New Feature: Historical Prices

We have just launched a new feature: graphs of historical asking prices, by postcode and number of bedrooms. Most interesting for prospective buy-to-let investors is the evolution of rental yields. E.g., to see how rental yields for 2 bedroom properties have developed in London W2, see here. Of course, the yields are only approximate, as they are based on current asking prices.

House Purchase

After running London Property Watch for two and a half years now and having seen London house prices continue to rise, I have finally decided to get on the property ladder myself (together with my partner). To help other prospective house buyers in their endeavour, here is a summary of key milestones and timeline:

• 13-Apr-2007: Received email alert about property
• 13-Apr-2007: Scheduled viewing
• 14-Apr-2007: First viewing
• 15-Apr-2007: Second viewing
• 16-Apr-2007: Offer made
• 16-Apr-2007: Offer accepted at 4.5% below asking price
  
• 17-Apr-2007: Mortgage application submitted (through Leek United; repayment mortgage; lifetime tracker at Bank of England base rate plus 0.08%; no penalty for overpayments)
  
• 25-Apr-2007: Homebuyer survey done (cost: £340)
  
• 05-May-2007: Homebuyer survey results received
• 08-May-2007: Searches initiated (through solicitor)
• 23-May-2007: Mortgage offer received
• 24-May-2007: Results of searches received (from solicitor)
• 01-Jun-2007: 10% Deposit sent to solicitor
• 08-Jun-2007: Exchange of contracts
• 14-Jun-2007: Completion
• 15-Jun-2007: We got the keys!!!

So it took a total of 59 days between the date the offer was accepted and the date of completion! I now understand why the proponents of home information packs feel that something needs to be done to speed up the house buying process.