Cost per m2

[Miek]

45 minutes ago, Temp said:

over 15% in the late 1980s. 

 

Glad I'm too young to remember. 

[Jeremy Harris]

11 minutes ago, Miek said:

Glad I'm too young to remember. 

 

 

It was pretty dire having to pay that much interest.  The real killer was that the interest rate rose to that sort of level pretty quickly, so people were getting into real difficulties with repayments.  There were a fair few cases of people just walking away and handing their keys to the lenders.

[ProDave]

I recall the 15% rates.  Over HALF my take home pay went on the mortgage, leaving me less than £500 per month to survive on. There were no luxuries, no going out.

 

People today say how well we had it buying our first houses for so little, but I can't see many putting up with all the "going without" we had to do to survive those first few years.

 

About all that saved it, was high inflation, and a salary that kept up with that high inflation, which had the effect of fairly rapidly deflating the debt in real terms, but it was still a few years before you could start to relax a bit.

[Onoff]

I did bloody well with the first house (1992 I think). Put down a 25% deposit. Both working. No kids. Living WAS easy. 

 

How times change! 

[ProDave]

29 minutes ago, Onoff said:

I did bloody well with the first house (1992 I think). Put down a 25% deposit. Both working. No kids. Living WAS easy. 

 

How times change! 

You missed the late 80's mayhem, but will still have got (in todays terms) a cheap house.

[Jeremy Harris]

35 minutes ago, Onoff said:

I did bloody well with the first house (1992 I think). Put down a 25% deposit. Both working. No kids. Living WAS easy. 

 

How times change! 

 

We lost a massive amount (as in about 40% of what we'd paid) for a house sold in 1992, that we'd bought 5 years earlier.  We had no choice, I was posted to Scotland, from Cornwall, so it was move or resign, at a time when jobs were scarce.

[SteamyTea]

By giving a few months notice that MIRAS on two incomes was ending caused a property boom in 1989.  I think my mortgage was down from £30,000 to £26,000 as I had overpaid.

I had a standard, variable, repayment mortgage.

By 1991, when rates went up for a few weeks, my mortgage was even less, but I did loose my job, so was 'on the dole'.

My sister, who had started with a £12,000 mortgage a few years earlier than me had an endowment mortgage, one that was fixed rate for 12 month, then fixed again for 12 months and so forth, and she borrowed extra cash against her house to buy a car.

She did not put money aside when rates when up, so paid a heavy price the next year.

Then she found out the endowment was under performing.  So had to pump more cash in.

Eventually she should up, at a huge 'profit' and moved.  She got a repayment mortgage.

I eventually paid my mortgage off 20 years ago.  Was a good feeling.

With property, cash is king, never run out of it.

 

 

[Onoff]

3 hours ago, ProDave said:

You missed the late 80's mayhem, but will still have got (in todays terms) a cheap house.

 

From memory our neighbor's paid £65K two years before for ostensibly thd same house along the same terrace. In 92 we paid £40K putting down £10K deposit. Admittedly it needed work like a new roof, CH, DG etc.

 

Neighbours were in negative equity by then. Two years before we'd been getting to viewings only to be told the places had been sold it was that mad.

[SteamyTea]

My neighbour paid 85k September 8 for an identical house to mine (except my garage was attached, his was in a block, borrowed 10k to put a new kitchen in, then had it repossessed in 91.

It sold for 38k, in 93 the same price I paid for mine in 86.

What a nob.  Even at the time I knew it was way over priced.

The price I paid was 3 times my wage at the time.  I suspect, knowing what he did for a job and where he worked, that he borrowed 6 times his wage.  I think mortgage rates were about 10% then.

[Sue B]

I shudder at the thought of the 15% interest rates.  One toddler and another on the way.  I didn’t earn enough to make it worthwhile to work (childminders for 2 kids cost more than I could earn).  Neither of us had great jobs.  Peter was bringing home £1000 per month, the mortgage was £750 per month.

we were very very lucky.  Our building society manager just allowed us to underpay and because it was agreed, there were no threatening letters.  I knew many people who just handed their keys back. We lived in Greater London so prices wee very high and people of my age at the time (late 20s / early 30s) were largely in negative equity.  I cried myself to sleep many many times not knowing how we would survive.  

 

3 years later, life was rosy, I could go back to work, toddler was then at school so childcare costs were affordable, life restarted for us.

 

[SteamyTea]

8 hours ago, Sue B said:

I shudder at the thought of the 15% interest rates

It was, in reality, a 1/3^rd more to pay each month as we were starting from around 10%.

So it would be similar to rates going from 5% to 6.5%.

And it was fairly short lived.

We were used to the interest rates fluctuating on a regular basis back then.  It was used as a political tool.

At the same time, the country was considering entering the Euro zone, this destabalised the value of our currency against others.  Sometimes it was stronger, other times weaker.

Fiscally it was all a bit of a mess.

[SuperJohnG]

Wow @nod that's an amazing cost ratio. Gives me confidence that my 1200 is definitely achievable. 

 

Do you have any links to pictures of the finished house? (I did search your posts but it seems you have search through  all of a user posts to find these things).

 

I'd heard tales.of those high interest rates which make me shudder. Although all the bad stuff didn't just happen in the 80's, I bought a flat at the height of the market in recent times in oct 2007.  

 

Lovely 3 bed flat in a small town south of Glasgow. Was o/o £105k at the time.. I got it at a deal of £117k at the time..which was actually decent money! It was high end for the town but I should've  sold 2 years later and made 20k. Obviously...I didn't. I still.own that bad boy..probably worth maybe 85k the now..sure.it.was.down at 70k at one point..its a sore sore one.  Considering I've probably made 50-60k of mortgage payments and still owe 90k odds. You live and learn!

[nod]

46 minutes ago, SuperJohnG said:

Wow @nod that's an amazing cost ratio. Gives me confidence that my 1200 is definitely achievable. 

 

Do you have any links to pictures of the finished house? (I did search your posts but it seems you have search through  all of a user posts to find these things).

 

I'd heard tales.of those high interest rates which make me shudder. Although all the bad stuff didn't just happen in the 80's, I bought a flat at the height of the market in recent times in oct 2007.  

 

Lovely 3 bed flat in a small town south of Glasgow. Was o/o £105k at the time.. I got it at a deal of £117k at the time..which was actually decent money! It was high end for the town but I should've  sold 2 years later and made 20k. Obviously...I didn't. I still.own that bad boy..probably worth maybe 85k the now..sure.it.was.down at 70k at one point..its a sore sore one.  Considering I've probably made 50-60k of mortgage payments and still owe 90k odds. You live and learn!

I’ll re post a few pictures 

sorry to those that have already seen them 

[Oz07]

What's your flush overhead extractor cost @nod? Built a bulkhead for a woman before she realised how expensive they can be! 

[nod]

It’s a luxair Italian 

about 800 

I built the coffer for it to sit in 

but had to build timber hangers inside it to site the metal brackets 

very heavy 

[nod]

On 07/09/2019 at 23:18, Sue B said:

I shudder at the thought of the 15% interest rates.  One toddler and another on the way.  I didn’t earn enough to make it worthwhile to work (childminders for 2 kids cost more than I could earn).  Neither of us had great jobs.  Peter was bringing home £1000 per month, the mortgage was £750 per month.

we were very very lucky.  Our building society manager just allowed us to underpay and because it was agreed, there were no threatening letters.  I knew many people who just handed their keys back. We lived in Greater London so prices wee very high and people of my age at the time (late 20s / early 30s) were largely in negative equity.  I cried myself to sleep many many times not knowing how we would survive.  

 

3 years later, life was rosy, I could go back to work, toddler was then at school so childcare costs were affordable, life restarted for us.

 

I took my first mortgage out when I was twenty Rates where 12.5 and rose to 15 

I don’t think we will see anything near double figures again 

The whole mortgage scene is geared to low rates 

[Oz07]

Yeh tell me about it I tried to fit hers on my own had to get a hand. They're a lot more than standard wall extractors aren't they. Is there any benefit or all aesthetic?

 

If I hear one more of you lot of a certain age tell us how high interest rates were and how hard it was zzzzz!

Edited September 26, 2019 by Oz07

[nod]

2 hours ago, Oz07 said:

Yeh tell me about it I tried to fit hers on my own had to get a hand. They're a lot more than standard wall extractors aren't they. Is there any benefit or all aesthetic?

 

If I hear one more of you lot of a certain age tell us how high interest rates were and how hard it was zzzzz!

Nah 

Had it pretty easy 

Low house prices 

Working on German Building sites

for 5 time the average wage 

No income tax or vat 

Happy days ?? ?

[nod]

Can I just add there is someone on here that is hoping to get quite a bit under the 830m2 that we achieved 

It would be interesting to see how he’s getting on 

As groundwork’s are the unknown quantity 

[Olly P]

All going well we are going to start our 1.5 storey dormer bungalow in the spring or before if the reserved matter PP gets approved quickly.  I'm going to do the groundworks myself then pay a team of block layers to build the shell with myself labouring. I will do all the roof structure, fit windows, first and second fix joinery, insulate and plaster board and skim, decorate, fit the bathrooms and kitchen myself i may need to get a hand from a friend at certain points so i will need to pay him. Another friend of mine to render and stone face the exterior he will be paid also.  I'm not on any timescale as we already have a house to live in whilst we build it. It's around 350sqm and I'm determined  to achieve 800 per sqm with  average finish. Block built, slate roof, average kitchen bathrooms etc. Am I dreaming? 

[scottishjohn]

22 minutes ago, Olly P said:

All going well we are going to start our 1.5 storey dormer bungalow in the spring or before if the reserved matter PP gets approved quickly.  I'm going to do the groundworks myself then pay a team of block layers to build the shell with myself labouring. I will do all the roof structure, fit windows, first and second fix joinery, insulate and plaster board and skim, decorate, fit the bathrooms and kitchen myself i may need to get a hand from a friend at certain points so i will need to pay him. Another friend of mine to render and stone face the exterior he will be paid also.  I'm not on any timescale as we already have a house to live in whilst we build it. It's around 350sqm and I'm determined  to achieve 800 per sqm with  average finish. Block built, slate roof, average kitchen bathrooms etc. Am I dreaming? 

I hope not cos my project will be even bigger .Lol## but think you maybe a bit optimistic

[Olly P]

18 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

I hope not cos my project will be even bigger .Lol## but think you maybe a bit optimistic

 

I'm convinced that the price per sqm will lower slightly the bigger the dwelling due to various factors buying larger amounts of materials for better prices is one 

[newhome]

1 hour ago, Olly P said:

 

I'm convinced that the price per sqm will lower slightly the bigger the dwelling due to various factors buying larger amounts of materials for better prices is one 

 

Yep, and another is that in general the rooms are simply bigger and quite often smaller houses have a similar number of rooms but you are only buying 1 kitchen, 1 heating system, 1 MVHR unit, 1 front door etc. Yes those things can be a bit larger in a larger house but they don't generally cost twice as much when comparing (for example) a 180 m2 house to a 360 m2 house. 

[SuperJohnG]

On 19/10/2019 at 19:29, Olly P said:

350sqm and I'm determined  to achieve 800 per sqm

@Olly P Good on you...that scares the life out me. If I was aiming fro those figures id be able to go to 300 instead of 200! 

 

On 19/10/2019 at 19:52, scottishjohn said:

I hope not cos my project will be even bigger

@scottishjohn how much bigger???

 

[scottishjohn]

1 minute ago, SuperJohnG said:

@Olly P Good on you...that scares the life out me. If I was aiming fro those figures id be able to go to 300 instead of 200! 

 

@scottishjohn how much bigger???

 

this big --If I rebuild as it is its 700sqm ----think that is unlikely at this time 

picture was from 40,s in its glory days -- now its surrounded with trees and no roof --just the walls pictures with roof is 1975

Kirmabreck House old (5).pdf