I've recently been working closely with Alan Dee, a mortgage broker
from Wythenshawe, whose company, 'Manchester Mortgages' arrange a lot of
mortgage deals for house buyers not only in Wythenshawe but also the
more expensive surrounding areas of Cheadle and Gatley (see http://manchestermortgages.co.uk/wythenshawe-mortgage-broker-advisor/ for more).
In a recent Manchester Evening News article (http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/wythenshawe-the-new-didsbury-house-9419435), Wythenshawe was termed the new Didsbury - a rather posh and Bohemian area of Manchester.
I met with Alan for a coffee in Wythenshawe's busy town centre and discussed the apparent housing boom that was going on all around us.
"It's
only a few years ago that nobody wanted anything to do with
Wythenshawe" said Alan, "there were lot's of empty homes and the area
had a very bad reputation". Recently though this has changed and I asked
Alan why he thought this was. "It has a lot to do with the development
of Manchester Airport,
which is only a couple of miles away. This has bought a huge amount of
new business to the area, and that good because house prices in
Wythenshawe are still affordable, whilst many other areas such as
Cheadle and Gatley aren't. Also, there's been a lot of redevelopment of
the Wythenshawe as a whole - many of the older properties that were is
disrepair have been pulled down and whole areas have been redeveloped.
This had attracted many new people into the area - it's a great place
for first time buyers and buy to let housing."
I went on to ask
Alan how difficult it was to get a mortgage in Wythenshawe? "It depends
who you go to" he offered. "The high street lenders like the banks will
still make you jump through hoops and then it'll take several months to
even get the mortgage application process up and running. With an
independent or 'whole of market' mortgage broker like Manchester
Mortgages, we can give people the best deals available from all the
lenders and usually get a mortgage offer out to people within a week".
Was
it difficult using a mortgage advisor like Manchester Mortgages I asked
Alan? "No, it's not hard at all, we do all the paperwork and fill in
the application forms. Also as we have so much experience in providing
mortgages we can advise people on the best type of deals and even tailor
deals specifically to suit them. A big area for us is getting mortgages
for people with bad credit ratings. Many banks and high street lenders
won't touch people with a large amount of debt, we do, and we often find
them mortgages too" said Alan.
After our coffee I took a walk
around Wythenshawe a noticed that it really is an up and coming area -
full of potential and promise for the future.