Long time lurker first time poster.

Whilst I take no pleasure in the plight of the people in the thread below following the same path I did exactly 5 years ago I do think it's a brilliant anecdotal which is why I've made it my first post.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=518829

"As title guys and girls i am fed up now as we all have our visas and are looking forward to our new lifes in eaton yet we just need to sell our house and yet we are haveing no lick

what makes this worse though is i got made redundant 4 weeks ago and was hopeing house would sell quickly...

that way a nice fresh start and bit of rest before we set off lol!!

anyway who else is in a similar situation...."

this is a classic i feel the need to bookmark it

i cant be bothered to sign up but i can see some fun to be had,please, somebody do it

I can see it would be fun if it were an EA or BTL forum, but these people are ordinary families. It's pretty sad IMO.

From the forum..



So there you have it. No need to worry. An estate agent has spoken and all will be right.

Actually, poor buggers. Life on hold because of a worldwide HPI scam thats going tits up

unreal how many,'been on a year three viewings no offers' posts there are.Un be f******lievable.Yet there they are,refusing to budge on price.Bit like MSE in the way they blame the marekt for their not meeting their deluded expectations

If there are any housing bulls left, we need to point them to that thread. It really sums up the problems people are having in selling.

Very interesting thread and proves the point about forced sellers bringing the market down. What´s frightening for the sellers is they are dropping the price by large amounts and still not getting any offers
There also seems to be a desperate hope about the ´Spring Bounce´ which I fear is not going to materialise this year. Lots of cancelled flights I think!

I agree.

Do you want houses to be affordible for your or your family or do you want people to suffer?

Your glee at the snippet of the story makes me think you are a sad sad individual.

"weve had 2 viewings since aug 07.one nice couple offered 1/2 price after we had stayed in all morning and tidied everything away"........classic, I wonder if the merry pranksters were hpc members

It's hard to pity people who use so many emoticons. Makes them all seem deeply idiotic. It's as though every British office is losing its clown to Australia. I for one will miss those wacky ties.

Whats sad, wanting to sign up and bate them or the situation they find themselves in?

If it's the later what exactly is sad about it, they have benefitted from a bubble and are now trying to extract the cash they have made simply by going along with the tide. It's one big sob story from them when what they are doing is trying to off load an over priced place on somebody else so that can go and chase a dream.

The evidence for me that they are not of the STR forward thinking type is that they have forumlated this great UK escape plan based on some over hyped valueation from an EA with no room whatsoever to negotiate. They have based their dream and set a budget based on this pie in the sky figure, anybody with half a brain would have looked at the risk and based thier asspirations on a low figure to deal with the possibility that they wouldn't sell for full price.

Where exactly did I express "glee"?

Is there any way of checking where Realistbear & CGNAO were on the day in question?

It is pretty sad I suppose. But then, if you've made the decision to up sticks and leave the country you probably have to consider yourself as a "distressed seller" and accept that you're not going to get the same price level that a more relaxed seller might get. "Price to market" an' all that.

The silver lining is that if they're heading to Sydney, there seems to be similar problems developing there.

I suppose they have two choices now;
1. Take a much reduced offer, or
2. Rent it out and sell it in a few year's time and rent when they arrive in Oz.

All depends how much they've MEWed over the last few years doesn't it?

If they are suffering as a result of the decisions they've made then too damn bad.

No one asked them to take out a crazy sized mortgage or feed on equity release.

If you fail to educate yourself, regularly update yourself with relevant information, or question why house prices have risen so strongly over the past 8 years and whether it can be sustained.... well you can't feel sorry for everyone.

In my experience the glee has been the other way around... home-owners lording it over me... dismissive of my situation... but unaware of my cash firepower.

Are they sure that they are moving to Australia? The pronunciation of "luck" to "lick" indicates they've been learning Kiwinglish.

Hope they like fush and chups.

I notice nobody's mentioning the slide of the £ against the Ozzie $. Most seem to be worried about losing 10K in their asking price.
What they should be worried about is the pound now worth $2.13 when it has been $2.56 in the last year.

I think I was lucky, I sold a year ago and moved my equity when the NZ$ was around 2.90 to the pound, it's now about 2.45. All thanks to this site.

Thanks for posting this Rolf. This thread has made me laugh more than any other. My fave quote is from Joanne

"...It really sucks in Lincolnshire. Houses take for ever to sell here. Wish I'd stayed in Derbyshire now. Both our houses sold within a week..."

So for anybody out there wanting to avoid the crash, move to Derbyshire before it's too late.

What has started to worry me is these idiots are going to move to the same part of the world as I'm moving to.

I wasn't talking to/about you.

Property is all about timing a few years a house would have sold in 5 minutes above the asking price, I have been there thankfully at the start of the boom in bidding wars, we won't see that sort of boom for at least 10 years now. Also with the English way of selling there is no guarantee a pproperty is sold until contracts are exchanged which could be upto 6 months after a price is agreed. In Australia it could be done 2-4 weeks and if the buyer pulls out after agreeing a price the seller could pocket the deposit.

Australia isn't the place it was 20 years ago property and rents have shot up. In alot of cases in most of the major cities the rent can be upto half the wage packet before tax . Reading what people are taking over as deposits they are in for a shock. If you have heaps of dosh you can live a great life close to Sydney Harbour and the Beaches. Less dosh and struggle in West Sydney with the car jackings and the gangs . Though you can't beat the weather though

Also extremly Capitalistic very close to the USA (no thanks to the Liberal (Right Wing) government that was in upto last year). Also there are Proprty Spruikers galore in the same mould as Inside Track . Umpteen free seminars that lead to another one for a price.

Alot different from Wickers World circa 1988

You sound bitter.

I think the bitter ones are the wannabe expats trying to sell their houses at the moment.

House has been on the market on/off since April 07... buyer last year at 275k couldn't sell theirs.... dropped to just under 250k, buyer again this year who has admited that their house didn't sell when it was on the market previously so we are def in for the long haul. we did have a cheeky offer for 220k which we declined but it now looks favourable.... we need the money - we aren't sat on a fortune... going to validate in April just have to see how we go on from there.....

Shelley - aka desperado of leeds

This is the way the world ends..not with a bang but a whimper

They don't seem bitter to me. Sad, frustrated, ill-informed and increasingly desperate. But not bitter.

This is the start. Give it time.

Some choice quotes on that thread:



What's that? You didn't plan properly. Tough.



tut tut tut. No sympathy from me at all there.



Oooooh the cheek indeed. These people are absolutely bleedin clueless. Blinded by their greed.



Yes, that's right. After around 4 months of record lows in volume.


Incidentally the house I'm renting WAS owned by a couple who have now emigrated. They moved without selling and had the house on the market for around 18 months (fairly desirable area of Birmingham). They then bought in Aus relying on getting the asking price for their house within around 6 months. Didn't get a sniff (except for us who offered 20% below) so in stepped.....

...... bank of mum and dad. Gave them the asking price and took it on as BTL, now renting it to us at a very nice rate as far as we're concerned. We've been in a month and the boiler has gone. Will have to be replaced at a cost of around 2k. It will be a loooong time before they're making any money out of us.

From what I read on the thread, none seemed ill-informed but all seemed ignorant. Not the same thing.

Every bit of literature I read (NZ and Aus magazines) and every bit of advice I took (immigration depts) said put your house on the market AT LEAST 6 months before you're due to leave (and this was in times of HPI). Yet poor old Cheryl on page 1, is due to fly out in April and puts her house on the market January 2008. That's not ill-informed, it's not even ignorant, it's just plain stupid.

Who says they're looking for sympathy from you?

Well the fact they're posting as they are suggests they're looking for sympathy from anywhere they can get it. The emotive language, the overuse of smilies, the shooting down of someone challenging the little status quo they've got going in the thread.

'Why won't these nasty buyers give me what I say my house is worth? Boo hoo, they're wrecking my dream!'

Idiots to a man (actually more like to a woman) on that thread. Most of them would be back within 2 years anyway as anyone who has no basic financial or deal making acumen is not the type of person who thrives as an immigrant.

Some quotes on the ex-pat forum looks like alot will end up in Oz skint

An Honest EA

I was onto my EA yesterday and he was all doom and gloom. He suggested renting it out until the market changes. Not what you want to hear from an EA that has only had the property on his books for a month and a half!!!

and look at the desperation as there are no buyers

We have just had the same rationale conversation in pizza hut We are in the paper again tomorrow (now at £25005 under original valuation), will give it 2 weeks then reduce another 20K, if we don't get anything at that price, Easter will be more or less over and we are going to try and sell to one of the cheap companies and know they will offer approx £65,000 under valuation - needs must for us, Jason flies on the 3rd April

Ehhhmmm not too Sound Fundamentals to me not so cooling down or soft landing more like crash landing to me

I’m surprised no one has said it already….

..When they leave, it’ll increase the average IQ in both countries.

And you sound like you jump to conclusions too easily.

Was simply rejecting the suggestion I should feel sympathy for those suffering losses.

I don't feel bitter - I DO feel glee... but only at the decision not to have bought during the last 3 years.



Given the valuations on property and the mortgage debt many people have taken on to get in the game + other debt..... I just can't see how suffering can be prevented. Please explain this magic solution for affordable houses with no suffering. People are going to suffer.

Well done, original poster, for spotting this. I think this is tremendously significant as this is ordinary people (not VI or HPC doomsayers) saying what the market is actually like out there. The sadness is of course that these people, with perfectly legitimate and commendable desires to better their lives (in this case abroad), will be the people who suffer from the unwinding of the hysteria of the house price boom.

(Mind you of course, if someone had sold their house straight away, would they contribute to that post....)

Would these sellers have more 'lick' if they moved to Seth Efrica instead?

Like this bloke?

This demonstrates another way in which high house prices have been encouraging emigration. Not just because people can't afford to buy a house in the UK, but because ordinary people who did buy houses in the 90s are able to take out $250,000+ in equity that can buy them a nice house in many other countries for free (or be a big deposit on a nicer house).

Brown's HPI has literally been paying people to leave the country, just as it's been paying companies to sell their UK factories for 'executive apartment' developments and set up shop abroad instead. ******tard.

Why all the gloating ?

If I had the opportunity to leave the UK, I'd be gone tomorrow, this country is going in the same direction as the titanic with Brown and Darling at the helm

From the perspective of Western Australia that certainly was the case a few years ago where there was about a 2 year lag with UK prices surging and Perth prices still relatively cheap with low interest rates.

Every international flight was full of "Cashed up Poms" coming here, with plenty of equity and exchange rates at 2.5 or better buying houses for cash, brand new 4x4 and boat on the drive and going in to semi retirement.

My story? Sold house in UK for 450,000 in about Nov 2006 (bought in 1997 for 132,000, spent about 100,000 on fixing it up)- I was a "shrewd genius" (for shrewd genius read "lucky") but meant I had to buy here at the peak where I was probably the "last fool". Swings and roundabouts and all that...

It's not like that now, HPI was worse than in the UK and now mortgages of 10x salary are common place as is mortgage stress of well over 30% of income. We've got liar loans here too, by the bucketful. Every other person you meet is a property investor, encouraged by generous negative gearing (so as the Govt. don't have to build as many council houses).

The conversation's sound familiar to those in the UK, "thousands are moving here every month", "house prices double every 7 to 10 years" "prices never go down". I guess one difference is here in Aus we do have stuff that others want to buy like iron ore (lots of it), wheat, gold, nickel, the list goes on...

To me that might be the factor that differentiates Australia from the UK regarding whether there will be a crash in prices or a "softening". Personally I'd like to see a humongous crash, I've always fancied a little weekend retreat in the hills.

The state of play right now in Perth, a stand off between buyers and sellers, loads on the market and first time buyers priced out. Does this sound familiar? http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=520403

See ya,

Rolf...