Guide Options
The House Hop Guide to Buying
Save £850 on legal fees*
Click here for free conveyancing quotes
*£850 is the average saving on a typical sale and purchase through our panel of conveyancing solicitors compared to using a high street solicitor (Survey of 52 high street solicitors, September 2010).
Click here for free conveyancing quotes
*£850 is the average saving on a typical sale and purchase through our panel of conveyancing solicitors compared to using a high street solicitor (Survey of 52 high street solicitors, September 2010).
Timing the Market
The overall trend of property prices is definitely upwards, with property prices doubling every 9 years on average from 1930 to 2007 (CLG Housing Statistics 2008).
Unfortunately, as we've seen recently, it can fluctuate wildly both up and down within that overall trend. And with property cycles lasting many years it's not practical for most of us to try and time our entry into the market.
Plus, once the current property slump is over we're unlikely to see the kind of boom in property prices that led to it in the first place because of the way that banks have tightened their lending criteria.
Overall, the most important thing is to make sure you can meet your repayment obligations. Even negative equity need not be a long term problem, providing that repayments continue to be made:
- budget carefully so you know what you can repay
- don't over borrow
- have a financial reserve in case you are unable to work for a period of time
- take out appropriate insurance such as income protection and critical illness cover (for more information on insurance see our "Guide to Mortgages")
