Britons ‘take just 21 minutes to choose a home’

BRITISH homebuyers typically spend just 21 minutes viewing a property before they decide to purchase it, a survey has suggested.

This, according to mortgage provider ING Direct, was only a 10th of the time people generally took to choose a television package, while it is also well down on the 284 minutes people spent when they bought a new television set and the 164 minutes it took on average to choose a coffee table.

Around 44% of buyers said they felt under pressure to act quickly in case another person snapped up the property they were interested in, while 26% felt that estate agents had talked up interest from other parties and 21% said they encouraged them to make a quick offer. In 93% of cases where couples buy a property together they make a joint decision, but in the 7% of cases where they disagree, women are three times more likely to have the final say than men.