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Original poster

Can we buy before selling, or do we need to wait?

31 replies

Weaningworries · 01/04/2026 14:36

We’ve seen a house that we’d like to buy but unfortunately we’re not in a proceedable position.

House we want to buy is £750k. Our house is worth £650k and we have £250k equity if we sell at this price.

Our Mortgage affordability (on top of any deposit) is approx £900k.

We’re going to talk to a mortgage advisor, but is there anything that could be done here that isn’t just waiting for ours to sell before making an offer? Seller isn’t willing to wait for ours to sell.

Would a bridging loan work here? We have no additional savings that could be used. How would this work?

OP posts:
Bulbsbulbsbulbs · 01/04/2026 14:49

We remortgaged our house to get a deposit as we had a lot of equity in it. We then got a new mortgage on the new place.

itsadlibitum · 01/04/2026 14:47

In the same situation we let out our original house. Our buy to let mortgage released the equity needed. Is that an option?

Original poster
Weaningworries · 01/04/2026 14:45

InOverMyHead84 · 01/04/2026 14:44

You can offer, but without an agreed sale you may not be seen as credible.

That was how it worked when we bought our place. It seems to be at agents/sellers discretion.

Yes, they won’t accept the non-proceedable offer as they need to move ASAP themselves.

OP posts:
Original poster
Weaningworries · 01/04/2026 14:45

toomuchfaff · 01/04/2026 14:43

I know when I bought, I was allowed to have 2 residential mortgages, so was able to buy the new house before the other sold because I was able to meet the affordability of the 2nd mortgage. Was paying 2 mortgages for the duration til the other one sold, i also had to purchase the new as a 2nd property (paying additional, but was able to claim back as primary residence when old sold within 3 months). This was 10yrs ago so it may have changed.

Did you have to stump up a deposit for the second property though? We do have the affordability but we don’t have a deposit to put down for the second (nor the money to pay for the stamp duty outright).

OP posts:
InOverMyHead84 · 01/04/2026 14:44

You can offer, but without an agreed sale you may not be seen as credible.

That was how it worked when we bought our place. It seems to be at agents/sellers discretion.

toomuchfaff · 01/04/2026 14:43

I know when I bought, I was allowed to have 2 residential mortgages, so was able to buy the new house before the other sold because I was able to meet the affordability of the 2nd mortgage. Was paying 2 mortgages for the duration til the other one sold, i also had to purchase the new as a 2nd property (paying additional, but was able to claim back as primary residence when old sold within 3 months). This was 10yrs ago so it may have changed.

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