The average house price hit a new record high of £231,068 in February, according to a monthly index from Britain’s biggest building society. Property values climbed 6.9 per cent annually, up from 6.4 per cent in January, in what was described by Nationwide as a ‘surprise’ acceleration. A stamp duty holiday is due to end … Read more
Aspiring first-time home buyers will be listening keenly to the Budget this week with Chancellor Rishi Sunak expected to announce Government-backed mortgages with deposits of just five per cent. The Government is set to guarantee the loans, enabling lenders to offer mortgages worth 95 per cent of the purchase price on properties worth up to … Read more
My girlfriend and I purchased our house in North London eight years ago. It has four bedrooms and, since owning it, we rented out the other three rooms to friends and lodgers to help pay the mortgage. We paid £300,000 for the house and have been told by an estate agent we could potentially sell … Read more
Home improvements are high on the agenda for UK property owners this year – which makes sense since we have been spending so much time around the house. According to a UK study commissioned by online mortgage broker Habito, 62 per cent of homeowners want to carry out renovations this year. Of these, 37 per … Read more
The gulf between the most and least affordable places to live within different regions of Britain is growing, Nationwide Building Society research shows. Within London, the notoriously expensive borough of Kensington and Chelsea is the least affordable place in the capital to live, when taking into account factors like house prices and average earnings. Within … Read more
Caveat emptor – ‘let the buyer beware’ – is a phrase that couldn’t be more pertinent when buying property. Once you complete on a purchase, the last thing you want is to discover your beautiful new home is concealing nightmares behind every nook and cranny. Having put your savings towards the deposit, legal and mortgage … Read more
As many as 234,000 buyers who’ve had a property sale agreed could save thousands of pounds if the Chancellor’s rumoured three-month stamp duty holiday extension goes ahead. The total amount saved in stamp duty charges if the extension is given the green light in the Budget next week could top £984million, according to online property … Read more
We have just agreed the sale of our home and the purchase of a new one costing £600,000, and there is no chain beyond these two transactions. We had been working on the basis that there was no way we would benefit from the stamp duty holiday, but I have now read that it could … Read more
More than one in five aspiring homeowners blame bad credit for having their property purchases thwarted, citing this as the reason their mortgage application is turned down. Having a bad credit history is the reason behind 22 per cent of mortgage rejections, according to a survey commissioned by mortgage broker, Haysto. The survey found that … Read more
While the pandemic has been tough time for many, young, single renters have been hit particularly badly. They are more likely to be employed in struggling industries such as retail and hospitality, and to have less secure jobs overall. Having not accrued the years of service to require a big pay-off, they are also cheaper … Read more