Even Government-backed schemes can come with serious complications
The housing market is booming and the Government has taken massive steps to encourage home ownership. But is now the right time to buy?
The entry-level market is concentrated heavily in flats, a sector which is grappling with successive scandals over leasehold ownership and building safety. Government schemes such as Help to Buy and shared ownership come with big complications, while low deposit borrowing brings added risks of negative equity.
Here, we take a look at the common traps first-time buyers need to be aware of this year – and what you can do to avoid them.
‘We faced our own nightmare after buying Rise Hall, Sarah Beeny’s stately home’
The broadcaster and her husband found the restoration and upkeep of the house a challenge, and it was no different for Helen and Dan Gill
5 April 2021 • 5:00pm
Helen and Dan Gill felt they had bitten off more than they could chew when they bought Rise Hall
The first time Helen and Dan Gill saw Rise Hall, Yorkshire’s largest privately owned Grade II-listed stately country home, which they bought from property expert Sarah Beeny in 2019, they were struck by its breathtaking façade.
“I remember turning off the lane into the driveway, going past some trees and then seeing the parkland opening up before the house, with its enormous classical portico, and just thinking: ‘Wow’,” says Gill.
London s rental market has hit rock bottom – but could soon bounce back
In some parts of the capital rents have fallen by 22pc, but renter registrations are now up 44pc year-on-year
Renters have moved further away from their offices, causing central London prices to plunge 17.7pc
Rents of homes in central London plunged in February at the fastest rate recorded since the start of the pandemic. But landlords and tenants in the capital are already preparing for a post-lockdown bounce.
Meanwhile, short-term lets have been shifted onto the long-term market and renters moved out of town to find space for home offices. Central London rents last month were down 17.7pc year-on-year, according to Hamptons International estate agents.
Extended stamp duty holiday will send house price boom north
Half of the areas that will benefit most from the second phase of the stamp duty holiday are in the South West, North and the Midlands
Worcester will benefit from some of the highest tax savings in proportion to house price
The switch to a £250,000 nil-rate band stamp duty holiday in July will create a new set of hotspots, shifting the main beneficiaries of the tax break into lower-priced markets. In the areas that have the largest savings as a proportion of the local prices, buyers’ purchasing power will significantly increase. This will send demand, and prices, higher.