'We moved 200 miles to get a house in 'up-and-coming' Salford for £245,000 - everyone's friendlier here'
It is no secret that over the last few years first-time buyers have been amongst those hit the hardest by the property market. From fierce competition and soaring house prices to the cost of living crisis and interest rates rising, it is no wonder would-be homeowners have faced difficulties getting a foot on the ladder.
For Emma and her partner Dom Thorp, 28, the process involved packing up and moving to Greater Manchester to be able to afford to buy their own place. “When we started to think about buying a property, Bristol was just so expensive for what we wanted and we just really couldn’t afford it, so we started to think about moving somewhere else.
"To be honest the coronavirus pandemic helped us to save because we were both working from home so there was no commuting and we weren’t spending money going out or on holidays. "We did a lot of house viewings online and luckily Dom’s parents helped by doing some viewings for us and Facetiming us whilst they were there."
“When we moved in it was a blank canvas. We just had the four walls so we’ve just been able to go crazy with it and put our own stamp on it. With the 25% we got back from the Help to Buy we managed to buy all the flooring, do the garden and buy loads of nice new furniture.Describing the feel and look of her home, Emma said: "Our house has a lot of warm tones and there are a lot of dual tone colours, I’d say it’s quite a modern, millennial home.
"Then we have the family bathroom, the spare bedroom where our guests stay and a third bedroom which is currently being used as our home office and mini home gym. There are three bathrooms in the house in total." Giving advice to first-time buyers who are wanting to buy a new build, Emma said: "The biggest piece of advice I would give is to ask for incentives. They have a budget and they can offer them out but if you don’t ask you don’t get.