Cash Buyers Only

zacepi

I (and google) have an idea what it means when a property advert says CASH BUYERS ONLY but is there an industry standard definition of what an estate agent means by this?

alumende27

It generally means it won't be possible to get a mortgage on the property for one reason or another.

G_M

In some contexts, 'cash buyer' can mean someone who is not relying on selling a property to finance the purchase.


But in this context, as alumende27 says above.

alanobrien

or could be tenant in situ so looking for investor/cash buyer.

davidmcn

If you want to know what it means for a particular property, you'd be best simply to ask the estate agent. Or put a link here and we might have a guess.

AdrianC

alanobrien wrote: »

or could be tenant in situ so looking for investor/cash buyer.

That wouldn't necessarily stop somebody needing a BtL mortgage.

zacepi

Thanks guys.

The EA said it was a PRC construction in this case, and having researched these a bit, sounds like loads of people (and councils) are lumbered with barely saleable houses.

stator

Many PRC houses can be converted into standard construction.
But the costs are high and can be difficult if the house is attached to another.


If the value of the house isn't high then most of them get bought by cash buyer landlords to rent out.

alumende27

Many PRC houses are still perfectly sound but as they were condemned as fundamentally defective under the 1985 Housing Act it has become all but impossible to get a mortgage on them.

It is entirely possible to get them repaired to a standard that will allow a mortgage but they will probably still continue to attract a discount.

My sister-in-law is buying a Wates PRC house (cash buyer) and I believe the estimate to do it up to mortgageable standard is about £50K, and that is (more than) taken into consideration with the purchase price. You must get a decent survey if you plan to go for one of these houses and be fully aware of what you are potentially getting yourself into.

AdrianC

zacepi wrote: »

The EA said it was a PRC construction in this case, and having researched these a bit, sounds like loads of people (and councils) are lumbered with barely saleable houses.

There's a big difference between non-standard construction and "defective" construction.

"Defective" construction types are designated by law - a law that's unchanged since mid 80s, so anybody that's "lumbered" with them has been for over a third of a century...

stator

alumende27 wrote: »

Many PRC houses are still perfectly sound but as they were condemned as fundamentally defective under the 1985 Housing Act it has become all but impossible to get a mortgage on them.

Only some types of PRC are designated 'defective'. Many are not, although they may still be unmortgagable or require a specialist mortgage.
For example a BISF house is stil mortgagable