**July LC Thread**

[Haystacks]

Originally Posted by Anthony James

I have seen roughly a 3-5% increase in prices under £200,000 in 2 months. It's pretty insane and a great sign for the property market.

It looks like the New Forest must practically be the only place in the country in which house prices have been going up over the last couple of months:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...uyers-one.html

[joeri]

Originally Posted by Anthony James

They are being snapped up overnight by people looking to rent. We literally can't get enough!! And the properties at under £200k are selling very quickly too as long as they are priced well. I have seen roughly a 3-5% increase in prices under £200,000 in 2 months. It's pretty insane and a great sign for the property market.

Personally I would always buy a freehold house as an investment. Flats are not selling that well unless they have a very long lease (iro 999 years) and low service charges/maintenance costs. If you buy 2 x 2bed houses at around £150k-£160k I think you will be very pleased on your return.

BTW I am the other side of The New Forest, in the Hythe area. Here you can get a 3 bed mid terrace house for £160k if you buy in the right area and it will let very easily for £775 - £800 pcm.

So thats about 5%-6% return and you have to pay maintainance costs. How is that a really good investment? Only if you expect prices to rise in the future itssolid, but otherwise?

[Anthony James]

Originally Posted by Haystacks

It looks like the New Forest must practically be the only place in the country in which house prices have been going up over the last couple of months:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...uyers-one.html

You will notice that this article only makes a general comment regarding the entire property market. It talks about the average house price being listed at £242,097 and that this is a drop on the previous months average asking price. This is true.

I am purely talking about a small portion of the market - houses priced at under £200,000 (I don't include flats in this as those prices are difficult to sell). We have had an influx of investor buyers with cash and first time buyers who can afford a mortgage. This has caused a shortage of properties for sale in this price bracket and, in turn, is pushing the prices up. Have a look on a property website and narrow your search down to solely houses up to £200k. You might be surprised. (Don't do this if you live up north as everything is worth under £200k )

[Anthony James]

Originally Posted by joeri

So thats about 5%-6% return and you have to pay maintainance costs. How is that a really good investment? Only if you expect prices to rise in the future itssolid, but otherwise?

Yes, if you buy a property cash (no finance) it's a return of 5-6%. Maintenance won't be overly high on a decent purchase as you generally don't include any appliances except a cooker and therefore re-decoration should be the main maintenance cost. Most landlords will do this themselves to save expense.

However, I can only see the prices of these particular properties going up. There are so many people who will always need to buy a house in this price bracket (first time buyers, investors, divorcees, retired people downsizing, people with money problems downsizing etc...) that there is always a demand. In any market.

Therefore with appreciation your investment could grow considerably, especially if the market increases over coming years and it is definitely showing signs of becoming more stable. Offering you a significantly higher return than the banks.

It's all a gamble though in the long run. Just an educated one.

[krmont22]

I'd much rather just sit all in cash atm waiting for the next crash to gobble everything in sight up like hungry hungry hippos

[Anthony James]

Originally Posted by krmont22

I'd much rather just sit all in cash atm waiting for the next crash to gobble everything in sight up like hungry hungry hippos

Lol. Although I don't believe we will hit another downturn like 2008 I do not blame you one bit! Cash under the bed is the best way.

[joeri]

Originally Posted by Anthony James

Yes, if you buy a property cash (no finance) it's a return of 5-6%. Maintenance won't be overly high on a decent purchase as you generally don't include any appliances except a cooker and therefore re-decoration should be the main maintenance cost. Most landlords will do this themselves to save expense.

However, I can only see the prices of these particular properties going up. There are so many people who will always need to buy a house in this price bracket (first time buyers, investors, divorcees, retired people downsizing, people with money problems downsizing etc...) that there is always a demand. In any market.

Therefore with appreciation your investment could grow considerably, especially if the market increases over coming years and it is definitely showing signs of becoming more stable. Offering you a significantly higher return than the banks.

It's all a gamble though in the long run. Just an educated one.

Im by no means an expert on the property market, let alone the uk one. But why would you ever expect house prices to rise faster than inflation? The has to be some relationship to the costs of al the raw materials+labor costs of making a new one. And i dont know what the demograpic expectations are in the uk, but if you also have the aging babyboomers and no longer growing population, i dont see why it will rise.

If you compare it to just buying some safe equity its also not looking favourable. Shell for example has a really stable roi of >11% and u can expect at least 4% dividends on the stock. It will save you a lot of troubles just buying equity, because you dont have to deal with maintanance, insurance, contracts, difficult rentees ...

[sc000t]

AAPL earnings come out today after the close for anyone wanting to throw money at an investment

[Anthony James]

I'm not saying property is a better investment than anything else. I just think it can be a pretty sound one at the moment if you buy sensibly. In England there is currently a lack of new houses being built. The council have even started buying back ex-local authority houses which they sold years ago for cut price rates as there just isn't enough affordable housing in our country. This is why I think that buying low end starter houses is a sound investment. People will always need to buy them and there is not enough supply.

I just want to re-iterate that I only think this specifically for houses under £200k. Not apartments.

[napsus]

Originally Posted by sc000t

AAPL earnings come out today after the close for anyone wanting to throw money at an investment

are you bullish on them? i'm getting mixed signals from people

[antchev]

Originally Posted by krmont22

I'd much rather just sit all in cash atm waiting for the next crash to gobble everything in sight up like hungry hungry hippos

Same here. It's coming soon and it will be ugly (at least in Europe).

[krmont22]

I can't think of a single thing I would avoid more than housing as an investment right now, but that is just my opinion.

When I said I'd go hh hippo, I was definitely not referencing housing. I guess that was unclear.

[cts]

Originally Posted by wazz

I know next to nothing about stock-trading, ..... but it seems to me that the only real way to make money is .....

haha

[Quasar30]

Originally Posted by napsus

i would argue that these are the times (during Q3 this year in my opinion) when smart money buys stocks with a long-term view.

Why?

My guess is its a little too soon to be buying european stocks.

[wazz]

Originally Posted by cts

haha

Laugh away, do I really need to know the industry to have an opinion? My opinion is a generalized one. Are you really of the opinion that the vast majority of people investing in the stock market or buying property are doing anything but gambling? Same as poker, man, I don't need to know details.