James Max

When is the right time to move house?

  • From Spectator Life
(Getty)

When the winds of economic change are blowing, it’s often a good idea to make your property move, batten down the hatches, and stay put for a while. We aren’t quite at that point in the cycle. However, with interest rates on the rise, inflation beginning to kick in and all the signs of a slow-down at best and a possible recession, now is the time to take some decisions.

There are costs to moving and if you are going to go to all the trouble, you may want to increase your property exposure. Otherwise, you’re investing more money in an asset that will most likely grow in value at the same pace as your previous abode. Moving to similar sized properties is best done in a rising market where you secure your sale and purchase a new home at a similar time.

So, when is the right time to buy a bigger or more expensive home? An upsize is generally driven by two factors. A growing family and greater earnings allowing you to spend or borrow more. In these circumstances, no matter what the market conditions, a move makes sense.

Some upsizers may find they can leverage a falling market to secure the sort of property that would have evaded them in a strong market. At the beginning of this year, for instance, the price of detached homes rose much more quickly than that of semi detached properties (the difference was 2.5 per cent), making it more difficult for upsizers to make the jump. In a falling market, the price difference between larger and smaller properties will be less pronounced.

Those looking for larger homes during the pandemic frequently found that any property worth its salt had a plethora of interested buyers attached to it.

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