For over a year now, demand for property across Edinburgh and the Lothians has consistently exceeded the supply of properties coming onto the market. Whilst this is great news for sellers, it presents substantial problems for first-time buyers who will often find themselves facing significant competition and ultimately being outbid for properties that they are interested in.
As we have reported before at Warners, the fact that in most cases lenders are only willing to lend up to the Home Report valuation of a property exacerbates these problems. In the current market most properties are achieving prices in excess of their Home Report valuation. With lenders only willing to lend up to the valuation figure if you want to make an offer for more than this amount you need to have the cash available. First time buyers typically don’t have these sort of funds as all of their cash has been allocated to a deposit leaving them unable to be competitive, especially in the increasingly common scenario where a property goes to a closing date.
Against this somewhat gloomy backdrop for first-time buyers, it’s great to see that ESPC has provided a chink of light by giving them the opportunity of winning up to £5,000 to put towards the deposit for their first property. It may only help a small number of buyers but it only takes about a minute to enter and there really is no catch, so if you are thinking of getting on the property ladder early this year it’s well worth trying your luck.
You can get full details on the competition and how to enter by heading over to ESPC’s site here.
If you are thinking of taking that first step onto the property ladder and you’ve got questions about any aspect of buying a home, do feel free to get in touch with Warners today on 0131 662 4747 or by emailing property@warnersllp.com and one of our expert team will be delighted to help.
