Would a £1,250 mortgage be too tight on our income?

[houseaffordability]

£1250 a month is the projected mortgage payment for our new house, £1350 if we take a shorter term. We’ve had a decision in principle based off this, so the lender must see no issue. It’s a beautiful house which would easily work for us for the next 10 years. It ticks every box and feels like a rare find. We might be able to buy somewhere a bit smaller and save a couple of hundred a month but we would definitely have to move and deal with all the associated costs of that.

Our salaried take home income combined is currently £3700, rising to £3800 in a year and £4300 in 3 years time. In addition to this we receive £350 maintenance for the costs of one child and the usual £108 child benefit.

Current total household income £4100, rising to £4700 in 3 years. There is also the potential for overtime so another couple hundred pounds a month when this can be done.

£30 a month to childcare provider which will stay consistent for the foreseeable. No other essential outgoings other than food shopping utility bills, no debts, two cars owned outright with the usual maintenance costs. Possibly considering a car upgrade in the future if it affordable which we’d need a loan/PCP for. We would also like another child in the next 5 years, which means maternity pay. I get my full wage for almost 7 months and then SMP.

AIBU to be worrying this is going to be really tight? We are first time buyers so I don’t know what to expect. My main priority is still being able to save and not feeling like we are accounting for every last penny.

That’s tight but doable. The only caveat would be that the house doesn’t need any urgent/major work on it and is pretty much move in ready.

"Mumsnet posters always usually overly more cautious savy than many"

Ftfy

My new mortgage is going to be £1500 with income of around 4k. Potential to bring more money in but not gauranteed. But do-able and i’d say yours is too.

If interest rates rise how do you feel? If the house is worth less than you borrowed for it in a few years how do you feel? If one of you lost a job what would you do? Can you afford big repairs if they crop up?

Demand for rental was at it"s lowest for 7 years earlier this year, mortgage is more expensive than rent in many areas now, and if the ME kicks off this trend will only accelerate.

This. It might be a bit tight but it is definitely do able. I’d suggest it is well worth doing. You won’t look back

The drop in rents has only just started, it varies from area to area, but once you have a mortgage debt you cannot walk away from it in the same way that you can move to a cheaper rental to free up cash, and if interest rates start to rise and you have a short fix that could be very problematic with the salary coverage you have stated.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/london-rental-affordability-improves-as-salary-falls-17/

"You won’t look back"

That is what people who are coming off fixed rates now were told as well, they are looking at a lot of financial pain in many cases.

I would check the 30h childcare v daily /term over the year. £30 a month seems very cheap. Many ‘top’ up their low fees with stuff

is that 25yr mortgage. Can you extend to 30yrs and overpay if and when can

but £1000 left a month including food is doable

People advising go for it probably bought their houses in a while ago under different, better economic times. This is the predictable general theme on threads like this - you can’t go wrong with bricks and mortar. Well, you can and in multiple ways. I don’t see this economy improving - I see it worsening because of the global conflicts and the march of AI, which is going to fuck up a lot of us.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/20/250000-could-lose-job-2027-uk-recession-analysis-economy-iran-war

£1000 disposable every month for clothes, savings, fun budget, holidays, activities for child(ren) isn’t much for a family of three with a mortgage and no landlord to pay for home maintenance.

On balance I would save aggressively to build a bigger buffer and see where you are in six months time. It’s not like house prices are going to increase much by then.

I don"t think it includes food, they are stretching.

A lot of people saying Go For It! probably have a big mortgage themselves, if rates are forced up the house could be a lot cheaper next year, that would be less starting debt meaning the OP is better of in future with less house debt to pay interest on.

Yep. Too tight. You shouldn’t be spending more than about 20% of your income on a home, that’s the average in the U.K. My mortgage is that, and we earn way more than you do. It used to be easy but when you factor in all the other bills which are rising exponentially, we’re having to tighten our belts.

If one of you lost your job you’d be buggered, you have no wiggle room for saving. Don’t do it.

Yes, so all the more reason to save hard even if that means doing overtime. In some ways this current economic situation is good for FTB’s.

Take home about thst with v similar mortgage. 1 adult, 1 teen. It is tight. But possible.

House insurance. Maintenance. New boiler cooker fridge freezer .
Are you going to decorate buy furniture?

I think it’s fine. Go for the longest mortgage term you can to minimise the payments. You can assess if you want to overpay at mortgage renewal time, in the mean time keep the money in a savings account. I would think very hard about getting a car though, and wouldn’t unless it was necessary. We have similar coming in, higher mortgage, higher childcare costs and it’s fine. We have holidays in the UK and with small children that works better anyway. My wage is main income so I have income protection insurance in case of illness. In case of redundancy, we have the usual 3-6 months savings to cover a rainy day. Make sure you’re in all the right school catchments tho, if not you might be moving again before it makes sense to.

The problem with it being so tight is having to pay for things yourself unlike renting. So how long would it take to save for a new boiler, roof repairs. How old is the house? Damp/new kitchen or bathroom/flooring etc.

Have you separately budgeted for regular car maintenance and insurance? What about being on mat pay?

There's a good government budgeting spreadsheet. Can't remember what it's called but you can search. It covers a lot I don't think about e.g. life insurance, extra curriculars, school trips..

It isn"t good for FTB, rates are likely to go up while deluded sellers still cling to their little "lottery win" that is slowly slipping through their fingers, and jobs are being lost and are harder to find, the best thing FTB can do is a total buyers strike until the whole lot collapses.

Is it worth it though? More and more people are just stepping back from borrowing into the property bubble, mortage approvals have fallen to about half their historical average?

Even if interest rates go up to 6 or 7 %, that’s still in the normal range, but would adversely impact on some. If you have the wriggle room to deal with that then it’s OK, preferably with a job or jobs that are relatively secure. Also the exponential rise in property prices we’ve seen over the past two decades was, in my view, a one-off.

The problem with getting the longest mortgage term you can is that if times get tough, you don’t have the option of extending the term. What might be better is finding a lender who’ll let you overpay by more than 10%.

why do you use it each year to overpay rather than to leave it in the higher interest account? Genuine question as I’m interested what to do myself

Yes, but if you buy (borrow) now and mortgage rates go to 7% your house will lose value while the your debt stays the same and is costing you more? The OP does not appear to have much "wiggle room".

Saying the £1,000 left is disposable income isn’t correct if it includes food for you all, do you have any pets?

in 2 months my washer, dryer and boiler all broke. I looked at finance for a boiler and they needed a sizeable deposit

i think it will be a struggle