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.

Johan de Wit, chief executive of ING Direct, said: “At first it seems strange that people will spend such little time making one of the most important decisions of their lives, but regardless of the state of the market, buyers are feeling pressured into making snap purchases to avoid missing out on the home of their dreams.”