Online House Hunter: Those essential links

Bookmark the best house-hunting links

IT’S easy to spend hours and hours driving around checking out properties in the search for your new home. But search online in advance of your search and you can save yourself many hours – and a lot of stress.

There are a number of essential websites that you should have bookmarked and which will help you make an informed decision about where to buy your first home or where your next move should be.

First stop of course is our online search engine where you can tap in that you want to find a two-bedroom house for sale in Ealing or a three-bedroom house for sale in Lewisham.

The value of your current house and the potential price of the new one is going to be key to any decision you make so the Land Registry is your next port of call – or one of the commercial sites such as houseprices.co.uk.

Once I’d decided that a particular borough or town was the place for me, I would spend a good hour looking at the demographics of the area and finding out the good and the bad about it. The amazing resource provided by the Office of National Statistics on neighbourhoods will reveal all.

Which council covers your new home? And what services do  they provide? You can type the postcode into this search engine and it will tell you which council covers that street. And while we’re talking about councils, you’ll also need to know how much the council tax will be. Council tax valulation lists are online but you’ll also need to visit the appropriate local council website.

You may also want help with a mortgage. There is advice for first-time buyers on the DirectGov website and more general advice from the Council of Mortgage Lenders or the Consumer Financial Education Body.

Good luck!

Recent Posts on Property

• It's National Work From Home Day today
• Where have property prices been reduced most in the UK?
• Is Rushcliffe the best place for families to live?
• Where are the most affordable towns for key workers?
• Rents around London's nicest parks