Lisa Haldane

My husband and I, newly married, were living in a tiny (but lovely) little studio flat in Green Point, when I unexpectedly found out I was pregnant with our first child :) Our main concern was that our little flat was WAY too small for a little one, so it was an instant decision that we had to find a new home. We weren't too stressed... after all, we had seven whole months so there was nothing much to worry about....or was there? After five months of frustratingly trawling through estate agents and viewing show houses every Sunday, we came across our dream little cottage...and best of all it was in our price bracket. With the Offer to Purchase signed, it was now time to get a mortgage and then settle into our new home, just in time for babys arrival...or so we thought.... With three days to go before our bond approval clause expired, and with just five weeks to go before babys arrival, the fourth and final major bank returned the bad news to us...our home loan application had been declined again!! Neither Standard, ABSA, Nedbank nor FNB were interested in providing us with finance. Our mortgage originator, tears in her eyes, apologized and told us it was the end of the road...we could not get lending from a financial institution and hence were going to have to let the cottage go. We were devastated to say the least...not to mention really concerned about what home we could provide to our imminent arrival.