JAKUB'S STORY
Jakub Maleszyk, a graduate of the University of Nicolaus Copernicus, moved to Scotland with his wife from Poland in October 2004. Like many Polish settlers, they spent the first 2 years of their life here in rented accommodation while they learnt the language, secured jobs and saved money.
By April 2006, Jakub was a full time student and also had a job as a full time production operator, and was keen to lay down roots in the country he had adopted as his home. Jakub explains:
“We had both wanted to buy our own house ever since we moved to the UK, rather than continuing to spend money on somebody else’s house for no future benefit. After spending almost 2 years in Scotland, both of us could now communicate fairly well in English. We were nervous, but felt ready to contact an estate agent for advice on purchasing a property.”
Jakub made an appointment with Sandy McFarlane, one of Caesar and Howie’s mortgage advisors:
“Although we were uncertain about the process, and we did encounter some language problems, everything went very smoothly overall, as Caesar and Howie did everything on our behalf,” explains Jakub. “We started the procedure between April and May 2006, and we moved in to our new home on 1st August.”
Jakub can now look forward to the value of his house increasing over the years, and is keen to encourage other Polish people to follow in his footsteps:
“There are many benefits to buying a house rather than renting,” comments Jakub. “We will hopefully make some money on the house when we sell it in the future. And we are enjoying the fact that we can decorate the house how we want without having to request permission from a landlord!”
He adds: “Some Polish people may be worried that attempting to buy a house in a country where they do not fully speak the language will be stressful, and some Poles think that they are not able to buy a house in the UK at all. However, the new dedicated Polish house-buying service recently launched by Caesar and Howie addresses all these concerns. Their friendly translation service removes the language barrier from the process, and their step-by-step guides to requirements and procedures remove any confusion or uncertainty for Poles looking to buy their first house here.”
“Our experience has taught us that the Polish house-buying system is actually much more bureaucratic and time-consuming than the UK process. We did not have many worries here at all, and we did not have to wait long before we were settled into our new home.”
Jakub has now joined Caesar and Howie as a specialist home buying adviser to the polish community.
