First things first - this is not a wind-up poll

I realize that many posters here are priced out FTB's, so asking them the above question will probably lead them to reply: I would be happy with a home to live in first!

However, as it is a poll, you don't have to own-up to your answer!

Basically, I am a OO, but as my first post on page 1 of the old NI thread will testify, I believed that prices were overvalued here and hence sought an outlet to dicuss this

Anyway back to topic, if prices fell to your expected drop level, would you consider buying a property here for the sole purpose of investment, i.e.

1) Straight forward mortgaged purchase of property for the purposes of long term letting (with a view to bolstering up a pension)

2) variation of the above, but not mortgaged, just paid in full

3) 'doer-upper' bought property that needs modernisation, and sold on thereafter for profit

FTR, my answer is Yes (but please don't feel obliged to post here with your answer, just vote honestly)

edit - with regard to my Yes answer, I would choose option 3, as this is something that has been ingrained on me from an early age. However, I would be a liar if I said that options 1 & 2 would not be considered as well.

I LOVED doing up my house; I took a mess of a place and turned it into something gorgeous, so hells yeah I would do that again - and would probably sell on straight away because I don't fancy any stressing about where prices will go thank you very much!

I think property prices will stagnate/fall for so long BTL will be looked on as a fad from the noughties - a new bubble will be found

bump!

I'll keep bumping this until I get at least 25 votes!

I reckon there are about 30ish regular posters here, so please cast your vote if you have not already done so.

All information here will be kept confidential and not form the basis of HC's next property ramping special

Would buy for OO only, and only when the rent is approx. equal to the mortgage payment. No "business" can be made here in the foreseeable future.

Only looking for a home but if I had an outbuilding might try doing it up for guest accomodation for family visits.

I said no because owning property is a lot of hasssle and doesn't float my boat. I just want somewhere to live. Savings a/c and ISA's will do me fine when I get on the ladder.

I would like to think I'll remember how greedy investors f***ed it up for me when I was trying to buy a home...

Property investment has made many people very rich indeed, but speaking locally that is a relatively recent thing here. Ask anyone over the age of 50, when they first got a good job in their twenties they could buy a decent house straight off the cuff no problem at all. The people of 40 odd can even remember this, property was next to worthless in many areas, capital appreciation was slow, a house could cost about the same as a good car up until the nineties when increases started to happen more decisively. Then of course the big roller coaster of 2005/6 made tens of thousands in a short time for all houses holders. The FTB was then in direct competition with the investor, all the stupid TV programs and the *keeping up with the Jones" syndrome created a new kind of amateur investor, and the easier it got for them the more of them sprang up etc. Interestingly the types of property the investors seemed to be chasing were the cheaper ones, and they were probably buying them off the FTB's from the years before. Doubtless the former FTB's thought it was great!

Even though I'm only speaking hypothetically, the jury is out on this. I mean in one respect I think that actually now is a good time to buy because there are so many possibilities to get property cheaply. I'd certainly be looking for the pick of properties, modern and in the best location, no rubbish. Problem it's still going to take time before the rent covers the mortgage, the rents have a lot of catching up to do and the term of investment would need to be 5 to 10 years to allow the market a chance to recover. I do believe however that this kind of soberish, long-term approach stands a chance of making me money.

Be my guest - seriously though?????

To be honest I would would look elsewhere, I think the money has been made in this market for now. Apart from anything else the amount you would have to invest here is a hellish big amount compared to properties elsewhere in the world, and would be a case of putting too many eggs in the one basket. If I was investing e.g. £200k in property I would think of spreading the investment, buy a few places in different types of world markets, hedge my bets. Not every investor thinks that way though, they like to be able to walk past their investments twice a day and would think that twenty miles away was too far.

I said yes.
But for a web site called Housepricecrash I find it interesting to see people being polled about investment property opportunities. LMAO.

Remember the conditions of the question I asked:

Anyway back to topic, if prices fell to your expected drop level, would you consider buying a property here for the sole purpose of investment, i.e.

1) Straight forward mortgaged purchase of property for the purposes of long term letting (with a view to bolstering up a pension)

2) variation of the above, but not mortgaged, just paid in full

3) 'doer-upper' bought property that needs modernisation, and sold on thereafter for profit

In my opinion Northern Ireland is too messy. There are much better flip options available elsewhere. For instance at this moment you can buy a block of 10 apartments in Germany for €600k+ [bulk discounts]with sitting tenants yielding 8%-10%. Keep for 6 to 10 months, break up then sell, on an individual basis through daft.ie at €90,000 per unit. A 50% return before costs. Yields are still above ECB rates at 5.3% to 6.7%. There are so many people flipping these type of properties at the minute, its nuts.

Btw although it's a good proposition, capital appreciation in the long term in German residential is not a given. Very complex to explain. Many naive oversea's property investors are to eager to part with monies – look at Bulgaria, Dubai etc. All costs including full loan interest only would be about €40k [6 months] with a return before taxes of up to €300k. Nowhere in NI will offer this, without having to spent money on the building...? Btw I don’t touch residential there…

Copying and pasting the same question doesn't change it. what you are asking is, if you where given the opportunity ie if prices fell to your expected level would you invest in property to sell on and make money. In other words become a property investor like the investors who have created the property over-pricing at the moment.

I copied and pasted it because I didn't know from your first answer whether you had read the original question

Opt. 3 was the 'doer-upper' category and this was included in the question. I'm unsure as to what degree the doer-uppers were responsible for the over-pricing

My intention of the poll was to see what % of posters on the NI HPC forum would consider property as an investment again when their conditions were right for buying.

As you can see yourself it is currently just under 40%

edit - I also note that you are in the 'yes' category

I agree with this.

Wonder if my bank manager would lend me €600K to flip a few properties in Germany in the current financial climate.
If so many people are flipping these, be careful not to be Paddy last!

Headmelter - yer back

bout bl00dy time too!

An oldish article now but in case any newbies haven't seen it - Paddy Last

Still doing my research, but looks like I'll hold off investing for a few months yet. Things don't look particularly steady just at the minute but I might go in if there is another reasonable step down, which I think will come soon. All IMHO of course.