First time buyers becoming more canny

11-Apr-2005

A new report has revealed that aspiring homeowners are getting more savvy in the marketplace as property prices remain high.

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While Abbey's statistics show that the proportion of aspiring first time buyers who believe that they will get a home this year has decreased over the past three months, its findings also highlighted the fact that people are becoming much better at negotiating with sellers to find a bargain.

Almost half of those surveyed believe the market is now ripe for negotiating with a seller, because as prices continue to decline (albeit slowly), buyers are in a strong position to name their price.

Properties for first time buyers remain fairly difficult to come by, with a lack of affordable housing in the market, despite government initiatives to increase production, and as such more first time buyers are taking legal advice to decide what price they should offer, rather than merely taking the seller's starting price.

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Abbey's results also show that as many as 15 per cent of aspiring homeowners are now willing to resort to gazundering, whereby they drop their offer price at the last moment, leaving sellers with the stark choice of accepting the lower offer, or returning to the depressed market in the hope of finding a new buyer.

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