Mortgage advice

digitalhen

Hi,

Would be grateful if someone could help me out with mortgages... I'm totally new to the whole thing having rented for a few years across London, currently in Canary Wharf where I'm paying a stupid amount of money to live with my girlfriend very near to where I work.

I'm looking to buy somewhere in one of the following areas:-

- Essex
- Just north of London, such as St Albans
- South London

My primary caveats are:-

- Must be commutable in a reasonable time to St Pauls, and Canary Wharf
- Must not be a leasehold
- Must not be a flat (ideally require 2 bedrooms)

I've found there is a lot of jargon with mortgages and I've been looking around at lots of sites, bit it all seems a bit of a jumble.

Obviously I'm a first time buyer. I earn a pretty decent wage, and get a good percentage bonus every year. My girlfriend has just started a new job, and gets pretty good pay for the public(ish)/academic sector. Excluding student loans, we have no actual debts and about £15k deposit, though we hope we can increase this to £20k, maybe £25k by the summer with some help from parents. I do have about £20k of stoozed debt across 0% cards, but this is matched exactly by savings... I'm paying off £15k of this in the next few weeks.

So for the mortgage... I want something with security, and repayments around the £1k mark, with a property somewhere between £200k - £250k. This is the point where we struggle with lots of questions!! :rotfl:

Can, for instance, we count my bonus in our mortgage quotes? Is it realistic to be aiming to move by the end of August, when my rented property expires? Is it wise to borrow a large percentage of the value - what's normal for a first timer? Should I be looking to stop stoozing before I try to get mortgages?

Help! :A

Thanks,
Henry

silvercar

St Alban's is expensive; look at Borehamwood, cheaper and only 24 minutes Thameslink Britsh Rail to city Thameslink.
2 bedroom houses from about £190k, 3 bed houses from about £240k.

nmiah786

I agree with Silvercar, you will find St Albans is quite expensive, some areas are similar to London prices. But it is a very nice place to live in.

I worked in Borehamwood for 4 years, guess what everyone calls it..BORINGWOOD...no offence to the locals. Thameslinks trains to Kings Cross is pretty quick but that line has always been prone to late running trains in my experience. Might have improved now!

digitalhen

Thanks for the tips - looks like some good properties there...

stanmoresaver

nmiah786 wrote:

I agree with Silvercar, you will find St Albans is quite expensive, some areas are similar to London prices. But it is a very nice place to live in.

I worked in Borehamwood for 4 years, guess what everyone calls it..BORINGWOOD...no offence to the locals. Thameslinks trains to Kings Cross is pretty quick but that line has always been prone to late running trains in my experience. Might have improved now!

The train line is better now- my office is in Borehamwood and although there are some fairly poor areas of B/W the prices are ok- I've found more and more people looking there because the surrounding areas are out of their reach.

The train line is a Zone in from St Albans also.