Are we mad to consider doing it this way - SW England to Scottish highlands move

[Thanks4allthefish]

Current situation:

house and mortgage in husbands name only but I’m the main earner (70k plus bonus) and he’s retired ( 100k left of his lump sum and 26k a year)
we have about 300k of equity in it and about 90k left on the mortgage
live in the far southwest and want to move up to the highlands where husband is from and I used to live

no one in Scotland will accept an offer from England dependent on a house sale unless it’s exchanged - that then risks having to live in a caravan whilst we find somewhere

the plan:

buy a new build using a mortgage in my name only and my purchase.
Approved for up to 292k mortgage so long as 15% deposit.
House we want is 296k and would b3 finished June subject to delays.

we can’t put our house up for sale until we fix the garden as we’ve just decommissioned our fishpond as it was a barrier to sale.
This will be march.

once we get the house in June, if we haven’t yet sold ours then we move and our house is empty.
We could afford both mortgages for a few months but after that would need husbands current mortgage to go interest only whilst we sell.
We have 21k extra tax to pay which is refunded once husbands house is sold.

costs we estimate are:
4.k stamp duty
3.5k removals
2k solicitor cost for seeking ours
1k estate agent cost

expenses 10k

the plan is to end up mortgage free with most of the 85k still in the bank once everything is settled.
We could pay off the new mortgage with the equity in the old and if the deposit is reduced then that can be replenished every month with the mortgage payment.

‘’after mortgage and bills we have 3.5k money to spare.

‘’I think it’s doable and not that mad.

stand to be corrected

Is your house in a desirable area/ of popular size/ layout?

The obvious risk is it not selling. You'll also have stamp duty (time limit?)and additional running costs to factor into the budget.

Plus difficulty of signing paperwork at solicitors from that distance away (although they can do things on your behalf).

Is the new build what you want and is property limited where you are moving to? I.e is this your dream property unlikely to come up again? That would impact the level of risk and inconvenience I'd be prepared to take on.

When we did the move from Scotland to England we had to have 2 solicitors, one in each country, as the law is different and they can't work across the border.... So you will need to factor that into your costs. Hope everything works out for you

If you ran into issues selling your home in Englan - would it be an option to rent it out?

A wiser person than me once told me, buying is the easy/fun part, it is selling that is the difficult bit. No way would I buy without selling first.

Your time line is very tight.
You WILL NOT be close to completion on the England house come June.
Getting stamp duty back is simple (and you get interest on it!).

Why a Scottish new build? Is it the house you want, or are you going for new build because of the time scales?
I'd put your English house on the market, and look for houses in Scotland. It sounds like you are not tied to selling to buy, so the fact you are not exchanged shouldn't matter - you get a mortgage in your own right on any house in Scotland.

Your estate agent fees look low - you will need someone with a local presence incase viewings etc need to happen once you've moved. We paid 0.66%. That's more like 2.5k+.

Have you factored in that your empty house may require a weekly visit to maintain the insurance?