Can I/We buy a property

[Liverpool23]

Hi everyone,
You have all been really helpful in the past with any money decisions I have made so I thought I may ask again
I have got £35k saved to buy a property and (now) no debt. I live with my DP.
I moved in with him on the understanding that I would pay minimal rent (£250 a month in London!) so he would cover most of the rent and bills and I would save for the both of us.
We really want to TTC next year but I am obviously reluctant to do this before buying first as it will be 10 times harder once we have a dependent. I am 29 so although super keen to start a family, we can wait a little longer if needed.
We are looking in South East London/Kent area - as far out as Erith I would say.
I have got quite demoralised recently because people suggest things like, oh you can get on the help to buy scheme where you part rent and part buy a property but WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU is that you need an income of nearly £50,00 for a lot of these properties to even qualify!! This is because you will be paying rent AND mortgage.

Also - I think they are a bit of a scam because for example if you buy 40% of a property (so rent the remaining 60%) when the boiler breaks shouldn't you just have to pay 40% of the costs to fix it if you only own 40% of the property? Some think that I am being pedantic here but I do feel like I have a point to a certain extent.

My DP earns: 1200 a month
I earn £1,867 (minimum) a month
So not huge earners for London

I feel like we have a healthy deposit but fall down on our incomes. I would also be very happy with a 2 bed flat but DP is adamant he wants a house straight away with outdoor space if possible (wouldn't we all hey!)

So, I feel like we have three options

1. Should we go to a mortgage broker and see what options are out there?

1. Wait for the dreaded Brexit to take place in March 2019 and hope that the instability of the market may turn out well for us (wishful thinking really - I feel like regardless of what happens post Brexit - London will always remain desirable)

1. Long term we both would like to move to Manchester to be closer to family so I suppose just wait a few years, have a baby in rented then buy somewhere in a few years in a cheaper area

Thank you for advice in advance

I would go and see what a mortgage broker offers you know and I would go again after brexit to see if there is any difference

Unless you see something you love that doesn’t come along often, I would wait until after Brexit. I’m south east and prices seem to be coming down so there is no rush to buy ASAP to beat the rising market.

Go see a broker.... i earn a bit more than your DP and im a single buyer - i bought ahouse alone (not london)!!....

Be realistic to what you can afford - i could have got another 30k on a house but i decided a cheaper option (3 bed house)! was enough

I saw a broker and the options are huge - compared to your bank (dont do this - for a couple of hundred quid - do the broke route!!...

Life's too short - see the broker....buy the house!!! dont stretch yourself totally but if you can get a house -geta house!! i love my garden :)

Put your annual salaries into some mortgage calculators (most lenders will have one on their website), this will give you an idea of what you will be able to borrow.

To be honest, it doesn't sound like you earn enough between you to be able to buy a house outright in that area.

Thank you, again for all the advice and other stories.
@carly2803 - Such an encouraging story - I don't want to rain on DP's parade but he is not particularly realistic in buying a house straight away - I've tried to say that a house is not off the cards in the future but we have to work ourselves up!
@HilaryBriss - Yes, you are right, we don't really earn enough - my salary can go up to £2,000 some months but I can't depend on that.
Neither of our jobs are London dependent so I do hope to move out in the next few years.
I think I will wait until just after Brexit and see where we stand x

I can't help you with London prices, which give me the willies, but I will say I think you are right to be cautious about help to buy. Around here the help to buy effect basically just adds money on to the price of the house - it's just a bonus for the builders and makes it very hard for you to move on later as you've overpaid to begin with.

I'd suggest going to see a mortgage broker. I went this spring expecting advice on what I should prioritise in order to buy in the next couple of years, and was pleasantly surprised to find out I could get a mortgage straight away. I'm now sitting in my own lovely flat! I've got a crap interest rate but I'm paying less than I was in rent and it's going towards my own future not my landlord's early retirement plan.

Oh my gosh @omletteandbeans! I can't believe they are getting away with it and try to sell it as something beneficial for first time buyers! Argh, give me a break. Makes me super angry - I guess that is another thread anyway

Another very encouraging story too, thank you. Do mortgage brokers analyze your bank statements to see where your money is going? I understand they need too, to a certain extent but just how invasive is it?

They do analyse it but only so they can work it roughly how much your outgoings are each month. They are great, we had a nightmare getting a mortgage because of poor credit history (and none in my case) and he managed to get one within a day.

Are the incomes pre or post tax? Do you know your gross annual salaries? Pop them into this calculator to give you a rough idea of what you can borrow first.

servicing.hsbc.co.uk/mortgages/how-much-can-i-borrow

@Chewbecca - The incomes are post tax.
The issue that I think I may have is that I am contracted in a job for £1467 a month but have another income which is £400 minimum a month/about £600 max a month. This job though, isn't contracted so my bank said they couldn't include it however I think a mortgage broker would?
The other job is ad/hoc childcare and it really fits in with my life, very flexible etc so I like to keep it without a contract really.
Thank you @beefcake - I took out a credit card just for this reason. I had never borrowed anything and so had a bad credit score so over the past year I have bought small things every now and then on a credit card and paid it off in full each month to improve it. Seems silly really as I don't need a credit card but you have to play the game and jump through the hoops don't you. I'm so glad it has worked out for you

1467 net pm is approx. £21k gross pa and 1200 is about £16k (rounding down to be conservative).

This income would give you a maximum mortgage of around £175k.
I'm not a an of mortgaging to the max (but know many are when you're young) but given you have the additional income which isn't included in the above as will be tricky as not contracted, that would make the mortgage more affordable. Repayments on £175k would be just over £1200pm at an interest rate of 7% on a 25 year loan but the way.

Obviously these are not precise figures but give you a ballpark idea. Add your deposit and take some out for fees/costs and you probably have a budget around £200k which is enough to buy a property. Have a look on rightmove to see what sort of property you would get for that budget.

That is really helpful @chewbecca - thank you.

If you both want to move then maybe bite the bullet and move nearer to Manchester now before TTC?

Get settled in new jobs and rent until you get a feel for an area you want?

In your case, if you can do your jobs anywhere, I would make the move to Manchester now rather than in the future. The costs of buying and selling are horrendous and you stand a better chance of getting a house there but not in/around London for your budget.

with a 200k budget you can get a 4 bed house with garage and all the trimmings in most towns surrounding Newcastle or Blackpool or pretty much anywhere up north.

You dont say what your budget is but I have seen houses on at £270k in places like Dartford and Erith. You can find two bed flats with a garden closer in to London for £250k too around Plumstead ( nicer area imo). I think shared ownership is only a good idea in a rising market. Could you go much further out to the Chatham/Medway towns? Commuting costs would be higher but housing is a lot cheaper.

Agree with Mrs Patmore about Plumstead, it is nice there particularly around the common and is quite reasonably priced. Easy commute to London too from Woolwich Arsenal.

Oh yes, I like Plumstead too! I could easily live there :)

My family are up north and DP's family are based in London at the moment (his sister/brother inlaw and mum) but they are relocating up north in the next few years (for reasons far too complicated to explain) so that was our reasoning for the ''big'' move to be in 2 or 3 years time but granted I had not thought much about the (rather obvious) costs of buying and selling

We are happy to go out as far as Dartford but not the medway towns as that would be a step too far for DP's commute.
@Monday55 - I adore Newcastle but DP has said he is willing to go as far up as York (I will just have to ''sell'' Newcastle too him like I did with Manchester!) He is not from the UK and until he met me had not gone further north than Watford, in 15 years of living in the UK!
You are all giving me food for thought and more options than I would have thought of myself, thank you

If personally say you should work on him to agree the move north and then crack on and buy up there! Then babies can come along sooner and you can get on with living your life! Sometimes you have to just jump and life is too short x

If you can’t afford a house, maybe look for ground floor flats with own garden.

@Desmondo2016 - True - if it were just me I would be up north tomorrow. My sister is expecting twins any day and I really want to have a close relationship with my two nephews but I have to respect my DP's side of the family too so I feel like this is the compromise I have to make.
I think whatever happens we will wait until after Brexit and then make a decision.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67686289.html

That's a very tight budget for London. However, there are still some nooks and crannies without going to Zone 5. Waltham Forest is worth a look, Leyton and Leytonstone. Also East Ham.
Welcome, my daughter and Korean partner are loving London!

Wrong thread!

@Mayhew - I know which thread that was meant for but what a lovely, well present flat anyway! :)