View Full Version : Affordable Homes in Caithness
Is anyone currently or recently building low cost housing? Would there be a demand?
I'm thinking of traditionally built contemporary homes, built for high efficiency with a luxury spec. Priced for first time buyers.
I think there would be no demand as there really isn't any employment opportunities up here at the moment. If that changed and there were more jobs then its possible that more people would come up here and this in turn would possibly create a demand but its pie in the sky for now i reckon.
secrets in symmetry
12-Oct-13, 01:54
Isn't all housing in Caithness low cost by National standards?
Isn't all housing in Caithness low cost by National standards?
Yes it is. However, prices are rising beyond the means of many. People moving to Caithness for whatever reason are generally in a good position to take advantage of a disparity with national and UK wide prices. People that choose to stay in the county have little choice when it comes to say, sub £80k homes to buy and what there is tends to be old and inefficient.
The only housing I am seeing built just now are expensive homes for established owners.
I'd be interested to hear from people looking to buy a first home.
You also have the dubious behaviour of estate agents to deal with. A house in the area has been on the market for some time now and didn't sell so the owners changed estate agents and the price is now £9500 higher than the original asking price!. If it didn't sell for the original price, what chance has it got to sell for the new higher price? are the estate agents trying to dupe people into thinking house prices are rising fast? It's not the first time this has happened either as we have been looking at houses for several months now. When you have this behaviour to take into account, what chance have 1st time buyers got?
You also have the dubious behaviour of estate agents to deal with. A house in the area has been on the market for some time now and didn't sell so the owners changed estate agents and the price is now £9500 higher than the original asking price!. If it didn't sell for the original price, what chance has it got to sell for the new higher price? are the estate agents trying to dupe people into thinking house prices are rising fast? It's not the first time this has happened either as we have been looking at houses for several months now. When you have this behaviour to take into account, what chance have 1st time buyers got?
Well, more if someone builds affordable homes. There is no shortage of houses for sale, I'd be interested to know why you are having difficulty?
There is no difficulty in buying a house up here nor is there a shortage of houses but there is a shortage of good quality houses up here at a decent price. I can't afford a new build and i'm certainly not prepared to spend my savings on any old building and have to throw more money into somebody elses craphole to bring it up to a decent standard, a standard which most of the ones we have viewed lately seem to be lacking! For the prices that they were asking i would at least expect there to be minimal work at the very most to be done on the building. Seems some (note: - some! not all!) owners up here just think they can own a house for several years and not spend any money on doing so, then when they can't afford the repairs they decide to sell and think they will get more money for it than they originally paid for it! so we'll just keep looking until the right house comes along and rent meanwhile
Why not build for rent?
If you believe that the "NO" Vote will win & the Tories will stay in power then with no end in sight for the "Bedroom Tax" then there will be an increase in demand for private rents as they are not effected.
You also have the dubious behaviour of estate agents to deal with. A house in the area has been on the market for some time now and didn't sell so the owners changed estate agents and the price is now £9500 higher than the original asking price!. If it didn't sell for the original price, what chance has it got to sell for the new higher price? are the estate agents trying to dupe people into thinking house prices are rising fast? It's not the first time this has happened either as we have been looking at houses for several months now. When you have this behaviour to take into account, what chance have 1st time buyers got?
Estate agents are a needless waste of money when advertising your property for sale.
We sold our last house by posting it on a Facebook page. Caithness and Sutherland properties I believe it was.
Less than 2 weeks and it was sold for the asking price.
£1200 saved.
I would advise everyone to do the same.
Why not build for rent?
If you believe that the "NO" Vote will win & the Tories will stay in power then with no end in sight for the "Bedroom Tax" then there will be an increase in demand for private rents as they are not effected.
I'm not a property developer or landlord.
Estate agents are a needless waste of money when advertising your property for sale.
We sold our last house by posting it on a Facebook page. Caithness and Sutherland properties I believe it was.
Less than 2 weeks and it was sold for the asking price.
£1200 saved.
I would advise everyone to do the same.
Yes, we bought our current house on the .org and the land we are building our house on now.
secrets in symmetry
12-Oct-13, 13:06
Yes it is. However, prices are rising beyond the means of many. People moving to Caithness for whatever reason are generally in a good position to take advantage of a disparity with national and UK wide prices. People that choose to stay in the county have little choice when it comes to say, sub £80k homes to buy and what there is tends to be old and inefficient.
The only housing I am seeing built just now are expensive homes for established owners.
I'd be interested to hear from people looking to buy a first home.There are a lot of houses for sale in the £80k range (or below) on the Cathness Solicitors Property Centre website, and nearly all the others on the site are very cheap by national standards.
People moving to Caithness may be preventing prices from falling, but I don't see any glaring evidence that they're causing prices to rise.
The age, quality and heat-efficiency of those sub-$80k houses is a different matter. I think you're right about new ones not being built in large numbers.
There are a lot of houses for sale in the £80k range (or below) on the Cathness Solicitors Property Centre website, and nearly all the others on the site are very cheap by national standards.
People moving to Caithness may be preventing prices from falling, but I don't see any glaring evidence that they're causing prices to rise.
The age, quality and heat-efficiency of those sub-$80k houses is a different matter. I think you're right about new ones not being built in large numbers.
Yes, typically people are building houses on a one-off basis for themselves so it is not really adding to the stock in the area.
Highland council built some really good houses a few years ago but nothing since.
I have a plot of land I'm not doing anything with so rather than sell it for a single house build I'll try to persuade someone to put up a few nice starter homes.
People moving to Caithness may be preventing prices from falling, but I don't see any glaring evidence that they're causing prices to rise.
When I moved to Caithness 6-7 years ago there were very few houses priced over £150. Now there are plenty twice that.
Actually there isn't. But there are plenty in the mid to high £200ks
Why not build for rent?
If you believe that the "NO" Vote will win & the Tories will stay in power then with no end in sight for the "Bedroom Tax" then there will be an increase in demand for private rents as they are not effected.
Apparently there is a plan being mulled over by the govt at the moment to hit the private sector rents too with the "bedroom tax" along with telling private landlords that there is a fixed price they can charge for rents for houses so no matter if you are in a £500k 3 bed house or a £50k 3 bed terrace, the rent paid will be the same. Also before you are allowed to rent a house out in the private sector, if it has a mortgage, then renting must be allowed within the mortgage terms. Seems like the poor man is goona be wiped from the face of the UK shortly
secrets in symmetry
13-Oct-13, 13:15
When I moved to Caithness 6-7 years ago there were very few houses priced over £150. Now there are plenty twice that.
Actually there isn't. But there are plenty in the mid to high £200ksYes, the top end of the market appears to have weathered the storm much better than most. I see high prices, but are those houses selling? A number of them have been for sale for a long time.
I don't have figures, but I think the market at around £100k or less may have suffered falling prices. Does anyone have details?
outsidethebox
13-Oct-13, 13:19
The principle behind the bedroom tax started in the private rented sector. If you are a private renter then the amount of local housing allowance you can claim is limited by how many bedrooms you require based on the same priciples as applied when claiming for housing benefit. The major difference between LHA and HB is that in general the amount paid out for LHA is higher than for the same number of bedrooms for HB.
If the government are serious about controlling the amount paid out in housing subsidy then they need to restrict rents in the private sector - perhaps based on house prices in an area...
RagnarRocks
13-Oct-13, 13:27
Apparently there is a plan being mulled over by the govt at the moment to hit the private sector rents too with the "bedroom tax" along with telling private landlords that there is a fixed price they can charge for rents for houses so no matter if you are in a £500k 3 bed house or a £50k 3 bed terrace, the rent paid will be the same. Also before you are allowed to rent a house out in the private sector, if it has a mortgage, then renting must be allowed within the mortgage terms. Seems like the poor man is goona be wiped from the face of the UK shortlyIt has always been the case that if you rent or let out a property with a mortgage you must have the lenders permission. If you have a residential mortgage generally speaking the terms will not allow you to rent out your property unless you have permission from the lender, this can be achieved with some specific lenders and necessary fees being paid but not generally. The buy to let market is different although many lenders will have caveats in their terms such as no DHSS tenants. The lender will already have taken into account the size of the mortgage and the rent available it used to be 125% of the mortgage but reduced to 115% and previously I have seen products where it needs to be 100%. As rental payments are now paid to the tenant and not the landlord and the agreement is between the tenant and the landlord the govt currently cannot force a landlord to accept less rent. The current price of houses in this county has to be some of the lowest in the British isles, that allows the younger generations to still be able to afford housing in this area. Having viewed numerous properties in the county the biggest issue I've seen are people wanting premium prices having done little or no maintenance on their properties or let them run down significantly. This amazes me how people expect to ride the market increases whilst actively devauling their property by non maintenance. Within the county there are plenty of properties which could make perfectly good housing stock with a little work, and these houses are good solid buildings unlike the new affordable housing down south which are more like kit houses made of wood and plastic with hardly a brick in sight, hardly suitable for this climate.
have a look at all the 'for sale' signs around, and they are all affordable by national standards. mind you, with rents as they are, if anyone can raise the deposit, they are better off buying
RagnarRocks
13-Oct-13, 13:36
have a look at all the 'for sale' signs around, and they are all affordable by national standards. mind you, with rents as they are, if anyone can raise the deposit, they are better off buyingYou'll always be better off buying rather than renting as renting you're paying someone else's mortgage.The reality is the younger generation don't save like they used to and want it all now. Having sat through tens of thousands of mortgage appointments, I can say the vast majority of young couples where clueless when it came to personal finance and quite a large proportion of middle aged people weren't any better all claiming in depth knowledge of markets gleaned from a mate down the pub or having had mortgages all their lives .i.e 1 remortgage Churned every few years.All very depressing .
secrets in symmetry
13-Oct-13, 13:37
I bought my first place with a 100% mortgage, and sold it for a nominal 60% profit after 4 1/2 years. Those days are long gone....
As far as I can see, you typically need a deposit of 25% to get a mortgage with a low interest rate these days. You can get mortgages with 10% (or perhaps even 5%?) deposit, but you'll usually pay a much higher interest rate.
I'm not convinced that the government's new help-to-buy scheme will stimulate a big increase in building new affordable homes - but it might. We'll have to wait and see.
RagnarRocks
13-Oct-13, 13:50
Ahh bless the 100% mortgage a dinosaur from the days when people believed house prices never fell !There has never been a 125% mortgage it was 95% secured and the rest was unsecured, up to 30 k if my memory serves me correctly.The market is now offering 95% mortgages again but as has always been the case the higher the risk the higher the percentage rate you pay,and before you get offered that you'd have to have a fairly impressive credit score and no other borrowing or credit card debt.Non of the government schemes I've ever dealt with have ever provided much the regular market isn't.The biggest issue I see is the inability of people to live within their means in this country. I have personally dealt with plenty of people who have come to this country rented to start then saved to get a deposits whilst the people who I worked with,them mocked them for their work ethic or for taking all the work but refused to put in the same effort but wanted it all on a silver plate .
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