Ernie1 My threehapence worth.
Property prices do experience ebb and flow….but the ebb is when they either stagnate or dip slightly….this results in very few properties on the market and most of them absolute shite which no one really wants e.g. next to a motorway etc..
Then the prices start rising, people start moving again after a period of hunkering down….I remember talking to one person looking to move up, expressing dismay that property prices had fallen slightly. I said but that’s a good thing as you will have a smaller total mortgage burden on the larger property..she said but ours will sell for less. Well you can’t help stupid can you!
Whilst they find ever more creative ways for people to buy e.g. Lifetime mortgages, 40%+ ownership+rental’ etc… prices will keep going up. We are nation that says I like it, I want it, I must have it…how do I get it. Now wow, that’s too much I won’t buy it. Huge amounts of FOMO as well when house buying, especially for good properties.
There may be a staircase effect on prices, but while demand exceeds supply…they will always go up. I don’t ever expect supply to exceed demand.
The affect is worse than it looks because there is plenty of pile it high absolute skyscraper shite on the market that people don’t want to live in (the slums of tomorrow). Also a lot of houses squeezed in to make money, or tiny tiny apartments in blocks (often mostly rented) that are also not very desirable. So there is a lot less housing people actually want to live in than it seems..
I think buying a house is a sound investment. My first flat 31,500 (current value 325K easy. My house 159K, spent 112K over the years on it…Loft conversion , extra garden, annex….. current value 750K to 850K 27 years later.