Bridging Loan Blog

Cornwall Is The Best Place For A Second Home

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It is said that Cornwall has around 14,000 properties that are owned by people whose primary residence is elsewhere. This means Cornwall has more second homes than anywhere else in the UK.

The average price for a property in Cornwall is £247,432 according to property portal PrimeLocation.com.

The local authority of Westminster takes second place with around 7,152 second homes with an average price of £1.04m. In third place are Chelsea and Kensington who have 6,737 second homes with an average price of £1.175m.

The other places in the UK that make up the top ten are as follows;

Birmingham – Properties 6,431 – Average value £149,503

North Norfolk – Properties 4,763 – Average value £275,606

Camden – Properties 4,120 – Average value £759,717

South Hams In Devon – Properties 4,115 – Average Value £331,477

Tower Hamlets – Properties 4,074 – Average value £343,958

Scarborough – Properties 3,979 – Average value £168,923

South Lakeland in Cumbria – Properties 3,845 – Average value £265,434

Nigel Lewis, property analyst at PrimeLocation.com, said:

“Despite the gloomy economic climate, the number of second homes in the country increased in 2011 (from 246,026 in 2010 to 246,494 in 2011). As ever, the majority of these are on the coast providing somewhere to escape to for the summer, a long weekend, or Christmas.

“Another factor driving the second homes market forward is the poor rate of return being offered by more traditional investments such as bank deposits, stocks and shares and even ISAs, leading many to see a second home as a more promising place to invest their capital in the medium-to-long term.”

The End Of The Stamp Duty Break Could Be Tragic For First Time Buyers

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The NAEA is reminding all first time buyers to act quickly if they want to avoid paying tax. They want first time buyers to get in contact with their solicitor and the other buyers in the process to try and move the purchase forward and complete before the cut off which is the 24th of March.

First time buyers will be required to pay 1% tax on properties worth between £125,000 and £250,000 and 3% on properties over £250,000 when the tax exemptions come to an end.

Wendy Evans Scott, president of NAEA says: “ First-time buyers are key to a healthy property market. We hope to see the number of people completing the purchase of their first home continuing to increase through February and March, as many first time buyers are keen to purchase their first home before tax exemption deadline.

“However, it is impossible to predict what impact the end of the tax exemption will have on first time buyers, particularly those on very tight budgets of under £250,000 for whom 1% tax could be disastrous.

“The government will need to monitor the sales closely and consider other action to support the fragile first time buyer market.”

The sales to first time buyers rose a little in November and December from 19% of sale per branch to 21% according to figures from the NAEA.

The number of first time buyers still only represents a small percentage in the overall sales figures. The number hit a three year low in October with them accounting for just 16% of sales.