Mortgage - first time buyer

[Jackster11]

I have spent the last few months searching for a property, first time buy, I finally find a really nice place, ticks all the boxes and we are now in the most turbulent economic financial mess. Rates are going up by the day, my pension which I was going to cash in to buy the property has tanked and whilst I can still make the purchase the notional money I will lose in cashing my pension in now just doesn't sit well with me. All that hard earnt money just fallen away. What do I do, go ahead with the purchase, pay higher price (lets face it house prices will drop) with expensive mortgage rate or wait,???

I'm in a very similar situation so interested to see some of the responses. Just can't decide what to do, so frustrating!

It depends on what your current situation is. If you're currently renting, I imagine that will go up anyway, and if you can afford a house, then you're better off buying and building up equity.

If you're living rent-free, then I'd wait it out until things settle down, although this could take a year or two.

If you still want to get out of the rental market but don't want to fork out for a full house, I'd recommend maybe teaming up with someone to buy the house together? My friends were in (more or less) a similar situation and they went with the property software service MaryR. It basically helped them to buy together but own individually (it helped track everyones individual shares of the property given that there were uneven contributions etc), and it enabled them to build up equity and track everything in real time. Everything is bound up in a Deed of Trust so all contributions are legally watertight and if anything fails (ie. someone of the party decides to sell off), your shares are not affected. It's a really easy way to get a foot onto the property ladder without diving headfirst into the market. If it helps, here's the website: www.maryr.co/
Good luck!

We're going for it. I'd rather pay extortionate interest than be at risk of homelessness if landlord decides to sell. Happening so much at the moment