot more interesting than I expected. I've heard a lot of talk from people at work lately about how crazy the market is (houses selling within hours of being put on the market for over the asking price etc etc), but I'm still optimistic that I'll be able to buy in London if/when I want to, all evidence to the contrary. I guess the fact that my sister (single, aged 25, no parental help with the deposit) managed to buy a flat in zone 2 last summer for about £160k made me realise that it isn't impossible yet, anyway.

Also I look forward to looking at the arithmetic of different mortgages - how do you generally choose between them? Speculation as to what interest rates are going to do, I guess?

― toby, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 23:02 (eighteen years ago)

This is the thread where we speak like our grandparents

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:11 (eighteen years ago)

there were some really nice places around for 160 last summer i imagine!

― 600, Thursday, 22 March 2007 12:03 (eighteen years ago)

yeah toby from what 600 is saying, last summer was another era

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:22 (eighteen years ago)

gah i remember hearing people in 2003 going "ooh better sell quick, there's talk of a cool-down"

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

This thread is like a flashback to late 1980s dinner party.

But now the property bores are the people who don't have any! (I guess because it's just a given that your flat has gone up by x, or because you are so fucked because you overextended yourself on the mortgage that the increase in your equity doesn't really make you feel good)

― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:33 (eighteen years ago)

Also I look forward to looking at the arithmetic of different mortgages

that's our toby!

- how do you generally choose between them?

you ask yr friendly independant financial advisor (we have one, if anyone wants his number, he's very good, just don't use the conveyancing firm they recommend)

Speculation as to what interest rates are going to do, I guess?
we're in a bind at the mo, cos will probably sell to get a 2 bed in the next year, so we can't get a decent deal cos they all have min 2 year tie-ins. i still think (entirely gut-related, without much evidence) that rates will go up a bit more before levelling out...

― CarsmileSteve, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:42 (eighteen years ago)

I'm pretty sure that you can take the mortgage with you if you move in the tie-in period.....Worth asking about, anyway. We definitely can with our ten year fixed.

― Vicky, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:44 (eighteen years ago)

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