Difference between Scotland and England for home buying

[Deleted User]

If you are a cash buyer then this may not be relevant but one of the biggest problems buyers find when buying in Scotland is mortgaging a property and what level of deposit is required.  This is especially true if they are only familiar with the English system. 

For instance.  A property has a home report for £100,000 but after lots of bidding it goes for £115,000.   

In England, this would be the value and a lender would send a surveyor out to double check its reasonable.  If there was lots of bidding on the property then there is little chance of a down valuation.  So if someone is getting a 90% mortgage they will need a deposit of £11,500.
In Scotland,  the lender uses the value in the home report and the buyer has to find the difference above this.  So if getting a 90% mortgage the buyer would need 10% of the Home report value + the extra.  In this example a deposit of £25,000 would be required to get a 90% mortgage.  

eloy7

brianposter said:

To an outsider Paisley is probably significantly more attractive than Renfrew.

There are more cases in Paisley and I can find a better flat there, but I frequently read Paisley is not a nice place to live. This is not necessarily true. I read lots of bad things about Belfast (mostly because of the troubles), but when I moved there, it was a lovely city. After two years of living there, I cannot say a single bad thing about Belfast (albeit, I was living in a nice neighbourhood).

This is probably the case about Paisley, but I am a little bit vigilant as I am choosing my place blindly (almost)!

gld73

Apodemus said:

While I can see the attraction of a cheap flat in Renfrew for proximity to the airport, there might be precious few other attractions! 

Unless you are wedded to the "West End" idea for some reason, you could check out Aberdeen or Inverness, which both have good links to London and prices in and around Aberdeen seem to still be suffering from the decline in North Sea oil and gas work.  

I live in Inverness. If the OP is looking to buy somewhere for around £40k then Inverness isn't an option - even most 1 bed flats go for over £80k now

happyc84

40k for a property, i'd go to auction sales. Cash buyer.

eloy7

happyc84 said:

40k for a property, i'd go to auction sales. Cash buyer.

I consider auctions too, but £40K is the typical price for a 1-bed (or with luck 2-bed) flat in small towns near Glasgow. You can hardly find any 1-bed flat over £60K.

Apodemus

gld73 said:

Apodemus said:

While I can see the attraction of a cheap flat in Renfrew for proximity to the airport, there might be precious few other attractions! 

Unless you are wedded to the "West End" idea for some reason, you could check out Aberdeen or Inverness, which both have good links to London and prices in and around Aberdeen seem to still be suffering from the decline in North Sea oil and gas work.  

I live in Inverness. If the OP is looking to buy somewhere for around £40k then Inverness isn't an option - even most 1 bed flats go for over £80k now

I wasn't suggesting that she finds something for £40k in Inverness.  Her longer term aim is the West End of Glasgow and I suggested that she also looks at Inverness or Aberdeen.  Assuming a flat in the west end is £250k, she could still get a lot in Inverness for that price, or even a new-build in Croy or Tornagrain and be in walking distance of the airport.