Reasonable proportion of income on mortgage?

[tailormade]

Please help me get a perspective on this:-

I have had a relatively low mortgage in terms of income over last couple of years. This is because we bought a house 12 years ago based purely on my husband's wage so didn't stretch ourselves initially. Over the last couple of years my income has risen substantially and we've also enjoyed paying interest of 1% on our mortgage over the past few months!

However, we want to move up the ladder, have sold our property, but finding it difficult to guage what would be a 'reasonable' amount to spend each month relative to income on our mortgage. Our friends are either in a similiar position to us, or, are up to their eyeballs in it. We don't have any other loans. Your advice please!

Could you sit down and work out what you spend atm and then calculate what different mortgage amounts would add to it.You should be able to get a mortgage calculator on most bank websites which will give you figures.Apparently 19% is what is considered manageable but I think most people are closer to 30 in this country.

Rather depends on your other outgoings.

I was going to say 30% is considered normal but know people with far more mortgage burden than this. Ultimately, you will be slightly at the mercy of interest rates - someone who stretched themselves a year ago might be quite comfortable now; likewise someone who buys with relatively low mortgage now may find they are in trouble if rates unexpectedly spiral.

I think if you don't have any other debts you can probably afford to come out of your comfort zone a little but you do have to feel confident doing this and think about possible consequences - no holidays if things get tight, giving up some expensive hobby etc.

You could try looking at houses in area you are interested in and see what sort of price you would have to pay to tick most of the things on a wish list and then work out if you are prepared to pay those sorts of prices or whether you would prefer to compromise and get a smaller mortgage.

The main thing is that you will be able to afford it even if the interest rates go up

If you can still survive at 15% then borrow away