Would you be comfortable with this mortgage repayment?

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£1050pcm on a £210k house. That’s the current rates and best we can get.

Combined income currently 4100pcm.

When I go onto mat leave there will be months where we are only earning £2700pcm. We are trying to save to mitigate this.

Utility bills and car insurance probably another £500, then food shop and fuel to pay on top of that. DH also has a car payment.

Realistically, our monthly outgoings are about £2100/2200 which is one of our wages.

Would you feel happy with this in this situation? The bank said we could actually borrow much more than we are (don’t see how!?)

I think I’m just worried as it is much much higher than our rent, but we do want to get onto the property ladder before baby comes along

What term is that? If it’s 25 years why not consider 30 to lower the monthly prices. It’s rare around here that a mortgage is more than rent. What’s your current rent?

That’s 35 years!

Our rent is £650pcm. Will go up annually but secure tenancy as housing association.

Yes I’d think that’s totally fine.

Ahhh I see. Absolutely pains me that rates are so high. But you can remortgage later. The maternity months will be tight but you just make it work x

Yes... But I'm not sure I would do it in your situation with secure HA rent. If you want a property for security would it be better to save the equivalent?

We are, but the rent will go up yearly so in the 3 years it would probably be the same as this mortgage anyway. We’d have only saved in that time an extra £12k realistically and if house prices have risen again by then I don’t think it will have made much difference

Its pretty tight when your one wage.

Do you have children already? Or will this be first child and will you also need to pay childcare in a year or two?

Write down ALL your outgoings, include occasional costs (gifts, Christmas, charity, white good replacement, everything) and see what's left Vs your income.

Mine’s nearly £900pcm, I’m a single mum on a single salary of one of yours.

(and that’s taking me past retirement age and with nearly £100k deposit)

So it looks fine to me. Not rolling in tenners fine, but perfectly fine.

First child. We’ll need two days of childcare per week but eligible for a subsidised workplace place, and the funded hours may come in but even if they don’t our childcare bill won’t be more than £400 a month worst case. More than affordable when I’m back at work. DH also due a pay rise in a year

25% of take home is considered on the low side of typical for a mortgage repayment.
The suggestion is to not go much about a third, max 40%.

I didn’t know this. Thank you.

I'm a single parent. Take home pay of just over £3000, my mortgage has gone up to £1500. I manage. Don't have any loans or anything extra but do have two kids who do clubs and learn instruments etc and eat more than me!!. It's tight though

Thank you. That’s true, hopefully in 5 years the rates will be a bit better

Is 4100 before or after tax? I think it's doable now but will become very very tight once your baby starts going to nursery.

After tax. As I say we’ll only need two days a week tops. DH can have a fixed weekday off, I am going to drop a day and my parents are doing one day so we only have two days to cover. We have a subsidised place through a workplace which is currently £40 a day, we’ll also be eligible for tax free childcare and the free hours if they come in. Even without all that it would still only be £350 a month ish for those two days.

We think we may only want one child but I just can’t see how we could ever afford a second with these kinds of outgoings. I want to be excited about the house but sheesh the cost. I hate the idea of having to go back very early after maternity leave.

I would say our monthly income is around yours, maybe a bit more (dh self employed so there is no set salary). Our mortgage is £1680 a month (though on an £820K house). I think this is fine and I don't think we struggle financially, though we do spend a lot per month on hobbies (which is obviously a non-essential).

Realistically, I think you would be hard pressed in many areas to find a family home with rent of less than £1000 pcm. Our 3 bedroom house we were renting before we bought this one went up to £1600 pcm when we moved out. I live in Devon and lots of family homes around here are easily £1500-2000 a month.

The rule of thumb always used to be a third for housing, a third for bills and general living and a third for fun/saving. Obviously not set in stone but fairly useful. You will be on the favourable side of this apart from mat leave I think.

Yes as have around £500 left over even on one wage when on ml

Will you also be paying childcare costs?

We don't have a mortgage, but manage on less than you'll be left with and out of that still have treats like breaks away, meals out, hobbies (all of which can obviously be cut if we're ever struggling).

No, no childcare costs

This was roughly our mortgage payment (2.05% interest rates on a larger amount) and joint take home pay in 2019 in London. We were a childless couple in our 20s and soon after we bought the pandemic hit and we didn't have commuting costs or many places to spend money at since everything was shut.

By the time the pandemic had eased, DH's earnings had increased. DH's earnings has also increased 50% in the last 5 years and then my earnings doubled last year and this coincided with the inflation/energy crisis. We are remortgaging now which increases our mortgage by £220 but we earn more now. I would be cautious with a child unless you can increase your earnings in the next few years. At the same time, its never a good time to buy a property and sometimes you may just have to go with it and do your best to cope.

I expect costs have the potential to go up quite a lot esp with the trouble in the Middle-east.

Thank you for sharing your story. It seems there truly is never a good time