Almost half of buyers aged 18-34 (44%) had to make an offer on more than one property before being accepted, with 17% of Londoners making offers on three or more.
Despite the time and stressspentbuying a property one in five (20%) homebuyers said that they didn’t get the best house for their needs, online mortgage broker Habito has found.
Almost half of buyers aged 18-34 (44%) had to make an offer on more than one property before being accepted, with 17% of Londoners making offers on three or more.
Daniel Hegarty, chief executive and founder of Habito, said: “It’s no surprise given the state of the UK’s property market, that the worries surrounding buying a home start with the cost.
“But the fact that uncertainty around the mortgage process, the time it takes and the fear of something going wrong are impacting 5.4 million homeowners is a shocking indictment of the home financing process as it stands today.
“The whole mortgage industry needs to drastically improve transparency, certainty and speed to be fit for today’s consumers.”
Some 70% of homebuyers are waiting three months or more from their offer being accepted to moving in, whileone in five are waiting six months or more.
While the number of first-time buyers reached a 12-year high in February, as reported by UK Finance, only 3% of those polled said they had not a single worry about buying a home.
Unsurprisingly, the factors that cause would-be buyers the most concern is cost (65%), rising to 71% for those located in the South of England, and uncertainty.
Nearly half (47%) reported their worry about the fact that nothing is set in stone until the exchange of contracts.
This comes after previous Habito research found that two-thirds (62%) of people with a home suffered from ‘mortgage-related stress’ during their application for home financing – a staggering 5.4 million people.
Symptoms of mortgage stress in those who have a mortgage included: lost sleep (35%) of an average amount of seven hours each, mood swings (30%), having more arguments (20%) and snapping at friends and family (6% and 12% respectively).
Other symptoms were: worrying about their mortgage application every day (33%),feeling sad (16%) and seeking help from a mental health professional or GP (6%).
Contributing factorswerethe length of time it takes to complete the process, anxiety about eligibility, scrutiny of private documents, the overall expense of getting a mortgage and confusing jargon.
