Buying a house

The Market
It’s either a buyers market or a sellers market, and which one you find yourself in will impact on your lifestyle for years to come. It is possible for both to co-exist, more on that later.

Rising interest rates have pushed the UK housing market into buyers market territory but the prospect of a cheaper purchase price comes with much higher monthly repayments after 2023 saw interest rates pushed to their highest level in fifteen years.

Just Looking
You have no doubt already started looking at Rightmove to find your dream property. There are also two other very good sites that I use, Prime Location and On the Market. Estate agents have to pay to advertise properties on Rightmove so there is one other very important tactic to employ, especially in a slow moving property market or slump. Going onto individual estate agent websites and perform your search. You can often find a hard to move property listing that isn’t on Rightmove.

Buying a property that has been up for sale for a while gives you a big advantage when negotiating a discount off the asking price. But be careful, there may be a reason that it hasn’t sold. Make sure you have a survey or have a builder look at any problem areas.

Mortgage borrowing
As a rule of thumb, you can expect to borrow around 4X annual salary when arranging a mortgage. So if you earn £30,000, you could possibly borrow £120,000. However some lenders will advance higher income multiples, especially if your prospects for increasing income are good. Your bank will take both incomes into account if it is for a joint mortgage and all will take into account other borrowing commitments such as loans and credit cards so you could also borrow much less if you have large existing debt.

Start to search
The sooner you start looking at property online, the better. You should be looking at different properties right now! Save different properties, create lists, get as familiar as you can with the property market in the area you would like to buy. Build your knowledge of the property market in the area you would like to buy for a few weeks or even a few months. This will give you a key insight into what is selling and what isn’t. You will also become familiar with individual properties that haven’t sold and properties that have been reduced in price. This knowledge, as a buyer, gives you a key advantage when negotiating the price with the vendor.

Refurb or ready to move into?
You will know yourself which side of this question you belong to. PHOTO A B

If photo A isn’t for you, then you probably want somewhere that you can unpack your belongings and put your feet up with a cup of tea at 5.00pm on the day you move in. However, if you can live with photo A and visualise photo B and can live with the

inconvenience and expense of a renovation project, this type of house is where you can take advantage of selling in a sellers market and buying in a buyers market.