Help with buying options

[mumof2teentoddler]

We currently rent a lovely 3bed house with a driveway, garage, garden, 2 bathrooms in an ideal village. Child 1 due to go to local school September
landlord is selling and we are unable to afford to
buy here. But we’ve spoken to a mortgage advisor and options are -

1/ enough mortgage to buy a 3 bed apartment
almost new build, 2 bathrooms, it’s ground floor with private entrance, parking and an old renovated building. It’s actually a lovely looking apartment and so big. (Square footage 1400 and our house is 950)

2/ same ish price for a do-a-upper 3 bed house

both in areas which are outside the village so will need to rethink schools for youngest

I’m not keen on a house that needs work
we have two children, work, and to be honest I just don’t think we would have the time/money but husband likes this idea. I like the luxury flat 😀

so I’m thinking the flat option for 2-3 years depending on money and THEN move back to the village/3bed house

ground rent is 1200 annual and service charge 250is this about right?

I know nothing about purchasing flats -
The lease is 125 years commencing on 1 January 2019 Lease Term Remaining 118 years

OR

short term rental for 6-9 months until we are mortgage ready and be able to move back to the village we love and commute to the school we’ve applied for the youngest
Our mortgage advisor has said we should be ready by 6 months with our savings plan in place but of course this could end up being longer

we are so close but so far !

just don’t want to panic buy but moving to renting is around 15-1600 PCM plus moving costs and stress and moving again just to be in the village we love and don’t want to leave

arghhhh 😭😩😩😩

1100 sq foot correction

Ooh, the flat sounds nicer, but I've heard nothing but issues with re-sale of flats so that would put me off. The house, humm, big project, unknown expense, will be tough if you aren't 100% on board with it.

So that leaves renting, but if your in a position to buy in 6 months, being in no chain will put you in an attractive position for sellers.

I know your worried about rent and cost of moving, don't forget you'll also have estate agents and solicitors fees for selling.

The flats so nice and unusually nice features such as parking for 2, private entrance and two big bathrooms which is nice for space but I thought I heard the same about flats being harder to sale.

yes I know we will have fees selling but renting could cost anything from 10-20k depending where we go so just something to factor in.

we aren’t young either - I’m 43, husbands 50 and been trying for years and years to buy so to be able to get a mortgage for something now just seems like an opportunity I don’t want to miss

Has the flat got a garden? It does sound nice. I think if it comes with garden that might tip the balance for me.
Working on houses while you live in them is a pain.

Leasehold can be trickier and people are often wary, but it does sound lovely. Is there outside space beside the parking spaces?

If you rent for six months, it will mean two moves quickly, which would probably be stressful with children.

Could you live in the doer upper and do it gradually? It would mean rethinking school options, but it would also mean that you probably wouldn’t need to move again and the stress that involves.

The length of the lease on the flat would be an issue for me. Mortgage companies don’t like ‘ relatively short’ leases and once it goes closer to 100 years it will cost more to
increase it than you may think. I would be checking the lease extension options, particularly as you may want to sell on later. If it was not an issue the flat sounds lovely.

That ground rent sounds high. Are you sure you haven't got ground rent and service charge mixed up? Is it £250pcm service charge?

I would say don't buy a doer upper unless you enjoy that process and don't mind living with it still grotty in parts for some time. It's a lot of work and effort to do a property up. Even if you are getting professionals in to do the work, getting quotes, making decisions and managing the work is still a bit chunk of time. It's also massively expensive nowadays and it's very easy to spend way more doing a project house up than it would have cost just to buy the done-up version in the first place. If you are stretching your budget to get the doer-upper in the first place, it can work if you are prepared to do it up slowly as you find the money, but that's not going to suit a lot of people.

No garden unfortunately- it has a communal courtyard but we are 5 mins from the beach and we have lived in a flat before, a top floor flat overlooking the actual beach but it was before my youngest who is now 3, we lived in a flat when we had just the one who is now 14 years and I honestly will say I didn’t miss a garden. We had a lovely balcony and maybe as so close to the beach and was in Covid time - but I think it’s nice to have one. So I would probably miss it coming into the spring/summer

Wait for the right property, if that means renting for a bit it will be worth it

Think I have

The service charge is £1200 per annum.

The community charge for communal ground grooming etc is £245 per annum.

I think the flat option is out, I called up about it and the estate agent said flats are taking around on average 6 months to sell…this would put me off selling it on in the future, as much as the flat is nice lovely in fact it may not be ideal long term

I’m definitely against the houses that need a lot of work and are in the next town along so that leaves about 3 options. 3 houses which are in the same estate one town over so it would mean a school move as no point commuting to the village school if we bought. The houses are nice, in good order around the same year built just not as nice as this so no garage, one is semi detached and two are terraced

so the plan would be for a couple of years and see where we are at. I know it’s another house move but it’s slightly smaller than what we have here and really do need more space what with our teen and as she gets older hence why 2 years would be ideal

or again renting but there’s honestly no nice rentals that don’t cost lots of money

That's a shame about the flat @mumof2teentoddler . So you're thinking of buying something smaller than you have now to get on the 'property ladder' and then something bigger in a couple of years. Is that right? How long have you been looking? Is it an area where not much comes on the market?

Yeah that’s it, it’s still a 3 bed like we have now but it’s slightly smaller rooms but we would manage
No garage / driveway either - my husband has home gym and tools/bikes/storgage etc so just feel so sad and being able to park on driveway

The village we live in nothing ever comes to rent, theres houses to buy but all out of our price range for now anyway

renting mind would give us a 50k increase ( we have 10k to clear and should clear that in 6–9 months ) once our cards have gone so it’s still worth considering that option to then be able to buy something really nice rather than just making do
I’m so confused

Urgh yeah that's not good news about the flat. Honestly, the house sounds like a compromise too far. It's too small, no parking, no where to store your DH stuff. Ypu don't love it now, and I imagine you'll hate it even more in 6 months when your falling over each other.
There's no easy answer though 🤔

This is true and in a short amount of time we CAN buy something we like and can grow and make ours so renting does make sense in that respect