PricedOut > Blog - First-time buyers set to rescue house prices

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Posted by: PricedOut	Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:13:46 GMT
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/12/20/bcnrics120.xml "Pent up demand from around 1.4m first-time buyers could provide huge support for the softening housing market next year, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors." PricedOut comments - FTBs and anyone else waiting for homes to become affordable should take this article with a very large pinch of salt. RICS represent surveyors who have a huge vested interest in turnover of house purchases. We wouldn't want surveyors to go out of business but they have been part of the system that has allowed prices to rise out of control and there is anecdotal evidence that some surveyors work in tandem with estate agents to boost prices. Like many other property industry representatives, they also tend to celebrate house price rises and feign interest in the plight of the priced out. While PricedOut cannot offer financial advice, we would encourage anyone who can buy as prices fall, not to be browbeaten by estate agents or property shows into buying a home when the trends suggest that the prices may come down further. Despite a housing shortage, we are entering a buyer's market and buyers should now take every opportunity to drive a hard bargain, especially as economic conditions are now less predictable and mortgages are harder to get hold of.

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Re: First-time buyers set to rescue house prices

By daveyjacko on Sat, 22 Dec 2007 17:06:58 GMT

Rather than be cautious about buying, you should recommend FTBs not to buy at all, not until there has been a fully fledged house price crash. A coordinated buying 'strike' (to borrow an old idea from the unions) by potential FTBs, if it gained enough buy in and momentum to prevent any potential 'scabs' (sorry, borrowing union terminology again!) rushing in to cash in on falling prices created by the 'strikers', would help create the grandmother of a crash that we all crave. You can complain all you like, it's only by voting with your money and acting in unison (by simply not buying these ridiculously overvalued properties, en masse) that we will get the effects and attention we so desire.

Re: First-time buyers set to rescue house prices	By Rob H on Sat, 22 Dec 2007 18:14:46 GMT
A buyer strike would be a great idea, but how would would it gain the traction needed to become effective?

Re: First-time buyers set to rescue house prices	By Ben on Sun, 23 Dec 2007 11:07:41 GMT
Sign me up to the buyer's strike! Besides, I think it would currently be mad to buy a house for first time given the uncertainty in house prices, and the consequent prospect of some serious negative equity.

Re: First-time buyers set to rescue house prices

By DaveB on Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:18:45 GMT

We definitely need something to counter the estate agents etc who will soon be on TV telling us now is a good time to buy. To some extent the property media are doing this job with their simplistic view that you shouldn't buy a property unless prices are rising. That's probably because they now see property as a way to make easy money rather than as a home for people living normal lives. I wonder if Priced Out should be promoting the idea of a buyers' strike?

Re: First-time buyers set to rescue house prices

By SteveU on Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:33:02 GMT

A Buyers Strike? - But we cannot reach the FTBs, and we cannot compel them to hold off. And where are they meant to live in the meantime? The majority of people believe that the market will drop for a while before heading up again. Just no one knows how far or fast it will fall before a reversal takes place. Even good forecasters are poor at forecasting market reversals. If you are a would-be-FTB and prices fall within your range, buy one. In the mean time, keep saving for a deposit. A strike by owner-occupier FTBs just plays straight into the hands of long-sighted BTL speculators, allowing them to pick up property cheaper than they thought they would, and the strikers become their tenants - its win-win for the speculator. A strike by owner-occupier FTBs also allows the government off the hook for the 3m houses promised, and allows builders to scale back plans and continue sitting on their land-banks. Buy somewhere to live, or don't buy somewhere to live - its your decision. But remember this, even the professionals cannot say how far the market will, how fast the market will fall, or at what point the reversal will come. If you think you can guess this, you are probably deluding yourself - sorry.

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