Being thirty-something has long been dubbed the new twenty-something, and nowhere is this more applicable than the first- time property market.
Buying your first home is the most grown-up thing you can ever do; getting married, becoming a parent or leaving home to go to college is nothing compared to willingly submitting yourself to over a hundred thousand pounds worth of debt. But then I would say that because it took me a lot later than most to take the property-owning plunge, the average age of an FTB is 32 and I’ve just turned 36 – still, better late than never.
As a writer I’ve preached in the past that the right time to buy your first home is when you feel emotionally as well as financially comfortable with the idea of homeownership.
Thankfully I fell in love with a flat, around the same time I finally got my head around the idea of having a mortgage, although there’s one big snag, the flat I fell in love with hasn’t (quite) been built yet.
Finding it
My property epiphany happened one hot and dusty June Sunday afternoon where, with nothing better to do, I decided to take a wander round a proposed local housing development.
FYI, Bishop’s Stortford, my adopted home town, is currently a massive building site, with new flats going up quicker than you can say ‘buy me’. The decision to make nearby Stansted airport London’s third terminal means its population has grown to bursting point. Hence developers are rushing to cash in on what many predict will be further expansion of the airport and what may well be the site of London’s extra runway.
I didnÂ’t really need to be convinced that if I were to buy anywhere, it was here. Not only is my family all relatively near by, the half-decent train service means I can keep London at arm’s length yet still pop back via a half hour commute for the occasional networking or work-event. Even so, I still found myself strangely transfixed by the slick photography positioned so artfully around the marketing suite of the Wilson Bowden City Homes Riverside Quarter development. I was, for a moment anyway, taken in by the idea of BishopÂ’s Stortford as a continental, outdoorsy café kind of town. That and the free dishwasher meant I was, as they say, sold.
Next: Finding the money
