Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer give their best tips for buying a house during lockdown

Kirstie and Phil were on hand with their advice (Picture: Channel 4)

Location, Location, Location stars Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer have dished their biggest tips on how to buy a property in the middle of lockdown. 

Appearing on Graham Norton’s new Virgin Radio show, the savvy pair warned that if the stamp duty holiday ends on a specific date, there will be ‘chaos’ caused in the market. 

‘It’s great to keep people motivated towards that day but actually, if they haven’t completed their deals on that date,’ Phil explained. 

‘The chances are that deals will be collapsing left right and centre, it will just be bedlam.’ 

But while you would assume house-buying has ground to a halt, it’s actually far from it – with Phil explaining that it’s actually ‘busy and buoyant’ at the moment. 

Thinking of buying a house? Kirstie and Phil have you covered (Picture: Channel 4)

‘Given the housing market is generally driven by sentiment, I would have thought it should be dragging along the floor at the moment. 

‘But there’s an awful lot of people trying to do an awful lot of deals just at the moment.’ 

So what can you do? Here’s the biggest things they recommend: 

Internet house viewing is not good enough

‘You can achieve a lot in terms of finding out about the local area,’ Kirstie said. ‘You’ve got the brilliant aerial shots, but it’s a very physical auditory, nose, see, smell, taste, touch type thing. 

‘I think there’s been a bit of people thinking that they’ve seen something when they’ve seen it over the Internet and that’s not seeing something.’ 

Try and do a drive by (if that’s allowed) – know what’s inside. 

‘If it’s legal to do a drive by, you might not be able to go in. But driving down the street, having a look at the area, that’s a really good thing to do,’ Kirstie said. 

‘Secondly, talk to an agent that’s physically seen the property.’ 

Know what questions to ask

Ask have you seen the house? Why are they selling? How long has it been on the market? Have there been any offers? How many viewings were there when viewings were more common, etc,’ Kirstie said. 

‘All of that kind of personal stuff can be very good.

More: Kirstie Allsopp

Kirstie Allsopp defends isolating in Devon when husband caught coronavirus

Piers Morgan shuts down Kirstie Allsopp over claims he’s using her to promote book

‘A look really carefully at the pictures and compare them to the floor plan and see if there are any rooms which haven’t been photographed or asides or angles of rooms which haven’t been photographed, really sort of treat it like a puzzle and piece it all together. 

‘Go on Google Maps, look at the aerial shots and the neighbouring areas and you know, put the full Poirot on it and you can learn a lot.’

Got A Story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us …read more

Source:: Metro