To not have many options re mortgage

Ouch, think you’re going to have go downsize unless alot of savings/high income

Yes, you are likely to be paying more. If the costs wil be to much, then best look to downsize.

I was on a really good interest rate when I took a mortgage when buying my husband out, Mortgage payments were £950. The deal ended and interest rates were high, we spoke to a broker and the best deal we got saw my payments rise to £1675.00 and that included stretching the mortgage to a longer payback time. Interest rates started to fall and I was hopeful I'd find a better deal, then everything went wrong in the world and interest rates froze. At the moment it won't benefit me to change.

I think we're speaking at cross purposes, given I agree 100% with your opening posts. My previous response (starting with whether I should buy a £1,000,000 house) was purely rhetorical and directed specifically at someone advocating borrowing to the absolute hilt. I interpreted your reply as suggesting that borrowing excessively was the only sensible choice and that the OP couldn't afford even a smaller property without over-borrowing.

In reality, I am extremely financially cautious.
My point was simply that buying small and stepping up was far safer in the 2016/2017 climate, and very likely remains so today. I am acutely aware of the possibility of further major economic shocks or wider conflict in Europe, but through previous financial prudence, we have insulated ourselves as far as possible from these risks: we have no mortgage hanging over us and can comfortably cover all our outgoings on a single salary.

The OP's household earns £70,000 more than mine, and we bought at roughly the same time, yet our decisions have led us to very different places. A lot of people simply do not appreciate financial risk, and those living on cheap credit or with high mortgage borrowing are in for a severe shock if the jobs market declines.

Managing risk.
Prudence changes with stability.
Understanding market dynamics and liquidity.

If you bought 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago the calculations were different in terms of financial prudence.

The fact you can't grasp this when I've spoken at length about affordability ceilings means you have not understood the problem and you don't get the principles that underpin prudence.

Prudence in 2026 might look very different to prudence in 2008.

2.45% is very low, so you do need to be prepared for it to increase. Wars, high inflation means interest rates are not going to be falling any time soon and may even go up. Its tough at the moment.

Very confused by your comments. Please can I ask you to explain.
Do you think OP on their £200000 household income can't afford ANY house?

And you also think it is more financially prudent as a higher earner to buy a house at the top end of affordability with minimal deposit and pay interest on it for 35 years, and pay many many hundreds of thousands in interest Vs pay a tiny amount of interest and retain the money not lost to interest by buying smaller first and stepping up?

My husband and I are waiting for the housing market to stagnate further. Houses have already dipped by £47000 in real terms compared to their peak when you account for inflation.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/30/houses-in-england-worth-less-than-they-were-20-years-ago/

When we see the right movement in the gilt markets or people need to sell in distress from job loss/the next financial crash, we'll be cash buyers and can offer them a nice easy (read reduced offer) way out. The magic base rate fairy isn't coming, mortgage interest rates have returned to historic norms. The low rates after 2008 were a blip and unlikely to return in the future. Liz Truss accelerated the return but it was coming regardless.

In a high interest high house cost economy, there is downward pressure on housing price (currently through stagflation- house prices aren't keeping pace with inflation). In this economy and especially if there is an economic shock on the way, cash is king and those with very high equity or cash buyers will find it very easy to move Vs those with low equity to have to take on absurd amounts of high interest debt that they simply cannot afford.

We bought our first house 1 year before the OP and were mortgage free age 38, and by the age of 41-42 we will be earning less than the OP's household but in an £850000-£950000 house /retiring early/paying kids uni fees and house deposits because of.... Wait for it...... Financial prudence.

I don’t think prudence will make much difference if things are as catastrophically end-of-the-world bad as you keep claiming.

My daughter and her husband bought their first house last year, they were a little dazzled by the 'what you could go up to' budget but decided to base their choice on what ifs instead - what if one loses work/illness etc.
They still have a very nice home & are working so hard to do it up (and loving it).
I'm relieved that they thought this way as a liitle baby boy is now on his way!

OP most people have “worked hard”. My DP has and he doesn’t make loads. I got a PhD and have always worked alongside study since I was 14. I now make £70k and my family (admittedly only 3 of us) live in a £200k house. I bought my house at 31 and I’ll be mortgage free by 44 because I can overpay.

Buying a very expensive property is a choice, not something anyone “deserves”. And if you haven’t stress tested your mortgage and outgoings against the worst case scenario, which is a return to 10% interest rates, you’re taking a risk.

The good thing about your situation is you have loads of equity and high salaries, so if you just choose a more modest house you too could pay it off … and have much more security and financial freedom very quickly! I don’t think you can put a price on how much stress would be removed, especially when the world seems so uncertain.

No. Because you might not end up with a house at all. Especially given the political instability there is now.

Financial prudence is a concept that seems to have been forgotten in recent years and is grossly unfashionable. It needs a makeover. Quickly.

This is ridiculous as logic and doesn't factor in risk.

Doing this puts you at extreme risk to various unexpected economic shocks.

History tells us, this are semi regular and you should plan for at least one during your mortgage owning life. Probably two.

The logic should be, buy comfortably within your means even if this means buying a smaller or slightly less desirable house.

This logic is the logic that was going on in 2007 with Northern Rock before 100% mortgages were (temporarily) off the market for a reason. That was less than a decade ago and we've already forgotten how fucking stupid that was.

We are now seeing people going from 2% mortgages (or even lower) to nearly 6% mortgages and having a meltdown. This was warning against as a possibility but again everyone ignored it because "borrow as much as you can" mentality.

Interest rates are likely to go even higher, energy bills 25% higher and don't even talk about petrol (we won't talk about diesel at all because there isn't going to be any that isn't rationed soon at this rate).

Seriously anyone reading this advice and taking it seriously needs a MASSIVE reality check and should not be going to food banks when shit hits the fan.

It's true that there will be a lot of people this year and next coming off 5 year fixes facing interest rate shocks but it's not correct that that the rates available for new deals are 'inflated' in historical terms, typical new fixes are around 4.5% so on the low side of long term average.

However it does seem odd that there's at least two threads currently where people are panicking about having to pay 6% when their deal ends.

So I should buy a £1000000 house as my starter home and pay £1,100,000 interest over 35 years rather than buying lower, overpaying and buying the same house a few years later having paid less than a 10th of the interest between the 2 houses by the time all is paid off?

If big house price increases aren't expected, then surely it makes more sense for me to pay less interest on the value of the smaller house while overpaying and earn 4-7% on the money saved while waiting to pay for the house outright than to pay 5.5% annually (ie £50000/year in the first year of the mortgage) on the total value of the large house which may be reducing in value, or at best stagnating in value? In contrast, my first year in the £1000000 house would cost me £0 in interest, which is when compared to £50000, slightly lower.

My family can end up £1,050,000 richer that way, can they not compared to the family who buy the million pounds house using a high mortgage and being unable to overpay and I can retire early/pay for my children's university and give them a housing deposit with the £1050000 interest I do not need to pay.

Happy to review 'the advice' if you send a link.

if this helps we've just switched to a 2 year product that's a tracker . Might go up or down a bit but it was also the cheapest product. No commitment either you can just jump off and get a fixed rate if rates do drop. Ours has gone up from £1250 (mega cheap for London) to £1800. Luckily we can just about stomach it.

it's all due to buying too much too soon

The property ‘ladder,’ as it was, doesn’t exist any more. Now, the advice is to buy as big/expensive a house as you can afford, with a view to staying in it for longer, as extreme increases in house values are unlikely these days.

Nobody really carries on paying inflated interest when their fixed rate ends. You find a better deal closer to time and remortgage.

Unfortunately, this is no longer true these days. Those coming off five year fixes this and next year will be paying vastly more than they have been doing.

Pay off extra each month to start with to lower balance.
A morgage advisor was on TV this morning she said you can lock in a new morgage deal 6 months before yours expires but if you then see rates lower / a better deal you can ask to change it to the lower rate
( not sure if it has to be with same provider or elsewhere ) so check that out.

Sell the house, be thankful that you did so before the upcoming financial crash with major loss of jobs and be thankful you won't bankrupt yourselves.

Or.... Wait for the crash, one (or both) of you loses a job and you're trying to pay council tax, all bills and family costs on £1000 /month.

Next time don't buy too much too soon.
We earn less than you (average adjusted for inflation household income of £121000 while paying the mortgage off and income only substantially increased in recent years) bought a house now worth £500000, paid off the mortgage age 38 and can buy our next house mortgage free in 3 years which will cost similar amount to yours. We still earn less than your combined household income even with our salary increases.

If we'd bought your house as a first house and with your term, we'd have been unable to overpay and would owe £550000 now instead of £0.

You'll pay £750000 interest and we'll pay £28000 interest for the same price house and it's all due to buying too much too soon and paying the huge interest penalty that comes with that.

You need to get advice from an independent mortgage broker, they have access to all available mortgages and will find the best available deal for you

Don’t increase the term unless you absolutely have to. I would rather move than extend the term.

When your rate is up you just remortgage, it’ll be more expensive but you can’t avoid that. By extending the mortgage term you just end up paying exponentially more interest. Your monthly will not go down by a substantial enough amount to be worth it.

on 200k a year household you should be able to afford to pay 3500 a month mortgage. If you can’t then you need to downsize not extend the term

Can't you remortgage to a better deal? Maybe with another lender.