What will mortgage brokers look at as an over 50 year old single female?

[Kato2611]

I will be getting some inheritance at some point and I'm thinking of buying my first property but wonder how hard it is for someone over 50 and single to do this. It won't be a huge inheritance as it is split between three of us and not an expensive property. Does anyone have any advice?

They’ll look at deposit/purchase price ratio, where the deposit is coming from, your earnings and stability of your job, any other earnings you have and your fixed outgoings. They’ll probably get you to fill out a form to confirm all this.

I highly recommend going to an independent mortgage broker and paying a fee for their services.

Thanks for your advice. Are they likely to look at family medical history. My mum passed away at 72 from cancer and we have heart disease on my dad's side. Someone mentioned that due to my age they would look at things like this.

Not that I’m aware of, I’ve never been asked. Someone might come along with more knowledge of this.

Most standard lenders let you take a mortgage for the length of time you have between taking out the mortgage and retirement age. Assuming it’ll be 67 you will be able to get a mortgage for up to 17 years. There won’t be any health checks etc- just what can you afford based on your earnings and your deposit.

Your mortgage might go into retirement depending on the lender. I went via a broker in my early 50s and they were happy to see pension contributions on my payslips. I'm aiming to have it paid off before retirement if I can though.

I'm in the middle of the process with DH who is is 48; we can only get a mortgage for a maximum term of 26 years because of his age. Also first time buyers.
I'm 35 so thought we could get 30 years to drop payments a bit but apparently not as he is the higher earner.
If we wanted a longer term then they would have to take in all his pensions information but the broker said that takes longer. So even though monthly payments will be higher than we wanted to pay right now they're still less than our current rent and we are on a time crunch as landlord is selling up because of the new renters rights bill.

Single, in 50s, have just bought house with help of mortgage broker. Application process straightforward, they need to know income, level of deposit etc, i don't recall any health questions being asked. Mortgage is only up to retirement age so is a short term one.

I got my first mortgage at 47. I was able to extend the term to 70. No medical history needed and I used a broker. It was during the Truss fiasco so horrendous interest and I have to have a longer term too.

I’ve just got a fairly substantial 15 year one from Barclays, am 51 and single. They asked for 3 months payslips and 12 months of bank statements. It was completely trouble free, got an offer within a week of the application going in and no other questions were asked.

At 48, I borrowed £122k from a regular high street bank over 17 years.

It was about two & a half times my earnings. I was a single mum of one and had more than a 20% deposit.

You won't have a child to raise so you should get a higher ratio, over however many working years you have left.