Advice on buying please!

[TheNimblePurpleLurker]

I am 51, dh is 49 but doesn’t work. I have a good income (£105k salary and pension of £37k) and currently live in a house provided free by my employer which I have to live in as part of my job. I’m on a 10 year contract. We have £250k for a deposit on a house and save about £2k. When dc finish uni in 1 and 2 years time we should be able to save another £1.5k/month.

what are thoughts on buying a house? Should we buy now and start paying down a mortgage or keep saving for a bigger deposit? I feel the clock is ticking.

we lived abroad a lot so haven’t owned in the UK before. Thanks for any thoughts

Well at the moment houses prices seem not to be increasing so I would probably try to keep saving to increase your deposit and use the time to keep an eye on house prices.

Houses aren’t moving quickly at the moment, so I think you might be able to offer under asking price. I think buy now.

Partly depends on area and target budget. 250 k would buy the whole thing in some areas, in other areas not.
Also you say you have to live in tied accommodation while on 10 year contract but you don't say when contract ends?
Lots more info needed!

I think you should buy now and rent the house out. I wouldn't like the thought of no security for the future.

I'd buy now - prices are low and bargains out there.

i see what you mean! Another 9 years on my contract takes me to 60ish. Could maybe extend but no guarantee. My pension from previous employer will be £47k from 67 and if I stay in this pension scheme to 67 that would be another £10k.

we live in the north so prices are reasonable. We could get something we would like at current prices for £350-500k. What do you think?

I would buy now and rent it out so that it covers the additional mortgage.

Accept that when you move into it at a later date it will need a bit of a refurb as well.

So you don't need the house to live in for AT LEAST nine years? So you'd be renting it out for a long time if you bought now?
You need to dig into the 'accidental landlords' kind of threads. Becoming a landlord without it being a full-on business with proper safeguards in place re difficult tenants is heavily not advised.
On those grounds alone, I would wait. Keep saving, invest the money wisely, buy just before you need the house. I would not want to be someone's landlord if I could avoid it.
Obviously just my personal opinion.

Wow what do you do where you earn 100k and live in a tied house!
I’d be tempted to save and buy a house outright. But identify places where you really like and keep an eye on what comes on the market so if the dream house appeared, you could move quickly.

we live in the north so prices are reasonable.

But you don't live in the North, you live somewhere outside UK, right?

In OP's position I would probably think to BTL, in northern England is fine, & treat it as an investment (part of diversifying wealth portfolio). It might be a future home, too, so buy somewhere you could conceivably enjoy living in.

Thank you. To clarify - we’re back in Uk now after some years working overseas.

I'd buy now given your ages. I'm not sure how easy it will be to get a mortgage if you leave it any longer?

Yeah if you don’t need anywhere for 9 years I’d consider buying a property outright and renting it out or whatever in the meantime. When you’re ready to buy this portion of your deposit will have increased.

My role is quite demanding but we are blessed with a good package but it does cause this dilemma of buy now or wait/ save / invest to buy outright later

I am nervous about being a landlord in case of difficult tenants and I don’t think the new government will be that sympathetic to landlords ( I don’t disagree with better protection for renters).

thank you to all for the different thoughts on it

OP, my DH and I were in a very similar situation to you (tied house) so we ended up buying 2 flats and renting out to stay on the property market (we were in Surrey so couldn't afford to be left behind). We did BTL for about 10 years in the end and I wouldn't personally do it again. In your situation I would buy the house and travel/live in it when you get time off. Make it into your own holiday house for the moment, as I know that with tied houses you never escape work and having a bolt hole would be great. From the sounds of your finances, you could afford to not rent it out. Good luck.

Yes please do tell us what kind of job you have that pays such a good salary AND provides a house, I want a job like that 😀

Plus that pension. That pot must well exceed £1 million for that return!

thanks and interesting to hear your similar situation.

we don’t really want to be landlords and the idea of a getaway is lovely

i guess it’s whether we’d make more on a BTL property or investments vs how much To buy and run a house.

appreciate everyone’s thoughts

Hi OP. You definitely can cover your costs on a BTL, depending on mortgage level, although you need to remember the tax issues with that (increased tax if you have a mortgage on a BTL from memory and capital gains because you're renting it out as opposed to living in it). It is worth more as a BTL, but only if you're on for doing it. Speak to an accountant/rental expert first if concerned.
We had ours fully managed, so paid 15% of any profits, but it was worth it to avoid the main hassles. We did have a situation with students using one of the flats (we stopped it quick smart to stop neighbours being bothered and never rented to students again), and also with a damp/mould and eventually leaks problem in the other one, which we constantly had as no-one opened windows ever or reported any maintenance issues with anything until it was really bad. We'd had enough after 10 years, but it was a way to stay in touch with the property market. We're currently selling and buying our own home and can attest to the fact that it's a buyers market right now.

Running a house, v tied house for us main difference was the utilities cost - gas, electric, water, sewage and council tax. Gas/electric will be low, as will water if you're not there much. Council tax is what is it per month.

Buying a house is essentially the cost of the house, plus mortgage arrangement fee, survey, conveyancing fees, removals fees and stamp duty. You're looking at 10s of thousands for that lot, but you've got to do it at some point unless you're never planning on buying a house. If buying to use as a bolt hole, you will need doubles of beds and some essentials also, as you'll need them at each location. Also remember your post - have it all redirected to the place you're in the most and if not going home for a while, you need people to check your post for you (unless close enough to pop back).

It’s a buyers market and you’re on a good salary so I would normally suggest Buy now. However, it sounds like you have free accommodation with your job and it’s a bad time to become an amateur landlord in the UK. Therefore I think you should keep saving and buy a house outright towards the end of your contract.

I’d agree, buy somewhere nice for yourselves to stay in during holidays and weekends sometimes, then live in it for a bit when you retire if you need to avoid capital
gains, then sell and get something else once you’ve retired and your kids have left home.

I would buy now. When we first moved to London my husband sold his property in NW England we moved into a school provided flat (his school was still a boarding school just for the next year when it went all day school). However we bust a gut immediately to buy a house having sold his other one even though London (outer London) prices were very high even then as we thought suffering the pain then was probably wise (as indeed it proved to be) and he has seen too many similar boarding school teachers not buying anywhere because of the free accommodation and then being left high and dry later.

If you don't want to let it out you could just use it for weekends and holidays which is what a few of the other teachers who bought a house in a country village would do (my sons live at home with me and let out a small house each and they have that due to my help in part because I wanted them to get on with that as I knew if I waited too long I would be too old toi afford it and the same goes with mortgages once you get older. I paid mine off last year).

So sorry my point being we left the tied flat after 6 months even though it was almost free of charge - I don't know if you are allowed to move out of the provided accommodation into somewhere else equally as local?

Lots of food for thought for us - thank you

I have a defined benefit public sector pension and won't get anywhere near that even if I retire at 68 😅 I'd be buying a house in cash and quitting work if I were in that position. 😁