Eight months later, after making offers for three homes at their asking prices of at least 2.5 million pounds ($3.5 million), they’re no closer.
“I had never in my life anticipated it being this difficult,'' Nash said. “There’s very little on the market and what there is, is being chased down by too many people.”
The booming market has led to the resurgence of a practice known as gazumping. Property deals in the U.K. aren’t legally binding until contracts are formally exchanged, which can take months after an offer has been accepted—particularly when mortgage lenders and lawyers are struggling with high volumes.
At any point in this period sellers can accept a different offer. That’s what happened to Charlotte Howard, 46, in February. Four months later, as glacial proceedings on another property left her terrified of being gazumped again, she found herself contacting the seller on Facebook to reassure them of her interest.
“I’m feeling just a bit broken and a bit bruised,” Howard said. “Things can go wrong still.”
Fortunately for Howard, she and the seller exchanged on June 11th.
China
Reining in property speculation is a key objective of the Chinese government. But even they are struggling. While in much of the world the pandemic spurred a dash to the suburbs and beyond, buyers in China piled into top-tier cities where the best jobs and schools can still be found.
Existing home prices in those cities rose 10.8% in the year to May, despite crackdowns on loopholes such as fake divorces, designed to bypass rules on how many properties a family can own.
In the tech hub of Shenzhen, an apartment costs 43.5 times a resident’s average salary, according to the research institute of real estate firm E-House (China) Enterprise Holdings Ltd. That’s not far behind Hong Kong, the world’s least affordable city. With Shenzhen prices rising faster than anywhere else in China, the list of obstacles facing would-be buyers just keeps getting longer—and more arbitrary.
At one new development in the city’s west, interested parties had to temporarily transfer 1 million yuan ($157,000) and upload personal credit reports before they could even make a bid.
Many of those who managed to do so—not easy, with queues of bidders snaking around the block at bank closing time—still didn’t even get their offers considered.
Under pressure from the local housing regulator to prioritize residents, local developer Coaster Group decided to vet applicants on how long they’d paid taxes in the city. The 2,114 successful applications all had more than 23 years of tax records.
That meant renewed disappointment for many, including Jerry Huang, 29, who has 14 years of Shenzhen tax history. It’s the third time that non-monetary requirements have prevented him from even making a bid.
“It looks like I have to shelve the purchase plan for a long time,” Huang said. “There are so many people competing I’m not sure I have a winning chance.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.