How much £££ did you have saved?

[hillarypcof]

How much did you all have saved (roughly) at the point that you decided to start looking to buy a property?

My DP are totally making the most of lockdowns and "no spend" months as a result (very fortunate that our jobs are in key sectors so have not lost any income or earnings as a result of COVID) and we are hoping to be in a position to start looking seriously in the New Year of 2022.

The way things are going, he will have about £20k saved and I will have around £15k (I am 2 years younger than him) plus a little bit from family so we will have a pot of £40k that we would like to put towards a deposit/the fees that come with buying a home/furniture etc to fill it with.

We are first time buyers and we will benefit from the 25% bonus from the government (which will be around 5k - our savings are split between Help to Buy ISA and low interest instant access accounts) but my understanding is that the H2B govt bonus cannot be used towards a deposit?

Anyway! Was just wondering what kind of financial position you were in when you started seriously looking to purchase a property, any advice you would give, any tips or red flags etc??

I appreciate any advice you could give! :)

Tia x

Play with a few mortgage calculators to get a rough idea of what you’d be able to borrow based on your combined incomes. That will help you to work out exactly how much of your savings will need to go towards your deposit to qualify you for the best rates based on LTV. Get an AIP from a mortgage lender to firm that up. Look at what that sort of figure will buy you in your area and whether it’s enough for the sort of property you need or want, or whether you’ll have to add more to your deposit. If you’ll have to pay stamp duty, factor that in, too.

It’s generally a good idea to hold back £5k for legal fees, searches and surveys - you probably won’t use it all, but it’s better to have the contingency to play with than to be budgeted down to the last pound.

The H2B bonus is only released at the end of the buying process, so whilst it can be used for part of the purchase price, it won’t ever be money that’s available to you at exchange etc. Call and ask them to explain the process.

I had just over £100k saved and spent more or less every last penny on deposit and legal fees, keeping a few hundred aside for decoration. But I’m in London and was single - I needed the very large deposit to qualify for a mortgage in the first place, could only borrow about £350k based on my salary then.

We saved about £6k, £5k for a 5% deposit and £1k for legal fees. North East based and first time buyers.

I guess the amount will vary quite vastly depending on where people live.

Nothing , I was fortunate to get a cash back mortgage of 5% - took a loan out for the 5% deposit and that was refunded on completion via cashback

I had about £2,500 which covered the deposit and my parents paid for the legal fees that were about £500 but this was in 2001 when house prices were so different!

We bought for the first time in 2014. We had £30k saved of which £24k went on a 10% deposit and the rest on legal fees etc. We were left with a tiny amount of savings...maybe around £1k but built it back quite quickly as the mortgage was less than our rent had been!

£48 k (House 290k) for deposit, fees and end of tenancy costs in 2016 SE. This has given us a lot of wiggle room and money to renovate as we go along.

Not much, for our first place. We had a very small (£9k, 6%) deposit, plus about £2-3k for fees. We saved about £1000 between our offer being accepted and completion, which paid for hiring a van, pizzas and beers for the friends who helped us move, and a few new bits and pieces.

Second time round we had £12k, most of which was earmarked for replacing the roof.

We had roughly the same as you. Legal fees, survey etc probably came in about £2.5-£3k. Sometimes it makes sense to pay a product fee on the mortgage you get to obtain a lower interest rate. Not sure how help to buy ISAs work but we used the Lifetime ISA scheme, government bonus is paid about 6 weeks after you make deposit. If youre planning to wait until the new tax year in april you could both put £4k into this scheme and receive an extra £1k each

5% on first home.

We had around £30k in the bank 9 years ago. We put down a 15% deposit on a two bed house in the SE. Ideally we would have had more as the deposits, costs etc left us with literally nothing, but prices were rising fast at the time. Longer term, it stood us in good stead. After a year of being very frugal, things eased and house prices continued to rise. In four years our house had increased in value by 48% and we were able to move in to a bigger house.

Nothing for first flat 100% mortgage. Then used equity to reduce ltv.

I had around £155k saved and put £126k towards the deposit. I was fortunate enough to receive a hefty redundancy package which contributed towards my overall savings, the rest was made up of solid saving for over a decade.