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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How much mortgage to pay each month?

119 replies

erhsla14 · 24/04/2022 22:34

How much do you pay per month either as a figure or % of net income?

We are FTB and trying to decide what to do (used to paying a lot on renting, especially when living apart renting separately)

OP posts:
TheSandgroper · 25/04/2022 06:41

We had an entire deposit so repayments weren’t as large as they otherwise may have been.

However, interest rates were about 5% at the time but I stress tested by doing calculations at 11%. Thankfully, they never got that far but they did go up a good few % before coming back down again.

We put a lump sum repayment down very early on so that gave us little overpayments every fortnight (and repaid fortnightly, too).

TheSandgroper · 25/04/2022 06:42

Sorry, an enormous deposit.

milkysmum · 25/04/2022 06:45

21%. I'm now a single parent and don't get any regular support from dcs father. My house seems smaller than most people I work with etc but I can't risk getting anything bigger with just my wage alone.

1AngelicFruitCake · 25/04/2022 06:46

BunsyGirl · 25/04/2022 06:22

23% but that leaves us with 7k for everything else which is plenty. As others have mentioned, %’s are not particularly helpful due to differences in income.

🙄

erhsla14 · 25/04/2022 09:28

How on earth our people paying only 5-20% of net income ? I’d imagine this to equate to £125-£500 mortgage per month (per household). What?! Did you all buy years ago when houses were cheap? Or have I got my maths completely off.

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 25/04/2022 09:34

No, your maths is not off. Our mortgage is £380 pm and we bought about 20 years ago. We don't overpay because the interest rate is 1.1% and I've already won enough on premium bonds this year to more than cover the interest for the rest of the year, so even though we have savings and investments to pay it off right now, there's no point.

But even people buying today could be paying a mortgage of around £5-600 pm for a 2-3 bed home in a nice enough area for £150-200k with a 10-20% deposit.

Butfirstcoffees · 25/04/2022 09:34

erhsla14 · 25/04/2022 09:28

How on earth our people paying only 5-20% of net income ? I’d imagine this to equate to £125-£500 mortgage per month (per household). What?! Did you all buy years ago when houses were cheap? Or have I got my maths completely off.

My house was 85k 4 years ago 3 bed mid terrace in West Yorkshire. Need some work. Spent about 20k on it since. The deposit was from the family home I sold on divorce.

I bought it because I was a newly single parent. It was near my best friend who helped with childcare.

At the time it was 12.5% of my take home. My wage is now that, plus I have shares in the company I, now, work for which pay out more than my wage, yearly. I opted for a small cheap home as it was the first time I had managed household bill as a single income household with 2 other mouths to feed.

Butfirstcoffees · 25/04/2022 09:35

Oh forgot to say it did mean moving about 30 mins away from my parents but it was definitely the better option.

ApertureGLaDOS · 25/04/2022 09:36

I think many have bought houses a while ago. Ours is just under 20% of our net income and we bought 5 years ago. If I bought the same house now we’d be looking at least 35% due to the deposit not being as worth as much and increase in house prices.

erhsla14 · 25/04/2022 10:01

Thanks everyone. It would be interesting to see what people are paying who have bought recently (last 3 years or so). Either as a total amount or % of take home. I completely appreciate everyone's incoming and outgoings will be totally different, more just to get a feel of what buying a house in 2022 looks like in terms of mortgage payments for todays wages and todays house prices.

(In terms of my own circumstances - as I mentioned until very recently we were used to paying rent separately and both work full-time but fully appreciate that our take home now will vary wildly to if I go on maternity / come back LTFT and/or childcare costs so trying to get a flavour for what sort of mortgage repayments to fix now when in a relatively better position financially but also able to pay comfortably when life circs change)

OP posts:
tiledo · 25/04/2022 10:03

MNs is not representative of the norm remember. Any FTB is going to have a higher % but that still may be cheaper than renting.

I've read 30% is ok but again 30% of 6k is more manageable than 30% of 2k.

tiledo · 25/04/2022 10:08

We are going to move soon & will likely go to around 30% but we are outside of the expensive childcare years & we don't have a small deposit. A big 95% mortgage if I wanted dc would maybe worry me. I would also fix for 5 years.

Isonthecase · 25/04/2022 10:11

We bought 3 years ago and pay just under a sixth based on a spreadsheet with all fixed outgoings and how they were likely to change. During those 3 years we've, at points, had childcare costs of double our mortgage, and overpaid the equivalent of nursery fees when our eldest went to school. I think once the youngest goes to school in a few years (due this year!) we'll look at getting a bigger house and I'd expect our mortgage to go up to about a third of our take home pay or possibly slightly more as a result of the house price rises.

I get it though, it's really annoying seeing houses that would have been a reasonable mortgage payment a few years ago absolutely rocket in price so they're now a massive stretch at the same time as cost of living going up. I sometimes wish we'd stretched ourselves when we bought this house but then I dont think we would have been able to afford a second child and definitely not a third so it wouldn't have made sense to go for the bigger house.

Barkingmadhouse · 25/04/2022 10:23

erhsla14 · 25/04/2022 10:01

Thanks everyone. It would be interesting to see what people are paying who have bought recently (last 3 years or so). Either as a total amount or % of take home. I completely appreciate everyone's incoming and outgoings will be totally different, more just to get a feel of what buying a house in 2022 looks like in terms of mortgage payments for todays wages and todays house prices.

(In terms of my own circumstances - as I mentioned until very recently we were used to paying rent separately and both work full-time but fully appreciate that our take home now will vary wildly to if I go on maternity / come back LTFT and/or childcare costs so trying to get a flavour for what sort of mortgage repayments to fix now when in a relatively better position financially but also able to pay comfortably when life circs change)

Bought 4 years ago and our mortgage is 10% of take home pay (combined)

PlanBea · 25/04/2022 10:33

We were FTB and bought in 2020, our mortgage is 22% of our net pay. We started off on about 30% but have both had significant payrises/job changes since we moved

PeepsAndSheeps · 25/04/2022 10:37

We bought 3.5 years ago and pay 20%.

If you are planning kids and/or dropping hours I wouldn't think going above 20% is wise unless you both have massive salaries.

maplegrove · 25/04/2022 10:49

We bought last year and pay 20%. Lucky to have bought in a cheap area!

Calmdown14 · 25/04/2022 11:11

I would choose a mortgage that allows overpayment and do it from the off, or after a few months if you need to build back up a savings cushion.

You need to factor in maintenance costs you don't have with renting. The money saving expert boards are great for budgeting advice. Things like car maintenance costs, presents should be factored into your monthly spend even if you don't pay them monthly.

Assuming after that it comes to less than renting, then overpayment gives you flexibility. You can drop it if you ever need to (say if you have maternity leave to cover or childcare costs) but you can make a big dent in it while you don't have those responsibilities. Your bank is also more likely to grant a payment holiday if you ever lose a job.

this calculator is really handy www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator/

Calmdown14 · 25/04/2022 11:14

To answer your question, we pay 30% (£950) but that includes an overpayment.

It's quite manageable but the flexibility to drop if we need to is reassuring

Shadowboy · 25/04/2022 11:17

28% but no childcare costs as OH works from home and bus collects and drops to home.

Outnumbered99 · 25/04/2022 11:17

Talk to a broker OP, and talk through your options. If you are used to paying much more in rent, then get a mortgage with the facility to overpay. Dont forget that owning comes with much more bills than just renting so committing yourself to the same as you pay in rent will be a stress.

I work for a broker and most FTB's get mortgages at 85-90% LTV (we are not in the south east) and obviously wages vary hugely!

30% of 2k a month is very different to 30% of 10k a month pay so you can't compare. Plus everyone has different priorities and commitments, childcare, hobbies, holiday plans, social life, cost of insurances, no two peoples lives are the same.

TheGoogleMum · 25/04/2022 11:18

I think its just under 20% of actual income

LadyDanburysHat · 25/04/2022 11:23

We are moving soon and our new mortgage will be around 20% of combined income. Currently we over pay a small mortgage and it is only 13%.

TakeMeToKernow · 25/04/2022 11:42

28% which feels like the most we can do without compromising on how we live (one UK hol, a car each, can have personal savings, not a problem to have a night out, can fund all DCs sports and hobbies). We were contemplating borrowing more to extend, but something would have to give and it felt a bit uncomfortable at the same time as fuel going up.

Woodstock23 · 25/04/2022 16:56

I was at around 17% when I bought 6 years ago, that's now down to 13% - monthly payments have come down a bit as I was able to access a slightly better rate after the first couple of years, but I'm also earning more now too.