Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To buy a £700k house on £67k

544 replies

Polledja · 18/03/2023 19:08

My wife and I are looking to buy a house. I was very foolish with my money during my younger days so am behind my peers.
we want a house near a good school and houses in that area range from £550k to £700k. The ones my wife likes are at the higher end but I don’t think we can afford these. She has become withdrawn and depressed during this process and it caused allot of tension.
I have approx £280k for a deposit (this is all our savings bar £18k). We can borrow £350k based on our joint salaries of £67k. It leaves me £90k short. I think I could borrow this from family.

our net pay is £3900 per month. We would have £2000 tonoay on our mortgage leaving us with £1900 to pay everything else. We have two young kids at school. Our monthly expenses excluding our mortgage are about £1600 so it would meaning having nothing left each month

OP posts:
spirit20 · 18/03/2023 23:12

Echoing what other posters have said, there's no way you'll get approved so it's a purely academic question anyway. The bigger question is if your wife plans to become withdrawn or depressed every time she doesn't get her own way in the future and if that's someone you really want to spend your life with - it sounds quite controlling to me.

TeenLifeMum · 18/03/2023 23:13

This is interesting to read. We bring in 6k between us and in the summer we reduced the term of our mortgage by a couple of years so it’s now 1086 per month. I thought that was high! We’ve been doing the house up so haven’t had much spare cash (kitchen and bathroom expensive to replace). We’re saving for a car replacement and holidays so still don’t feel we could happily take on a 2k plus mortgage and live well. I guess I like our house so never really considered we could afford more so should.

pinkbaglady · 18/03/2023 23:13

milliondollardress · 18/03/2023 21:52

Why would you need to worry about a mortgage of £1000 a month when you’re bringing in £6000??

Show quote history

Because, like I said, we save and invest and are planning ahead to ensure we can retire at a reasonable age.

Shauny098 · 18/03/2023 23:13

MoneyInTheBananaStand · 18/03/2023 19:19

You won't be approved for that mortgage so it doesn't matter anyway but you are crazy to consider it.

I wouldn't borrow more than 200k on that kind of salary.

The problem with "keeping up with the Jones" is that it never stops OP. It's the house now, next it will be private school, fancy cars, ski holidays in Aspen etc etc etc

Best to put a stop to it now and live within your means. You have a great deposit, and you can easily buy a really nice home. Your wife will just have to get over herself.

They don’t need a 700k mortgage he’s talking about taking out a 350k mortgage and borrowing 90k from family. It’s the paying back 90k that’s the issue, not the mortgage.

Shauny098 · 18/03/2023 23:15

Why is everyone saying they won’t get approved. They’ve been approved for 350k, the rest will come from savings and borrowing 90k from family making it up to the 700k.

k1233 · 18/03/2023 23:18

I took a mortgage for 300k on an income over 100k. I was approved for much more than I was comfortable in borrowing. I wanted my repayments at less than a third of my take home income. Unfortunately with increases to interest rates repayments are around 25% of my income at the moment.

I would suggest lowering your upper limit to a mortgage value with repayment at maximum 30% of the amount that goes in your bank account. The good thing about houses is they go up in value. You can buy within your affordability now and in 5-10 years get some equity and buy a more expensive house. My place went up 25% of purchase value in 4 years and after 11 years is worth nearly double what I paid. That means, if I sold, I've got a huge amount of equity that could be used as a deposit on something else while keeping a similar mortgage value. That's how you move up properties.

Tinkeytonkoldfruit · 18/03/2023 23:47

Bananas!! We are looking to move soon, we have a joint income of 135,000 pa and would have about 220,000 deposit and we are looking at spending about half of that on our next house.

FarmGirl78 · 18/03/2023 23:55

"Her reasoning is that we are only going to buy a house once so we might as well make it the most we can afford"

But this house wouldn't be the most you can afford. It would be MORE than you can afford.

Don't do it. Car crash waiting to happen.

And I'd say don't do it on those margins even if you weren't borrowing 90k from my family.

You're asking for trouble.

adriftinadenofvipers · 18/03/2023 23:55

Zonder · 18/03/2023 23:00

I fancy that too. I could afford to go halves.

Show quote history

Happy to share lol!!

catshreddedthesofa · 18/03/2023 23:57

This would be very tight!

Our budget and deposit for our next house is about the same as yours, but our household income is around £165k and I wouldn't want to go any higher than £700k house, especially with bills going up all over the place.

FarmGirl78 · 18/03/2023 23:57

Edit to my last post...

God knows why I said you would be borrowing 90k from my family. They wouldn't even lend ME that amount, never mind a random MumsNetter they've never met 🤣

Rockingaroundtheeastertree · 18/03/2023 23:58

Anotherturnipforthebooks · 18/03/2023 21:53

I'm confused by this op. What is your salary and what is your wife's? Are you putting £13 a year into your pension?

Show quote history

It sounds like it. I’m all for planning but putting away £13k a year to get an extra £80 per month but having nothing left at the end of the month is pointless.
life is for living

ActDottie · 19/03/2023 00:04

You can’t afford it. I also don’t believe £350k is the max you can borrow on£67k??? Our salaries were around that when we first bought and max we could borrow was around £250k

TrudyProud · 19/03/2023 00:08

Anotherturnipforthebooks · 18/03/2023 20:18

As astounded as I am by op's situation, I'm also puzzled by the 'we have a £200k income and wouldn't dream of buy a house costing more than £300k' type posts.

Me too! The few people I know with those sorts of incomes live in london so wouldn't get a family home for £300k. Only on MN do these phantom multipliers exist

OnaBegonia · 19/03/2023 00:47

@kittensinthekitchen
You have a household income of £80k, but pay a massive amount into your pension so you can get £150 a month in benefits?
It's pretty crass that someone with £280k savings claims Child Benefit, grasping twats

NBLarsen · 19/03/2023 00:55

OnaBegonia · 19/03/2023 00:47

@kittensinthekitchen
You have a household income of £80k, but pay a massive amount into your pension so you can get £150 a month in benefits?
It's pretty crass that someone with £280k savings claims Child Benefit, grasping twats

Yep, agreed. Selfish to the max.

amiold · 19/03/2023 02:07

@LemonSwan why is that ridiculous? "Lol"

Live to the budget you have, not the one you want. People don't need big lavish homes, yes they're nice but not a necessity. Really is keeping up with the Jones's at times. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Lucy7890 · 19/03/2023 02:10

I'd suggest looking at the relationship issues not mortgage providers.

milliondollardress · 19/03/2023 06:35

pinkbaglady · 18/03/2023 23:13

Because, like I said, we save and invest and are planning ahead to ensure we can retire at a reasonable age.

Show quote history

What age do you think it is “sensible” to retire at?

I’m all for planning but surely you can appreciate that refusing to spend even 15% of your take home pay on a mortgage is extremely risk averse.

Most people wouldn’t ever be able to buy a house if they stuck to that rule.

Pipsquiggle · 19/03/2023 07:01

Hi you can"t afford a £700k house

Ideally mortgage payments shouldn't exceed circa 28% of your net household income. The energy prices as they are, demonstrate this well. You need a buffer on case anything goes tits up

Well done on your big deposit.

I don't understand why you are paying so much into your pension? Is it to catch up?

UnbeatenMum · 19/03/2023 07:11

No I wouldn't. IIRC we borrowed about £230k when we were on that kind of joint salary. It wasn't our 'forever' house but our equity increased and so did our salaries and we've moved twice since. We also did some renovation which increased the value of the house (nothing major, just carpets, decorating, bathroom, kitchen).

Pipsquiggle · 19/03/2023 07:16

Also do a spreadsheet of ALL monthly outgoings and your net income. This should plainly show you can't afford a £700k house

So here are your options

Save a bigger deposit
Buy a house you can afford then 'upgrade' at a later date
Optional:
Increase your earnings
Re-evaluate what you spend EG. Pension and outgoings

Aishah231 · 19/03/2023 07:17

You sound like you feel guilty OP for not buying a house sooner. Why the guilt?! You've got a massive deposit and a great salary - what does she bring to the table exactly? She sounds like a nightmare. What happens if you divorce in a few years because she feels hard done by every time you say you can't afford something due to the massive mortgage? Don't do it OP. Buy what you can afford - interest rates may we'll go up again

EmmaDilemma5 · 19/03/2023 07:18

Live within your means. It makes for a much happier life

bibbybox · 19/03/2023 07:36

As astounded as I am by op's situation, I'm also puzzled by the 'we have a £200k income and wouldn't dream of buy a house costing more than £300k' type posts.

This!