House purchase - WWYD

[Animallover87]

Myself and Fiancee getting married next month. Planning on each selling our flats and buying a house together. I love going on holiday/eating out regularly and would like to hopefully have a baby soon so I think we should buy something quite modest and still have plenty of disposable income. Also I would like the freedom to go part time after baby. DFiancee thinks we should stretch ourselves to the max to get the best house we can as it's an investment for the future and will be worth it as we could get a nice house with lots of space. I just worry about having to worry about money and that I might resent the lack of freedom it will bring. The more we buy the more tied to work we are! AIBU to want to live well below our means so we can enjoy more of life?

I'd recommend buying the best house you can afford on a single wage as the stress test, (based on the monthly mortgage and bills not lending amount). This saw us through maternity leaves, costly childcare, redundancy and pt working.
I'd rather extend the term, fix and lower the monthly amount as a guaranteed minimum needed to pay. You have the option of overpaying if you want to to lower the term, it's far harder to make amendments on the mortgage the way around.
Also buying the best house for the long term (10yrs+) saves in moving costs and stamp duty as others have said.

There other ways to look at it.

Buy a bigger house near excellent state schools, or near your jobs, or your support network to save on fees, commuting, childcare etc. or buy a smaller house with opportunity to extend or put a studio in some outdoor space.

Remember though, location should be the deciding factor.

80k income on a 250k house is not stretching or maxing yourself though. It's just over 3 x your salary

This is happened to me aswell in 2014. I just married and we want to buy a house. My husband is higher earner so we could buy a bigger house. But we decided to buy fixer upper. I dont mind to do some fixing. We bought 3 bed semi detached house. Really worn down house but still liveable. We bought it quite cheap for £205k and we do back and side extension, we make 2 more bedroom and another shower room. Now its become my dream house. 5 bedroom house and i get house appraisal last year and its cost £550k. If i were you i bought a worn down house but make sure lots potential to extend. Semi detached or detached will be perfect. I found terraced house its a bit tricky to extend.

Absolutely get the best house you can while you can, house prices always seem to increase far faster than wages so if you 'wait and upgrade' you probably find it far far harder than buying now while you can.

I'd be tempted to live in one flat and rent the other out until your child is in school if you don't want to compromise on luxuries. That way the rent can cover loss of earnings during maternity leave and if you do decide to go part time while you also still put some money into savings, then once little one is out of nursery the money you're saving will pay for a decent mortgage.

With the current climate I wouldn’t go all out. Mortgage rates could rise, you need to consider if you can afford the repayments if the interest rate soared. I see his point, and you want enough space but you also want to be able to enjoy holidays, part time work. Kids cost a lot!!

We bought an ok house, just about big enough for us in a pleasant area but didn't max out because we wanted freedom to do stuff. The DCs put up with small bedrooms, poor things, but DH was able to step down a bit at work when he got an illness diagnosis without any financial worry. Any hobbies they've wanted to pursue, we've been able to oblige, and we can afford to fund uni and driving, riding, sailing whatever. It worked for us but we both had the same outlook. Financially of course it would have made sense to plough it into property, but we've had a lot more fun this way. What's important is that you both agree before you get married!

Personally I'd buy the most expensive house I could buy, you can fix your mortgage for 10 years or even for life, make sure you can port it too another property.

You'll avoid stamp duties and fees by not moving a second time.

I think you should go for the higher mortgage although nothing completely ridiculous and buy a house that suits your needs but with an eye on future increases in living costs and forget holidays and eating out for the time being. At least property has the chance to increase in value. Holidays and dinners don't.