bridging loan?

[Ilovecoffee123]

We have found a house we love. Quite a long chain:
The people living there have also found a house they like and have had an offer accepted so want to move ASAP as that is the end of the chain.
We have accepted an offer on our current house.
Our buyers (the ones below us in the chain) have not found a buyer yet.
The people we are buying from suggested taking a bridging loan to secure their house and they would take one out too.
What are peoples views on bridging loans?
Would our buyers have to take one out too?
Would it be worth it as the stamp duty holiday might end soon meaning if we completed before the 31st we don't have to pay that?

I would not at present TBH. I did it once in a very active and rising market where I was absolutely confident I would always be able to sell one of the houses. That is certainly not the case now and the position may get worse over the next year.

There is also not much new stock coming onto the market so it may be a while before your buyers find somewhere.

If your buyers have not sold why have you accepted an offer from them S they are not viable?

On the bridging loan it's a huge risk. In the current market I'd avoid. Try and sell your house to a proceedable buyer instead.

Taking a bridging loan out to save on stamp duty makes no financial sense.

It seems peculiar that your vendors would suggest you take a bridging loan, and why would they need one?

Yes in today's market I wouldn't accept an offer from someone who isn't proceedable. Keep marketing your property until they are. A bridging loan could be far more expensive than the stamp duty savings.

I know someone who had a bridging loan for most of a year, it was horrendously expensive and very stressful. Why did you accept an offer from someone who hadn't sold their property? Why aren't they the ones taking out a bridging loan? Couldn't you find another buyer who had sold?

I didn’t even think they do those any more? Do they?

I think they are super-hard to get as the monthly interest compounds & the regulations are strict.

My in-laws tried to get one in 2018 and found it was really difficult, and I’d think it’d only got worse now, although their age may have come into play.

If your buyers aren’t proceedable, I’d be remarketing. It’s lovely of you to offer to wait but it looks like you’ll lose the house you want that way, if they won’t wait.

There’s absolutely no way I’d consider a bridging loan, especially in the current climate and even more so given your buyers haven’t even found a buyer for their house yet. Way too precarious!

I was advised not to by both my solicitor and financial advisor. You could end up losing both homes. I would find another buyer who has already sold