Hi - me and my partner are both 54 - we are mortgage free but hate where we live. It used to be a lovely, quiet street but over the last few years it has definitely gone downhill - more short term renters and HMO's and the area has gone really rundown. We are a semi which has renters next door who last about 6months to a year and most of them have been an absolute nightmare. SO, we are looking to sell our beautiful and much loved home to buy a detached somewhere else. We will need a mortgage of approx £100k and have a flexible mortgage in principle. We can just about afford it for a year then next year we can tap into one of our pensions and this will pay off approx £20k of the mortgage plus give us a monthly income of about £600 which will cover most of the mortgage payment ....BUT Im terrified of getting a mortgage at our age - we both have steady jobs but most of our friends think we are crazy for moving and getting into debt at this stage of our lives - I cannot stay here though, it is awful. Please say im doing the right thing...p.s. we have no kids or other debt