How much would you feel comfortable borrowing with 80k income?

[Mirrorxx]

We have always had a very small mortgage compared to most people we know as we’ve been happy with a smaller house. However we now need a bigger house but are unsure what size mortgage would be comfortable or a stretch.
After tax our income is currently about 4600 but it will go up to about 5200 in the next couple of years. We don’t have any other debts, Student loans and pensions are already deducted. Would 1100 be too much a month?

Depends on many factors , is the 4600 after mortgage deduction ? But before other bills ? What are you left with after all outgoings? what is your current living standards ? would the living standards be compromised? If so would you be happy with this ? What are your savings , do you save regally each month ? Only you can answer these questions

I'd say at 25% of your lower net rakhine, that would be fine for a mortgage repayment, assuming you dont have masses of debt elsewhere.
I've seen suggestions that mortgage/rent isnt more than 28% of gross earnings (total debt not more than 36% of gross).

I'd say that was fine but try and overpay once your salaries rise. I take it that's a mortgage of approx £200K?

Seems fine to me, but your mortgage company will do an affordability assessment, which I expect you'd pass easily. What's your job security like - the most worrying thing is if the main earner loses their job and doesn't get another one with a comparable salary, that's when you might start to struggle.

What other people think or percentages doesn't mean much as everyone has different lifestyle expectations and other outgoings and the higher the salary, the less the percentage matters because what you have left is more in terms of actual pounds - 76% of £4600 is a lot more than 76% of £2000.

£1,100 is 21% of the higher earning amount, so yes looks totally fine.

Agree with the person who said to sense check how stable jobs are. As you can probably tell from my user name we are currently very grateful that our mortgage is small and my DH has a very stable job!

Every person I know who has a fairly good amount of money always gives me the advice to stretch yourself as much as possible with your mortgage.

Both our jobs are secure and our salaries will hopefully increase further as we are only 30.
We have no other debts, 4600 is our current take home pay after student loans and pensions. We would have approx 20-30k savings after moving. We currently save around 2k a month but obviously this would decrease with a bigger mortgage.
@Lightsabre a mortgage of 200k would barely get a flat. We are currently looking at a budget of 350-450k

I think just totally depends on how much your spending is and what you need to live on. We have a mortgage of a bit over 400K and those payments are 1300 a month. Our combined incomes are just over 100K, depending on the year. I wouldn't want to spend much more than that, because I like to have some savings and to not skimp on food shopping and other things, but it's affordable.

It’s a comfortable amount, only thing I think to
Consider is any potential maternity leave/ childcare expenses?

Know your attitude to risk - no point in stretching yourself and then stressing over it for years. Also do a budget, take all your out-goings not just your debts into account and consider future events like number of kids planned, scrimping for years might suit you - sounds like hell to me but we are all different.

I also disagree with the 'stretch yourselves as much as possible' advice, especially if DC/childcare is in your future.

If you can buy an appropriately sized, suitably located property with the budget you're talking about, why pay more. Yes, I know there's a chance of more capital growth, but it's not guaranteed and loss of income will lead to stress, struggle and worry along the way. Plus it traps you into working full time at the level you're at to keep up, so may take away the option of part time work or a step down if you feel you want/need to in the future.

It sound fine to me and you kind very sensible with money.
Are you planning to have DC and have you factored in childcare costs?

going back a little bit, but we were paying 23% of our joint net income with two teenage boys and never felt hard-done by. Only thing to remember is that mortgage rates are at an historical low, who knows where they go once brexit etc. kicks in?

1100 is fine on that income.

Most people I know on higher incomes borrow as much as poss.

The only thing to be wary of is childcare costs if you are considering dc of course.

@mindutopia do you mind me asking if that's a long term mortgage as repayments seem low (we are looking at remortgaging)

My question is always "if one of us loses our job, how will we keep up with the payments?"

£1,100 a month over how long? Worth considering how long you'll be needing to cover that and what your longer term plans might be. I'm not sure I agree with the 'stretch yourself as much as possible' theory but I guess it depends on how much disposable income you want and how long you want to be saddled with the mortgage payments for.

Having spoken to friends on similar incomes I’m surprised by a few of the responses. Most of them think it’s a low mortgage as you can’t buy much for less than that. I was worried I was being too risk adverse but a lot of comments here make me think I should be more cautious

The problem with MN is there’s rarely a middle ground as in real life.
People on here that earn 10k a month and worry about only being able to save 8k and then the people who have 100quid a month to feed a family of 4 get told it’s possible. Honestly OP it’s fine!

It depends what stage of life people are at. Our income is a couple of hundred less than that level but our mortgage is about £350 pm. We don't overpay because the interest rate is tiny and we get more in instant access savings.

We could afford £1100 pm or probably more but we have no DC so our priorities now are saving for retirement hopefully in a little more than 10 years time rather than buying the most expensive house we possibly could.

@Mirrorxx, you haven't said how much of a mortgage you will need. Only that £350-450K is the property price? Or is that the size of mortgage needed?

We have an income of £4k a month and our rent is £1025 a month - that's with 3 children and some debt. We manage fine with this.

@Mirrorxx it's is a low mortgage for many in London & the SE. And plenty are paying more than that in rent.