Abbey ditch local lawyers
Abbey have ditched thousands of local lawyers from their approved panel of regional lawyers due to their not bringing in enough work. What does this mean to you? Many people in the UK could now be hit with an extra legal charge of up to £250, due to having to have an extra lawyer to ensure that money was properly passed to the buyer. While local businesses going bust is always bad no matter who they are, this means there is less competition in the legal market.
Speaking as someone who is in the process of entering the market, I can definitely confirm that its a buyers market with large numbers of ‘buy to rent’ landlords selling and taking the hit. This means there are loads of properties on the market, some of which would never usually be there, certainly not for the low prices which I am seeing. Landlords are wanting to sell out quickly before prices fall even further meaning that they have not spent the required time on DIY and upgrading before selling that would usually be done. This means that there are even better bargains, especially if you want to put your own stamp on a property and not have all the word done before you buy. The big question will be will the market fall even further and if so by how much?
Lots of people I speak to are guessing that it will not be too long before we see some sort of recovery. Meaning that this is a great time to buy property, prices are down between 20% and 30% and there are bargains to be had.
The ‘buy to rent’ bubble has burst but rents have shown growth compared on previous months so it may be the time to hang in there! These properties account for a large proportion of the market, with the lending market the way it is you can expect renting to grow.