Frances Cook

to really look into things, to give it a try.

And there are more sellers at the moment now who have watched the prices go down since 2021, have often been holding on.

We had predictions that this was going to be the year that we hit

the bottom of the curve and things started going back up and then Iran happened and now interest rates might be going up and all of that makes it far more difficult for property prices, which is great news for the first home buyers.

It's always a winner and a loser in these things.

So, you know, first time buyers rejoice for once.

Exactly.

I mean, the first thing is a lot of the impact of negative equity will be emotional.

If you know that you owe more to the bank than you could sell it for, then it's a totally normal and rational response to feel a bit panicky and to worry about what the bank would do.

But first of all, know that the bank doesn't actually want to sell your house from under you.

I get that question all the time.

Is the bank going to get me in trouble?

If you just keep paying your mortgage,

the bank will leave you alone for the vast majority of situations.

I can't even think of a situation where that wouldn't be happening.

So first of all, don't panic.

You're not going to be in trouble with the bank.

Just keep paying the mortgage.

If you run into a situation where you do need to sell for whatever reason, the first thing to do is talk to the bank because the bank also doesn't want a mortgagee sale or a rushed sale or for you to sell and still owe them money.

They want that sweet, sweet interest.