First time buyers - relocating. Need help

[Cassandra96]

Hi, my partner and I are first time buyers and we're planning on relocating from London to the Midlands. My job is easily replaceable and brings in the lower amount of income, my partners is a very good job and brings in over double what I make + bonus. I am from the midlands and we want to relocate to my hometown, as buying in London is unrealistic for what type of home we want (aka not a flat for £1m).

We haven't been through the mortgage process before, and we are thinking it makes more sense to buy now with our current jobs as we will be earning more than when we relocate and thus be able to borrow more for our mortgage - mainly my partner is earning significantly more than he will in the midlands and we are worried that will affect how much we can borrow, despite having a significant deposit.

However, we won't be able to move into the property for at least a year due to current commitments and my partners notice period.

I would potentially move myself, and he join later, so the house wouldn't be empty for that long. Maybe for a few months. We are financially in a position to get the house now, and interest rates are decent due to coronavirus. I'm also worried that the process of buying will be longer than expected, and we'll get to the point where we are leaving our jobs and have no house to go to so we think it makes sense to start now. Do you think this is logical?

My main question is, can we get a mortgage knowing we will be leaving the jobs and getting new ones?

We have been given an agreement in principle for more than we need on our current salaries and current jobs in London. They didn't really ask why we were buying in the midlands vs London, and it didn't seem to affect anything but after speaking to others/family it seems that this may be an issue the further we get down the line and I want to psych myself up to this being the case and me not getting a house we have fallen in love with.

Should we even wait until we have new jobs in the midlands, although we then would have nowhere to live. Do mortgage companies give out mortgages knowing you will be leaving your jobs?

Anyone been through a similar process? Help appreciated!

I have absolutely no experience of this, but this will lift you off unaswered threads.

It would seem very logical to me, that your mortgage lender would ask questions about the property being 100+ miles away from your address, and your work. I think they would presume it was a 'buy to let' and be looking to charge you more for a mortgage, ast which point you would reply, "no, we're going to live in it" and it would come out about you leaving your jobs. At which point, if it were my money I was lending you, I would be asking how you are going to pay it back.

So I see your concern.
How confident is your dp of getting a job in your new home area?
How much of a salary cut is he looking at ?
Come to that, how confident are you of getting a job ?
There are going to be a lot more people applying to every job over the next year, than there have been over the last year, IMO. Competition is likely to be fierce.

We’re not planning on leaving jobs until we’re in new ones and we’re also keeping about 20k back just ‘in case’.

He’s only looking at about 15k less on his job, mine about 2k less. We can more than afford the mortgage we’re after, especially as we’re taking less than we can borrow anyway.