Buying a house - deposit?

[FourEyesGood]

As an almost 42 year old, I feel I ought to know how grown-up things work. I don’t.

I have a mortgage on my house, and have around £45k left to pay on it. DH and I are thinking of trying to sell this house and move to a nicer place, but there’s so much we don’t know about the process. I’ve searched for information, but it all goes into more detail than I want at this stage, or it’s much more aimed at first-time buyers.

My question is this: do we need to save for a deposit again or is our current house our ‘deposit’ towards the next one?

The amount you sell your house for minus £45k (outstanding mortgage) is your next deposit. You will need to pay for stuff like solicitor fees / stamp duty though in cash.

Yes the equity in your current house is your deposit.

If someone is also buying your house in the same chain then their deposit goes up the chain ie you don't all need to stump up individual 10%s. You may need to top up if you are buying a more expensive house than you are selling though it's not unheard of for the deposit percentage to get smaller up the chain - but safer to assume you'll need to find the balance.

Thank you! That’s so helpful. We can start looking then! Exciting!

Remember to take about £5k off as you’ll need approximately that for legal fees and enough for stamp duty unless that’s on hold (I’ve lost track).