Not sure how you got that from "new builds appear to be smaller than older housing"?

From my experience in renting and construction, I'd look for a property built between 1900/1940 or ex council if you want large well arranged rooms.

Yipee!

Make sure you gte the agents to pass on that you are a cash buyer. when we bought out house the agent tried to get us into a bidding war with someone else but did not initally pass on that we were a cash buyer (no chain). Once that was told to the seller they accepted our (lower) offer as they wanted to move and the other buyer had not even put thier house on the market

I always say I'm a cash buyer with no chain and I'll be meeting the people myself so can thell them. Thanks for the tip though

Another thing to consider when you have got the figure you can afford is a potential rise in interest rates in the future.
A 1 or 2% rise on 250k adds up,make sure you can meet it.You can bet your life that it's just a matter of time before they start going up...

yours wecrookie

I did the calculations and basically even if they went up to 10%, I'd be comfortable.

3 properties viewed and 2 more to go this week.

There's 2 at the moment that are front runners

1: A reposession in prime location in Romford for sale £20-25k under market rate which I might buy, do up then sell depending on rental value.
2: A flat in Langdon Hills outside Basildon already with a tennant in situ and £800 a month rent. Lovely area and very poplular with commuters so would be easy to sell on.

Be careful, the BTL market is cooling down. I guess for you it will be a cash investment so less of an issue, but from the house hunting we did last month, we had the choice of 5 different flats, several of them still not rented now after being on the market since June. We ended up renting a flat about £200 PCM less than what the letting agents thought was "average" for Surbiton.

Property will never 'cool'. I've owned property for 25 years, have let rooms in my own home and I've helped my Mum with her rented flat too. She was never short of people to let from her. Also my step sister works in property management. Think I know what I'm doing so thanks anyway.

Rents have dropped 10-15% in the last few months, lots of empty property sitting there at the moment due to an influx of new flats etc being built

I've done my homework and there's not a lot of available properties to rent in the areas I'm looking at. I'm sure I'll be fine.

I've put an offer on a flat. Seller is in Australia so now waiting to hear back.

Fingers, toes and eyes crossed.

Arrrgggggghhhhh.
Santander are really pissing me off.
Trying to sort out a new five year fixed as ours runs out in October. We also want to reduce the term.
Apparently as existing customers they can't do both at once (they'd sent us a letter saying we could get a new rate now if we wanted). But if a new customer applied today they'd get the rate they offered and the term they wanted in one go.
Stuipd idiots.
We've applied to reduce the term today, but they won't offer us a new rate now until that's sorted in three weeks. The rate they've offerered us is only available for another week, so there's no guarentee they'll offer it us again in three weeks for the new 5 year fixed.
Heading to Nationwide next week for an interview. Their offer was only £100 worse over five years, so we may well go with them to save the hassle.

Can you let Santander know that? I imagine they'd smooth it over if they think you're gonna switch, mortgage or not.

Pics of the property?

Off to see our advisor tomorrow and discuss mortgages available and what the deal is with the place we're looking at as far as the Leasehold status is on the property (it's one of 3 on the estate that are Leasehold from what we can tell so want to see if it's just from a FTB scheme or something like that and what the details of it are)