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Original poster

To not want to borrow maximum amount? Mortgage with DP

107 replies

LuDa4 · 22/02/2026 21:44

Can I ask for views on this please.

DP and I
Mid 30’s
1DC, not having more
Joint earnings - c.£65k
Joint monthly take home - c.£4200
No other debts or car payments etc
Deposit a c.£150,000

We can borrow up to £380,000 but would look at needing £250k which would mean a monthly Mortgage payment in the region of £1300-1400.

DP thinks we should push ourselves and get as good a house as possible within the budget.

I am more cautious and think we should leave some breathing space and be a bit more cautious.

He says the banks won’t lend us what we can’t afford.

After mortgage/bills, I think we will have around £2000 left each month not accounting for food.

Any thoughts on what we should do?

OP posts:
ThiagoJones · 22/02/2026 21:52

We got a mortgage for the absolute maximum we could, but we were both on an upward trajectory with our careers and knew it wouldn’t be tight for long. Are you both at the top of your game career wise?

Thundertoast · 22/02/2026 21:50

ThatGladTiger · 22/02/2026 21:46

If we had mortgaged what the banks would have lent us, we would have lost our house as we had to remortgage during the Liz Truss mess!

There is an inner calm about having money left over every month. We can do bits to the house and go on holiday without having to stress!

I now advise all my friends not to max out! You never know what’s around the corner.

I nearly lost my house due to the Liz Truss incident. You need to give yourselves wiggle room - plan for if one of you loses your job, if you had a higher combined wage you could take more of a risk (although maxing out is still so risk due to aforementioned political impacts) but you arent on a massively high combined wage so it would hit harder if one of you was out of work for a bit.

Original poster
LuDa4 · 22/02/2026 21:50

Thanks to those above who mentioned children - edited to say we have one DC

OP posts:
ItsAWonderfulLifeforMe · 22/02/2026 21:49

I think it depends on your future plans- do you intend to have children / need to pay nursery costs/ will your income reduce etc. if you buy a house that needs work it’ll take you a long time to afford it if you’re paying a large proportion of your wages on the mortgage. Also are your pensions in order? A lot of people get to 40 then start paying hard into pensions so that will reduce your take home pay too

Scottishskifun · 22/02/2026 21:48

My advice would be to go for a house with a mortgage you can afford on 1 income.

Nobody ever plans to be made redundant or struck down with a long term illness but it's a very real life scenario.
We've had both of those scenarios occur in the last 12 years and I'm very glad we had a mortgage and monthly bills affordable on one wage when they did!

Also if you want children then factoring in a 1.5-2k nursery bill will very easily eat up all of that extra you currently have.

UnhappyHobbit · 22/02/2026 21:47

It’s a difficult position and I’m in a similar dilemma. I’m my area at the moment, the jump up to the next level in property is huge. There’s a part of me that regrets not doing it sooner, but then I love having the freedom to travel and not worry about money.

if you can get a house you can see yourself living in for the next 10 plus years I think it’s worth it. Climbing the ladder these days just feels too expensive.

ThatGladTiger · 22/02/2026 21:46

If we had mortgaged what the banks would have lent us, we would have lost our house as we had to remortgage during the Liz Truss mess!

There is an inner calm about having money left over every month. We can do bits to the house and go on holiday without having to stress!

I now advise all my friends not to max out! You never know what’s around the corner.