Buying your new home can be an exciting challenge. It could be yours within as little as eight weeks and as we are all aware, can change your life 100%. New friends, new neighbours and a new address. Gazumping has made an unfortunate reappearance but not in the same numbers as before.
Prices are said to have levelled off resulting in an increase in mortgage applications and the healthy re emergence of the first time buyer. All this points towards a healthier and more ballanced picture for house buying in general. As we all know location is the one thing that will add value to our homes regardless of the type of home it is. Bad DIY is worse than no DIY , horrible neighbours are one of the reasons we move home and show homes give us good ideas on design. Curb appeal is king and the cream dream may be loosing its charm.
Unless you are looking to move out of the capital and relocate in another area entirely, moving up is going to be an expensive business. Some recently gathered evidence resulted in statistics that show London buyers in 2002 paid almost three times more for a detached house than those living in Northern Ireland : £356,000 and £130,000, respectively. The reason why homes in the capital are so expensive is because London is one of the most desirable cities in the world to live in. It is exciting, noisy, charming, interesting and often beautiful. It provides work and services for millions of people and attracts visitors from all over the world.
If you were looking for a terraced house, you would need to pay almost four times more than if you bought a similar property in the North East: £217,000 and £55,000, respectively. Those statistics would look even worse if updated to today's prices as have continued to rise. Most home owners in London appreciate that an extra bedroom or reception will cost them a lot and choose to extend sideways or upwards, this has given birth to the square soap box loft extension boom that many feel has blighted the London landscape. But as further research reveals – in 2002 over two thirds of home owners had moved less than 10 miles to their new home so if you currently live in London and you move, the chances are your new home will be in London!
