Forget winning the lottery this weekend, check down the side of your sofa, behind your bed or anywhere you can think of for the missing old £20 and £50 notes that appear lost in circulation!
Did you know? At the last count, the Bank of England estimated there were over 460 million unspent paper notes in circulation. This equates to £14 billion pounds – over £6bn unspent in £20s and £8bn in £50s. Where is this money? After the 30th September 2022- paper £20 and £50 notes will no longer be legal tender in the UK – we need to find it quickly!
Did you know £14 billion would purchase over 50.000 homes average price homes in the UK? In Lancaster, it would purchase 83,691 homes. This is based on the average Lancaster price of £167,282. There are only 21,456 homes in the city (as per the 2011 census). The missing money could be an entire city!
On an average month, around 28% of all sales in England and Wales are cash purchases. What is really interesting is that cash buyers seem to get a better deal – the average price of a house that sells to a cash buyer is 8-9% less than that of a mortgage buyer. I’ve checked that data against our own sales. At JDG 1 in 4 buyers are cash buyers. I can’t say they are getting a better deal though as we are agreeing on offers on average at 99.7% of the asking price! Some sellers though do look on cash buyers more favourably but more on that another day!
Do you have cash behind your sofa or in the attic? If so, let me know – we might be able to scrape enough together to buy at least one house between us!
Thanks for reading and if you ever need any property advice, please get in touch. At JDG we are always here to help. You can email me at michelle@jdg.co.uk or call me on 01524 843322.
Best wishes
Michelle