The Intermediary – February 2025 - Flipbook - Page 22
RESIDENTIAL
Opinion
Too much choice
has its pitfalls
G
ranted, yes, it's a very
difficult process to
get to the position of
purchasing your first
home. Trying to save
while rents are higher
than ever before is no
easy feat. The cost-of-living crisis has
made it ever more difficult for most, as
we know all too well.
The silver lining, however, is that
if you are fortunate enough to be able
to get on the ladder and buy your first
home, choice is now plentiful.
A number of years ago – let's use
2019 for example – I'd oen have
first-time buyers update me multiple
times a week that they've put another
offer in on a property and had it
rejected. Sometimes, they'd come to
me dishevelled, with hope lost – but
finally, aer a mere 20 rejected offers
on various properties, they had one
accepted. Buyers wouldn't dare make
amendments when going through
the purchase process. Switching to
another lender? No way, out of fear
that the vendor might get the call for
another survey and then pull out of
the sale and go to the next buyer in the
queue. Renegotiate the purchase price?
Unlikely – they'd be hit with a similar
line from the estate agent: 'we could
just sell it again for a higher price'. It
was a stressful time for a buyer back
then, even more so a first-time buyer.
New normal
Today, however, first-time buyers
– and buyers on the whole, for that
maer – have a lot more choice. It's
no news to any of us that the 'seller’s
market' tag-line has shied. It's now a
'buyer’s market', and properties take a
lot longer, generally speaking, to get a
sale agreed.
What this means for buyers is that
sometimes they're spoiled for choice.
They might have an offer accepted on a
house, and then the next week another
comes to market that has a slightly
nicer kitchen, or the garden looks
more tended to. So, the buyer switches
property. But more choice doesn't
always end up positively, which I'll
address later in this article. It means
that, as brokers, we're oen making
more and more amendments to
applications, or re-applying as beer
options have become available with
another lender.
Years ago, before the dreaded
goings on in 2020, this wasn't entirely
commonplace. Now, brokers must
meander through a much more
long-winded process with clients.
Sometimes amending products,
loan amounts, changing solicitors,
changing property – two, three, four
times over.
A client might move from a green
product mortgage, to needing a
standard product as a property has a
lower Energy Performance Certificate
(EPC). Or they might go from a newbuild mortgage to something more
niche, as the ideal property has come
to market – but now, it's a Grade II
listed timber-framed coage with
three acres of a land and stables at the
back. Changes a-plenty.
What impact can this have on
buyers? Well, first there's more things
to consider for them. With drastic
