Is now the right time to buy a property?

In May time last year, the property market exploded back into life after a near two-month shutdown, and activity, demand and sales have been on a level not seen for quite some time. Rightmove recorded a record month for property sales, with more than £37 billion worth of transactions between July 12th - August 8th. 

The mini-boom has shown no signs of slowing down in 2021 with the stamp duty holiday, record low-interest rates, changing priorities, radically shifting work patterns and a competitive mortgage market all helping to increase activity.

The average UK asking price rose to £320,26 in July, but that’s not to say you won’t get a bargain in some areas. The top line is: don’t be afraid to haggle. You’re more likely to bag a deal if: 

With more buyers in the market, it’s good news for sellers as it could increase your chance of securing a sale at a decent price. 

The Government has launched a new guarantee scheme to help people with smaller deposits get on to the housing ladder. The idea is to use the scheme to get lenders to bring more 95% mortgages - the amount you borrow, meaning your deposit can be just 5%. The 95% is known as the ‘loan-to-value’ rate.

How this is calculated is complicated, but to sum it up it should encourage more lenders to offer these mortgage products. The scheme is not just for first-time buyers and there is an upper limit of £600,000.

It really does depend on your situation. The stamp duty holiday lasts until the end of June, so it is cheaper to purchase a property now rather than in a years time as it could mean saving up to £15,000 on properties worth up to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland, and £250,000 in Wales and Scotland. 

But for those first-time buyers looking to get on to the property ladder, it might be worth holding off until July when the competition starts to ease off - as competition only drives property prices up, and currently, there’s a lot of competition in the property market.

Conveyancing is the process of preparing all the required documents and taking the appropriate precautions when it comes to the legal transfer of property from the seller to the buyer.