Would you over extend yourself with this house purchase if you were me?

Your life is about to get exponentially more expensive if you're planning to have children. There's absolutely no way I'd want to go into that with so little wriggle room. What if you have a child with complex needs and have to give up work? What if you want to go part time? Childcare is a huge expense... Every bill on a larger property will increase and go up every year. I think you'd be mad to get such a large mortgage and tying up half your income

Are you expecting earnings to increase more than just the rate of inflation?

Knowing very little about my circumstances, I’d suggest that if you go ahead and buy the property that you paint it through in a soft neutral, deep clean it - including cleaning the carpets - and then you settle in and live in it. Save up an emergency fund as well as your kitchen fund before you go ahead and do the kitchen so you have a safety net if something goes pear-shaped.

No need to be so pessimistic. Many people do this and it’s fine. I commuted into London 1.5hr commute 5 days a week when my twins were 0-5, now at 7 I still do it 3 days a week.

And this isn’t even OP’s question.

That sounds a nightmare with nursery and school. I wfh mostly and live in London and it’s still difficult!!

No.

We've refurbished 3 homes back to back, and it's not worth doing anymore, now materials and labour are so expensive.

Also, I've recently been signed off work with a health issue, and our very small mortgage and the fact we've never stretched ourselves financially has given me huge peace of mind.

Taking on debt that's over 50% of you take home pay is madness (33% is the absolute recommended max for a reason).

You are making the following assumptions:

• neither of you will take home less (what you considered job stability,, sectoral statability and your personal ability to attract the same income in a downturn or economic shock)
• Have you allowed for unexpected illness (do you have CHI policies in place)
• You have already mentioned children - have you ran the numbers allowing for maternity leave and childcare costs)
• Have you rang the calculator to check what level of interest rate increases still make the repayments affordable

To sustain a 50% take home pay, you will need absolutely everything on your side. No bad times or unexpected shifts in your income.

It's for too easy to get caught up in the romantic notion of ideal houses and firver homes, it's far more important to run and understand the numbers.

My mortgage is 25% of my monthly income after tax and pension to put this is context. I am single so all costs on me.

50% of your income on just a mortgage is huge. If you’re going to start a family then have you considered nursery fees on top of all your bills? Just doesn’t sound like it leaves you with a decent lifestyle at all. Nursery fees round here are around £25k a year full time (no funding).

I’m someone who did very similar and have a lot of tolerance for financial risk, but 50% of income mortgage is colossal by anyone’s standards. If they were very high earners then maybe, but if they were I don’t think OP would be asking the question.

Bloody hell people are miserable and negative.
OP go for it, if you love the house and the area. You've got decades of work left to get the mortgage paid down. Yes it might be a bit stressful at the skint and renovating stage, but longer term it will be worth it, it sounds idyllic.

Very much depends on 50% of what.

After that 50% can you...

• afford maternity leave and return part time if one of you wants to?
• afford nursery for one or more??
• afford commuting costs for one or both of you
• afford to replace a car that will eventually need bigger repairs or replacing altogether
• afford new appliances that will break as well as boiler etc.
• pay all your bills with enough left to save for emergencies?
• do you have savings to cover job loss? At least 6-12 months of at least one of your incomes in case you were made redundant or terminated?

I think there are far more questions than answers right now.

If you love the location, could you look for something smaller and more affordable in the same village?

It's really hard when your heart and head are pulled in different directions. Good luck!

If you are looking to start a family. I would price it up as if you are paying for nursery. If the mortgage is 50% I think you could find yourself struggling. I think the ballpark recommendation is no more than a third of take home pay

My daughter has just started school and prior to that our take home pay was roughly 25% mortgage, 25% bills, 25% nursery and 25% savings.

We put offers in on two houses one at the top of our budget that needed a lot of work including structural and one at the bottom of our budget that just needed personalising and a bit of an uplift. We bought the second one. 2 years on, I was unexpectedly made redundant and now very gald we didn't get the other house. Daughter is now in school so nursery fees and our lifestyle is paid for by my partners wage. It's a relief to be able to find the right job and not having to rush into finding any job

The mortgage on this house would be roughly 50% of our income. But dh and I really need a few years of not worrying about money

The two do not compute
Unless 50%leaves you 10k a month because you're both high earning
50% of what?
What is mat pay for you?

Completely depends on your circumstances.

You’ve said 50% of your income, which really is much too high. Are you sure your lender would give you this?

I’m not a mumsnetter opposed to high mortgages - but there are limits to good financial plans. We moved to a semi-rural doer upper. Mortgage over £3k. We have spent probably £40-50k on the house so far and it is nowhere near finished - we are two years in.

With wanting to ensure we save a good fallback of savings (6 months of living expenses), we has reached the point where anymore big works of the house were years away (don’t underestimate the cost of a decent kitchen). It’s only because my dad died early and unexpectedly that I have now received an inheritance to make the remaining works possible.

I agree with PP that you want your cake and to eat it too. I would not be doing that kitchen if you mortgage is a whopping 50% of income. It’s a million times nicer than ours.

What savings would you have left over and what is your future earning potential. Have you factored in future nursery costs?

We did quite similar (we already had the young kids) and yes, our house is still very dated (and in fact it's got shabbier round the edges rather than being done up!) and yes, we spend a lot of time driving back and forth from town (6 mins each way) but I still love it!

But it sounds like you're in a different space. You want the lovely house AND you want it done up nicely (that kitchen is perfectly fine, much nicer/newer than mine) AND you want to be able to spend on small luxuries without always watching the pennies.

Without knowing the intricacies of your financial situation, I think something has to give here. Either you go for the smaller/less special house, but it's already how you want it internally. Or you find something at a lower price that needs some work. Or you go for this stretch, and accept that either you'll have to live with it as it is, or that you'll have to be very careful with your budget in other areas (and/or delay the children)

Basically, there are compromises if you stretch yourself financially, and there are compromises to living rurally. For lots of us those compromises are worth it, but you'll have to make that decision for yourself.

Going to say the same @Proopo
i grew up in a villages and had tons of friends there.
Saturday used to go into town on the bus regularly with my Nan.
And then on my own as I grew on my own.
then got a lift home as my mum worked there.
growing up in the country side was great.
we did move to that particular Town when I was 16 though.
This was because mum worked there and they got a new build.

I think it’s probably a bad idea due to the cost. The economy looks rocky for a fair few years, food prices will continue to rise, and you also want to start a family.

BUT, you can plan for all that. It all depends on outgoings/likely costs. So maybe YANBU - but you’ll need to spreadsheet the hell out of it to check.

I agree. I’ve only just seen the photo of the kitchen. If the cupboards are generally sound then you could transform the kitchen in a few days with relatively little effort.

50% of income om mortgage is too much no? I thought comfortable spot to live/holidays and save was 20-25%. For that reason alone I wouldn't do it.

We did this ‘twice’.
and it’s horrible ()
but then you make the new place great as well.
you have to or you don’t get anywhere.
we ‘re on house number 3.
10 years in and still got one major room to totally revamp
update 1 or 2 floors.
(and there’s even talk of a Sumner house for the garden).
but my kitchen
it’s so much more than the others we had and more than I could have ever imagined.
it takes time but is worth it.

not really, I have colleagues in similar situations. They top up only a few £100, certainly not £1000s. So not unusual at all IMO.

Having just seen your kitchen- I’d say go for it - that kitchen is doable for now and as it ticks so many boxes I’m changing my vote.

5 min drive to Waitrose, how long to the nearest Lidl though, you won't be shopping in Waitrose with that mortgage when the kids come along 😂

To be honest it sounds gorgeous but also a real stretch, really sit down and hammer through your figures.