We are SO happy to be where we are, but I almost don’t want to reminisce on what it was like to buy a house in London. To sum it up, we put our first offer in on a flat in December 2013 and finally moved in to our place we bought in November 2014.
– 12 months
– 100+ inspections
– 15 offers
– 13 outbids
– 2 accepted properties
– 2 properties falling through
– 1 success (after falling through once)
I don’t even know where to begin to explain the frustration of buying property in the UK! In Australia the majority of properties go to auction and when that hammer falls you have to pay 10% of the sale price and you move in four weeks later. If you can’t get a loan (unless you’re paying cash) you lose your 10% deposit. In the UK, you put your offer in, then you can be out bid, gazumped, caught in a bidding war, and you’re not safe until you are at the very end of the process… after inspections and surveys, and the bank approving the property. But you’re not done yet. WHAT THE? It is so back-to-front. Either party at any time can pull out until you exchange, which should take five weeks, usually longer. You can be at the day of exchange and the vendor can change their mind. Or you could get cold feet and pull out. The only thing you lose are your survey fees. This then affects ‘the chain’. Everyone caught in this selling chain must exchange on the same day. If anyone pulls out, the whole chain is ruined for anyone that is relying on the funding for the place that pulled out. We were luckily only in a chain of three, but I’ve heard of one being 20 properties. Imagine trying to get 20 properties all coordinated. Ridiculous.
UGH! Besides the crazy process here we FINALLY found our home and fought tooth and nail for it. A lovely two bedroom ground floor terrace with a garden in Wimbledon (Which will hopefully cover off #9 Wimbledon tennis because we live 5 minutes away).
HUGE thanks to our friends Jon and Rosie for putting us up for about 8 weeks while it fell through TWICE… xx
We’ve started putting out own touch on the place (see above) and will post the final results of the place later. Its already been five months… but these things take time!
I also got my first taste of London snow. It was brief but exciting because I’ve never woken up and gone to work in the snow – glad it only lasted two days!
The last thanks goes to my wonderful friend, Jem and her BF Rupert – what an amazing housewarming gift send all the way from Sydney! This cookie lasted long enough to keep us going with an empty fridge… x
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