Getting a bridging loan.

Please think very carefully, you could end up paying enormous interest rates.

Estate agents and solicitors do not organise bridging loans.

Why not put your house on the market and wait and see?

Our daughter has a house for sale in a very desirable area, she had people posting cards through the door in 2021 wanting to buy it, 6 months on the market and she has only had 1 viewing.

The market is not good.

Would you consider letting your current property and buying the apartment?
There is a great demand for rentals in many areas.

GermanShepherdsMum may see this thread and give better professional advice.

No, you have to do this yourself. Solicitors and estate agents aren’t brokers. Don’t even consider a bridging loan without exchanging contracts on your sale - and you’re unlikely to be granted one until then. They’re not intended to put you in the position of a cash buyer.

Thanks Sago, saw your post after I posted. Bridging loans are expensive. Being able to jump when you find a desirable property without having sold your own is not their purpose. Their purpose is to be able to complete your purchase a few days ahead of your sale if need be.

Its not good rental material at all - only 2 bedrooms and small downstairs, large beautiful garden needs keeping up, and not really in a rental area - its attraction is that very garden and the fact its detached among semi's. It would also need some work doing it to make it suitable for a rental that a buyer would want to do themselves.

GSM was hoping you would come in. The loan company I spoke to are doing bridging loans to guarantee purchase - we are talking a loan of maybe only just over £100.000 low on the food chain.

So a solicitor wouldn't arrange it, but wouldn't an experienced conveyancing solicitor know who's reputable etc? (its the family solicitor who does wills, POA's and conveyancing specialisms, family stuff.)

The bridging loan company discussed needing proof of worth of my house as collateral.

No reputable solicitor would either recommend doing this or a company providing bridging loans. Believe me, if you do this you’re on the road to bankruptcy. You would be paying your existing mortgage and the bridging loan for an unknown period. The market is slow. No property is worth this risk and no reputable solicitor would ever recommend it. Find a buyer then find somewhere to buy.

In the early 90’s living 35 miles from London we saw neighbours lose everything they had due to bridging loan.
Please don’t be persuaded.
As GSM said try and sell first.
I hope it works out for you.

I'm listening hard! x

Yes, market is very slow. However it is starting to move locally after the sudden "stop" in the autumn - properties are selling.

The flat I want has been on the market for some time also so I suppose they may accept an offer if my house is in first time buyer territory, cost wise being in the north it is.

Have you considered selling up, then renting for a short period until your flat is available? A neighbour did that and rented my garage for storage (for three months).

Their rent was high - as it was really a holiday let. Still, it was a far safer bet than what you're planning. She could have stayed with her son's family - but didn't want to.

(and) she sold to cash buyers at less than market value (about 10K less) but they weren't first-time buyers, they were divorced and remarried.

While you’d be in a stronger position if you had sold, a vendor may well consider an offer from you once your house was on the market, particularly given the flat has been for sale for sometime.

Whether they do or not, I wouldn’t touch bridging finance with a bargepole. You may as well burn money.

I asked about a bridging loan in Virgin (just a flight of fancy) and none of the staff had even heard of it! Out of curiosity I asked in Halifax and was told I’d need savings of £250K to be eligible!!
If I’d had that much, I would have had no need of the loan!

It really isn’t a good idea - so many pitfalls, unless you have a pot of savings you don’t mind losing.

Don’t do this - for all the reasons upthread. Prices are volatile and you may find that your present home goes DOWN in price/value while you have bought at a higher price. Of course the bridging loan company will make it seem attractive, that’s their job
You can come very unstuck indeed, even when it doesn’t go belly up it’s a very expensive form of finance and exceedingly risky.

No pot!

You don't need that much Georgesgran, the current rate of interest is about the same as a mortgage at the moment but I haven't checked the small print. However I am duly warned and won't go down that route.

I've been coming round to what you said Siope given the circs. Ie the flat is clearly not being snapped up and if I really do have a house that could sell with no chain its making the offer and seeing how it goes. Such thing as an honest estate agent? Well, we'll see - I'm not new to that bit of the "game".

Foxygloves houses have now stabilised in the area but at a lower price than they were in September of course. But then that goes for what you buy, too

You can rent a retirement flat before you buy. I don’t know if you know this? McCarthy & Stone offer this option. I am sure others would too. Might that help,you?

I didn't think of that Forsythia. but its not local to me so transitioning not "down the road"
I'm not in a "rush" to get there its more not losing somewhere meets my requirements that may not come up again (ie stuff like sunny, top floor, and so on).

The flat is the market with an estate agent not the retirement flats management company. Its an over 55's block but not the M and Stone type.

We bridged, but only over a weekend and after we had exchanged contracts. We wanted two days to move out, so we completed on our purchase on the Friday and got the first pantechnicon of goods from old to new. On Monday we completed on the sale of our house and complete dthe move. The loan was for three days and both sales were secure because we had excahnged on our sale and our purchase.

That is what bridging loans are intended to do.

We made all our own arrangements for the bridging loan. Spoke to our own bank, where we had held several accounts for over 30 years. They also knew we had just inherited some money, even though probate was not through.

Sell outright first, aim to rent for several months until you find a place you like, as you are downsizing you will have surplus stuff sell some of that.
The problem with a bridging loan is that if your seller pulls out you are stuck with the loan and no new house.

Its an empty flat, so unlikely, but you are right bridging loans too dodgy for my purposes.

I don't think I could cope with renting, a double move, changing everything 2 times, tho that does put one in a strong position. See what Estate Agent says about the realities of how my house would fare on the market and how much to get a quick sale.

If the flat is only for over 50s and has been empty for some time, then you got time to put your house on the market and try to sell it without resorting to a bridging loan.

My daughter and her partner lives in a village. He put his property on the market two weeks ago and it was sold straight away to first time buyers at more than the asking price.

They have not found a place to move into yet. Not many family homes in their village, so they are looking at other areas but they will not be pulling out of the sale.

Worst come to the worst, they may have to come and live with us temporarily.

I got the impression that there is a rental crisis in the UK especially in London. Landlords selling their portfolio because they reach retirement age causing a shortage of rental properties.

I would not suggest that any individual let out property on a DIY basis as landlords now have to conform to very strict laws and regulations. You would need to do it via an agent who will charge from 12-15% of the rent and howevermuch more they can get their hands on. Letting agents do vary considerably in quality and some are completely incompetent. Landlording is not for the faint hearted.

When a property has been on the market for a long time there’s usually a reason why it hasn’t sold, even in a slow market.

But the reason isn't always something disastrous. the house we live in had been hanging on the market for ages because it was a big house with a tiny kitchen (8ft x 8ft). We took one look realised the problem could be resolved by knocking some rooms together and moving a bathroom upstairs, much more convenient.

The estate agent said we were the first to see the solution.

But times move on, 25 years later, the kitchen we made, considered a real selling point when we did it, would have been a problem when we sold, very long, but narrow with little family space, so we have just done an extension to give us a big family space and huge wndows onto the garden. We love it, and when we come to sell it will be a selling point. Mind you 25 years from now who knows how desirable it will be!