When you’re buying a house, one of the most important decisions you’re likely to make is the area you choose. If you get it wrong, you may become unhappy with where you live and face further moving costs. Get it right and you have a major purchase that could help you build your perfect life, improve in value or even become a long-term investment. In this article, we explore the top tips for choosing where to buy a house:
Why is buying a house in a new location difficult?
If you’re buying a new house in a location where you already live, chances are you have a good idea of what life might be like in that second property. However, choosing where to live is much more difficult if you’re moving to a new city or even country.
It can take a long time to understand a certain area's good and bad parts, which may not be easy to understand from a single visit.
Your best bet is to do as much research as possible, especially if you’ve identified a particular town or city in which you want to live. You need to thoroughly research each individual location surrounding a property and consider what’s important to you.
Do you want pubs or restaurants nearby? Is a new school a vital consideration? How much noise do you expect to be there? Are transport links nearby?
These are all questions that can determine how suitable a location is for you and factors that contribute to why buying a new house is difficult.
Top tips for choosing where to buy a house
When you’re looking to buy a house, there are some basic steps you can take to make the process easier, put your mind at ease and narrow down your property search. Here are our top tips for finding your perfect neighbourhood:
1. Find somewhere that fits your budget
It might sound obvious but you can narrow down your search substantially by eliminating areas that are too expensive.
Firstly, you need to understand your budget, how much you can afford and what that might look like with various associated fees involved such as Stamp Duty and legal costs.
If you need a mortgage, it’s also good if you understand how much you’re able to borrow. You can use our mortgage calculator for that.
Once you have this information, think about the places that likely fit this budget. Different cities, towns or even rural areas will all have properties of varying prices, so it’s a matter of finding a balance between your ideal lifestyle and cost.
2. Think about the property you want and how that fits into the location
By having a good understanding of the property you want to buy, you can start matching that with different locations. Generally speaking, if you want a modern new build, you probably won’t find that in a small rural village (although new developments do exist in these areas). Likewise, it may be more difficult to find a charming cottage in the suburbs of a big city.
What you’re looking for in your new house largely dictates where you begin your property research.
3. Think about the life you want
Just as what you’re looking for from a property dictates where you live, so does what you want from life. Do you want somewhere with a chilled atmosphere and a garden? Or do you want to be five minutes from the heart of the action?
Is it important that you can walk to your local pub or supermarket, or are you fine with a car journey?
How far away is work? Is it likely to be a long morning commute in rush-hour or a quick trip on public transport?
Here are some things you might want to consider when it comes to your lifestyle in the area:
- Schools
- Crime rate
- Community amenities
- Employment
- Local shops and supermarkets
- Pubs and restaurants
- Noise levels
- Transport links
- Council tax rates
- Gardens or green spaces
4. Spend time in the area and if you’re not sure, rent!
One of the easiest ways of understanding how much you enjoy a place is by consistently spending time there. While a flying visit when you view a property may not help, regularly visiting an area can help you get to know the quirks, the advantages and the disadvantages.
For example, many people consider areas outside of their hometown because they’ve gone there for university, worked there or enjoy visiting during their free time.
Buying a house is a major, long-term commitment and it’s worth spending a bit of time in the area that you might one day end up calling home.
With that in mind, if you’re making a drastic change in lifestyle or location, it may be worth renting there first. It’s much better to spend 6 months experiencing village life and deciding it’s not for you, than it is for buying a property and dealing with the headache of selling and moving again.
5. Does the area have affordable homeownership schemes?
If you’re looking to take advantage of a scheme such as Shared Ownership or Rent to Buy, make sure that the area you’re looking in has developments that support them.
Not every property is available under this scheme and some areas don’t have these types of developments at all.
You might speak with a housing association such as Platform, who can help you find your ideal development to suit the property and area of your dreams.
Why not get in touch with us today and view some of the properties we have available in a variety of top destinations around the UK.
6. Futureproof your purchase
Unless you specifically plan on moving on a few years after your purchase, you should always buy a home with the future in mind. You don’t want to move somewhere and grow out of it just because you're eager to purchase.
For example, take the time to think about whether you’ll be expanding your family or taking on further commitments that require more space.
Likewise, research future projects and plans for the areas you’re thinking about. If you’re buying in a cheaper area that is surrounded by expensive areas, your home will likely start seeing price growth as the cheaper area is redeveloped.
If you’re moving into an area that has already experienced a transformation, however, you might find that prices have topped out and stalled.
Transport links are also good considerations, as they usually stimulate huge price growth due to the opportunities they open up.
Remember that the long-term value of your home is probably your biggest asset and anything you can do to improve that value, while also enjoying your life, is a key part of homeownership.
7. Get specific
Once you know where you plan on living, you can start to drill down and get specific with your research. This might include researching individual streets, exploring specific neighbourhoods or speaking with local estate agents to get an idea of where in a certain place you should be looking.
The UK property market is extremely localised and areas can vary from postcode to postcode. One street may be extremely expensive and out of your price range but over the road may be a completely different story.
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