Two weeks ago a friend of mine texted me gleefully to say that her offer had been accepted on the starter home of her dreams. On Friday she told me she had withdrawn it because the stress of it all was too much to bear. I know she has been saving for years, scrimping by in a rented flat with her boyfriend on the outskirts of London. She has put up with more than her fair share of setbacks, personally and financially. After wading through a sea of buy-to-let investors looking to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday, the real competition began when she tried to turn her mortgage-in-principle into a mortgage offer.

Source: The Times August 08, 2020 22:52 UTC