Hey all. I only just realised there were new posts in this topic last night, so was going to say thanks for the advice and currently there has been no movement.

However, got a phone call about 20 minutes ago from the Agent. The Estate Agents are now back open and the Seller is very keen to exhange. I said to give me until tomorrow to sleep on it.

I think I’m leaning towards cancelling. I’ve been somewhat assured of my job but in the same token currently on a 3 week furlough. It’s not that I couldn’t afford the mortgage payment on a furlough (though I wouldn’t be able to afford much else that month) so that hasn’t influenced me a great deal to be honest.

I do think it seems a very unstable time to buy and it I default within 18 months on a 35 year mortgage I can only imagine my life would be seriously screwed up for sometime in the financial sense? I might even be paying it back for life? Not sure how that works though to be honest.

The Agent did say there’s a lot of movement since they reopened and they aren’t predicting a crash but I don’t trust them at all.

I’m not so much worried about my property being worth less in 12 months because I’m guessing it will be worth the same again in 5 years, it’s just all the uncertainty about life in general at the minute.

A bit of a headache! But there are people in much worse situations than me.

Thanks. I was considering the renegotiation. Any advice for how to go about that? Or should I just phone the agent and say offer them this?

I was of the opinion that even if they would eventually accept 10% less, right now they wouldn’t and they wouldn’t accept it from me anyway as it would look like I’m messing around.

Thanks. I will certainly think long and hard about this because the worst thing would be to get them to accept a renogotiated price and then for me to decide it still isn't for me.

My current thinking is leaning towards total cancellation to be honest. My reasons for that aren't even so much based on price or a potential crash.

I'm thinking if I'm furloughed now and Projects in my industry start drying up, furlough could lead to redundancy. That combined with a market crash and a equity deficit would mean even if I had to give the property to the bank, I'd still owe them potentially thousands.

Does anyone see anything illogical with that? Am I right in thinking that even after all that, I'd have one of the worst credit ratings for several years, maybe even decades just because of the fact I couldn't continue to afford my mortage.

Other aspect is in normal circumstances I lost my job, I would like to think the maximum I'd be unemployed is 6 months. So theoretically I'd need 6 months of mortgage savings in case I lost my job. Not only do most people not have that immediately when they move in (myself included), I'm not even sure in current climate if that would be enough.

I mean, we haven't had a Depression in a Century. If I'm the modern day version of down the dock-yards, with 150 other people competing for a lower paying version of my job, i could be out of a job for a year or more, or even get a job that isn't a high enough salary to cover.

Sorry for long post, thinking out loud.

One thing I can clear up - It doesn't NEED to be this place. That's not to say it isn't the best one I've viewed and I was genuinely so excited and happy to move in but I'm not an overly emotional person when it comes to bricks and mortar, and I can imagine there are other 2 bedroom flats in green areas with a nice view out there. If this one had a pool or something I may be thinking differently

So it’s done. Pulled out today and within a second the Estate Agent said doesn’t matter they have another offer and that was that. Expected a much longer conversation so that shocked me but just shows they were continuing on despite us agreed anyway.

Firstly I’d like to thank everyone that has taken the time to give advice on here. It all really helped. You can’t get non-bias advice from friends and family, no matter how well meaning they are so I’m glad I had the brainwave of asking my Palace family! However, not being footie related I expected 1 or 2 replies max so thank you all very much for the pages of help.

Moving onwards. I figured I’ll wait and see what happens with Covid, my job and the market and all things being well, was thinking of looking again in December.

I know there won’t be a vaccine by then but does that sound about right for the market falling? It’s around 6 months. I don’t know how quickly these things happen. Could it be they drop in the next week or should I be waiting 12 months+ to see a difference?