Does love at first viewing exist?

Love at first sight may be true for human relationships but when it comes to falling for the home of their dreams, buyers take their time to pick The One.

A new survey from E.ON shows that one-third of house hunters take up to three months to find their new home. Indeed, the average buyer needs to visit eight different homes before they plump for one in particular, taking a tour of the market before settling down with a long-term partner.

Often, though, buyers will have already decided which property is the one they can take their parents to meet, with more than half of the survey's 2,000 respondents saying that that they know they have found The One as soon as their first viewing.

Making the leap with the home of their dreams, though, is a step too far for cautious Brits, with just 8 per cent saying they would be happy to buy the first home they see, while an even smaller 3 per cent say they can feel that they have found the right home as soon as they are aware of it being up for sale.

Have buyers already decided which home they will like the most before going to a property viewing? Certainly, the traditional factors in a property purchase are important to buyers: location is the number one consideration, with three quarters highlighting it as key, followed by mortgage costs (56 per cent and size of the home (53 per cent), all elements that can be determined about a property from its online listing.

Is there anything left for sellers to do? Energy efficiency is one area that deserved their attention, according to E.ON's survey, with three-quarters of first time buyers saying it's very important and 85 per cent expecting a new build home to be greener than an existing home. 

Photo: Boyce Duprey