Question about flats/houses in Ireland/UK.

Hello. My family (parents, my brother, I and a big dog ;)) have a flat in Poland, we could sell it for at least 100,000-120,000 pounds. Also, we'll have maybe 10-15k extra from other sources. Will we be able to buy something decent in the UK? I'm thinking about 3 bedroom flat at least. I've been surfing over the internet searching for something and it wasn't so easy (I'm thinking about Bristol, but still not decided). So I have a few questions for You:

- If we'll own a flat/house - how much will we have to pay per month? I believe there's a huge difference between paying for our own house and paying for rented one?

- Will the houses/flates be cheaper in the near future in the UK/Ireland? The prices are really crazy nowadays, in Poland too.

- are flats in Ireland much cheaper than in the UK?

Council tax for a house can be well over 1000 pounds/year.
TV licence over 100pounds/year
TV, land line and internet less than 100pounds/month,
gas, electricity, water, it also depends can be around 100/month all together but really depends.

if you rent far from London or other big city eg 3bedroom detached house can be around 600-700 pounds/month plus the above mentioned.

prices in ireland have been strong for years now but they are talking bout the market crashing now but thats just balls because out my back their is 40 town houses and flats for sale and not 1 is less then £500000 and where building more im sure you would be able to buy in arun down area for that sort of money!

Thank You guys.

lazybones, 600-700 pounds montly for rented one,yeah?

So if we'll be owners of a property in Ireland/UK we'll have to pay council tax (let's say 100 pounds/month), TV licence (8 pounds/month), gas, electricity, water (can be even 200 pounds monthly because I'm really experienced in wasting electricity and/or water - all my pcs are always on and I love spending time taking shower :>) and TV/internet (I think it will be even less than 100 pounds/month).

So, approx 400-500, rite?

What about Ireland costs?

Thank You very much guys :)

you will buy a house for that sum in some areas, but i would polemicize whether it's a "decent" house, on the other hand if you are not a demanding person.......

600-700, yes, for rent, close to nice and big cities much more than that

You wont get much in Bristol for £120,000.

Your coucil tax will be depant on the property you buy - so anywhere from £80.00 - £150.00 per month

TV licence has to be paid upfront for the first year and then you pay by direct debit in that year for you next licence - so its £135.00 up front and then just under £12.00 per month after that.

Also Britain has just come in the top 3 for the most expensive countries to live in....so cost of living will be high - on top of your bills

Gas £50.00 (for a family of 4 adults)
Electric £40.00
Water rates £ this varies depending on type of house you have and if you have a meter
Council tax £100 plus
telephone / internet - £40.00 (maybe less depending on what package you want.

Ground rent (most properties are lease hold) - this depends on how old the property is and it is payable on a yearly basis - for an old house (1890 terrace) about £12.00 per year but for a newer house it can be anything up to £600 per year maybe more

Service charges - for flats anything up to a £2,000 per year (home owners not renting) again depending on where your flat is.

they are also thinking of introducing further changes to council charges.....

so if you can earn a good salary then its good but if you earn a low salary be prepared to have to do without.

You usually can't keep pets in apartment/flat blocks......most leases don't allow for it. Probably a terraced house would be your best bet. Look on rightmove.co.uk to get an idea on prices and what you can get for the amount you have to spend on a property. You will need to key in the area first, but get a map of the UK and roughly work out which area you would like to know prices for. It is a very low budget that you have but I bet you may be able to find somewhere and also you could get a scheme where you buy a percentage of the property and pay rent on the other part with an option to buy the rest at a future date. There's lots of alternatives.......good luck in your searches. :)

Hi LIR :)

ShelleyS:

You wont get much in Bristol for £120,000.

Yea, I've found absolutely nothing ;/

Lady in red gave me really good advice:

(...) also you could get a scheme where you buy a percentage of the property and pay rent on the other part (...)

Is it common in the UK or I'll have some troubles buying this way? As I said we'll be newcomers so it will be a bit risky for a bank to give us 100,000 or even for seller. I think we want to buy at least 40-50% of property, so we'll have to pay other 100,000-120,000 pounds or so. So we're talking now about ~ 200,000 pounds at least 3 bedroom terraced house, possible? I'm afraid it will be just a decent place? Properties in Poland are horribly expensive nowadays too, but for 200,000 pounds You can build a really nice house...

By the way - gas, electricity and water aren't cheap here too. We pay about 20-30 pounds/month for gas, about 50 pounds electricity and 40-50 water, so as You can see it's not a nice place to live, since average wage is ~500 pounds/month and I can't say I know many people who do have much more, but I know many who have 190-300... My parents do have much more, but it's still nothing amazing, You know, the prices in Poland are crazy now, it was much, much easier to live here 1-2 years ago. My cousin came from the UK few days ago and she said "oh my God, I can't believe so many things here are much more expensive than in the UK!", and she was talking about food only, between internet services or notebooks or many "exclusive" things there's no comparison, some things are nearly 60% more expensive here and remember than 1 pound = ~ 0,19 zl. That's just so sick...

that's true, e.g. telephone calls: here few pounds for hours, in Poland I used to pay 20-30 pounds for less.

unbelievable aint it ....

i pay £45 a month GoGreen duel fuel (gas and electric)
Council Tax is £774.46 a year as im in Band A (which works out at £77.44 a month over 10months on direct debit)
Rent is £390 a month (3bed terraced privately rented)
the Internet/phone is £35 a month - free evening/weekend calls on landline and also on my broadband talk line :) so that helps on costs

Sky tv £48 a month (thats with multiroom)
Water rates £29 a month

(total = £624.44 a month pay out before i do the food shopping which is usually between £50-80 a month, plus clothing for me and my daughter especially as she seems to be sprouting up at an alarming rate for a 10year old lol)