Buying A Property In Wales

In recent years Wales has become a popular place to buy a property. Some people will look to relocate here for various reasons including job moves and quality of life whilst others will look to buy a property here as a holiday home.

Buying a property in Wales is much the same as buying a property in England. You will need to raise cash to buy the property in the first place which may be done via selling your current home or via a mortgage. If you are looking to buy a second home that you will rent out for holiday use then you will probably need a specialist product such as buy to let. You may want to arrange your mortgage (at least in part) before you start looking at properties so that you can move fast.

In general terms buying a property in Wales will involve:

Finding a property and making an offer that (hopefully) will be accepted by the seller.
In addition to the valuation survey that a lender will do on the property you may also want to arrange a full structural survey with a Chartered Surveyor to check that the property is in good condition.
Finding a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer who can handle the legal aspects of the purchase for you such as sorting out title deeds, charges, rights of way, local searches, Land Registry searches and disputes. Some people also decide to do their own conveyancing.
Exchanging contracts which will be done once the conveyancing work is finished satisfactorily. At this stage you will also have to pay the necessary deposit and you may want to insure the property from here as well. Once contracts are exchanged both you and the property owner are committed to proceed with the process.
Completing contracts which is the final stage in the process. At this point your mortgage lender (if applicable) will hand over the money to pay for the house and your solicitor/conveyancer will be given the deeds. You will then get the keys to the property and will be the new property owner.