Sold a buy-to-let flat back in September and the proceeds have been parked across a few savings accounts ever since, a chunk in a one-year fixed with Aldermore at 4.65% and the rest in an easy access with Chase at 3.9%. At the time I told myself I would wait for the Budget before making any big decisions, and the Budget has now come and gone without anything that really changes the picture for me personally. So here I am, still sitting on cash, still not sure whether to buy another property or just leave it where it is and enjoy not having tenants ringing me about boiler pressure at midnight. The Nationwide numbers this week showing prices barely moving and the sheer number of properties listed on Rightmove right now make me think there is no rush on the buying side, but then if rates do come down in December the fixed savings deals will follow them down pretty sharpish. Has anyone else been in this holding pattern and actually found the right moment to jump, or does the right moment just never arrive?
Well, here I am three weeks later and the waiting game continues. Saw the Halifax numbers this morning showing prices basically flat at just under £300k, which on one hand makes me think maybe I should be looking to buy something while the market is treading water, but on the other hand the interest I am pulling in from the savings accounts is genuinely not bad and involves precisely zero phone calls to letting agents or arguments about boiler repairs. The two year fix I was quoted back in early November was 4.38% and now a couple of lenders have nudged below that, so the mortgage cost side is slowly improving. But then you read about the upper end falling off a cliff and sales agreed being down and it all feels a bit fragile. I keep opening Rightmove, scrolling for ten minutes, closing Rightmove. I suspect I will still be doing this in February.
So Budget day has come and gone and the property world did not end, which is either reassuring or slightly anticlimactic depending on your temperament. CGT rates untouched, no stamp duty bombshell, and the base rate sitting at 4% with everyone and their dog expecting a cut in December. The two year fixes are now averaging 4.41% which a year ago would have felt like Christmas, but somehow now just feels like the new normal that everyone has already priced in. I keep running the numbers on buying another flat to let and the yields still look thin once you factor in the mortgage cost, even at these rates, versus the 4.6% I am getting risk free in a notice account. The sensible thing is probably to wait another quarter and see whether that December cut actually materialises and what it does to asking prices, but I have been telling myself that for three months now and the cash is starting to feel like it is just gathering dust in a very organised way.
Spent the morning looking at the latest fixed rate deals after seeing that the mortgage price war chatter has ramped up again, and honestly the two year fixes at 4.4 percent are starting to look almost tempting from the sidelines. Almost. The thing is, with the base rate held at 4 and a December cut looking fairly likely, part of me wonders if sitting tight for another month or two gets me into even better territory, or whether by then whatever I might want to buy has already been snapped up by someone who moved quicker. The cash is earning about 4.6 in the best easy access account I could find, which after tax is not exactly setting the world on fire but it is still marginally better than what I would be paying on a mortgage, which is a genuinely strange position to be in. I keep toggling between rightmove and my savings dashboard like some sort of financial goldilocks who cannot commit to a temperature.