Buying a house?!

[PerpetualStudent]

Is anyone else in the process of buying a house right now? Are you considering cancelling, delaying or changing the price due to Coronavirus? I know this is literally the definition of a first world problem but:

We are due to complete last week of March/first week of April and now don’t know what to do! Buying in London, and offer got accepted at the height of the ‘Boris bounce’ so there’s the issue of whether we are now massively overpaying. Also my DP is the main earner, is self employed and his business is likely to be hit very hard by Coronavirus so no idea if living the capital would still be viable for us (the main reason we are based here is for DP work)
We are currently in a rental place we have to leave at the end of the month in any case, so if we don’t go through with this purchase we will have to move in (2 DCs in tow) with the in-laws which doesn’t feel ideal.

Basically, are we bonkers to carry on as normal during an unprecedented global crisis OR bonkers to consider making ourselves homeless during an unprecedented global crisis?!

Anyone?

i would - always buy rather than rent

but - is ther a cheaper option?

i think exercise caution!

I wouldn’t buy in those circumstances. How old are your in laws though? Are they at risk if you move in with young kids?

That’s one worry. They are in their 60s but FIL is in a higher risk group.

We have been trying to buy for 9 months now, had two previous places fall though, I’m just gutted at the timing and don’t know what to do!

I'm having this exact problem - wrote this on another thread:

We've just had an offer accepted, and are applying for a mortgage, but I am super worried.

I don't want to buy in a peak then be forced to live there 10 years in negative equity if interest rates rise/house prices fall. Though we can get a pretty good

It’s so hard isn’t it?! I think the point about house prices Vs cash savings is a good one.

Where are you living right now, can you stay? Big issue does is we have to go somewhere by the end of the month, or during April at the latest!

Big issue ‘for us’ that should be

If you’re self employed and earnings are likely to be affected then you may not be able to borrow as much if you have to be reassessed for a mortgage

So we bought weeks before the GFC and I was glad we did. The government paid our mortgage interest at £950 a month, we’d have got £500 if claiming housing benefit. And we had stability, I was able to run a business from home that wouldn’t have been allowed in rented for example

You had interest payments of £950 per month from the government?

Now they’ll only pay 2.61% up to a maximum of £200k, only if you’re on qualifying benefits and it’s a loan you have to pay back

Where are you living right now, can you stay?

We can stay here, it's just a rolling rental - we have lived here for 4 years. We've saved up over that time and it's just tricky to decide; in a time of crisis, is it better to have no property but cash savings, or less savings but 15% of a property? No-one has a crystal ball. We also see it as a place to live, not an investment. Husband wants to buy it but I am tempted to pull out.

I guess the house purchase process will go quite slowly because of current situation, which can buy us some time to see how things pan out and whether to stick with it or not.

Similar situation here. Due to complete on the 26th. We've already paid our deposit to the solicitors but I'm worried the whole country will go into lockdown and the mortgage company won't be able to release the funds. No chain on either side and we weren't going to give notice on our rental until we had completed. First world problems eh...

We exchanged about 3 weeks ago and are due to complete on 1st April. Moving out of London into rental.

I'm confused though @PerpetualStudent...have you exchanged or not? Because if so I thought you had to complete or face a large penalty?

We feel very, very lucky to have exchanged before this all kicked off.

We haven’t exchanged yet, the house still has tenants in, the plan was to exchange at the end of the month when they leave and complete the next day. We have to leave our rental place by end of April at the latest (been served a section 21, and to be honest it’s a miserable hovel so not keen to stay)

We are actually cash buyers (thanks to a loan from in laws, so our outgoings are we pay them back a set amount every month, though they are able to let us off for a chunk of time if needed) So the question is a) is the cash safer in a house or the bank and b) are we safer in London or at the in-laws (in the highlands, BTW!)