After beginning my search for a house in April 2021, I finally bought a house in May 2023. The two year process was gruelling and stressful, but was worth it in the end. One of the hardest parts of the process was learning all of the terminology and what the next steps were, so I will break the process down here into its different stages.
House hunting
Back in 2021, covid was rife and the economy was suffering, so the government temporarily got rid of a tax that is paid when you buy a house (Stamp Duty Land Tax, 'SDLT') and lowered interest rates. House prices were also lower as fewer people were willing to buy in such uncertain times, so it was a buyers market and a great time to buy.
My parents encouraged both me and my brother buying a house while interest rates and house prices were low, and following the sale of some shares and having lived at home during my Master's, I had saved up so was in a position to consider it . My brother delved into house hunting and within a few months had bought a house in Clapham, whereas I was only 23 at the time and was juggling my professional qualification alongside my job so wasn't as eager to buy. I also wasn't certain whether I wanted the commitment of regular mortgage payments, but I knew that having money just sitting in a bank account wasn't the best move financially and buying a house in London would be a much better investment, especially given that I was raised here, so I started house hunting on and off.
I was focused on Clapham, Pimlico and Kennington and my main priority was being close to a tube station so that I could commute across London easily. I had other very specific criteria too, including only freehold (this is where you own the land beneath the building too, as opposed to leasehold, where you own the property for a set period of time but not the land beneath it), no basement or ground floor flats (due to damp and safety concerns), no council flats (as I wanted only a few neighbours to reduce the likelihood of annoyances), a lot of natural light, and within a certain budget. That said, estate agents frequently showed me properties that matched none of my criteria, which was very frustrating and made the house hunting process incredibly time-consuming. Furthermore, many viewings are only carried out within the standard work week, meaning that I had to spend many of my weekday lunches viewing houses or leaving straight after work. The only consolation was that I was predominantly working from home at the time so it wasn't too much effort. That said, estate agents are constantly on your back about new viewings and different property options and the influx of calls and emails I received from the various estate agents was ridiculous. Furthermore, houses in London are incredibly expensive for what they are, with a 1-bedroom, basement flat in Pimlico comfortably costing half a million pounds (GBP).
I started viewing properties in early 2021 to no avail, however two memories stick out from the period: the first was that because it was during Covid, only one person could go to viewings alongside the buyer, and I was viewing a flat in Kennington that was great with my dad, eager for my mum to see it too the following day before putting in an offer, however, a family of four had viewed the flat right before us (even though only two people were allowed) and waited outside during my viewing, before putting in an offer immediately. The second memory is of me telling an estate agent based in Pimlico (who constantly got facts wrong about the properties we viewed) that I was putting my search on pause while I spent 6 weeks in Lisbon, and her shouting at me, saying that it was a terrible decision as the foreign investors would be driving prices up by the time I got back. I ignored her and paused it regardless.
After returning from my travels, I set about my house search once again but to little avail as it simply wasn't a priority for me, Eventually, in June 2022 I visited a flat with my dad between Vauxhall, Oval, and Nine Elms that I absolutely loved - it fit all my criteria an even included both a parking space and a gym. The following day, my mum saw the property and I put an offer in. After playing the game of negotiation for a couple of weeks with the seller, my offer was accepted and I had to figure out the next steps.
Getting a mortgage
As it transpired, the next step was sorting out my mortgage. Some people get a broker in order to find where they can get the lowest mortgage rates, however I wanted to skip the middle man and instead searched for the mortgage rates on a handful of the UK's biggest banks, as recommended by my brother. Although the lowest rate I found was with a alternate bank, I ended up going with NatWest as I already banked with them and the rates elsewhere were only marginally better. I applied online, then had two online interviews and provided a plethora of documentation, including bank statements from the last three months (which for me included statements from my investment account, my savings account, my current account, my Help-to-Buy ISA, and my Portuguese bank account) as well as a stock share certificate, among other things. Luckily, my dad got me in touch with his bank relationship manager, who helped me to a great extent. I also had to go to Nationwide, where my parents had created a savings account for me when I was born, to transfer some additional funds over, which created more obstacles. Regardless, within a few weeks I had a mortgage offer on the table.
Chartered Surveyor
A common condition on a mortgage is for a Homebuyer's Survey to be completed prior to purchase. This is essentially where an independent expert goes to the property and inspects its condition. You receive a report at the end breaking down the different components of the inspection, including the exterior, the structure, and the interior. This can impact the valuation of the property and the mortgage offer. For example, if you are seeking a £500k mortgage for a property and the survey deems that the property is in terrible condition and structurally unsound, your mortgage provider may rescind the offer. There are various types of survey, however the most popular ones are a 'Level 2' or a 'Level 3' survey, with the former being for most homebuyers, especially if purchasing a flat, and the latter being a more thorough type of survey.
Most estate agents have a selection of surveyors that they can get you in touch with, which is probably the easiest way to obtain a surveyor as quickly as possible, although the cost may be heightened.
Conveyancer
A conveyancer is a lawyer (or solicitor) that specialises in the purchase of properties. This is a significant expense that is often forgotten about, however they play a very important role; they draw up contracts, spot any anomalies, and hopefully do everything in their power to ensure that the deal goes ahead and that you are protected. They also sort out all of the paperwork, including stamp duty land tax (SDLT), which is another significant, but often forgotten about, expense. Luckily, I managed to save £6k on my SDLT following Liz Truss' SDLT cut in September 2022. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to use my Help-to-Buy ISA due to the thresholds, despite having saved into it for several years. Once you have a lawyer, most interactions with the seller occur via each of your lawyers.
Exchange
After several weeks of back and forth between the lawyers and a lot of paperwork, eventually you get to a point of exchanging contracts. This is where each party signs every contract and the contracts become legally binding. Until this point, despite all of the costs, time, and energy, the contracts aren't legally binding and thus either party can walk away without consequence. To give you an idea of the amount of time it takes to reach this point, my house offer was accepted in July 2022, and exchange was only arranged for December 2022. Obviously, this can vary significantly depending on how efficient the lawyers are, how responsive the buyers and sellers are, and whether any party is dependent on a chain or not.
Furthermore, until this point it is possible for 'gazundering' to occur, which is where the buyer suddenly reduces their offer right before exchange, in the hopes that the seller will be too far into the process to want to start again from scratch and will instead just accept the lower offer. On the contrary, 'gazumping' can also occur, which is where another buyer offers the seller more than the current offer that they have accepted, thus leaving the original buyer without the house. To prevent this, I made it a term in my offer that the property be removed from the market.
Regardless, by mid December 2022, I had read, signed, and returned several documents provided by my solicitor, as had the seller, and on 14th December I called my lawyer first thing to give my permission for exchange (as the estate agent had requested I do). By noon, I'd called my lawyer and the estate agent as I hadn't heard anything back, but neither answered. Soon thereafter, I received a call from the estate agent saying that the seller had pulled out at the last minute. The seller stated that she may postpone the sale until January and that she would keep me updated. January came and went, and eventually the estate agent informed me that the seller had decided to keep the property as she was being treated at St. Thomas' hospital and living close by facilitated this for her. This meant that I had to start the whole house buying process from scratch. I then found out that I had to work over the weekend, so it really wasn't my day. Luckily, I hadn't terminated my rental agreement didn't have to worry about becoming homeless.
A lot of the details from my experience have been omitted thus far; for example, I was having to constantly chase my lawyer and the estate agent to make any progress with the sale, the seller denied me a second visit to the property before exchange, there were several typos in the contracts sent to me by my lawyer, and the parking space was misrepresented by the estate agent. The estate agent claimed that the seller had a bad temperament as she at one point wanted all communication via the solicitors but then didn't reply for weeks on end. The estate agent also sent a very sarky email in response to my final offer saying that it would alienate the buyer - it was instead accepted. Moreover, my solicitor ignored several questions of mine, and sent contracts with incorrect details and minimal instructions. I was sent all the documents to sign two business days prior to exchange, meaning that I had to read, correct, sign (in front of a witness), and hand-deliver them all in one day, only to learn that the day of exchange had been postponed without my knowledge; I was told that it would be on 12th December but when I called my lawyer to confirm, I was informed that they were in fact on annual leave and it would instead be on the 14th. I also recall being on holiday for my dad's birthday in 2022 and reading all of the correspondence from my original lawyer in the early hours after procrastinating for weeks, then asking various questions to my solicitor, who forwarded these to the seller's solicitor and thus the seller, who then had to respond to them via the same chain in reverse, meaning that all communication was drawn out.
Starting over After months of headaches (alongside wasted energy, time, and money) I was forced to start afresh and decided to start the house hunt in a different area, with a different estate agent, conveyancer, and even surveyor. I focused on Clapham instead of Pimlico, Oval or Kennington but remained stubborn about the property needing to be freehold instead of leasehold. That said, I was now a lot more keen to live in a flat rather than a house, as I'd lived alone in a house in Kennington for six months and wanted the safety offered by an apartment block. After only a handful of viewings in mid-January 2023, I made offers on two different properties. The first was a one-bedroom right off the common, which would be a great investment, and the other was a two-bedroom was a large terrace off the high street, which would allow me to rent out the second bedroom to a friend. My family were all enamoured with the latter, and I made several offers below the asking price as I was in a strong position (as a local first-time buyer, with a low loan to value ratio and no chain). The sellers were living in Australia so communication took longer than usual, but after three rejected offers, my fourth offer was accepted and I booked a survey immediately with the estate agent's recommended surveyors. The survey was extremely clear, and after some discourse about contaminated land, which could impact the building insurance and perhaps my ability to sell in the future, it all worked out. I also decided to go with a conveyancer that was recommended by the estate agents, which despite being more expensive would hopefully mean quicker responses and fewer typos compared to my previous lawyer.
As my previous mortgage offer had expired, I had to create a new application from scratch and at this point, mortgage rates had increased significantly, which was frustrating. I tried to do an online application, however they requested an absurd amount of additional documentation, despite having received all of these for the previous application, so I decided instead to create a new application with interviews again. It was at this point that I received the survey report and learned that I could opt for a 'Green Mortgage' (a mortgage that offers a reduced interest rate for properties with a higher energy rating). I had two back-to-back interviews with the bank in early-March, and received my mortgage offer almost immediately. Everything from then on went smoothly, including exchange, and the final step of the house buying process was underway.
Completion
A few days before completion, I had to make a bank transfer to my lawyer (who would then transfer these funds, alongside the value of the mortgage from the bank, to the seller on completion). This was harder than anticipated as there was a limit as to how much I could transfer in one day on my banking app, and when I went to a branch in person, the system timed out as a lot of verification checks are required once a threshold value is reached. I had to bring my ID and although it was slightly nerve-racking, it was a fairly streamlined process.
On the day of completion itself, I received no news until after 2pm, and then was asked twice to transfer additional funds, with was unprofessional on the lawyer's part. We finally completed at 3.30pm and the property in Clapham was legally mine. The estate agent called at 5.20pm to confirm that I could collect the keys (but that they closed in an hour so I'd have to hurry), so I rushed back, arriving just in time to obtain the keys. My brother and I went straight to the property, where we met my parents and it was even better than any of us had remembered. We took all the meter readings and were happy to learn that the seller had already informed the utility providers and left a handover book containing everything I needed, which was extremely helpful and very appreciated. As the property was share of freehold, I also became a director of the company, and was even offered to be the company accountant (which I rejected). I have since moved in with a school friend, met everyone from the other flats, and hosted various drinks with friends. They say that good things come to those who wait, and indeed the property was well worth the 2+ year wait.
Final thoughts
One thing that I definitely underestimated going into the process was the amount of time, energy and money required. I was constantly having to review documents and sort any issues that arose, chase the lawyers and estate agents for responses and learn new terminology and how the process worked as it was happening. Luckily, my brother had bought only a couple of years beforehand and my parents have bought properties before, so my family was a huge help in understanding the process and what was expected.
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