Advice needed on what I can afford/do when buying a house post divorce

[Goose72]

I am still in the family home, which is struggling to sell, and I can’t afford to reduce the price further (it has already been reduced once). I need £125k to buy him out, although it’s not ideal
as the house is too big for me now and maintaining/heating it will cost more too (than a smaller house).

I want some advice, generally, about what I can do - either if I stay or downsize. Likelihood is, I will still need a mortgage to downsize. I don’t want to end up losing all of my disposable income as it would make me miserable and worry all the time. My NHS pension lump
sum, that I can get at 60, is around £70-£80k. I’m 52. Just want someone to give me advice on how to do this with either no mortgage at all or something that won’t cost much in monthly payments. I don’t mind using my lump sum pension to pay a mortgage off at 60.

I have no living close family (apart from
my 2 children, one at university) for advice.

Do I need an independent financial advisor or a mortgage broker?

Triple your salary and add your deposit. That's the maximum you can afford if you don't want to be scrimping every month. In your shoes I'd look to be borrowing over 15 years or else you'll still have a mortgage after you retire. You'll need to keep some of your lump sum for things breaking and emergencies. It really all depends how much deposit you have after selling your current home and splitting equity with exh.

Sell your property
Downsize
If possible go mortgage free in an energy efficient, affordable to pay all bills in the future type of property

Mortgage free might not be possible unless OP has a fairly decent house now. She might want a house with some space!

As this is a divorce, I will only get 50% of the sale. House has been mortgage free for years. I won’t get a smaller house for the 50%. I will need a mortgage but I hope to pay it off at 60 when I can get access to my pension lump sum.

Won’t your lump sum be worth more when you are 60 following 8 years further contributions, due to pay rises etc?

Make sure you have a legal financial settlement, not something just agreed between you.
Don't bank in being able to get 25% of pension pot tax free, this could we change.

It would be worth even more at 65 - so a mortgage for 15 years is doable. It’s what happens with divorce. Separating not enough assets leaves a shortfall. Usually for both. The only solution is to work to restore your living standards. There’s no money without work but spending all your lump sum on paying off a mortgage is crazy.

Yes

Yes, it’s legal - solicitor sorted it