Most Property Owners who are in employment or self employed, and have been managing their affairs in a reasonably unadventurous manner over the last few years don’t need to be bothered too much about all the economic turmoil erupting all around them.
If you’ve owned your current Property, paying a mortgage for more than 4 or 5 years, and as long as you’ve not done crazy things like taking out a more than 100% mortgage, it’s unlikely that you’ll fall into a negative equity trap, even in the short to medium term.
Furthermore, it’s essential to remember that, although there’s no guarantee, in the medium to long term your investment in your Property is far more liable to rise rather than fall, because, ironically, due to the Economic Crisis, new Property construction has virtually slowed to a halt. This is right at a time when the government is saying that we must build 3 million new Houses over the next few years, just to stop property prices spiralling out of control UPWARDS!
The same latent pressure of demand for Property ownership is still there. It’s merely being artificially subdued at the present time , but as soon as some amount of regularity comes back to the finance sector, and even before the real economy itself begins to fully recover, we should reasonably expect to see Property prices beginning to recuperate.
The most important thing for the present is to make a rational plan to make sure that you can endure the worst of the chaos with token effect on your key assets. If you’ve been submitting to all the pressures around to live right up to your limit, now is an excellent time to make some wise retrenchments to make sure your borrowings are manageable, and smaller than your assets.
It isn’t a case of making your life wretched, it’s just about thinking about what you need to be comfortable & happy. For instance, if you do the average 10,000 miles per year & your car’s coming up to 3 years old, why don’t you just keep hold of it for a bit longer? The extra depreciation on a new one will wipe out most of any fuel savings, even if you downsize.
If you own a second Property, consider selling it to cut down your living costs and monthly outgoings on your mortgage. Of course, it’s not an easy time to sell a Property, but if you’ve owned the Property for more than a few years you could sell it easily to one of those Companies that buy Houses, or one of the growing number of Cash House Buyers who’ve come into the market lately because they believe that property feels much safer than even cash in the bank. These firms are just waiting for your invitation to Buy my Home.
You must log in to post a comment.