Bigger deposit or more cash?

[Cherrypearl]

Sold our house, had an offer accepted on a house. Seller is ready to move. Surveys have come back all good.

We've been prepared to put down a 10% deposit using equity from the sale of our house. After fees this gives us about £20,000 to play with which is massive to us. House needs no work doing to it at all so I wondered if it would be better to put down 15% instead and be left with £10,000 of the equity (this would reduce the mortgage repayments by £50 a month). What would you do?

Bigger deposit - then save that £50 a month.

Lots of variable factors here:

Are you getting a better mortgage rate putting down 15 vs 10%?

What is the mortgage rate? If savings rates are better (probably not) then you could put it into savings instead and earn more in interest than you will save on the mortgage payment.

Do you have an emergency savings fund already? If not then definitely prioritise that in case one of you loses your job tomorrow.

I’d say it depends on your lifestyle, income and other savings. Once you’ve put it into the house deposit it can be hard to get back out. Personally I worry about me or DH losing job and having a period of one of us having to pay mortgage on our own so I like to have 6+ months of cash saved (I put it in a low fee tracker fund).

Would you be sure not to fritter it away?
It depends on many things, does a lower LTV give you a better deal? What will you do with the money?