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I should have delayed buying my own place
Peter Dominiczak14 Jan 2009
Jason Mak, 26, from Croydon, bought a two-bed, former local authority flat in Old Street for £237,000 with a friend in September 2007.
Back then the property market was still booming and they secured a 90 per cent two-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.1 per cent with Halifax.
But the deal comes to an end this year and the pair are worried they may face a rise in their current £950 monthly repayments.
Mr Mak said: "The deal is up in September and things might get very hard. The value of the flat may have gone down, meaning we need a relatively bigger loan and the banks are taking away all the 100 per cent mortgage deals.
"If we can remortgage, the deal probably won't be as good. We'll have to go on to the lender's variable rate, which will be more than we are paying now."
Mr Mak, who is an analyst for a mobile phone company, said the scale of the credit crisis had shocked him: "It has been much worse than I ever expected. I thought the market would go flat, but I never expected it to have such an impact on mortgages. That may well come back to haunt me. In the short to medium term, it's going to be a huge concern for us."
Mr Mak fears it may have been a bad decision to buy.
"If I could go back in time, I wouldn't do it again. I definitely would have delayed buying my own place for a few years."
Reader views (9)
Like lambs to the slaughter ! People appear to have lost their powers of analysis and instead await to be force-fed garble by so-called experts and then follow a trend that apparently seems to be the order of the day.
I'm in a similar position to the fellow mentioned and have backed off and saved my pennies in order to purchase when the market becomes realistic in my eyes. Where is my reward for me making a good decision ? Instead interest rates slashed, savers punished, the un-prudent/greedy helped out left right and centre. And this Government want people to save ? I was perhaps better off jumping on the band wagon !
Your better of getting financial advice from your grandparents than from slick smoke jugglers in suits !
- Pebo Bryson, Balham, London, 14/01/2009 21:17
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Dont blame yourself, learn from this just like I did in from the late 80s.
We have 7-9 year business cycles, booms and busts. Next time keep this in mind and dont listen to anyone who tells you they have eradicated boom and bust. All they really mean is that the bust will be bigger because they have postponed it.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 14/01/2009 20:16
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Procrastination - the worst you can do under any circumstances (maybe)....
- Rogan, Irving, 14/01/2009 19:40
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well said mark totaly correct have no sympathy at all for greedy buy to let brigade also.
- C May, bromley, 14/01/2009 18:58
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J North, why are you blaming Gordon Brown for this? It was the American banks' readiness to hand out bad debt that caused the global credit crunch.
- Charlie, Soho, 14/01/2009 17:56
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Will people PLEEEEEEASE stop blaming the banks and take responsibility for their own problems. If you borrowed more than you can afford it's YOUR fault. The banks stand to lose money for being too lax, but it's like suing McDonalds for getting fat.
- Mark, London, 14/01/2009 17:45
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You can also buy at the top of the market and be crushed when the bubble bursts
- Jimmie, Boston USA, 14/01/2009 17:05
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Hundreds of thousands of people if not millions are now in negative equity in England. The banks were too soft in the amounts they were prepared to lend and now the market has collasped we are all paying the price.
Thankyou Gordon Brown for allowing this to happen!!
- J North London, north london, 14/01/2009 16:40
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You can keep delaying and pay rent until you die.
- Georgie, Islington, London, 14/01/2009 15:04
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