The expected age of home ownership has risen sharply and many prospective homeowners will now not expect to own their first home until they are nearly 40. The figure rises to nearly 43 for buying a property in London.

Research from Moneysupermarket.com also indicates that :-

• Due to high prices and big deposits, almost 1/3 of those who would like to buy have given up
• First-time buyers are on average paying deposits of 23% of the buying price.
• The Government is to make available some £500 million in the next 2 years for deposits on new build homes, which should allow 10,000 first time buyers to buy under the “Firstbuy” Scheme.
• In raising a deposit almost half of first time buyers save the sum themselves.

There are still many businesses and individuals that forget that a contract can be created in writing, verbally or even by conduct. A good example is simply buying a newspaper in a shop, this is of course as much a legal contract as a multimillion pound deal. Another common way in which contracts are created now is by email exchanges . This was re-confirmed by a recent case relating to retaining an estate agent on a property sale. The estate agent’s terms of business were attached to a general email. The property seller than responded, again by email, with the words “that’s fine, look forward to viewings”. The agent said that this amounted to an acceptance of their terms. The case reached the Court of Appeal which confirmed that a contract had been concluded, so be vigilant when it comes to email exchanges in the future.