Buy, rent or ? WWYD?

[eternallimbo]

NC as I don't want to tie financials to my account. Mine and DH's situation is that we've been in limbo life/finance wise for almost 2 years and we have no idea what's best to do.

We sold our house 18m ago and moved across the country for DH work, this was the big move where we could get settled, secure and start a family.

The opposite happened, DH was shortly made redundant, hasn't been able to find work and is now self employed and unlikely to have anywhere near what he used to earn for many years. I've found work, and have just escaped redundancy but only for 6-9m as it's sinking ship. I've also been looking for work since Jan but struggling to find anything in the area we're living.

We have around £100k from the sale - that is everything we have. Now we're burning money on a pricey rental that is about 50% of our income.

We can't decide if we should stay put on our pricey but rolling rental, rent somewhere cheaper where we'll be locked into a long rent contract when I may need to move for work. Or just commit and take advantage of stamp duty holiday and buy, not worrying about me potentially losing my job in an area of the country where I may not get a similar wage/role as the primary earner?

Not sure why you would consider buying when your job is so precarious ? would you get a mortgage ? I guess the large deposit will help.

@Babyroobs I guess simply because a mortgage would be around 50% of the current rent and I'm not sure when we'll next be in a position to get a mortgage - so at least it's an asset? But in reality I guess we're both just craving an anchor.

Buy, especially if your mortgage will be half your tent. Rent is dead money and you can always rent out the house, if you move areas. Plus you might not get a mortgage in 9 months time.

[quote eternallimbo]@Babyroobs I guess simply because a mortgage would be around 50% of the current rent and I'm not sure when we'll next be in a position to get a mortgage - so at least it's an asset? But in reality I guess we're both just craving an anchor. [/quote]
I guess if your husband's employment is stable and you could afford mortgage payments on just his wage if you lose your job in 6 months then go for it.

We couldn't do either Babyroobs, but I'd have a 3' notice period I wouldn't have to work and worst case I'd take any job going and both incomes just about cover us hopefully. Not guaranteed or partic stable tho

As self-employed, DH will need two years’ of business accounts to be considered my the majority of lenders - is the idea for you to be the sole mortgagee?

If you don’t want to move to a cheaper rental because you’d be tied into a contract when you may have to relocate for work, surely this would be the same - but exacerbated - if you buy?

I’d have a proper plan about employment potential and prospects for both of you before you commit to buying.

Yes @ComtesseDeSpair I would be the sole mortgagee. Honestly we've tried to plan for the last two years and nothing has come to fruition. So I'm not even sure where to start. The only thing we have is that as a worst case scenario I go from middle management back to retail/hospitality I think we'd just about have £30k pa income between us which should cover a mortgage hopefully.

I'm always in favour of buying over renting. But property prices have shot up this year unrealistically considering what's going on with economy. Wouldn't buy now irrespective as there might be a bigger crash in the next 2 years. Move to a cheaper rental for now and look to negotiate terms for ending the contract earlier. Find a place to buy that is reasonable enough for you to afford on your salary in the meantime. Don't rush buying.

100k probably earning 1% interest

Property seems to still be increasing at more than 1% per year in some parts of the country

To me is seems crazy to be renting, when you have money to buy !

Can you buy a small property ?

Even taking into account the "difficult Covid job situation" surely buy rather than rent