Should we buy now or wait for house prices to fall later this year?

Q My fiancee and I are looking to buy a home in Liverpool. Our budget is about £160,000, which includes a cash deposit of £22,000. We’re looking for a three-bed house ideally with a bit of garden. We’re not afraid of some work to get a home renovated – and would most likely be doing so whatever we bought, so it would be a good long-term home for us and our two young children.

We are living with my in-laws but would like to be in our own place as soon as possible. There’s a lot of unnecessary arguing and shouting in the house which is really affecting the mental health of my children and my partner. However, my in-laws are convinced that because of inflation house prices are artificially high, and are due to drop considerably later this year.

Depending on who you ask there may not even be a drop, and I’m of the opinion that we’re better off getting somewhere now, because I honestly don’t know if prices are going to drop enough to even make waiting worthwhile (especially with so few on the market in our budget already). I feel we’d be better off having a home we could be happy in, even after some work, then no matter what happens to the market at least we’ve got somewhere.
SJ

A At the risk of fuelling yet more unnecessary arguing in your current home, I am right behind your proposal to get somewhere of your own as soon as possible – and not just for the benefit of your family’s health and happiness. According to agents Liverpool Property Solutions, rather than drop, prices are likely to rise by 24% by 2025 – a prediction echoed by Savills, which forecasts 27.3% growth in property prices in the north-west over the next five years. I couldn’t find any predictions of a considerable drop in Liverpool’s property prices but there did seem to be a general view that prices would continue to rise but just not as quickly as in the recent past.

If you can find somewhere within your budget to buy now, it doesn’t really matter whether prices come down or not. You are clearly looking long-term and very sensibly take the view that it’s creating a home that matters and not the ups and downs of the property market.

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