Once you get it in your head that you’ve had enough of your property, it’s hard to move on from the thought of Moving Home. Whilst Moving Home is on your mind, have you ever thought about where you’d like to live?
As a Mortgage Broker in Newcastle, we’ve seen many First Time Buyers and Home Movers that haven’t even thought about where to start when it comes to looking at where to live. To help you get started with this, we’ve created a list of our best places to live in Newcastle.
This large residential area is a wonderful place to live in Newcastle upon Tyne. Fenham is located just 2 miles away from the city centre, allowing quick access to city life through strong transport links. Whether you are a walker, biker, bus rider or driver, you’ll find yourself at the heart of the city in under 10 minutes.
Fenham offers a wide range of local amenities to enjoy. You’ll find a town hall, a barracks, a community and leisure centre, shops, restaurants, bars and pubs. Having lots of things to do has allowed Fenham to become quite the hotspot for First Time Buyers in Newcastle.
Its popularity could also be related to student accommodation there. Fenham has become a busy student area; it’s located just 10 minutes from the University of Newcastle itself. St Mary’s College has since served as student accommodation since its initial closing in 1984.
Housing types in Fenham vary. For example, you’ll find terraced, semi-detached and detached all with reasonable prices. Here’s a fun fact for you… Ant and Dec were born in the Fenham area!
If Fenham sounds like the place that could fulfil your home buying needs, feel free to get in touch and we can help you get the Moving Home process started.
Jesmond is thought to be one of the most affluent areas within Newcastle and its surrounding areas. It’s a grand, reputable suburb with a high population and lively local atmosphere. We mention this first as Jesmond is renowned for its dining, late-night bars and cafes.
Meanwhile, if you prefer the quieter side of life, you’ll realise that there are lots of other things things to enjoy in Jesmond; this includes garden and riverside walks, parks, museums and more. Activities like this will allow you to take a break from city life and relax outside. Jesmond Dene is one of Jesmond’s greatest outdoor attractions; you’ll find rivers and waterfall to walk by, picnics spaces, playgrounds for the children, a cafe and even an open-air theatre.
The housing types that are available in Jesmond vary, however, you’ll find that most of them are detached and semi-detached. Typically, housing prices in Jesmond are quite high, so if you’ve got the money and the funds in place to live here, you should definitely consider it as a main option.
Heaton is a large suburb on the outskirts of Newcastle. It sits just 2 miles from the city centre itself. The area has become a very popular choice for home buyers; from students to younger and older families, Heaton is home to all different kinds of people.
There are lots of things to do in Heaton. If you like your musical and theatre, you’re in luck as Heaton is home to the People’s Theatre that hosts up to 12 productions per year! Furthermore, just down the road, you will find the Sage, an iconic music venue in Heaton. At the Sage, you’ll find all different kinds of genres performing: jazz, classical, folk, country and even the blues.
To highlight even more of Heaton’s best bits, let’s talk about food and drink. In Heaton, you’ll find plenty of food and drink options, there are delicacies from all over the world available. For example, there are Italian restaurants, Punjabi cuisines and of course, plenty of Fish and Chips. Most of these are located on Chillingham Road. Here you’ll find a long parade of cafes, restaurants, bars, shops and even the Metro Station.
Heaton is a fun and lively place to live, making it the perfect place for homeowners that have a family or are planning to start one. This is also why we love it!
We were going to put only one of the shields on our list, but then we realised that we couldn’t do that!
Both small coastal towns sit right on the edge of Newcastle Upon Tyne, overlooking the sea. Both locations offer peaceful coastline walks and a very British feel. Even though they always argue which town is better, both Tyneside towns love their local area and wouldn’t want to live anyway else. From funfairs on the front to popular shopping centres and outlets on the outskirts of the towns, there is always something to do in North and South Shields.
There are strong transport links into Newcastle City Centre in both towns, so you can easily access the heart of the city in under 20 minutes. That’s if you would rather be in the centre over the beach!
Located within the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, to the west of Rowlands Gill and the north of Hamsterley, Chopwell is a small village with a rich history dating back to at least 1150, as shown in a document involving the famous Bishop Pudsey, who served under King Richard I.
The area also has a history in the mining industry, as was prominent with much of Tyne & Wear around those times. The Chopwell Colliery was eventually closed and part of the site was turned into the Chopwell Meadows Nature Reserve. If you are a mountain biking enthusiast, you’ll surely make great use of the Powerlines Mountain Biking Trail in the local area, a spot that finds people from all over the region coming to have a go at the 2.5-mile route on offer.
For a smaller location with industrial history and opportunities for leisure activities, Chopwell could be an ideal place to move to and call home.
Gosforth is a Newcastle city suburb situated to the north of Central Newcastle. There is a rich history in the area, with some of the first recordings of the area noted in 1166. Over the centuries, there have been historical townships within the area, mining collieries and numerous archaeological discoveries including a Roman Altar.
Within the area itself, you’ll find the notable building The Regent Centre, a business complex housing HM Revenue & Customs, as well as others. You’ll also find various private schools and a secondary school Academy, great for families who are planning ahead for their children’s future. There’s a fantastic high street including various noteworthy, well-established businesses, including large supermarkets and even a local shopping centre, cafes and even some local pubs.
For a thriving local scene, high street shopping options, great opportunities for raising a family and a rich history, Gosforth might be an area worth taking the time to look into and possibly even call home.
Situated along the banks of the River Tyne, joining Newcastle & Gateshead together, is the wonderful area known as The Quayside. In the past, The Quayside was an industrial and commercial dockside, also home on the Newcastle side to a regular street market. On this side, you’ll also find some restaurants, bars and nightclubs, as well as some fantastic housing opportunities.
On the opposing side, signposted as Gateshead Quays, you’ll find a contemporary art centre, as well as a performing arts and conference centre. Joining the two city centres is the famous Gateshead Millenium Bridge, a pedestrian bridge opened in 2001. There is also a low-level Swing Bridge allowing further pedestrian and even road access to either side. If you like areas rich in history and culture, with easy access to two different city centres and some great housing, The Quayside might be the area in and around Newcastle that appeals to you the most.
Even if our list only gave you some pointers on where to start looking, we hope that it helped. More often than not, First Time Buyers don’t have a clue on where to start!
If you are looking for First Time Buyer Mortgage Advice in Newcastle, then you should get in touch with our team. We are very experienced in helping applicants that want to move home, in fact, we’ve helped thousands of home movers just like you over our years in the industry.
For a free mortgage consultation in Newcastle, contact us today.
Rishi Sunak’s second Budget as Chancellor brought two pieces of welcome news for the property sector as the Government attempts to transform “Generation Rent” into “Generation Buy” to help stimulate the UK economy, namely the new 95% Mortgage Guarantee and an extension of the Stamp Duty Holiday.
The name of this scheme is misleading as not everyone that applies is guaranteed to be offered a mortgage, it is still subject to affordability and credit score. The “guarantee” itself is that the Government will ensure Lenders don’t stand a loss if they grant a 95% mortgage to a customer who then subsequently falls into arrears and is repossessed leaving behind negative equity.
This scheme should in theory give Lenders more confidence to lend even though the applicant only has a smaller deposit to put down. Of course, Lenders never want to repossess someone’s home unless it is the last resort, but if that happens then the new scheme would cover any shortfall.
Lenders have been worried about the prospect of home values decreasing so this measure should alleviate that concern although of course, the chances of negative equity occurring will naturally reduce should property prices increase as a result of these announcements!
The scheme is available to both 1st Time Buyers and Home Movers, it’s available on any property (not just new build) and will run until December 2022. Some major High Street Banks have already signed up to the scheme and it’s likely more will follow later on. It’s still a big challenge for Lenders to cope with the demand they are getting for mortgages due to the difficulties training and supervising staff working from home but they will want to offer as many of these mortgages as they can.
When the Stamp Duty Holiday was launched last year we all hoped life would be very much back to normal by the cut-off date of 31st March 2021 but things didn’t pan out that way as we know. Solicitors are struggling to keep up with the workload and if lots of chains had collapsed then it would have partly defeated the object of the exercise.
Therefore it was good to hear the scheme has been extended to 30th June for purchases up to £500,000 and 30th September for purchases up to £250,000.
The Government certainly sees the property sector as an area that can play a big part in our economic recovery and if you are looking to buy a home or remortgage this year please reach out and we will be happy to advise you.
We’re always looking for ways to maximise our income and productivity levels at work. That’s why it’s hardly a surprise, that more and more people are starting to work from home.
Whether it’s through being Self-Employed or being a home worker for an external company, it’s hard to disagree with the benefits of such an option. These can include;
With the current ongoing crisis, many workers, be it by choice or with hands tied, are starting to work from home. Many experts have said that when all this clears up, a large majority of the worlds workers may just simply continue on from their home office spaces.
In the minds of many though, their home just isn’t well equipped for this kind of scenario, and feel they’d be better off moving to a bigger home with space they can utilise.
Whilst for some this might be a good idea, you may also want to look at your Remortgage options. Not only will this allow you to keep your current home, but it may allow you to save funds you would’ve otherwise spent on the various home moving fees.
The average costs for a small home office are around £5,000. This includes things like a telephone, desks, computing equipment and so on. For a much bigger, more professional home office, you could be looking around £15,000.
A cost effective way of doing this, would be to take your remortgage in Newcastle out over a longer term. For example, if interest rates were 2%, taking it out over 25 years would allow you to pay off the costs of your new home office with monthly payments of as little as £20-60 a month.
As an experienced mortgage advisor in Newcastle, we’ll be able to help you get started on your remortgage. If you’re looking at possibly jumping into this option, get in touch and a Remortgage Advisor in Newcastle will happily go through the process with you to see what Mortgage Advice in Newcastle will benefit you.