Q. My wife is expecting our first baby so we need to upgrade our apartment to a larger property. We have found the home of our dreams but unfortunately the vendor is refusing to accept our asking price offer as we still need to sell our current property. Have you any suggestions?
A. Its no surprise that the vendor is refusing to accept your offer. From his prospective you are going nowhere fast if the purchase is reliant on your sale. There are however other avenues that you may want to explore if you are 100% sure that this is the only property for you. Firstly, are you able to rent your current home? It is definitely worth running this option by your financial advisor to see if it’s possible, if the figures stack up on the rental this would probably be the best way to go. Not only would you buy the house you desire so much but you would also set yourself up with a very nice investment opportunity and with the capital growth in canary wharf at the moment you simply can’t go wrong. Secondly, you could approach your friendly bank manager and ask for a bridging loan. This is of course an expensive alternative but in extreme situations can sometimes be worth the expense. That will then at least secure the property for you whilst trying to sell your apartment. Finally, you could call all your local agents and find out if they have an investor who will purchase rapidly for cash, this of course would mean that you would probably have to discount the asking price heavily but its certainly worth considering this option if all else fails.