‘Locals first’ decision is big help to home buyers
ACORNISH couple who have bought their first home in their 30s praised the seller for batting away higher offers from wealthy people upcountry to sell to locals.
Lamorna-born and bred Jackson Higginbottom, and his partner Holly from St Just, have spent the past four years saving for the deposit to buy a house.
For first-time buyers anywhere in the UK the market is a minefield, but coming from Cornwall has made things more difficult for the parents-to-be, who said the situation for locals is getting worse.
“As soon as you see somewhere you like... it’s gone,” Jackson said. “When you’re talking houses out of our price range, then fair enough.
“But when it’s first-time buyer prices, and they’re going like that, you can’t help but think, ‘for God’s sake’. It’s obviously locals after that, can’t people give us a bit of a chance?”
Jackson and Holly were looking for homes while their mortgage agreement was settled, but nothing stayed on the market for long.
Jackson added: “Online listings vanished instantly, but we did finally spot this one home in Sennen. We hadn’t even thought of looking there as it’s way out of our price range but we went straight to the bank, straight to the estate agent and offered the asking price.”
First-time buyers in his position do not usually offer the asking price, as it is better to go for a lower offer, in more stable housing market situations, he said. But, the couple were desperate.
Jackson works for Sennen Surfing Co, with a workshop in Lamorna. His partner works at Penwith College; uprooting all of this because of a tough housing market would have been a massive blow to the couple, who also have twins on the way. Fortunately, the seller accepted the offer. And since then, Jackson says they learned he had turned down two separate offers from buyers which were, according to Jackson, “massively over the asking price”.
Estate agents in the region say people have been offering cash way over the asking price for properties they’ve never seen, while one letting agent from Hayle said locals are paying the price for wealthy buyers snapping up Cornish properties.
A house in Port Isaac reportedly sold in just five minutes, while Cornwall’s average house price has now reached more than eight times the county’s average salary.
Property site Rightmove recently said interest in Cornwall has increased by 140% in two years, outpacing London, as people look to escape to the country.
“There’s us thinking we’re really stretching to offer that asking price,” Jackson said. “We don’t even know the guy, but he has done the decent thing and turned away these offers.
“For us, we’d paid a higher deposit and took a while to get everything sorted as first-time buyers. He had seven months to hold off from tourists and wealthy cash buyers.”
Jackson added that it was sad the market makes locals feel like “you’re being kicked out of where you grew up”.
“We’re both surfers, we both want our kids to grow up here too. We’re outdoors people, we don’t want to go to the city and live that life. To have our upbringing and then find that we can’t afford to live here is horrible. Most of us never have any chance of living here.”
Jackson said he hopes his story will encourage other sellers to prioritise first time buyers, particularly if they are local.