Buying as married v unmarried

[houwseevryweekend]

Hello! DP and I are getting married this April, we both own 1 bed flats and the plan is to rent them out and buy somewhere together. We were going to wait till after marriage to start looking but I foolishly started earlier just to see what was available atm and found a place we've fallen in love with. It's a tough market without many options in our budget so it feels a rare opportunity.

However, we now have a dilemma. Do we wait till after marriage and hope this place is still on the market or something similar is? Or go for it now, buying as tenants in common or whatever it is? I know the benefits of being married when you buy are legal rights but if we are marrying anyway (and could even be married by the time we complete), is there any need to hold off? Other things to consider?

Any advice would be much appreciated. We have an agreement in principle.The plan is to port my mortgage to the new place and take on a Buy to Let and convert DP's residential mortgage to Buy to Let. Renting shouldn't be a problem as the flats are in London and demand is high but of course you never know - we're not a traditional chain but would want at least one set of tenants in to complete.

Being married or not doesn't affect the house buying process afaik. It's more for if you break up or if you have ownership that isn't 50/50 that can get tricky. You can be joint tenants or tenants in common and split ownership how you choose.

We purchased our first house in 1986 about 6 months before we married. I can’t remember if we were joint tenants or tenants in common, but when we sold the house we needed to produce our marriage certificate. No issues at all. It’s probably more common for unmarried people to buy property together now, so don’t fret.

Hi, I'm new here so hesitate to offer advice but something jumped out at me that I thought was worth mentioning.
Why don't you convert each existing mortgage to BTL and get a new joint mortgage on the house you intend to buy together as your marital home?
That way, you each remain responsible for the mortgage on your own pre-marriage property and you share responsibility for the mortgage on your new house.
The way you plan to do it, it seems to me that your end of the bargain is more complicated and also puts more of the financial responsibility on your shoulders.