Is it a good time?

D666G

Hi my girlfriend and I have found a house we really like and have enough of a deposit to afford 10% + fees. My only concern is, Is it the right time to buy and get a morgage? There is so much media saying the government are trying to get the banks to lower their interest rates. We can afford the repayments that have been quoted from a broker, it's making me thinkany advice aprieciatedDamien

Claremac

Don't forget that mortgage rates are really low at the moment. It's not so long ago that they were double what they are now. Could you still pay your mortgage if it was double what the adviser has quoted? The adviser stands to make money from you but has he/she warned you of the consequences if you can't pay the mortgage (possible repossession?). Sorry to sound so gloomy but I would be very wary with a deposit of only 10% as that would probably put you in negative equity straightaway.

Marcheline

I very much agree with Claremac. If you are both currently happy with where you're living and can afford to save more, I would advise doing this in order to bump your deposit up. I don't think 10% + fees is a high enough percentage to have saved up.

Also, and please don't get offended by this comment, it is meant helpfully (!) I would also think of any possible future implications of buying with your girlfriend. In my opinion, I really do think (although marriage is not infallible these days) that marriage first, house later is the best way to go, but I realise that not everyone agrees with this point of view! I'm an unmarried mother myself, so I feel that I have experience of doing things the "wrong way round" and think that life would have been easier all round if marriage was involved!!!

Xinpei

Hi there, I got a nice little website here which helps you to estimate what happens if the rates go up. http://money.uk.msn.com/mortgages/calculate/mortgage_estimator.aspx#

I like it because unlike the banks/BS own websites, it lets you choose whichever interest rate you fancy. Then you can see how high must interest rates rise to till you feel stretched.

My husband and I too had 10% deposit to start with, but scrapped together another 5% and the mortgage products we can choose from is quite a lot more and better. I heard from my mortgage advisor that even though C&G are offering a LTV 90% product, no one whos applied got approved.

D666G

some good advice there! thanks so far everyone!I should include a few more points of the morgage;the rate will be 6.9 ( so not so low) best rates on a 10% deposit right now and 15% wasn't any better (5.8) payment would be about £680 per monthOr would be fixed for 5 years, hopefully by that time things will be on the up, house prices will rise ect, If not we will prepare if we go ahead with it, a good idea though and something we will look more into.The offer we were intending on putting on the property would be 20k less to reflect the potentual decrease in house prices ( house has already dropped 20k) If not accepted we will go up 5k, house we've seen is up for 139k

IcklePickle_2

Put your figures in here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/property/mortgagecalculator.shtml

It tells you what the payment will be if mortgage rates went to 12% (which happened during previous recessions). Bit of an eye-opener!