Advise on buying 3 bed semi in D18

Honestly,
Don't spend over 300K for a house here. Prices will drop alot more. Have a look at the trends for this area on thepropertypin.com

Here's a house 100 yards away for alot less:
http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=536751

Even then I would think this property over priced by a fair amount.

do not pay anything like the kind of money currently being looked for! you can rent those houses for 1k a month id imagine. Believe me, if you buy now, the fall in value of the house (plus the extra you borrow) will come to a multiple of 12k! As i posted on another thread recently my mum sold an inherited house in 08 for E435k and there are now other houses on the street going for under E300k (god knows what they will actually get)! If you havent already, I would take a thorough read of alot of threads on this forum! It will literally save you a fortune!

I'd echo what other posters have said. There's still a huge amount of delusion out there over what a sensible price for a property is.

Many people 's value sensor has been knocked completely out of whack by 10 years of craziness. That is in evidence everyday - people viewing a 400K 3 bed semi as "value" because it used to be 700K.

Please, please, please, please, please wait for at least 6-12 mths before getting back into the market.

Remember that if you end up paying 100K less on the price, with interest included you will probably save the guts of 200K over the life of the mortgage. It's by far the easiest money you'll ever save / make in your life.

Id agree with the 250-300k max comment, at that prices I would say yeah that is acceptable.

Cancun2009 wrote: »

Hello all,


Looking for as much opinions on the following.

Boyfriend and I are looking to buy 3 bed semi-detach house in The Gallops, Leopardstown.
The location is just perfect for us; however the prices are not that affordable…
Most of the houses are available for 400-420 and our max budget is 330-340. We are first time buyers.
We went to see two houses there and tried to arrange viewing for few others, however we were told that the sale was agreed already.
My questions are...
Do you think it would be a good idea to wait for more properties in the area ?

Do you think that all the properties around 400k were sold as per asking price?
What would you offer for the house around 400k? / What do you think would be accepted?
Do you think we should wait longer til the prices will drop more?
Few links for references
Still on a market
http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=543244
http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/12-orby-avenue-the-gallops-leopardstown-dublin-18/347358
Sale agreed
http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=550635
http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=547394
http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=547081

Thanks everyone for reading this, and all opinions welcome!!
K

I presume you either have mortgage approval or the cash to buy? If its the former, be aware that some buyers with approval still cannot get there hands on the money as the mortgage approval is blocked further up the chain. If its cash (unlikely I know) your laughin.
Very few houses now sell for their asking price. If you get a survey or even look around the house yourself you will surly come up with something that is not right or something that you will have to change therefore cost to you. Add these costs up and subtract from the asking price. Worst thing that can happen is that they refuse. So what? there are many more houses and if you spread your viewings well enough you will come up with a comparable house that is a lower price than the one you propose a bid on. Dont believe ANY of the ****e that estate agents tell you. All they want is to get it off their books so they will pressurise the seller and swear to you thet a hundred people are baying to buy that house or as they would put it "your house". Stay calm and try to seem slightly unenthuiastic when talking to agents. Let them know you are looking around. Final bit of advice is dont buy now as there is a long way yet to go before prices recover. Another 3bn out of the economy this year? Possibly a default on the cards? Rent till next year. If the prices continue to fall (as I believe they will) you could save a a few years rent on the price you will pay for the house next year. My experience. Bought in 2008 should have rented. Rent 16K a year at the time. In those 2 years prices fell by 150K on the house we wanted and the refurb costs would have been cheaper now too. But hey we could afford it (as it was all imaginary money anyway) and we wanted to get into the house in the location and in the time frame we had chosen.

TheCityManager wrote: »

Totally agree....

Id say average three bed semis in places like lucan, clonsilla, swords etc will bottom out less than 200k, maybe 175k.....

I'm waiting..

My OH has just sold her house and we're going renting for a year :cool:

Following Ivan Yates back of the envelope figures from yesterday's Examiner. The assumption is that 1400 rent per month represents 5% return.

1400 x 12 = 16800 per year

16800 x 20 = 336000

Realistic price in the GAllops, 290 - 330k for 4 bed

Cancun2009 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies… probably you’re all right but taking into consideration we are paying someone else mortgage is pushing us… Also the fact that lenders are reducing the amount that we can borrow is bit annoying and does not leave us any choice… therefore we made an offer on brand new house in The Gallops (70k less than an asking price)- offer was refused by the agent saying the maximum the developer will go down is 15k …so we’re still looking – also why you think all the 3beds in the Gallops are still over 400k????

Supply and demand.

As others have stated some people are willing to pay over 400K as they're comparing them to bubble prices.
See here...

http://www.irishpropertywatch.com/salesSearchResults.php?Address=gallops&Beds=3&Type=House&Region=Co.+Dublin

...some were listed at over 600K just TWO years ago.

They've fallen a third in value in just TWO years.

Now you point out one area of the economy that shows a sign of improving and there might be a hint of bottoming out.
But it's almost impossible to find one.

1. Unemployment up consistently in the last few years http://www.cso.ie/statistics/sasunemprates.htm
2. Rents are down http://www.daft.ie/report/
3. Banks are increasing interest rates
4. Banks are notl lending as much as before
5. Many, many, harsh budgets lie ahead
6. Anglo and NAMA
7. 10-year bond yields at close to 6%

But knock yourself out and buy.
Plenty of people (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055860687) bought in the face of advise that told them not to and you seem as if you'd like to do the same.

I heard before that people don't seek advise, they seek an affirmation of what they believe.

I think everyone on this thread advised you not to buy and you didn't listen.
People just don't learn from others mistakes *cough* Alison *cough*

Cancun2009 wrote: »

but taking into consideration we are paying someone else mortgage is pushing us…

AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! :mad::mad:

Seriously, try to get out of this mentality, it was this kind of logic that got the country into the mess it's in. Yes, you are contributing to someone else's mortgage but you are saving a fortune on your own!

Cancun2009 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies… probably you’re all right but taking into consideration we are paying someone else mortgage is pushing us (1)… Also the fact that lenders are reducing the amount that we can borrow is bit annoying and does not leave us any choice (2)… therefore we made an offer on brand new house in The Gallops (70k less than an asking price (3))- offer was refused by the agent saying the maximum the developer will go down is 15k …so we’re still looking – also why you think all the 3beds in the Gallops are still over 400k???? (4)

Cancun, you have so much so wrong it is head spinning. On the four highlighted points:

1. But what if house prices are dropping more per month than you are currently paying in rent? Have you considered that? In the last 3 quarters, Dublin house price falls have been 7.5%, 10.3% and 3.5%:

http://www.esri.ie/irish_economy/permanent_tsbesri_house_p/

So, to take the most conservative possible reading of this, that is c. 1% per month falls. My opinion is that it's significantly more than that (using those figures it was over 3% pm in Q1 '10 and 2% pm in Q4 '09), but let's use the 1% figure to keep it simple and conservative. On a €400,000 property, that's a €4,000 monthly fall.

Meanwhile, here is a 4-bed for rent in the Gallops asking €1,400:

http://www.myhome.ie/343692

No doubt the actual clearing price is probably lower than this. So, if you are losing €4,000 pm after you buy, is that better or worse than spending, say, €1,200 pm on rent?

2. You say the amount you can borrow is declining all the time, and cite this as a reason to move forward with the purchase. Has it occurred to you that the reason banks will offer you less in the future than they will now is based on their belief that house prices will continue to fall? If they thought they could make money by lending you more, why wouln't they do it? And why would you want to borrow more than the bank is willing to lend? It is almost as though you are in a rush to lock in a high level of debt! Doesn't this intuitively strike you as perverse? In a sense, the banks are protecting you from yourself. For once with the banks, I would consider this wise counsel.

3. Why are you making a judgement about what you should pay for the house based on the asking price? What on earth has that got to do with anything? You should do the sums based on your income, and stress test that for significantly higher interest rates. THAT is the amount you can afford. By all means, if that is €70k below the Gallops asking, then fair enough. But I suspect that is not the case and you are actually having this major financial decision made for you by working off the arbitrary pricing of some gombeen developer who is probably busto. You have it all bass ackwards.

4. Why are prices still over €400k? Because large sections of our society are still in extreme denial about how rich we are(n't) and how far away a "recovery" in property prices are. Most people still think that at some point in the next few years property prices will return to 2006 levels. Denial simply isn't a big enough word to describe this lunacy.