Articles From the Team
Love at first sight
Women may moan about the lack of romance in their relationship, always longing for that surprise bunch (ok, gigantic bouquet delivered to work) of flowers and men are frustrated by the indecisiveness of a woman taking an entire day (sometimes even longer, it’s a BIG decision to make!!) of dragging them around the shops looking for THE perfect dress only to return to buy the very first one we looked at.
But when it comes to the biggest purchase of our lives, we (Britain) are a nation of decisive homebuyers and quite the romantics when it comes to our homes!
According to a survey by My Home Move, 61% of homeowners buy the first house they fall in love with and 25% of us are lucky to experience love at first sight!
The research also found that house hunters know when they’ve found ‘the one’ with 26% of homeowners making a decision to buy their home before viewing the entire property, with one in five (18%) making the decision within 30 seconds of entering the property and one in ten (8%) knowing before even entering!
In contrast, 17% require a second viewing to make a decision.
With 45% of buyers saying they didn’t have to compromise when buying, it’s comforting to know that almost half of us are living in our dream home.
However, the love story doesn’t always have the perfect happy ending…
First time buyers and those in London make more sacrifices or compromises with one in ten having to view ten or more properties before finding their home and 60% were not able to buy the home they originally fell in love with.
This is due to the high demand and shortage of properties for sale in the capital and the ever increasing prices. This contrasts with other areas, such as the North West, which saw only 44% having to make any sacrifices or compromises.
First time buyers were worse hit by this reality with a whopping 83% aged 30 or below saying they had to make compromises when buying their home. In comparison, only 43% of homebuyers aged above 51 said their home did not have everything they wanted.
The most common reason homeowners were not able to buy a property was being outbid by another buyer. The second biggest reason for losing out on a dream home was being ‘gazumped’ where the seller accepted a higher offer from a new bidder after accepting the original offer.
The moral of this love story is, move North. It might rain more but there’s a lot of love up here and you get a lot more for your money!!
For more information, please contact Nicola O’Hanlon at BCL Legal.