To buy a £700k house on £67k

[Polledja]

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 She has become withdrawn and depressed during this process and it caused allot of tension.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

It's pretty crass that someone with £280k savings claims Child Benefit, grasping twats

. Do you have a problem with people putting more into their pension to claim the 30 hours? Or someone in a 1m house getting help with energy bills, child benefit or AA?

I'd be looking at houses under £550k or you are going to constantly feel the pinch.

Why? Anyone with children is entitled to child benefit.

Not if they earn over a certain amount they’re not, which you know because you’re putting extra in your pension to be below the threshold.

Not if they earn over a certain amount they’re not, which you know because you’re putting extra in your pension to be below the threshold.

It's completely normal to limit your tax burden. Plus I think CB should be universal.

I know it is. I’m just pointing out that not ‘everyone’ with children is entitled to child benefit, as the OP posted.

I’m confused - the OP says they will have £1900 after mortgage to live on, which sounds like a decent amount to me?

We have a similar income to yours (although more balanced-husband and I make around the same amount). We also have equity around £300k in 2 properties we are planning to use. We owe land and planning to build a home and I would not feel comfortable with spending 700k. My intention is keeping payments between £1500 and £1700 a month max, and even that's is a little scary (take home is around £4300). The house would have renewables so hopefully very low energy bills (around £30 a month). It's a tricky situation I agree with your wife it's wise to stretch a bit, but I don't think she is being realistic, specially if she is the lower earner, what happens if you- the higher earner-lose your job? Ultimately she should be more mindful about the risks and not just demand things...a plan for her to bring her income more in line with yours should be a priority before looking at homes worth three quarters of a million 😜

The OP also said their bills (apart from their mortgage) come to £1600, so it leaves very little for house maintenance/repairs, savings, clothes, haircuts, Christmas and birthdays, or any kind of buffer.

This! Big houses cost more in other ways too. A bigger garden means more to plant up and look after, an extra bathroom or two means more risk of issues, when you move in it could be an extra room or two to carpet and furnish, and extra floor to heat. The council tax will increase, home insurance will go up. Your life insurance policy needs to be bigger so you can pay off the mortgage if the worst happens.

If you've got £1900 and your bills are £1600, that £300 is going to get nibbled into very quickly indeed. You can't afford it.

You can't afford it, plain and simple. We have a household income of 6k per month, no way would I be comfortable with such a huge mortgage. Have you been to see a mortgage advisor as I doubt you fit the affordability criteria for that much. Our mortgage plus all bills, including food, fuel comes to 3k per month. Our house is worth £420k but have a much smaller mortgage as its gone up in value a fair bit. You wouldn't be able to absorb the COL increase. By all means buy a house but a cheaper one.

Wow , our joint income is £90k and we have a mortgage of £150k. And there are months, actually most months, where we have very little left.
Don't do this,buoull ruin yourselves financially

You wouldn't be comfortable with a 330k mortgage on 6k a month?

Well be retired between 50-55 (perhaps earlier if we inherit but that’s not a given)

the house we live in is currently mortgage free thanks to hard work and we’ve worked our way up the career ladder and will continue to do so if possible.

im not sure why you’re so interested in my life but I can give you tips if needs be 😂

Plus I think CB should be universal.
You think every single person who has a child should be paid CB? regardless of wealth? fuck it give everyone UC, out of the endless money pot!!

No. You can't afford it. Buy a house at the cheaper end and upgrade once you can afford it. Your wife sound like she wants a champagne lifestyle on a lambrini budget.

@OnaBegonia yes I do. I think it's better to invest in children personally & there's nothing wrong with giving higher tax payers "benefits". After all the equivalent of CB when I was a child wasn't means tested!

Ireland manages it.

You will also have to find £28,000 stamp duty on a £700,000 House. Plus all the moving costs which mouth to several thousand.

Even with a £280,000 deposit, it will still be 6x your income, I doubt any mortgage lender would go for that.

I would say your upper limit is 480,000.

Your partner needs to cut her cloth to suit her purse.

And why would you think not paying CB has any impact on wealth? I would also rejig the tax system so there is more of an equal burden as opposed to it being heavily weighted on income. That would rebalance wealth a lot more!

The thing that irks me about child benefit is that if my husband and I were each earning 50k then we'd qualify for it, but if we are single income on 100k then we wouldn't get it, even though take home on that is less than two people earning 50k apiece. That makes 0 sense to me.

the house we live in is currently mortgage free thanks to hard work and we’ve worked our way up the career ladder and will continue to do so if possible.

no luck involved at all?

@TrinaLowsln it makes sense because the gov want more people working

I remember when the guttering fell off my house, insurance wouldn’t pay up as it wasn’t windy enough. We had it all replaced at a cost of £500 and this was a few years ago. They did pay up when our bathroom flooded and the damage plus new ceiling was 2k. They do not like paying out though and will try not to.

We live in a very modest house we could afford a much bigger house but it’s nice to not have to worry and to also enjoy life. Her needing this bigger fancier house where does that come from?

I think people with children should bear less of the tax burden as they’re supplying the country with the next generation of tax payers. In the absence of dependents tax codes, child benefit is the closest we’ve got to this.