Is Our Mortgage Sustainable? Advice Needed

[Gabaru]

We are first-time buyers, and our mortgage for £575,000 has been approved. We are putting down a £11,000 deposit. My take-home income is £4,200 per month, and the mortgage repayment will be £2,430 per month.
Given the current cost of living, I wanted to ask if this setup seems sustainable.Any advice or insights from those in a similar situation would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds tight. What if your boiler breaks down? Or something unexpected like that.

Check your broker has filled application in correctly and entered a wife and child as financial dependents as this may give a truer result

Our mortgage is around £500 less than that per month, my husband earns more than your monthly wage, and I also work full time. Earning a little over min wage. We struggle some months, for example when the car needs servicing or we need something repairing at home. We do have two children and two cars. I personally think you can’t afford this. And if we had our time again, I think we would have gone for a smaller home in order to have more disposable money each month.

Absolutely wouldn't do it with only one person working, you'd be absolutely screwed if something happened to your job since she's struggling to get one.

Yes, I think you'd be seriously overstretched given the figures you've quoted. Settle for something smaller, a slightly cheaper area or a lovely flat.

As long as on paper it works and you have wriggle room to give something up I would go for it but take out income protection.

wife needs to get a job any job. If she has never worked since graduation (?!?!) then she may have to do a post grad to freshen skills. But really she needs to get any job- a 13 yo doesn’t need a f/t SAHM.

the property market won’t get any better and at least interest rates are going south. Everyone stretches themselves for the first rung but at least you don’t have. Nursery costs.

And build yourself a 3 mth savings buffer and no borrowing any more money- credit cards holidays car finance.

Did I say your wife needs to get a job- any job?

I haven't read all your posts, but if the house needs modernisation (i.e. money spending on it) you simply can't afford to do the work. You need to find something less expensive.

requiring complete modernization,

Where is your modernization budget coming from?
How much is set aside for modernization?
willyour wife do the entire DIY modernization?

You need to look for smaller property for much less

So after mortgage you would have £1,770/mth left for everything. Think I'd make a list of : council tax + it rises every year) Gas, Electricity, Water, building and contents insurance. Do you have car, tax, insurance, fuel, repairs. TV licence, home emergency cover, would you insure appliances? Sky or whatever TV, mobile phones, broadband. Then food, home repairs, what if washing machine broke etc etc. I'd think very seriously about looking for a cheaper place or waiting and saving money to fall back on, a mortgage is for a very long time. Do you want children, holidays? 🤔

This is completely unrealistic @Gabaru but you don’t need to overthink or worry as the bank will never approve this as a full mortgage offer.

I’m intrigued if you are saving £200 a month , how will you afford renovation costs for your home? Boiler breaks? New bathroom? , new carpets ?

On paper, it looks manageable, as I should be saving around £200 per month after covering all outgoings. However, as many have mentioned, any unexpected emergency could quickly become a problem.
I'm wondering if my wife securing a job would make this risk more manageable — that would definitely ease the pressure. But there are so many "ifs" that keep me worried.
It feels like, given my current affordability, it's hard to find a decent house to our liking without stretching beyond what's comfortable.

My son went to Sutton grammar, He commuted from too far away but the 5 years flew by. I wanted to move but could not make it work.

He has now graduated, I helped him significantly through uni. As I had always planned.

Kindly OP, what you are planning is very likely to wreck your lives, and your son will not thrive if you put this noose around your neck.

Stop, and step back. Financial stress like this is life wrecking.

I have around 20k savings which I plan to use for only necessary must renovation. Earlier I thought of removing the wall between the kitchen and dinning for open plan. now after reading everyone's response, I will not. Just do the flooring and wall painting. Just wondering if 20K is enough as a backup funds if I go ahead. we come very far now with the solicitor has done all the searches may be exchange the contract before the Stamp change kicks in.

I feel so unlucky — if I pull out now, this will be the third house I've had to walk away from, after already spending money on solicitors and surveys each time.

20k will be gone on one week and you will not have started
Complete rewriring is likely esessential that s 5k or more to start
Paining decorating plastering etc
New bathroom(s) ??
Kitchen appliances?

Boiler and radiators and plumbing throughout?

Are you happy to camp out in the property for years while you try to save for each bit of modernization?

Be more realistic
Look for a 2 bed place which just needs a coat of paint
Or wait til your wife is earning

What's your back up plan? If you are made redundant, wage cuts, get ill, experience interest rate hikes, have unexpected expenses?

What renovation needs doing with the house? £20k won't go far at all.

Your posts are increasingly concerning....

That 20k will be gone in less than a month...
Do you understand that the cost to simply remove a load bearing wall, put in a beam and make good the area costs about 15-20k once vat is included in london.

Unskilled labourers are 150 -200 per day
Skilled labourers are 400-800 per day.

We did our kitchen and downstairs flooring on london 2 years ago - it was over 45k for mid level finish and i am good at getting deals.

Your wife needs a job yesterday

Its just a old property. No major work neeedd, its just that everything is old and working. Survey has not found anything major. I am just looking flooring and paint. And remod kitchen may be buy used one from facebook market place.

Planning to do following

1. Remove old carpet and vinyl flooring on ground floor and carpet on 1st floor
2. paint the internal wall
3. The kitchen is old. May be repaint or buy used kitchen

Thats all I am planning to do.

This thread makes me feel like such a failure 🤣. I am (almost) penniless, yet apparently it's possible to earn a generous salary even if you have zero common sense or financial nous!

77K + bonus + health insurance would be the moon and stars to me. It could be used a lot more wisely.

Don't do any renovations until your wife has worked for a year and you've built up a cushion. She needs to do any damn thing she can get.

Use the £20k backup fund. This will give me some time to find another job. To be honest I am not sure . How do others manage if they are made redundant ? Just curious

Do you have a full mortgage offer @Gabaru or a mortgage in principle ? I fear you and your family will end up going to a food bank or have onion broth for dinner? The maths isn’t adding up x

You aren't unlucky. You just don't seem to be thinking things through properly and your aspirations are totally unrealistic (or it could be your wife's aspirations perhaps).
You said, a few posts up that, on paper this looks manageable and that you should have an extra £200 a month but earlier you said this:

'I have not done a spreadsheet but what I have noticed is with my current rent of £1500 I am able to save around £100 to £200 per month from my salary with all expenditure. So I guess the deficit is £800 when I start paying my EMI. Not sure how the bank approved my loan when its clearly not possible with my in's and out's'

You are either making this up or you have both been very poor in terms of financial and other planning. If the above, quote post is correct in terms of expenditure, you would be at least £800 in debt every month, more because of the upkeep costs of owning a home.
You can't afford this house so obviously need to pull out. Spend a bit of time planning things properly with your wife. She needs to get a full time job, any job with an income. Once she does, you can start looking again. Don't offer stretch yourselves because of your unrealistic expectations. You could easily lose your home and end up in a lot of debt.