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.

I don’t think it’s feasible with those figures.

You could certainly afford a property if you moved further out of London and if your wife was employed. You haven’t said whether your work is restricting the move, but either you continue as you are, increase your income, or move to a cheaper area.

How on earth did you even pass affordability checks? Are you getting the mortgage from a reputable lender, because tbh this sounds dodgy to me!

It’s not sustainable

friend of mine has a take home of 6500 and their mortgage is 2900. They struggle because the bills ar high.

Just because the bank is willing to lend it to you doesn’t mean it’s affordable. The bank know that people will do everything they can not to lose their house, they don’t care if that means you live on beans on toast, you lie awake at night worrying, or kill yourself working overtime.

Worst case scenario for the bank is it repossesses your house. It would probably sell it for less than you paid for it, but that’s fine, they’ve got your £110k deposit to cover that now.

I would only stretch myself so much if it was that or no home, or if it was giving me the absolute bare minimum living space (ie in your case two bedrooms).

Op if you think you can manage go ahead. You’re right, the market is tough right now. But, I’d urge a bit of caution due to this straw poll which has indicated that the majority of MNetters would struggle I. This situation. Only you know your capacity. Good luck x

Our joint take home is £4500 and our mortgage is £700ish. We then have bills, food, petrol, childcare, school dinners, children's clubs - it quickly adds up. That's not including birthdays, Christmas, living expeensives and holidays. You need to have some wiggle room!

Don't forget you don't pay off that much in the early years, the bulk of the monthly payments go on interest rather than off the debt.

According to this, if you're looking at a 25y mortgage of 575k, after 5 years you'd still owe 513k, so you'd be around 5x salary, which is still high:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-rate-calculator/

Yes…can we manage with that?

How can anyone on here answer that without knowing what your bills are?!

@Gabaru if you tell us your outgoings, you might get some useful answers.

I'm confused is the mortgage amount £575000 or the property price?
Your opening post suggests the mortgage is for £575k and you are borrowing 5.5 times your income. That would make your income just over £104k but you only take home £4200???
Either way that mortgage payment is far too high on your income.
Why can't your wife find a job? Surely any job is better than no job? Min wage would give her over an extra £1k a month

I think you need more wriggle room to be safe. There is more to life than just paying a mortgage?
Does the home your purchasing have an extra room you could rent for additional income ? A garage you could rent out ?Does the home have the capacity significantly increase in value or is it move in ready ?
If not I would seriously reconsider. My H was diagnosed with cancer shortly after we married . It was several years before he was able to work . Fortunately we had worked out our finances so we could just about make it on one wage , if we hadn’t we would have lost our home.
You say you have a 13 year old son, that’s a large expense in its self, food , transport , further eduction ,holidays . To spend so much with two dependents is a massive undertaking and burden

This is your answer. You can’t afford that mortgage when you can’t currently save more than £200 when it’s your landlord’s problem if something needs fixing.

Living expenses it should say!

There are around 600 houses on rightmove under £450k in London. You can easily find something cheaper. Is there a medical reason your partner can’t find a job?

I'm sorry, but that's rather daft thing to say. It all depends where you live where I live that buys you a very modest rather dated rundown three bedroom house if you're lucky.

If you're in London, probably a child's shoe box size flat in a not very nice area

I honestly think it will be tight. Bills and food etc could easily cost another £1k a month. Work out all those outgoings first. You will need money for work on the house and insurances too etc etc. It might be unmanageable

Isn't there a rule of thumb that you should save and set aside x% of the house value each year, to cover the inevitable and often large costs of home ownership?

Not (just) for the decorate and furnish fun stuff; but for the boring but necessary and always inconveniently-timed replacements of boiler, roof, windows, wiring, plumbing, floorings, kitchen, bathrooms. Or the more unusual, knotweed in the garden, recovery after a flood, etc.

That in itself will be a new and large amount to find each year.

It is probably too tight. You already have £1500 rent plus £200 savings. So £1,700. Where do you hope to get the difference from?

you will have more expenses on top when you buy instead of rent.

is it an old house or a new build. Things crop up like a new boiler or a leak etc.

Look up how much the council tax will be on the house. How much do you spend on commuting?
E.g.
Council tax: £300
Water: £80
Internet: £40
Gas/electric: £150
Insurance policies: £80
Petrol/fares: £200
Food: £600 (£150 a week ish)

You're probably at roughly £1500 a month there and that doesn't take into account clothes/uniform, costs for if something breaks. Is it doable? Maybe. But it might be a miserable hand to mouth existence.

I must live on a different planet to most of MN because 1,700 a month is enough for me to get by on. It doesn't leave a whole load of room to save, but that was a decision made when it came to buying a house. Loads of people live on less than 1,700 AND they don't own property.

Not in my part of the south! At best it gets you a very very dated two bedroom or two bedroom in tiny box room no parking postage stamp garden terraced house that needs renovating. People aren't joking when they say it's expensive in the south.

You, or you and two other people including a teenager? Are you also paying all bills for 3 people out of that £1700?

I could happily live on £1700 once all bills were covered, but not before!

But it’s not £1700 to get by on, because the other household bills could easily be £1000, so actually at that point it’s £700 to cover all food, toiletries, healthcare, school stuff, clothes etc

No way would I be comfortable with that 😮 Especially with only one person working. Between the two of us, we bring home £5400 a month, after tax, and our mortgage is £1200. The outstanding amount is currently £240k and that seems very comfortable for us. I’d feel very vulnerable taking on that much debt in your position.

that can’t be right. Friend takes home 5600 and he’s on 109,000